(PTR) Getting There Is Half The Fun - 11 People, 2 Minivans, and a 5K Mile Road Trip!

Too bad you don't have too much time in Utah! Our mountains are awesome! It's funny because I live less than an hour away from the salt flats and great salt lake and have only been to them a couple of times. :) They are cool.
Oh. That stretch of Wyoming. Sooooo long.
Just glad you are not doing it in winter. We have almost died on it so many times driving between Utah and Wisconsin (when we lived in WI and would come here to see family) It gets bad.
We had a jelly belly factory near us in WI and we loved it. So that would probably be really fun to visit.
 
Wow, so happy to have found this thread!
We are planning a very similar trip, but from Saratoga Springs, NY. We were going to fly to SF and rent a car, but one-way rental from SF to LA was getting crazy-expensive since we need a mini-van to fit our group (DH, our 3 girls, my mother & me), not to mention the 6 airfares. Plus DH has always dreamed of a cross-country road trip and the girls are getting older, so... Road Trip it is! The plan is to leave directly from the Baseball Hall of Fame Induction (Cooperstown, NY) in late July and spend 3 days driving to San Francisco. I think we will be trading drivers nearly around the clock to make it. :eek: :faint:
Honestly I haven't researched the route that much yet, so may just find my way to St. Louis and then follow you!:flower:
Is there a road-trip planning site you are using to find all these fun places to visit along the way?
Once we get to CA, we are spending 3 nights in San Francisco (Homewood Suites), 3 nights in Yosemite (Wawona Hotel), 2 nights at Sequoia (hotel TBD), 6 nights in Anaheim (3 at VGC, 3 at CCI), and then start the trek home. We may drive down to San Diego for one day to see the zoo, but not certain.
I will try to check back often to see how your plans are coming! By your level of planning already I can tell you will be way ahead of me, but if I have any tips to share, I will! :goodvibes

Hi KSL, nice to meet you! And I thought maybe we were the crazy ones for such a road trip. You've one upped us for sure! I love that you're hitting Sequoia too. The Mariposa Grove at Yosemite is scheduled to be closed for two years starting this summer, so it's great that you'll still have a chance to see the giant trees! Hope you do a trip report :-)

I didn't use a single one site to plan the road trip, but here's what I've basically been doing.... The closest thing to what you might be thinking of is RoadTrippers.com

Here's a link to the 2013 version that we had planned but scrapped because I broke my foot...

https://roadtrippers.com/trips/road-trip-2013/4821195

I didn't find everything that's on that route on their site, but I dropped pins for a lot of things there.

Secondly, I use Trip Advisor a lot. Especially when researching cities. I think I found out about that candy store in Sacramento as well as their train museum by looking at the top attractions for the particular city. Also, most cities have forums on Trip Advisor and I lurk through those too. I use Yelp a fair amount too, but more for looking up restaurants.


Happy to see this report and join in! And also very happy you messaged me about the ticket price increase :worship:

Love all the family photos - love seeing your honeymoon picture (Stephanie looks like she has barely aged!) and all the kid collage ones.



Well, probably a little of both - but it will definitely be an epic trip!



Wow - looks like it will take you no time! And having those extra-large minivans will make things much more comfortable I suspect as well! (seriously though - very cool animated map!)

That Golden Spike Tower rail yard looks seriously cool. Issue I see if we stopped there is Peter would be screaming his head off when we made him leave.

Ok, that Candy Heaven place looks amazing and what a cool google map thing! Noticed when I zoomed in on the cash register they have a sign that says "Don't Steal! The government hates competition" :rotfl2:

Yahoo! Phil has joined us. (If any of you don't know TheMaxRebo yet, go check out his Trip Reports, he's one of my favorite DISers! and his TR's are great!)

Stephanie hasn't aged, but I've certainly lost a few hairs on the top of my head since that photo ;)

Thanks for the note on the map. I actually got the inspiration from all the gif's that you make up. I guess, I should have put a disclaimer, "Closed course. Professional Drivers. Do not attempt at home." :-)

That's a funny observation about that candy shop!!! :hippie:

Too bad you don't have too much time in Utah! Our mountains are awesome! It's funny because I live less than an hour away from the salt flats and great salt lake and have only been to them a couple of times. :) They are cool.
Oh. That stretch of Wyoming. Sooooo long.
Just glad you are not doing it in winter. We have almost died on it so many times driving between Utah and Wisconsin (when we lived in WI and would come here to see family) It gets bad.
We had a jelly belly factory near us in WI and we loved it. So that would probably be really fun to visit.

I forgot that you are from Utah! I would love to make Utah a destination visit some day. If you have any suggestions for lunch or anything as we pass through Salt Lake City, I'm all ears!
 
Part 2 - Exploring the Bay Area

This is possibly the least planned portion of the trip. We have a few key things that we want to do, but I think we'll try and keep this portion of the trip a little more spontaneous. My aunt and uncle live in the area, and we'll be spending a fair amount of time visiting with them. They are a little eccentric, but awesome, which makes for lots lot of fun!!!

For certain, my immediate family will be staying with my aunt and uncle at their house in Hayward (south of Oakland, just east of the Bay). Stephanie's family will be staying at a hotel in the same area, but I'm not exactly sure where. Also, I'm not sure how much we'll all be exploring as a group, vs. breaking up a bit. Probably a bit of both!

Stephanie and I took Princess to visit my uncle back when she was a baby, and they haven’t been back since.

Here they are at Muir Beach (north of SF). (I hope Stephanie doesn't get annoyed with me for posting a photo of her hair being blown all over the place by the wind... But I couldn't find too many photos from that trip.)



And of course, Buddy and Pickle have never been to NorCal before. So, for our kids, this is going to be uncharted territory for them. Which is very exciting!

Working in the software development industry, I’ve gone to some IT conferences in Silicon Valley over the years, so I have seen a bit more of the area than everyone else. But it’s been around 8 years since I’ve been back. And I feel l like I've only scratched the surface...

So, given all that, what are the "must do's" and "maybe do's" on our list?

Must Sees

Walt Disney Family Museum (of course!!!) http://www.waltdisney.org/

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This will be one of the highlights of our trip. Not only are we fans of the Disney attractions and movies, we love Walt Disney himself. From everything I can gather, this museum is amazing. Being from St. Louis, we are only a couple hours from Marceline, MO (where Walt spent much of his childhood). They have a really nice "Hometown" museum (see the trip report in my signature), but I can only imagine how many more awesome exhibits that they'll have at the Family Museum. I remember reading an interview a while back, where someone asked Diane Disney Miller (Walt's daughter) if she'd ever write a book about her Dad, and she replied with something along the lines that Family Museum "was" her book. How cool is that!

Golden Gate Bridge and Fisherman’s Wharf area

Can't visit SF without walking out on the bridge, right?!?! And then we'll probably head down the hills (Lombard Street?!?!?) so that we can visit the Wharf area and ride cable cars. (If it runs on rails, Buddy "has" to experience it!)

Here's a photo of Stephanie, Princess, and me almost 15 years ago!

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Japantown

http://sfjapantown.org

This is Princess's #1 choice to see in the Bay area. I’ve been there before with my aunt and uncle, and I know Princess will love it. They have a huge indoor shopping mall and outdoor cultural sites. I've visited the Japan towns in LA, San Jose, Denver, and San Francisco and the San Francisco was by far my favorite. It almost feels like you are in another country!

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We’ll have to narrow down a good place to eat too. Princess and Pickle both love sushi, so we’ll at least have that. I’d prefer some high quality sushi, but I know they have one of those places where the sushi travels around on boats and you grab what you want (paying by the plate)…. I’m sure the kids would LOVE that!


Sonoma Traintown Railroad
http://www.traintown.com/



This is one of those things that we "just have to do", even if it doesn't make a lot of sense… Buddy has had this "Big Trains Little Trains" DVD since he turned 3, he actually received it while celebrating at WDW. (That Mickey in the photos was a train buff too. He saw the DVD, and then started hand writing us notes with tips on seeing the trains at the Magic Kingdom. Never had that happen before.) They showcase Traintown on the DVD and he’s always wanted to visit it. And then Pickle watched it a lot when she was little too. So, we have to... LOL.




Things we’ll probably see

Chinatown - Japantown is #1 on our list, but I hope we visit Chinatown too. My aunt’s family is from China, and last time I visited, It was fun following her lead as we explored the shops

Muir Beach and Muir Woods - See the photo of Stephanie and Princess at the beginning of this post. It would be fun to do some then and now photos!

Fenton's Creamery (to pay homage to the Up movie)

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Read about the connection here: http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2011/06/23/up-in-oakland-at-fentons-creamery/

Things we might see

Computer Museum in Silicon Valley
http://www.computerhistory.org

I also visited this with my aunt and uncle once after an IT conference. It was crazy cool. All kinds of history, they even have the first Google search servers on display. Would love for my kids to see this.

Here’s a photo that I took of a 1985 Pixar computer. This is pre-Toy Story... Cool!



Drive down to Santa Cruz (NHS skateboard museum)
https://www.facebook.com/NHSSkateMuseum

NHS is the manufacturer of Santa Cruz Skateboards, Independent Trucks, OJ Wheels (and a bunch of modern companies too.) They were HUGE in the 80’s and are still big today. Apparently, you can visit their facilities and take a tour.

Drive by the Apple campus.
Just because.

John Lasseter’s family winery in Sonoma
http://www.lasseterfamilywinery.com
(they don’t allow kids, so that might be difficult.)

Lasseterfamilywalking.jpg

We our big John Lasseter fan’s in our family. (He’s also a huge train buff!!! He actually owns Ollie Johnson’s old steam train and runs it on his property next door.) He seems like such a right on dude. Disney’s lucky to have inherited him from Pixar. Carsland, anyone?!?!?!

Visiting his winery sounds like a lot of fun!

Things we’ve ruled out
  • Nobody is really all that interested in Alcatraz.
  • Children's Museum


So, we’ll have three full days in the Bay Area (plus the evening that we arrive.) The list above is way more than we could comfortable do in that time. I probably forgot some stuff that I researched too. And I’m sure we’ll come across other cool ideas as we get closer. Feel free to share them if you have any!!!
 
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Santa Cruz is my hometown :thumbsup2
Since your son likes trains, it could be fun to check out Roaring Camp, which is about 15-20 min away from Santa Cruz, in Felton. You can take a train ride through the redwoods and by the beach. We used to take school field trips there all the time, it was a lot of fun.

http://www.roaringcamp.com/
 


Thanks PiO! Wondering, have you ever visited any of the gold rush historical sites?

I've been to the ghost gold town of Bodie State Historic Park. Absolutely fantastic!
Further south near Barstow, Calico was a bit too commercial for me.

Sutter Fort was suprisingly engaging. I didn't know what to expect and only went because we had time to kill and it wasn't too much money for admission.
The Railway museum is in Old Sac. It was quiet when we were there. I liked the Railway museum. I could have easily skipped Old Sac.

Placerville is a cute small town; but we didn't make it to the gold mine there.
Sadly, we didn't make the goldmine at Coloma either.


That's about all I can remember.
 
So, we’ll have three full days in the Bay Area (plus the evening that we arrive.) The list above is way more than we could comfortable do in that time. I probably forgot some stuff that I researched too. And I’m sure we’ll come across other cool ideas as we get closer. Feel free to share them if you have any!!!

You already have a lot of cool things on the list to see. There's just so much to see and do in San Francisco.

Here's my collection of things I've done around the Bay area over the years (DH works for an IT company and we've been going to Silicon Valley at least once every 12 - 18 months for the last 13 years):
http://www.disboards.com/threads/san-francisco-thread-to-discuss-all-things-san-francisco.2451585/

My DS was a bit of a train freak when he was younger. That Sonoma Traintown is fun. You really have to love trains to go there.
And I completely second the recommendation for Roaring Camp.

If you don't have time and had to choose, it will come down to whether you prefer miniature trains or the steam engines. Me personally....I would go Roaring Camp.
 
San Francisco is one of the places we really want to visit at some point but figured it would be too much to cram into our upcoming trip out West as we don't want to rush it. You have some really cool things you are planning to do!

Cool to do the Disney Family Museum to kinda get a taste of Disney before getting to the park and I am sure they have a ton of cool stuff there!

I love the picture of the kids with Mickey holding the Big Trains Little Trains DVD!

We did the Lasseter wine deminar at the F&WF one year and John and his Wife were the presenters and they were just great! So I am sure visiting the winery/vineyard would be cool but knowing they don't allow kids I can see it getting axed from the list
 


The only thing I can add (having hardly started planning yet; I feel so behind; I will probably copy at least half of what I learn from you on this thread!) is that my DH has his heart set on seeing a Giants game. So if you are baseball fans, maybe add that in if they are home when you are visiting. I have to much planning to do....!!!!
 
Santa Cruz is my hometown :thumbsup2
Since your son likes trains, it could be fun to check out Roaring Camp, which is about 15-20 min away from Santa Cruz, in Felton. You can take a train ride through the redwoods and by the beach. We used to take school field trips there all the time, it was a lot of fun.

http://www.roaringcamp.com/

Thanks for the tip on that one!!! If we do head towards Santa Cruz, that'll be on the list for sure!!

I've been to the ghost gold town of Bodie State Historic Park. Absolutely fantastic!
Further south near Barstow, Calico was a bit too commercial for me.

Sutter Fort was suprisingly engaging. I didn't know what to expect and only went because we had time to kill and it wasn't too much money for admission.
The Railway museum is in Old Sac. It was quiet when we were there. I liked the Railway museum. I could have easily skipped Old Sac.

Placerville is a cute small town; but we didn't make it to the gold mine there.
Sadly, we didn't make the goldmine at Coloma either.


That's about all I can remember.

Thanks! Those are great tips too. I'll be searching for more info on them before the trip.

You already have a lot of cool things on the list to see. There's just so much to see and do in San Francisco.

Here's my collection of things I've done around the Bay area over the years (DH works for an IT company and we've been going to Silicon Valley at least once every 12 - 18 months for the last 13 years):
http://www.disboards.com/threads/san-francisco-thread-to-discuss-all-things-san-francisco.2451585/

My DS was a bit of a train freak when he was younger. That Sonoma Traintown is fun. You really have to love trains to go there.
And I completely second the recommendation for Roaring Camp.

If you don't have time and had to choose, it will come down to whether you prefer miniature trains or the steam engines. Me personally....I would go Roaring Camp.

From the looks of it, I would certainly choose Roaring Camp, but you can't argue with nostalgia and emotion with my kids. Buddy and Pickle won't be convinced otherwise (that darn DVD). The real question is can we squeeze both in?!?!? LOL.

Thanks for sharing the link to your SF thread. Incredibly helpful! I thought highly of you before, but you're my new hero :worship:

San Francisco is one of the places we really want to visit at some point but figured it would be too much to cram into our upcoming trip out West as we don't want to rush it. You have some really cool things you are planning to do!

Cool to do the Disney Family Museum to kinda get a taste of Disney before getting to the park and I am sure they have a ton of cool stuff there!

I love the picture of the kids with Mickey holding the Big Trains Little Trains DVD!

We did the Lasseter wine deminar at the F&WF one year and John and his Wife were the presenters and they were just great! So I am sure visiting the winery/vineyard would be cool but knowing they don't allow kids I can see it getting axed from the list

I'm jealous that you got to do the Lasseter wine semenar. You and Judi always find the coolest food/wine/beer events!!!!!!!

Looks like so much fun! You are making me want to take a California trip!

Yahoo!!!!

The only thing I can add (having hardly started planning yet; I feel so behind; I will probably copy at least half of what I learn from you on this thread!) is that my DH has his heart set on seeing a Giants game. So if you are baseball fans, maybe add that in if they are home when you are visiting. I have to much planning to do....!!!!

A Giants game would be fun. We are only fair weathered fans when it comes to baseball. With the St. Louis Cardinals doing so well over the last several years, that means we've paid attention a lot more than normal, but we are still too cheap to buy baseball tickets. Or at least, the priority is to put that same money towards Disney park tickets!!! :rotfl2:
 
Part 3 - Yosemite

After spending a few days exploring San Francisco, it'll be time to get back "on the road again" and head to Yosemite.

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I wonder how many times we'll be singing that song!?!?!

So.... Stephanie's parents have visited Yosemite before, but this will be a first time for everyone else. Flying over Yosemite Valley on the Soarin' ride is one of my favorite experiences in all of the Disney attractions, so I'm totally stoked that I finally get to see it in person (albeit from the ground!)

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(I grabbed that photo from the Disney website)

Yosemite appears to be a 3.5 to 4 hour drive from Hayward. If we get an early start, we should arrive by lunch time. That will give us a half day on Friday, a full day on Saturday, and Sunday morning (depending on how early we leave for Anaheim.)

I understand that this will only wet our appetites, and that you really need more than a day and a half to experience Yosemite, but oh well.... You gotta start somewhere :)

We don't have our Yosemite visit really planned at all, except for our lodging. Stephanie got up early on the first day that we could book lodging, a year in advance. By the time she was connected to an agent on the phone, all that was left was Curry Village. Wow! And we thought getting an ADR for Cinderella's Royal Table was difficult:rotfl2:

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(I grabbed these Curry Village photos from Google image search.)

We were able to get two cabins (no bathrooms) and one of the canvas tent cabins. (Sorry Dave and Angie!) Stephanie has been checking about once every two weeks, hoping to at least upgrade the tent cabin, but no luck yet.

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Regular Cabins

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Tent Cabins

Curry Village wasn't our first choice, but I'm sure it'll be fine. We are in the Valley and plan to make the most of it, which means we probably won't spend much time in the rooms anyway!!!


We have three main things to see while we are in Yosemite:

1. Miraposa Grove (largest grove of giant sequoias in the park)
http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/mg.htm

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(Another photo that I found on Google)

2. Glacier Point (to see the Valley from high above - you drive up here)
http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/glacierpoint.htm

16528760847_4a3fde5d20_c.jpg
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(Yet another photo from Google)

3. Explore Yosemite Valley (too much to see, we'll probably play it by ear)
http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/yv.htm

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(Still another photo from Google search. I can't wait to share a bunch of Yosemite photos of my own!)


I really don't know what we'll do here. We'll have older people and younger kids, so we won't do any strenuous hiking. Probably visit the sites that are 30 minutes or less of a hike. We'll certainly stop at Tunnel View, explore the lodge and Lower Yosemite Fall. Probably a couple other water falls too. I need to grab a Yosemite guidebook from the library and start reading!!!

The challenge in planning all this.... is that they are doing a two year restoration project for the Miraposa Grove. They plan to close it in June or July. We'll be there late June. At this point we can't be certain one way or the other, so we'll need plan A and plan B. http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/mariposagrove.htm

We may not decide until later, but we might plan on:
  • arriving at Miraposa Grove (if open) around 1pm. Stay there for 2 or 3 hours. It's apparently about an hour drive (give or take depending on traffic) to the Valley or Glacier Point. I'm wondering if it would make sense to go straight to Glacier Point from Miraposa Grove. Maybe arriving around 5 PM. Stay up there for an hour or so, and then drive to the Valley... arriving around 7 or 7:30pm. And then spend all day Saturday in the Valley.

  • Or skipping Glacier Point on the first day and heading straight to the Valley after Miraposa Grove. And then split the next day between the Valey and Glacier Point.

  • The other option would be to save Miraposa Grove and hit it early on Sunday before driving to Anaheim. The only problem with that is that we wnt to get to LA by 1:00 PM or so, so we'd have to get up SUPER early for that. Probably not going to happen...

So lots to think about here, but we are totally excited for our brief visit to Yosemite!

Stay tuned for our LA and Disneyland plans!!
 
Great plans for Yosemite. And I think you and the family will totally enjoy it, even if you have some of them in the canvas tent. I have stayed in one of the cabins and it is very basic. But you're only there to sleep; so you should be fine.

I hope that Mariposa is opened when you get there.
I would totally head from Mariposa to get to Glacier Point. That way, you free yourself up the next day to spend time in the Valley.
I like Tuolumne Meadows and the Mist Trail. The Mist Trail is a little more challenging if you decide to climb up the side of both waterfalls.

Enjoy!

Looking forward to hearing about LA and Disneyland.

ps. Glad that the SF link helped!
 
Looks like you've done your research on Yosemite. I have wanted to go there since I read a trip report on these boards several years ago. I think it's okay to post a link to the trip report I read, but this one goes to his home page. I couldn't seem to find it on here doing a search.

Here is the link: http://www.kevinstringer.co.uk/ Just go to his August 2005 California trip report. He has some beautiful Yosemite pictures, and some pretty funny commentary.

ETA: I just went back to look at his report, looks like they hit Yosemite starting on day 5.
 
I just came across your PTR and love the idea of the trip! Need to come back to read more than the first post later, but you are off to a great start!

We are planning a California road trip this summer as well, but since I am from Europe, we can't drive to California, we have to fly there! Looking forward to learn more about your plans to get some ideas for out trip!
 
Great plans for Yosemite. And I think you and the family will totally enjoy it, even if you have some of them in the canvas tent. I have stayed in one of the cabins and it is very basic. But you're only there to sleep; so you should be fine.

I hope that Mariposa is opened when you get there.
I would totally head from Mariposa to get to Glacier Point. That way, you free yourself up the next day to spend time in the Valley.
I like Tuolumne Meadows and the Mist Trail. The Mist Trail is a little more challenging if you decide to climb up the side of both waterfalls.

Enjoy!

Looking forward to hearing about LA and Disneyland.

ps. Glad that the SF link helped!

It's looking like we might be OK for the Mariposa grove. According to the following link, it will remain open until July 6. http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/mariposagrove.htm Yahoo!!

I think you are right about Mariposa to Glacier Point, that seems to make the most sense to me too.

I'll definitely add Tuolumne Meadows and the Mist Trail to the list of items to review with the family. Those look like great options. Thanks for the tips!!!

Looks like you've done your research on Yosemite. I have wanted to go there since I read a trip report on these boards several years ago. I think it's okay to post a link to the trip report I read, but this one goes to his home page. I couldn't seem to find it on here doing a search.

Here is the link: http://www.kevinstringer.co.uk/ Just go to his August 2005 California trip report. He has some beautiful Yosemite pictures, and some pretty funny commentary.

ETA: I just went back to look at his report, looks like they hit Yosemite starting on day 5.

Thanks for the tip on his trip report!!!! He does a great job and I had fun reading through it.

I just came across your PTR and love the idea of the trip! Need to come back to read more than the first post later, but you are off to a great start!

We are planning a California road trip this summer as well, but since I am from Europe, we can't drive to California, we have to fly there! Looking forward to learn more about your plans to get some ideas for out trip!

Cool! Glad to have you reading along. I look forward to hearing about what ideas you come up with for your road trip.

I haven't been to Europe in 20 years, but I look forward to the day that I can return. Stephanie and I are wondering if we might be able to plan a trip to Disneyland Paris (and then Europe in general) for our 20th wedding anniversary in a couple years :-)
 
Part 4 – Anaheim

OK… So we’ll spend Friday afternoon and all day Saturday in Yosemite. Our goal for Sunday is to make it to LA by early-afternoon. Which means we’ll be getting up and on the road fairly early!

The reason that we want to reach LA is to visit Walt’s Barn in Griffith Park before it closes at 3pm.

walts_barn2.png


Visiting the barn itself will probably only take 20 or 30 minutes, but they also run miniature steam trains at this location, so we’ll want to take some time for a train ride too!

http://carolwood.org/barn.html

So, what’s the deal with Walt’s Barn?

A lot of people say that Walt’s Barn is where Disney Imagineering got its start. Apparently, when he was a kid, Walt spent a lot of time playing in barn on the Disney family farm in Marceline, MO. (Story has it that he held his first “show” in the barn… where he charged neighborhood kids a fee to come in side and see a circus that he arranged with the farm animals.)

As Walt grew up, he looked back fondly at his time in Marceline (Main Street USA, anyone?!?!?), his “dreaming tree”, and the barn. Before Disneyland was conceived, Walt built a 1/8th scale live-steam railroad at his home in LA. At the center of its operations, he built a replica of the barn from the Disney farm in Marceline. Apparently, he spent many hours in his “happy place” working on his trains.

Sometime around 1999, the property owners needed the space… and it was decided that the barn would be relocated to Griffith Park at the site of the Los Angeles Live Steamers Museum….

Anyway, they have a bunch of cool artifacts and stuff inside the barn, and the thought of visiting Walt’s “Happy Place” is too much to resist. (Noting that they also have a replica of the original barn at the Disney farm in Marceline, MO. It’s also open to the public and we've visited it a couple times. It will be fun to compare notes between the two!!)

wdbarn-interior1.jpg



After the barn, there are a couple other sites that we’d like to visit in the area, if time permits.
  • Potentially, go up to the observatory in Griffith part to see the view of LA and the Hollywood sign. We did this on our last trip in 2013, and it might be fun to do again.

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  • Visit the Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round - http://www.laparks.org/dos/parks/griffithpk/mgr.htm Story also goes that Walt used to take his daughters there before Disneyland was conceived. He’d sit on the bench while the girls would ride and have fun. And he thought to himself that people needed a place where kids and grownups could have fun at the same time (Disneyland?!?!?)

  • See Walt’s grave site at Forest Lawn Cemetery (about 15 minutes from the barn.) The DIS Unplugged’s Nancy Johnson has a great blog post about paying respects at the grave site: http://www.disunplugged.com/2011/10...on-paying-respects-at-walt-disneys-gravesite/
After spending most of the afternoon and early evening around Griffith Park, we’ll drive down to Anaheim to check into our hotel. We’ll be spending five nights at the Candy Cane Inn.

Since we are the only die-hard Disney fans in the travel party, no one else wanted to splurge and stay on property. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as this trip is already going to be a budget stretcher for us. Stephanie spent a fair amount of time researching options… she looked a few rental homes in the area, as well as all the major/popular hotels. We ultimately went with Candy Cane Inn as it has a great balance between, price, location, amenities, etc. (Howard Johnson was the runner up, we've stayed there before and it was nice, but the Candy Cane Inn’s shuttle and breakfast won out. We don’t necessarily “need” the shuttle, but Stephanie’s parents might find it appealing after a long day!)

OK, enough about the hotel… We’ll probably arrive around 6:00 PM. So, on Sunday evening, I’m not sure if we’ll just relax by the pool or walk over to Downtown Disney. I’m leaning towards Downtown Disney. Maybe eat a small bite at Earl of Sandwich or get a slice of pizza at Napolini. And then head over to Trader Sam’s to relax with some drinks!!!!!!!!! (We visited Trader Sam’s twice on our last trip, and I've been looking forward to our next visit ever since!) Even better, if I play my cards right, I might be able to convince Stephanie’s parents to stay back at the pool with the kids while we have a double date at Trader Sam’s with Dave and Angie :cool1:

And how about for the rest of the week?!?!?

We originally thought we’d just do two days at the parks. (One at Disneyland and one at California Adventure.) And then have two full days for exploring LA. But then we kept reading about all the cool events that they have planned for the 60th Anniversary Celebration, and we thought we really need 3 days! So, we purchased 3-day park hoppers the day before the price increase last month. That’ll leave only one full day for site seeing in LA. Kind of a bummer, but being Disney fans, we easily could have just skipped LA altogether and spent all 4 days in Disneyland!!

A few notes about the week.
  • Dave and Angie and kids only plan to visit the parks on one day. I tried to convince them to spend at least one day in each park, but they aren't interested. I have a hunch that they’ll change their mind after the first day!
  • I’m not sure about Stephanie’s parents, they are up for spending all three days in the parks, or just the one.
  • Stephanie , Buddy, and Pickle will probably spend 3 full days in the parks. Princess and I might spend more like 2.5 days, and take an afternoon to visit one of the local skateparks or something.
  • What to do on our site seeing day?!?! This is still in the works.
    • We want to hit at least one skatepark (Maybe Vans at the Block in Orange or the new Vans park in Huntington Beach.)
    • We want to hit the beach for at least a couple hours. Either a more western/southern LA beach like Huntington, Newport, or Laguna – or head up more North to the Santa Monica/Venice area.
    • Angie really wants to visit Santa Monica Pier, so we might do that with them.
    • We’ll probably skip Beverly Hills and all that kind of stuff this time around.
I guess that sums it up for now. I think we have a good skeleton plan in place, but we’ll need to work out the details… As in which days we do which park and which day we explore. Which restaurants we want to try and eat at. Etc. We plan to have a planning meeting with the entire group in two weeks, so we'll probably get a lot more details nailed down then. :grouphug:

Stay tuned for details on the Grand Canyon and the drive back to Missouri :thumbsup2
 
Great plans for Los Angeles and Anaheim.
I like CCI. That shuttle is a nice option to have; although if you miss it, walking back to the CCI is quicker....

I think you made the right decision on having 3 days to see the 60th celebrations. I really wish I were going this year. :(

I'll be interested to read about how you find Walt's Barn. It's been on my list to-do but I haven't moved it up high enough yet.
 
Sorry, it's been a while since I've shared any updates on the pre trip report....

Its hard to believe that we leave in 3.5 weeks!! Here are a few recent updates, and then I'll finish up sharing our plans for the drive back home.

The Drive out
All of our in-laws are planning to leave two days early and meet us in Cheyenne, WY. They plan to go up to Mt. Rushmore, Badlands, Devil's Tower, etc. We are fairly indifferent about this, as if anything, it means that we can go at our own pace on our first day of driving. It's going to be a grueling 12+ hours of driving in one day, so it might be easier to go at our own pace anyway. (I tend to drive faster than my father-in-law and even a difference of 5 MPH can save an hour of driving on that day.)

San Francisco
Day 1 - Visit Japantown, drive down Lombard St., see the Wharf area (ride cable cars, Ghiradelli, etc.) And then either spend the evening in SF area, or head back to Hayward depending on whether or not my Aunt and Uncle spend the day with us. (Stephanie's family is going to a Giants game while we are at Japantown.)

Day 2 - Head down to Santa Cruz area for the day - Thanks to the tips from everyone, we'll ride the Roaring Fork train instead of Train Town in Sonoma, Santa Cruz (NHS) skateboard museum, a beach - maybe Wilder Ranch State Park, and the boardwalk.

Day 3 - Walt Disney Family Museum, Lucasfilm Office, Golden Gate Bridge, maybe head north to Muir Woods/Beach - Afternoon/evening depends on whether or not my Aunt and Uncle will join us for the whole day or just the evening.

Yosemite
We'll probably arrive by way of the Mariposa Grove (if it's open), then Glacier Point, then head to the Valley for the evening. And then spend the next full day completely in the Valley area.

LA Area
Sunday - Walt's Barn - Looks like we'll need to get up and leave by 5 or 6am to ensure that we get to Griffith Park by 1pm. Bob Gurr is going to be there. (Beyond excited to have the opportunity to meet one of our favorite Disney legends!)

Monday - This will be our beach (and site seeing day) Thinking the kids will want to sleep in after Yosemite and the super early departure the day before. It's still a toss up between Venice & Santa Monica or Huntington Beach (with the new Vans skatepark) & Newport/Laguna.

Disneyland
Tuesday - California Adventure with my immediate family. (The others only want a single Disney day.) We purchased 3-day park hoppers. So we get one day of early entry at Disneyland, probably save that for Thursday. Since the Magic Hour day is for Disneyland, we'll plan on starting at California Adventure since there will not have already been people in that park for an hour before we arrive. Will get in line at least 30 minutes before they open.

Still deciding on whether or not we want to do a dinning package, but we'll plan on World of Color that night. I've seen it three times now, and it's great. But I would have passed on it this trip... except for the fact that they are doing the special edition for the 60th. Can't miss that!

It's been a year and a half since we've visited California Adventure. I need to brush up on the latest strategies, but I assume we'll be sticking with the previous "wide right" approach and head straight for Radiator Springs Racers.

Wednesday - Start at Disneyland with the entire crew. Since California Adventure has early entry that day, it makes sense to start at Disneyland. Also, the others won't have early entry at all, so we'll save our for Thursday. We plan to skip Fantasmic, but the new parade and fireworks show are a must! Additionally, we'll just try and use traditional fast pass strategies and make the most of the morning and late night. Probably head back to the hotel for a swim and to relax in the afternoon.

Thursday - Use our Extra Magic Hour at Disneyland. This is ultimately a bonus day... to hop back and forth between the parks and pick up anything we missed the two previous days. (We aren't planning on seeing everything, just most of our favorites.)
 
You guys are going to have an awesome trip! We saw them testing the new fireworks a couple of weeks ago. Bob Gurr is adorable! I got the chance to meet him last year.

Jill in CO
 

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