Just the 3 of us… almost. Nov '09 TR ~ Update 7/10

Hey, I just noticed that you are leaving for DL again soon...have a great time! :cool1:
 
Where have I been:confused3..didn't realize your off to DL again.
Have a magical time...can't wait to hear all about it!!
 
I'm enjoying your report. Sorry you were sick at the beginning. That's the worst. Fortunately, the rest of your crew didn't catch it.
 
You're in DL now right?? Hope you're having a great time!! :cool1:

These pictures are beautiful!! We've never been to CA but it looks like it might be worth taking a trip out there - lots of nature and impressive landscapes! :thumbsup2

Can't wait to hear more! :goodvibes
 


Just got back from a trip to DL for Spring Break. We had a great time. I meant to get another update done before we left but it didn't happen. I am almost done with it though, so I will try to post it ASAP.

Hey, I just noticed that you are leaving for DL again soon...have a great time! :cool1:

Thanks! We just got back last night. Great trip but we are exhausted!

Where have I been:confused3..didn't realize your off to DL again.
Have a magical time...can't wait to hear all about it!!

Yes, we bought AP's this year so we are trying to cram in a trip to DL whenever we can. I took notes to do another TR, but I need to make a dent on this one first!

I'm enjoying your report. Sorry you were sick at the beginning. That's the worst. Fortunately, the rest of your crew didn't catch it.

Hi there! Thank you for reading. Yes, being sick was awful. It makes me so grateful for when I am healthy. I think we got really lucky that no one else caught it.

You're in DL now right?? Hope you're having a great time!! :cool1:

These pictures are beautiful!! We've never been to CA but it looks like it might be worth taking a trip out there - lots of nature and impressive landscapes! :thumbsup2

Can't wait to hear more! :goodvibes

We just got back last night. California is a beautiful state. There are so many different places to visit. I actually don't mind driving on our trips because we get to enjoy all of the scenery. If you've ever thought of visiting, I think you should!
 


We left the Observatory and got on the freeway at 5:30. As most of you know, any freeway at 5:30 means traffic, but in LA it is triple as bad as anywhere else. I was hoping that we would catch a break since it was Saturday, but it was as bad as I have ever seen it.

Disneyland and our hotel were only 30 miles away. We kept thinking it really wouldn’t take us that long but it kept dragging on. We were bumper to bumper and it was stop and go traffic until the last six miles, when the lanes opened up and we got up to regular speed. Total travel time = 1 ½ hours. Yuck! It is almost painful when you know you are that close and you are stuck in traffic.

We got to the Howard Johnson at 7:00 pm. Todd checked in while I started unloading the car. He came back and said our room was close. We were in building 3 which was right behind the office. Let me just put in my little plug for the Howard Johnson. We love this hotel for the convenience of parking our car & walking to the parks. Since Dylan needs mid-day naps, I loved that it was only a 10 minute walk from the front gate of DL to our hotel room. It also is nothing fancy, but always clean and usually we can get a good rate there.

We had requested a room with a king bed, and when we walked in the door we saw that they gave us an ADA room. As a result the room felt huge, since there was so much space for a wheelchair to move around in. We were so happy! Great location, big room. Woo hoo!! :woohoo:

Here are a couple of pictures of the room. The area in the back corner of the room is where we put Dylan on an air mattress. It was perfect because he had his own little space.

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It took us a few trips to haul all of our stuff in from the car. Dylan was so happy to not be strapped into his car seat anymore. He was getting a little cranky while we were stuck in traffic & kept asking to get down. Now that we were in the room, he was running back & forth from end to end.

While he burned off some steam we talked about what to do. I was still not feeling great, but I was finally feeling a little hungry. We had decided to get AP’s this trip because we are going to be in the Southern Cal area a lot over the next year. We thought it would be fun to squeeze in a few Disney days here & there throughout the year. Also, Dylan is free until he turns 3 in September, and we want to take advantage of that.

We decided to walk over to the park, get our AP’s activated and get some dinner. It would be a good test for me to see how I felt walking all that distance and to be honest we were itching to just walk down Main Street. We walked at an easy pace and got to the front gate in no time. I think the call of Disneyland helped me forget I was sick for a while. It was close to 8:00 by the time that we got into the park. We got our first view of Main Street with all of the Christmas decorations. I wish that I could decorate my house & have it look like that!

Right in front of the little art gallery on the right side of Main Street was Mickey Mouse himself. Dylan spotted him right away and there was hardly a line so we got in it. He kept stepping out of line to watch Mickey & was showing his excitement. Of course, by the time it was our turn he walked up cautiously & gave him a big High-5. Mickey seemed like he was in a hurry to get through the line (no one before us had gotten a ton of attention either), so we snapped our picture and were done. It was a good introduction to the characters again for Dylan.

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We headed down Main Street and hung a right, & went straight to the Plaza Inn for dinner. We really like this place because there is so much outdoor seating. We usually can find a table & enjoy a meal while not feeling rushed. Since I was not going to eat much, we all split a Cobb salad and the kid’s chicken meal. It was plenty for the 3 of us. The salad tasted wonderful to me after barely eating anything for 3 days. I tried not to overeat, since my stomach was still not totally settled. We were excited because we got to use our AP to get a discount on food for the first time!

We picked a table that was close to the Astro Orbiter. Dylan started to get really excited. He could hear the music playing and would start dancing after he took bites of food.

Checking out the Astro Orbiter

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We knew that Fantasmic! was going to start at 9:00 and fireworks at 9:30, so we walked around to Fantasyland to avoid the crowds & try to get on a few rides. They had closed a lot of the rides in FL due to the fireworks & said that they would be open when the fireworks ended. We knew at this point we were stuck, so we decided to walk back to the monorail and take a loop. Dylan LOVES the monorail. He is very into trains right now, & whenever he saw anything that closely resembled a train he would say, “choo, choo”. We doubled back and walked around the Matterhorn to the monorail station. It is a long hike up to the platform! But what a pretty view we had!

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The monorail came and it looked brand new. Also the inside is very different than before. I’m pretty sure I took pictures on a different day, but I don’t have any from this night. The inside has a bench seat on both ends of the car, and then one long bench straight down the middle of the car. It kinda looks like this: l ------- l

Also there was neon blue lighting that made the car glow in a cool way. We took a round trip on the monorail and as we were leaving the DTD station, the fireworks started. We got back to the Tomorrowland station and we watched the rest of the fireworks from the platform.

We had to fight our way through the crowd on Main Street to get to the building where we could activate our AP’s. I’m glad we went straight there because there wasn’t much of a line, but after waiting 5 minutes there was a huge line behind us. After we had our new AP’s in hand we made our way out of the park around 10:00 pm. It was not too busy on Main Street by that point, so we took our time enjoying the lights.

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We got back to the hotel & I was surprised to realize that I felt pretty good. I was tired but feeling like maybe I was on the road to recovery from the flu. I got ready for bed & when I came out of the bathroom, this is what I found.

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We had brought Dylan’s DVD player in from the car and he had found it. Todd said he wanted to watch a show on it. I thought it was so cute to find them sitting side by side and looking at their own screens. Dylan reminds me more of Todd every day.

After his show, Dylan went right to bed & we were all asleep by 11:00.
 
Glad to see you back--and with another update! :woohoo:

That L.A. traffic sounds terrible...and for a Saturday! Your HJ room looks nice. Sounds convenient. I'm glad you felt decent for the evening. So cool to see all the pics of DL. Dylan looks like he was having a great time. Such a cute picture with Todd and Dylan looking like twins!

Can't wait for more!
 
That last pic of the boys on the bed is ADORABLE. This would be such an adorable Father's Day present..in a frame that says "Like Father, like Son".
 
Awww, I love that pic at the end. Tinkgurl had such a cute idea! Sorry to hear about all the awful traffic. It does kind of make it worse knowing you are so close! Glad to hear that you were finally starting to feel better by then. It would be awful to be sick through your whole vacation.
 
Hi Alison! It was so fun to see you make an appearance on Jordan's TR! Dylan is such a cutie!

I'm still up in the air about a TR, but I think that's also because I tend to post some pics on FB and then on a family blog too. If you're on FB, PM me so we can try to find each other! I have some pics of Lily from our summer trip on there.
 
Glad to see you back--and with another update! :woohoo:

That L.A. traffic sounds terrible...and for a Saturday! Your HJ room looks nice. Sounds convenient. I'm glad you felt decent for the evening. So cool to see all the pics of DL. Dylan looks like he was having a great time. Such a cute picture with Todd and Dylan looking like twins!

Can't wait for more!

The traffic in LA is always horrible. We just dealt with it again during our trip a couple of weeks ago. I'm glad that I felt better that night too. I was pretty bummed at how sick I was. I see Todd & Dylan doing stuff like that all of the time and they don't realize it. I'm just glad I had a camera to capture it that time!

That last pic of the boys on the bed is ADORABLE. This would be such an adorable Father's Day present..in a frame that says "Like Father, like Son".

Ooooohh, I like your idea of a Father's Day gift. Thanks!!!

Awww, I love that pic at the end. Tinkgurl had such a cute idea! Sorry to hear about all the awful traffic. It does kind of make it worse knowing you are so close! Glad to hear that you were finally starting to feel better by then. It would be awful to be sick through your whole vacation.

I was really worried that Todd & Dylan would be hitting the park without me. I'm glad I made the effort on this first night to test the waters.

Glad you were feeling better just in time to enjoy your trip! :thumbsup2 Can't wait to hear more! :)

Thank you. I'm glad that I felt better too!

Hi Alison! It was so fun to see you make an appearance on Jordan's TR! Dylan is such a cutie!

I'm still up in the air about a TR, but I think that's also because I tend to post some pics on FB and then on a family blog too. If you're on FB, PM me so we can try to find each other! I have some pics of Lily from our summer trip on there.

It was so much fun to meet Jordan. He is such a great person and it was nice to spend a couple of hours getting to know him better. I'm glad that he & Todd got to meet too, because I knew they would get along.

I am on FB. I just joined around Christmas time. I will send you my info. I do the same thing...post pictures on FB, then send them to family on Shutterfly. Like I said, it is a lot of work (that's why my updates have so much time in between), but I'm so glad I did my first one.
 
I slept I until 8:30 this morning. Well, not really. I woke up at 5:45 and saw that Dylan had rolled off of his air mattress bed onto the floor and was halfway across the room. So I got up and put him back on his bed. Then I couldn’t fall back asleep. Did I mention that we had loud neighbors all around us and it seems like everyone decided to get up at 6:30 this morning? I finally fell back asleep at 7:15 and woke up at 8:30.

Todd and Dylan were still asleep so I got up and started unpacking all of our suitcases. I can't stand living out of suitcases and I feel so much better after we are unpacked. After that I ate a small bowl of cereal to see how my stomach would respond.

The boys finally woke up and we got ready pretty quickly. We were almost ready to go out the door when Dylan came up to me & told me that he had gone to the bathroom in his diaper (not the wet kind, the OTHER kind). So I turned around to put down what I had in my hands and I turned back around to see him taking OFF HIS DIAPER!!! I’m glad that I was within a few steps of him or it could have been a lot worse. I managed to get him into the bathroom but by that point he had gotten it all over him. We cleaned him up & then put him in the bathtub. He was not happy about it at all, & we became the noisy neighbors for a while. I think he was embarrassed & he wouldn’t stop crying.

The bath was fast but we lost a lot of time during the whole “clean up” process. We ended up leaving the hotel room after 10:00. Considering that we had planned to be at DCA when it opened this morning, we realized that our plans went out the window. We went straight to DCA and headed over to Toy Story Mania. This was why we were trying to get to the park early. I don’t understand why WDW has a FP for this ride but DCA does not. It would be so nice to get a FP and not have to always deal with the long line.

It did not seem like there were a lot of people in the park, so we were encouraged on our walk over to TSM that maybe we were going to be lucky. Nope, it seemed like everyone was at this ride. There was a 40 minute wait. We figured that we were already in this area of the park so we might as well get in line now. We went next door and got a FP for California Screamin’, and then got in line at TSM.

Dylan did really well waiting in line. He entertained himself by climbing on the rails & we had toys for him as well. He really liked the Mr. Potato Head.

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Of course he was excited to get his own pair of 3-D glasses.

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This is one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip.

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We rode with all 3 of us in one car. Dylan sat in between us, so I hung onto him with one arm and tried to play the game with my other arm. That meant that I had no accuracy what-so-ever, since I was basically pulling the string and the gun was swinging around all over the place. It is such a fun ride!!! Todd beat me, of course, but I think that my score was much closer than it should have been, considering the circumstances. By the time we got off the ride it was 11:40. It had taken 1 hour to stand in line & ride on the ride.

We had an 11:50 PS for lunch at Wine Country Trattoria. We got there just in time for our reservation. When I had called to make the reservation, I had been told that there was no patio seating due to the construction, but when we got there they had the patio open and we were seated outside.

Such a pretty building!

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We were seated under the covered walkway, so we were in the shade. It was a beautiful day and the table was perfect.

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We had looked at the menu online ahead of time & we decided to split the Chicken Alfredo Lasagna and a side salad since I was still not eating very much. We ordered Dylan the grilled cheese sandwich off the kids menu which came with fruit & juice. They first brought us some yummy bread with oil & vinegar to dip it in. We got our salad and it was extremely small. I know it is a side salad, but I would have felt like it was small for one person. The ranch dressing that was on it was very good.

Our lasagna came and it was delicious, but again we felt like the portion was very small. The price was $16.00 for the lasagna, and I would say that the size was not worthy of the price. It still was very tasty and different than your usual lasagna.

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For dessert, we ordered Dulce de Leche ice cream & it came with Biscotti. Oh my goodness!! This was the best ice cream that I have had in a long time. We had 3 spoons fighting in the bowl. LOL. Dylan was especially excited that we gave him his own spoon & he was really going for it. At one point, he & Todd both took a bite and looked at each other....& they both busted out in the "happy dance" that is saved for when we eat really good food.

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The total bill for lunch was $30 before tip. Considering what we ordered, it seemed too expensive. Overall I would rate this restaurant as having very good food, but it was too pricey for what you got.

Post-ice cream Dylan who was a very happy boy.

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Saying “Cheeeese”

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Right outside of the restaurant is the Blue Sky Cellar preview area that shows all of the construction around DCA. We never actually made it into the preview area, there are some pictures outside of what is to come.

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Paradise Pier area

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Another beautiful building.

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This is what the front of DCA is going to look like. Look familiar? It is going to look like DHS in Orlando.

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I’m excited to see this park when all of the construction is done. I’m most excited about seeing World of Color, but it is still a couple of months away (I think!). I feel as though I like this park more & more every time I visit it.

Where do we go next?
 
Yay, I log on to the Dis and find an update! I have to say that Todd and Dylan take such cute pics together! You could make a multi photo frame montage for father's day! Dylan is looking like such the little boy now. Doesn't time just fly?

I've never been to DL, but your pics of DCA look gorgeous! It looks like your lunch wasn't too crowded at all and I love the story of how the two boys broke out into the "happy dance." Too cute.
 
Great update. I wonder why they don't put in FP at TSM? Seems silly not to have them. Your lunch looked good, despite being small and pricey. I've never been to DCA, so this is all very interesting to see. Looking forward to more!
 

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