franandaj
I'm so happy, I could BOUNCE!
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2009
So this has nothing to do with my WDW trip, but I will keep it Disney related! We have made our Christmas plans. It's been probably four or five years since we have visited my parents for Christmas, and at least two or three years since we have even been to my parent's house.
We split the holidays with my sister's family. Whoever gets my parents for Thanksgiving is on their own for Christmas. However, we weren't able to make it up to my parents at Christmas for our turn in 2008 as that was when my FIL broke his pelvis and had to go home with 24-7 caregivers. At the last minute my parents had to come down here, because we couldnt leave town with him adjusting to someone living with him. I guess that last time we were up there was 2006 which was seven months after my MIL passed.
Anyways, so we have plans. We will leave Long Beach on December 23rd and drive up the coast to San Luis Obispo. I have friends from High School who live near there (about 20 minutes away) who have invited us over for dinner. They also invited us to stay but Fran prefers to stay at a hotel, plus we get the hotel free on Hilton points
On the 24th well finish the drive to my parents house in Saratoga (outside San Jose). My mom will pick up Dungeness Crabs for dinner on Christmas Eve, and theyll be ordering The Sorcerers Apprentice and Alice in Wonderland from Netflix for our viewing please over the next few days. My Dad has this cool TV which is actually a projection screen that rolls down out of the ceiling. It takes up one whole wall in the Living Room, so its almost like a movie theater.
Christmas morning well probably make waffles or something else yummy for breakfast and open the limited presents weve exchanged. My mom liked the suggestion of going to see Tangled in the early afternoon. Were planning on Prime Rib for dinner and well probably enjoy a nice Red Wine from my cellar, before settling back into the home theater for another movie.
Sunday the 26th Fran and I have plans to visit the Oakland Museum where they are hosting an exhibit on Pixar. The Press release from April 2010 reads:
At the heart of PIXAR are the concept drawings, sketches, paintings, and maquettes created by Pixar artists over the past 25 years to bring to life the compelling characters and stories that have enchanted moviegoers of all ages around the world. Drawing on work from Pixar's eleven feature films and many of its short films, the exhibition spans some of the studio's first short films created in the 1980s; its first feature-length film, Toy Story, the first fully computer-animated feature film ever produced; Pixar's recent Academy Award-winning feature Up; and its latest film, Toy Story 3, to be released this summer. PIXAR will showcase more than 500 artifacts, including many of the pencil drawings; paintings in acrylic, gouache, and watercolor; and sculptures that form the backbone of the computer-generated images (CGIs) for which Pixar has become internationally recognized. The exhibition also includes video interviews with artists and behind-the-scenes footage of Pixar's creative process.
On Monday the 27th well be heading up to the City (San Francisco for those who dont know Bay Area lingo, locals dont call it Frisco) to see the Walt Disney Family Museum. We have a 12:00 entrance time, and we will most likely spend the entire afternoon perusing the museum, which chronicles his life from boyhood until after his death with the many projects that he never saw to completion, such as EPCOT, Cal Institute of the Arts, and of course the whole of WDW. Following our museum visit, well most likely have dinner out somewhere. Though my mom and I spoke last night at great length, I dont think we made any decisions on where we will be dining, so Ill have to follow up.
On Tuesday well start our journey back to home via a totally different route, the Central Valley. Our destination will be Tulare, never heard of it its a small town outside Visalia, never heard of that, well its a few hours north of Bakersfield surely youve heard of THAT! There are tons of little towns in the Central Valley that most people have never heard of some are made up of just a few houses and you dont realize youve passed through them they go by so quickly.
Tulare is a reasonable sized town, they have stoplights and two lane (each way) roads, and chain restaurants and grocery stores. You think Im being funny! I LIVED in Taft when they got their first stop light and their first Mc Donalds, BIG NEWS! We had to drive through the stop light in every possible direction, and use the left turn arrow on the two directions that we could. The line at the McDonalds out the door opening day! And this is a town with a pretty small population.
But I digress. We have a dear friend who lives in Tulare, she was there for us in some very difficult times and we like to think that we were there for her in some of her times of need. We hope to take her to WDW on the next trip (after the one that this PTR is for). Well meet her new furbabies and see the apartment that she moved into earlier this year, well have some dinner and catch up. Well probably have brunch on Wednesday before we leave town, and head back to Southern California.
We split the holidays with my sister's family. Whoever gets my parents for Thanksgiving is on their own for Christmas. However, we weren't able to make it up to my parents at Christmas for our turn in 2008 as that was when my FIL broke his pelvis and had to go home with 24-7 caregivers. At the last minute my parents had to come down here, because we couldnt leave town with him adjusting to someone living with him. I guess that last time we were up there was 2006 which was seven months after my MIL passed.
Anyways, so we have plans. We will leave Long Beach on December 23rd and drive up the coast to San Luis Obispo. I have friends from High School who live near there (about 20 minutes away) who have invited us over for dinner. They also invited us to stay but Fran prefers to stay at a hotel, plus we get the hotel free on Hilton points
On the 24th well finish the drive to my parents house in Saratoga (outside San Jose). My mom will pick up Dungeness Crabs for dinner on Christmas Eve, and theyll be ordering The Sorcerers Apprentice and Alice in Wonderland from Netflix for our viewing please over the next few days. My Dad has this cool TV which is actually a projection screen that rolls down out of the ceiling. It takes up one whole wall in the Living Room, so its almost like a movie theater.
Christmas morning well probably make waffles or something else yummy for breakfast and open the limited presents weve exchanged. My mom liked the suggestion of going to see Tangled in the early afternoon. Were planning on Prime Rib for dinner and well probably enjoy a nice Red Wine from my cellar, before settling back into the home theater for another movie.
Sunday the 26th Fran and I have plans to visit the Oakland Museum where they are hosting an exhibit on Pixar. The Press release from April 2010 reads:
At the heart of PIXAR are the concept drawings, sketches, paintings, and maquettes created by Pixar artists over the past 25 years to bring to life the compelling characters and stories that have enchanted moviegoers of all ages around the world. Drawing on work from Pixar's eleven feature films and many of its short films, the exhibition spans some of the studio's first short films created in the 1980s; its first feature-length film, Toy Story, the first fully computer-animated feature film ever produced; Pixar's recent Academy Award-winning feature Up; and its latest film, Toy Story 3, to be released this summer. PIXAR will showcase more than 500 artifacts, including many of the pencil drawings; paintings in acrylic, gouache, and watercolor; and sculptures that form the backbone of the computer-generated images (CGIs) for which Pixar has become internationally recognized. The exhibition also includes video interviews with artists and behind-the-scenes footage of Pixar's creative process.
On Monday the 27th well be heading up to the City (San Francisco for those who dont know Bay Area lingo, locals dont call it Frisco) to see the Walt Disney Family Museum. We have a 12:00 entrance time, and we will most likely spend the entire afternoon perusing the museum, which chronicles his life from boyhood until after his death with the many projects that he never saw to completion, such as EPCOT, Cal Institute of the Arts, and of course the whole of WDW. Following our museum visit, well most likely have dinner out somewhere. Though my mom and I spoke last night at great length, I dont think we made any decisions on where we will be dining, so Ill have to follow up.
On Tuesday well start our journey back to home via a totally different route, the Central Valley. Our destination will be Tulare, never heard of it its a small town outside Visalia, never heard of that, well its a few hours north of Bakersfield surely youve heard of THAT! There are tons of little towns in the Central Valley that most people have never heard of some are made up of just a few houses and you dont realize youve passed through them they go by so quickly.
Tulare is a reasonable sized town, they have stoplights and two lane (each way) roads, and chain restaurants and grocery stores. You think Im being funny! I LIVED in Taft when they got their first stop light and their first Mc Donalds, BIG NEWS! We had to drive through the stop light in every possible direction, and use the left turn arrow on the two directions that we could. The line at the McDonalds out the door opening day! And this is a town with a pretty small population.
But I digress. We have a dear friend who lives in Tulare, she was there for us in some very difficult times and we like to think that we were there for her in some of her times of need. We hope to take her to WDW on the next trip (after the one that this PTR is for). Well meet her new furbabies and see the apartment that she moved into earlier this year, well have some dinner and catch up. Well probably have brunch on Wednesday before we leave town, and head back to Southern California.
More like 3:30 and we hadn't even left LA County yet!
Sounds like we may have a few ideas in common. You two will have a magical time! You should check out PrincessInOz's report if you haven't already been subscribing to her reports. She travels to the US quite a bit and has some great tips for Aussies that are very helpful. I can't believe the amount of red tape you folks have to go through to come visit! I'll be over to your PTR in just a moment!
We're going to 
