"You're Going to Disneyland? That's in Florida Right?" UPDATED 11/13 Final Chapter :D

[Mjp935]

Chapter 3: Lions and Puppets and Prisons… Oh My!



So where did we leave off?
Oh yeah time for food! Perfect I love food!

Like I said earlier my dad suggested we go to eat Italian food!
North beach is within walking distance of the triton so that’s what we do!

After walking past a few restaurants that could possibly be the one that we would dine in… we see another.

We decide to look at the menu… and when do this a woman comes up to us…

Now this woman either works at the restaurant or eats there a lot because she starts telling us about the owner and their specials.

She tells us that the chef/owner is direct from Sicily! At this place they make all of their own pasta, sauce and basically everything!

Needless to say that is where we ate!

It was called “Trattoria Pinnochio”



Yeah Pinnochio! They had a lot of Pinnochio themed art!

It was sooooooo good!

My parents started with Caprese Salad



I had the Veal Parm



My Mom had the Veal Marsala



and my Dad had a Lasagna with Veal



The food was delicious! If you ever find yourself in SF on the corner of Columbus and Vallejo go to this restaurant.

By the way, sorry if these pictures aren’t up to par but I only have my iPhone and a digital camera!

So from dinner we walked down to the water… If you are ever in San Fran make sure you head down to the bay to see Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39!



The cool thing you can see from the Wharf is the infamous Alcatraz Prison…





For those of you who are unaware of what Alcatraz is a former high security prison on an island in the San Francisco Bay. Now it is only used for tours it is really cool!

This trip I wasn’t able to go there but I have in the past it is definitely a Must Do in SF.

You can also see the Golden Gate Bridge from here, although it was rather foggy!



Basically from this area you can see a lot of the landmarks of San Francisco, because you can also see Coit Tower.



After being tourists we walked to Pier 39…

I like to describe it as SF’s attempt on Downtown Disney, there are a lot of shops and it’s super cool!







But behind the shops and stuff… literally behind is one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

Pier 39 is the home to a raft or group of California Sea Lions. Literally hundreds of Sea Lions!







This guy is my favorite!



There weren’t as many as there was last time I was there, but there were still a lot.

It is amazing! I love to go to zoos or DAK but it is fantastic to see animals in their natural habitat. This is definitely a Must Do if you are in the Bay area.

Continued in Next Post​

 

[Aburns8]

Your San Fran pics are reminding me of our trip there six years ago. Enjoy your trip!

 

[ness0905]

Joining in looking forward to see disneyland this is my first Disneyland trip report I have ever followed but enjoyed your part in Jess's tr

 

[jpmandan]

I'm in.

 

[Disneyluvr81]

Joining in and can't wait to read more. Very much enjoyed your contributions to Jess' trip report. I love how San Fran already has a Disney theme going!!

Hope you have a great time at Disneyland this weekend! I second the tip about World of Color, it is breathtaking. Also, if you can catch Fantasmic, for me is better than the DHS version. Our dragon and having all of the characters out on the Mark Twain totally make the experience (although I do wish we had the benefit of the amphitheater!)

The fireworks show for summertime is Magical and its good (I wouldn't put it above Wishes but I agree that Remember trumps all fireworks displays except Hallowishes). The awesome part of Magical is getting to see Dumbo fly instead of Tinkerbell (which, I could be wrong, they may do them both).

If you are looking for a great place to watch the fireworks without going in to the parks, the pool deck at the Paradise Pier Hotel is open to the public and they pipe in the music. We love watching the fireworks up there!

 

[Tiggerrn2]

Great updates!! The year we were out in San Francisco, I was on crutches with a broken ankle. We contemplated the Pier until we saw how many people were out walking around out there-I just knew someone would be taking a crutch out from under me. The sea lions look awesome. Bet it's a bit smelly out there, though.

 

[blabbermouth]

I LOVE San Francisco. We stayed in the North Beach area when we were there too and it was a great location. Nice sealion pics, they're so cute! Your food looks delish.

 

[MK2010]

Hey Mark! I'm not on here much, but popped over to Jess' TR and saw you had started one and popped over here. I had a friend on DCP at the same time as you. AND he's in Disneyland Aug. 7 & 8 with a bunch of friends HE met on his DCP. Small World huh? So just know you have fellow DCPers running amok around Disneyland with you. They were actually at Disneyland today so I'm betting they'll be at DCA tomorrow. Anyway, have fun!

 

[JessM]

Hey Mark! Great start to your trip report, I'm excited to follow along!

I did a trip to California for my high school graduation present with a stop over at Disneyland and it was great! I can't wait to go back again. I really want to spend some more time in San Francisco, we were only there for a day and a half but I love that city! Can't wait to read more!

 

[wiigirl]

Great pics!

 

[katt789]

I’m usually at the airport before the sun is up!! Then again, I’ve got a seven hour flight to get to Florida, ugh lol! I always end up sitting on the floor in airports, my computer doesn’t even hold a charge anymore so I’m always looking for a plug in ahha!

I have no idea what an oxygen bar is either, I think I agree that I’m okay with it how it is now haha That’s odd to me that they would have the slot machines just out in the open, with just signs, like, would they ID you if you looked under age? I guess it is vegas! Ha! I have no clue how to gamble except for the slot machines, hence the never been to vegas thing haha!

Yay for the flight being moved up, even if it did get kinda delayed again hah. The hotel looks awesome, a bit interesting, but totally awesome! That food looks so delicious!! Love that it’s all home made and everything too, how great!

AH WHAT! As if this post wasn’t enough “I wanna go to San Fran” now there’s SEALIONS?! ACK! Adorable.

 

[deedee2177]

Joining in...I enjoyed reading your adventures with Jess. I've never been to Disney Land so definitely looking forward to reading your report.

PS: I think Jess would be proud of your first TR..looks great to me

 

[Mjp935]

Chapter 4: Bonjour! Its 5:30 am!


(Lombardy Street the crookedest street in the world, at the top of the huge hill obviously)

Again I had an early morning& this time it wasnt by choice!
As some of you may not know I am from the East coast! And due to work I wake up at 8:30 am most mornings! Well does any one know what time it is on the West Coast at that time?

I will give you a hint its in the title.

Well I wasnt alone my parents were basically up too! We ended up heading down to Le Petit Déjeuner (Breakfast) at the French bakery attached to the Triton!



Café de la Presse was a great choice!

My mom and I had delicious Vanilla French Toast with fresh fruit!



My dad had a sausage and egg breakfast sandwich with home fries and fruit!



Italian for dinner last night, French for breakfast& this is starting to look like Epcot!


Well its off to Animal Kingdom& I mean the San Francisco Zoo!

Continued on next post​

 

[Mjp935]

Chapter 5: Zoo, Zoo, Zoo



As I said in my last update we went to the zoo!
It is a great place to go and spend a day because it’s actually pretty big!
If you don’t have the luxury of a car you can take the MUNI (subway type thing) line L and it will take you really close to the Zoo!
From there the Zoo is a short walk from the stop.

After buying our Zoo tickets we headed inside.
Because we hadn’t been there in a long time we decided we would just walk around so we can see everything!

The first thing we came to was this huge Lemur sanctuary! It was super cool!
There was a lot of Lemurs but most of them were sleeping! Here are a few pictures of the active ones.





From there we went over near the large cats! I love lions! They are one of my favorite things on the safari ride at DAK!



The male lion was sooo cool! I named him Mufasa! Classic right?? I mean I am sure he has another name that is some sort of unique roar that the other two lions call him but I mean I can give him a nickname right?

The female was sleeping… did you know that lions sleep like 18 hours a day!? You didn’t… you should ride the safari at DAK more often!

I pretty much know that script to the “T”… Ask Jess!

Back to the Zoo!

Lions are cool but they are not my most favorite animals in the world but we shall get to that a little later!

They also have tigers! And A BABY TIGER! But they were all out of sight!

A good thing about this zoo is that almost all animals have an indoor and outdoor habitat! The indoor is usually private and they have free reign to go where ever!

That is good for them obviously not great for you if all you want to see is a Tiger and Tony doesn’t feel like coming out to play today!

There was some littler cats the only one who wasn’t sleeping was the Bobcat, I named him Robert!



After the Kitty cats my mom and I stopped for some much needed refreshments.

I had a Diet Coke and she had Raspberry Brisk Ice Tea! And look at the cups they came in!



I think this is a good place to take a break! Will we see everything the zoo has to offer? Will Mark find his most favorite animal in the world? Find out on the next update!

Continued in Next Post
​

 

[hugApug]

Seems like you had a fun time in SF! I used to live on the L line, now about 10 minutes south. Can't wait to read more.

 

[Mjp935]

Chapter 6: Zoo, Zoo, Zoo 2: Search for My Favorite Animal!



So just to catch you up, if you completely skipped my last post! Don’t worry I am not mad… (ok I’m a little mad)

NEVERTHELESS, My mother and I are at the San Francisco Zoo! And we have seen many animals and got really cool cups!

So after we got our really cool cups (really though they are great you should go back and look at them!) we went to the Bear exhibits! It was Bear-y cool because when we arrived they were having their feeding time for the Grizzly Bears!

Did you know that Grizzly Bears are one of the easiest bears to train?





At this Zoo they have these two bears trained so well that they listen to the Keepers voice and if there is an emergency situation the keepers blow a whistle and the bears will immediately drop what they are doing to go where they are supposed to go! Isn’t that cool!

From there we went to see my favorite bears, POLAR BEARS!
I love polar bears, these two bears are very special!

This one



Is the oldest polar bear in the US at the age of 33!

And This one



Is the 4th oldest in the US at the age of 30!

Ironically the older one was the one that was up and moving about!

After we left Bearland we went to see another cute cuddly animal!

River Otters!



I love them! There are two in this zoo! And they are so cute when they swim and stuff!
Next to the Otters was this very big Indian Rhinoceros!



When my mom and I saw him we thought... Oh so he must have been attacked by a poacher and they took his horn! Oh boy! were we wrong!

We read that it is actually completely natural! The Rhino scrapes it against rocks and stuff on purpose to flatten it down himself!

The horn is much like our fingernails and grows back, so he is just using earth’s nail file!

Next to the Rhino there was the cutest little island ever!

Penguin Island!



I took a picture of these three! The one clearly didn’t want his picture taken!

After the Penguins we saw a Black Rhino!





He was all about getting a picture!

They also had Hippos but he was underwater and I couldn’t get a good picture!

They also had Koalas!



Did you know that Koalas sleep for like 23 of 24 hours a day!
It’s all the eucalyptus!

There was an owl too! He was cool! But something tells me that Harry Potter wouldn’t want this one delivering his mail!



They also had a replica of the African Savannah! Just like DAK!



Finally it was time for me to find my most favorite animal!
Here’s a hint!



What one do you think it is!

If you said Prairie Dog!
YOU ARE…..








Incorrect!

It’s meerkats! Who doesn’t love them!





It all started when I discovered the show “Meerkat Manor” on animal planet!
It is basically “The Real Housewives of Meerkats” it was great!

He is hiding!



AWWWW LOOK AT HIM!



My mom said it looked like he was posing for a Calendar Shoot!

After this we went to a cool exhibit! It featured Aye-Ayes. You basically go into this really dark building and you can “see” them! It’s so dark that you can only really see their outlines! We couldn’t take pictures but it was cool!

Aye-Ayes are the largest Lemur, and it is the only nocturnal one!

Well with that we did most of the zoo!
There were a lot of other animals but I either didn’t get a good picture! Or they weren’t in positions good for taking pictures!

It’s a great Zoo

Continued in Next Post​

 

[rachel09985]

I really like your San Fran updates. We are considering an SF trip in the future! Kinda what you are doing with a stop in Disneyland.

I love meerkats too!!

 

[Mjp935]

Chapter 7: Can I get a fork please?

So after my mom and I went to the zoo, it was time to go back to the hotel so we could go get ready for an awards dinner sponsored by my Dads convention!



Wow I clean up good! Dont I?
My dad picked up some hipster glasses at the Expo associated with the convention!
I wore them to dinner!

After my dad returned to the hotel and got dressed we walked to the restaurant!



Yank Sing is a small Chinese restaurant in an alley! I am not really sure where, I just followed my Dad!



This was what was in front of me! As you may see there is no silverware just chopsticks! (Really authentic huh?)

Now I have no problems using chopsticks, although some of the adults I was sitting with did.
There were 9 people sitting at the table with me! And four or five of them had to politely ask for a fork!

Like most traditional Chinese restaurants everything was served family style, and they just kept bringing out more food! Luckily we had a woman at our table who knew how to eat certain D.I.Y. foods!

First we had some soup!



Doesnt that look great! Well it was amazing! It was hot and sour soup! There was tofu and pork in it!



The food on the spoon was a Vegetable Dumpling with Ginger on it! The one on the left is a Pork pot sticker! And the one on the right is a fried cream cheese dumpling!
It was super yummy!



Next we had one of those D.I.Y. courses! Lettuce Wraps! Basically you take the lettuce and then put the filling in, throw some sweet and sour sauce on the top and you are all set!
The filling was some sort of Quinoa mix!



You are probably saying & Wow Mark that BBQ chicken sandwich looks really good!
Well you go the bird part right! That was something I never thought I would eat.
That would be Peking Duck on a Steamed Seashell Bun topped off with Green Onions! It was very interesting!
This like the Lettuce Wrap was a D.I.Y. meal!



The next course was very good! Doesnt it look great?? That would be Mongolian Beef in Red and Green Peppers! The peppers were a little spicy but the meat was perfect!



What Asian inspired dinner doesnt have ****ake Mushrooms and Snap Peas! I love snap peas but I am not a huge fan of mushrooms! But I tried it!
Isnt that the point?



This part was my favorite (besides dessert) Chow Mein! OH IT WAS SOOOOO GOOD!!!!!!!
I love me some good Chow Mein!

And now we move on to the best part! DESSERT!!!!!



This was very yummy! This is a custard tart! The tart was so flaky and amazing!



We finished off dinner with a Mango pudding with a strawberry on it! IT WAS AMAZING! Normally desserts like this bother me because of the texture but this was great!

So if you ever are walking through SF and see the sign for Yank Sing check it out!

After dinner my family and I went back to the hotel room! We watched Big Brother (my favorite show!!! it was a double eviction) and then went to bed because my mom and I had an early morning the next day! Do you know why???

The moment everyone has been waiting for is here! My mom and I had a 6:45 am flight from SF to Anaheim!!! Whos ready???? BRING ON THE SELFIES!

Continued in Next Post​

 

[deedee2177]

Great update!! I would have had to ask for a fork! ;-) Also, shout out to a fellow BB fan...think they will feel bad when they find out Judd wasn't MVP?

 

[jwwi]

Hi Mark
Just found your TR, but caught up now. I loved DL when I was there in 2010. Can't wait to see how you and your Mom enjoyed it.