20th Anniversary Trips: San Diego & Disneyland Edition (A July/ August Trip Report)

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I hope you didn’t have to wait long for that Chick-Fil-A… I had that this week and it took so long. At least I got a free cookie!

I did wait too long for it! It was like it wasn't fast food. It was fine just not the chick=fil-a of New Jersey!

 

[missjackiemcg]

Gah, I lost my quotes!! Oh, well, that's OK. I think I was going to mention the only time we've seen Pandas was at the Memphis Zoo when they were on loan from China. It is nice to be able to see them, but what a bummer about being rushed along through the area. They're lazy, but when they do move around they're so clumsy and silly and fun to watch.

I miss our koalas! We used to have them at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago when I was little, but during one of the renovations, they were relocated and never came back. We don't have elephants anymore either. I do love visiting zoos in other places for some variety! Morgan got some nice options for her AP course! I'd love to see how any of her projects turned out if she doesn't mind sharing.

 

[Araminta18]

So, I did, and with it being still spring break season, the signature hotels were just soooo much more. And with express pass not being good at EPIC, it just didn't feel worth it for us. I really wouldn't be surpised if we spend most of our time in EPIC. If it worked at EPIC I totally would have booked there. Also, it is crazy to me that Helios doesn't do EPIC only express pass. I would have done that if that was true.

I even tried so many varaitions, staying at a super cheap hotel, and buying EPIC express pass. And spring break is rough time to come. Sigh...

But we don't have a choice with the girls being in high school. Literally the monday after we leave prices get so much better. I figure if things are REALLY bad, we can possibly get Express Pass for EPIC on our last day and it will be cheaper than the signarure hotel for the whole trip.

aw bummer! The only other suggestion I have is explore annual passes. Universal has cheap annual passes, and they come with 30/40% discounts at the hotel, even with the lowest tier annual pass. That was also how we managed to get our hotels so cheap. May be worth looking at. Or Trevor has a Universal AP and if you tell me your dates i'd be happy to look and see what pops up.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Morgan got some nice options for her AP course! I'd love to see how any of her projects turned out if she doesn't mind sharing.

I can share what she created for your application to college. I don't have photos of everything else since then. But I can share most at the ned of the school year.

Or Trevor has a Universal AP and if you tell me your dates i'd be happy to look and see what pops up.

That is SUPER nice of you!!! Is that bad without express pass!? Now I am worried. I honestly am not sure how much we are going to like Universal. With Andy's bad back... I did consider just doing a day at EPIC, getting tickets for that and paying for Express for EPIC. But I feel like we need to at least give Universal as a whole a try!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

It was dinning reservation day this morning! I got up early and easily got all of my dinning reservations.

Thursday: BOMA @ 6:20
Friday: Wailulu @ 5:25
Saturday: 3 Bridges (no reservation)
Sunday: Homecomin' Brunch @ 10:00 AM
Monday: Morimoto @5:30
Tuesday: eet @ 5:15 - I grabbed this just because I wasn't really sure why I could even do this. It's counter service.?
Wednesday: Toothsome @ 5:00
Thursday: Cowfish @ 5:15
Friday: Blue Dragon @ 5:15
Saturday: no dinning reservations

I wasn't sure how hard it would be to get Easter Brunch reservation but I had no problem. I guess most folks are more intrested in in park places. Which is fine with me.

My family is def in the phase where they don't want to talk about the plans, but I kind of need them to! I need to figure out park days and decide if we are going to get LL for which days.

I also remembered this morning that I need to reach out to 2 of my girlfriends. One lives in Florida and was going to try and come up and see us one day and the other will be in the parks at the same time. So, we were tryingt o see if we could cordinate to meet up. So, I have to see what / when they might be!

 

[Paulaparm]

Great list of ADR’s!
I’ll be following closely for Universal. Pretty sure we will be visiting there on our next trip to the area.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

San Diego Day Four: Touristy Stuff

Today was our last full day in San Diego. I had a few options of things to do today. We decided to go back to Balboa Park and check out the Japanese Friendship Garden. I believe the gardens opened at 10:00 and I don't think we were worried about getting out of the room too too early.
We left the hotel around 10:00. And took the sort drive back to Balboa Park. We arrived around 10:30.
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr

We walked past this open air amp-theater. And there was someone there practicing playing the organ. It was cool to hear the person playing music. It was LOUD!!! being that there was no one there officially watching.
IMG_8600 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
IMG_8601 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
The gardens were just past the amp-theater. And we headed in.
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
We were welcomed right away with this bamboo water "thing"
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
Gwen and I play animal crossing and they have one. So, Gwen made us stand there and wait for the water to fill up and tip over.
IMG_8602 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
We headed down to the path to explore!
IMG_8603 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
The gardens were very peaceful.
IMG_8603 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
We found a tea room building and a rock garden.
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
Andy contiplating the meaning of life.
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
there was a small bonsai tree exhbit with some trees of different ages.
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
And of course we found lots of Koi FIsh.
IMG_8612 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
There were statues as well.
About half way through there was a food truck where they were selling Shave ice.
IMG_8613 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
We skipped getting any but Andy liked all of the liscence plates on the truck.
IMG_8614 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
We continued on, and found a Japanese "museum". I put it in quotes. because some of the display was this stuff:
IMG_8620 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
Cup of Soups....
And Kit Kats
IMG_8621 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
The gardens started at the top of hill and you worked your way down to the main garden area.
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
Where we found a beautiful waterfall and bridges.
IMG_8626 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
An area with a budha hiddden.
IMG_8622 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr

It was a beautiful area and nice to explore. We were done with the whole area in about an hour. A little more.

When we were in Maine earlier this summer Morgan had gotten some playing cards with Maine on it. She wanted to get ones for San Diego / California. And we hadn't had any luck finding any up to this point.

So, in the area we were in, had a welcome center. So I suggested we check that out.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

San Diego Day Four: Touristy Stuff
So, we headed into the Welcome Center.
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
There was a restaurant in the plaza, some public bathrooms and then the welcome center. It wasn't very big but we did find playing cards for Morgan. So, we grabbed those and headed out.
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
IMG_8632 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
We took some photos of the Coit Tower and then headed back to the car.
IMG_8634 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
I had one last place I wanted us to eat at this trip. Mike's Red Tacos.
It was listed as a top place for tacos. The closest to where we were was in a strip mall. Not the most glamouros. But we wanted to give it a try.
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
Gwen was tired today, and not feeling the day. We hoped that some food would perk her up.
Mike's was known for it's Beef Birrara. Basically everything is a variation of Beef Birrara.
Morgan went with the tacos.
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
Gwen went with the Beef Birrar Ramen,
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
And Andy and I split a Taco plate and a Crunchstack. (basically a loaded quesidalla)
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr

Everything was delish! The beef birrara was amazing and obviously the basis of all of the items. The crunchwrap was really good. And honestly i really liked Gwen's Ramen. Unfortantly she only ate half and we had another destination this afternoon, so we couldn't bring it with us.

My only complaint, I didn't really like the salsa options. I guess you don't need them as much for this kind of taco but they were just ok.

The girls wante churros, so we waited till we had eaten our food, then orderd them so they could eat the hot.
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
they enjoyed the churrosn but missed having some chocolate sauce to dip them in.

This location was lacking ambiance but it was worth a stop.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

San Diego Day Four: Touristy Stuff
After out lunch we headed to the last destination for the day, Old Town San Diego.
I had gone back and forth on this area. It sounded super touristy and well... it turned out to be just that.
Parking was almost impossible. We basically had to cirlce the parking lot to get lucky for someone to be leaving. But we did find a spot.
We decided to check out the Whaley House. The lore is that the house was haunted / curised. Morgan has grown to love these kinds of things, so we figured we would give it a try.
IMG_8639 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
IMG_8639 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
They had a jail outside of the building for a reason that I don't remember anymore...
We started in a Courtroom on the side of the building
IMG_8639 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
That was used back in the day, and still used every once in awhile for cerimonial purposes. (basically to keep it listed as an active courtroom)
IMG_8639 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
We continued into the main part of the house, saw a place with a wife hung herself. And read about another person living there, a daughter maybe who got sick and died.
IMG_8639 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
IMG_8639 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
It was def full of creapy stuff, like this doll.
Upstairs was a Theater.
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
Where they used the Pepper Ghost Effect!!!! Might have been the most interesting part of the house.
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
The house was self guided after an intro part. Which was nice, you could view stuff at your own pace. But it def sounded like a forced story. It was cool to see the old house, but we all argreed that some of the things they said made it haunted were just not. (like the daughter who got sick)
At any rate, we enjoyed it enough. Would I say You HAVE to do this if you come to San Diego, no. But it was fine.
We headed into Old Town itself.
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
IMG_8662 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
It was Colonial Williamsburgh but for the west.
IMG_8662 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
IMG_8662 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
IMG_8668 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
it was ok. ALl of the buildings were open for you to go in and out of. But most of them just had shops selling stuff. So, we didn't hang out too long here. Just kind of walked all the way down and then back.

historic old town was by far the most touristy area we did all trip. It was also the most busy. It was def underwhelming for us. And def wouldn't say anyone needs to go there.

It was about 3:00 again, and were kind of done for the day. We headed back to the car and back to the hotel. Tomorrow we were checking out of the San Diego hotel and headed to Disneyland! So, we needed to do some packing up.

We also were planning on going to San Diego Safari Zoo tomorrow and it opened early. So we knew we needed to do 99% of the packing today.

So, we did just that. We couldn't decide what to do for dinner. I wanted to try this chicken place but Gwen didn't. And none of us were that hungry from lunch. So , we finally decided on going to a pizza place near the hotel.

It was in a shopping plaza with a grocery store that we could hit up after to restock on stuff for the room in Disneyland. The pizza place was unremarkable. It was fine but def not a memerable meal in anyway.

We hit the grovery store and go more breakfast and snacks for the room to bring with us. Headed back to the hotel and relaxed for the evening.

Up next our last San Diego Day... Safari Zoo!

 

[buzzrelly]

Hi! Looks like a great trip! We will be there the week after you and I can't wait for the Spring weather!

The only time we were in WDW on Easter we ate at Cape May for breakfast around 10 and loved it so I was going to suggest that if you couldn't get Homecomin' since you're planning to spend the day at EPCOT after it might be easier? My only other thought was that there's a really cute Easter parade at MK that day that you might want to check out!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

The only time we were in WDW on Easter we ate at Cape May for breakfast around 10 and loved it so I was going to suggest that if you couldn't get Homecomin' since you're planning to spend the day at EPCOT after it might be easier? My only other thought was that there's a really cute Easter parade at MK that day that you might want to check out!

We have been to Disney at Easter a decent amount! 2 years ago we saw the Easter Parade. And I thought of that the other day! I guess the benefit of Homecomin' brunch is that we can decide even that day if we want to go where? Although we might want to do LLs ahead of time.

Cape May breakfast would be nice too! We did dinner once there but that doesn't get you the characters.

 

[missjackiemcg]

Looks like a fun day exploring some places in San Diego, even if they didn't end up being super thrilling! I've heard great things about both zoos in San Diego, so it's awesome you were able to fit both into your plans. Exciting to be headed to Disneyland the next day!!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

San Diego Day Five: San Diego Safari Zoo
Today we needed to check out of our hotel. And the Safari Zoo opened at 8:00 AM. So, we were up and out of the room fairly early. The Safari Zoo is outside of downtown San Diego, It was about a 30 minute drive.
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
It felt a little like we were going into the middle of no where. One of the days we were relaxing at the hotel, Andy and I went to the hot tub and were talking with 2 ladies that were there. The one lady said the Safari Zoo was originally a place they kept extra animals, animals that needed more space for the main zoo. And people kept coming to see the animals, that they decided to just open a second zoo. Is that true? I don't know but it sounded intresting.
We arrived at the zoo at 8:15. I was DEAD at the zoo. It was a week day and early so we figured it would pick up.
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
We bought tickets again at the ticket booth and headed in.
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
This zoo felt ALOT like Animal Kingdom. It had alot of the theming and extra decor. It was beautiful!
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
Our very first animal was this guy! He was just out for a walk with a keeper. Literally, the turtle was just walking on the regular path and the keep was just walking beside it. It was hilarious.
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
There was also a lady doing an show with this little guy.
IMG_8701 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
The safari zoo had a safari of it's own, so we thought we would head there first. It sounded like the line can get long for that, but I don't think we really needed to worry about that.
Anyway we headed towards that.
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
Saw some bats on the way
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
This zoo was built on a major hill! And we needed to go down a huge platform. But before that we had an amazing view!
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
IMG_8701 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
We took a wrong turn and ended up in the area where you can stay over night at the zoo. Gwen and I used the bathrooms they had up there before turning around.
this was the bathroom area outside to wash your hands.
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
With our detour, we ended up missing the first "train" of the morning. But another one came not too much longer.
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
It was a huge savanna area. There was a road with a more like a trolley for parking that we rode in. But it was still beautiful and we saw lots of animals.
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
IMG_8701 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
IMG_8701 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
The Safari was great. After we explored the area around there. There was a beautiful lagoon area.
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

San Diego Day Five: San Diego Safari Zoo
IMG_8701 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
Morgan found another animal possiblity for her art.
We then headed back up the tall tower. Thankfully there was an elevator!
IMG_8701 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
IMG_8701 by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
We headed to find the Australia area. This was a must for us.
It was a nice area. There was the double door enter / exit area and the kangaroos were just roaming around. by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
There was an albino Kangaroo. I didn't even knew those existed!
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
Alot of them were just laying around, very ala Pandas.

We saw a Platpus!
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
This was Gwen's top request. The area was inside, dark. Since they are nocturnal and it was so dark in there. And trying to take a photo was even harder. But it was cool to see.
They had 2 of them and the keeper said they were the only 2 in America.
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
Ironically, platpus was already on Morgan's list... why? Because they glow under a black light!
We found another area just past the Platpus with Morgan stuffed animal!
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
Not the best picture but...
There was also Tree Kangaroos!!!
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
I tried to get a picture. But it was a terrible angle and pretty hidden in the tree. But I was crazy to hear that this was a thing.
On our way down, we found our second BACKSIDE of WATER!!!!
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
We started to head back towards the entrance to try and grab something to eat and then head out soon. We saw a few items as we headed that way.
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
there was a cactus field.
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
And two condor birds that Andy for some reason was obessed with.
We found the tigers.
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
We talked with a really nice keeper here who gave us lots on info about the tigers.
And then we found the CUTEST animal in the whole Park.
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr
this guy is a sand cat and apparently a ruthless killer! Gwen loved this guy!
He was adorable!
The park was still really empty, and because of that, there was very little open for food options. We grabbed pizza that took forever. They were making it fresh is a fire ove which was nice but we ordered after a camp group of a bunch of kids... So it was bad timing. Pizza was good, though.
After we ate, we headed back to the car to head to Disneyland! It was about 1:00 when we left. There were a few areas we didn't see but we didn't feel like we missed out on anything. The Safari Zoo was def worth the trip out to see!
We had to drop the rental car off at the airport by Disneyland. It was about a 90 minute drive. It was along the coast and non eventul. It was amazing to me how some of the coast didn't have houses or much by it, just the highway.
We made it tot he airport, dropped the car off and grabbed an uber to the hotel.
We booked The Anahiem Hotel. I really wanted to do Disneyland Hotel but the offsite hotels are sooo much cheaper, I just couldn't. It was nice enough. We checked in, found our room and settled in.
We needed to eat dinner so I suggested we go to Downtown Disney for dinner. That ended up being a big mistake. It was so much hotter here than San Diego and it hit us hard! The hotel was close but the walk was hot and then Downtown Disney was very crowded.
Untitled by Ariella Saucier, on Flickr

Morgan's mood had soured by the time we got to the restaurant. We went to Black Tap for Burgers. And we ended up sitting outside. Which displease Morgan more... And then it took FOREVER to get our food. I ended up having to go back up and ask where I food was. Apparentlly our order got lost... It was NOT a good way to start the trip.

The food finally came, we ate and left. We were done with the day.

Andy and Morgan headed staight back to the room. Gwen and I pit stopped to get desserts and shop a little. Photos later of the merch haul.

We went back and just relaxed. Tomorrow we were headed into Disneyland!!! Woo Hoo!!!

Overall, we loved San Diego. And would def go again. We liked it better than LA by a long shot.

up next Disneyland!

 

[missjackiemcg]

So many of your pictures reminded me of Animal Kingdom, too!! Awesome that you got to see platypuses!! Ugh, this reminds me of our Disney springs experience in December--too crowded and just plain awful. We ended up bailing and not even trying to order food anywhere it was so bad. At least you're off to Disneyland in the morning!

 

[erinch]

Back in the day in Irvine, there was a drive-through Lion Country safari in Irvine that had a disastrous string of animal escapes .

I grew up in SoCal, and remember all the commercials for it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_Country_Safari_(California)

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

So many of your pictures reminded me of Animal Kingdom, too!! Awesome that you got to see platypuses!! Ugh, this reminds me of our Disney springs experience in December--too crowded and just plain awful. We ended up bailing and not even trying to order food anywhere it was so bad. At least you're off to Disneyland in the morning!

You know it just happens sometimes.... Thankfully we bounced back the next day. But you can always tell it wasn't a good time with the lack of photos.

Back in the day in Irvine, there was a drive-through Lion Country safari in Irvine that had a disastrous string of animal escapes .

I grew up in SoCal, and remember all the commercials for it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_Country_Safari_(California)

Yikes!!! When I lived in Boston, a Gorilla kept escaping. The second time he just walked out the front turnstile and ended geting caught while just sitting at a bus stop. Thankfully he didn't hurt anyone. But it was a hilarous story.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Real Lift Update:

We are going to a Twice Concert... Who is Twice? They area a K-Pop Band. Morgan and Gwen have gotten very into K-Pop bands and I realized that Twice was going to be in Philly. So we are taking the girls. They are very excitied! And it's soon, we go in less than 3 weeks. Gwen might burst before then.

We have that, then Morgan is headed to Disney for her Senior Trip in March. We go for the parent meeting next Tuesday, so we will finally find out REAL information about the trip. We paid for the thing in full and know almost nothing about the trip. It is a little crazy how little they have told us!

All we know is they are going for 5 days, they have park hoppers and they are going to Universal for 2 of the days.

Other than that, I am soooo tired of the cold! Today it's going to be 33 and then we drop back down below freezing for at least the weekend. Our snow just won't melt. Which is not normal for our area, usually we get snow but it usually doesn't hang around.

55 more days till our trip... It's too many... sigh....

 

[missjackiemcg]

It has been RIDICULOUSLY cold in Chicago this month, too. So sick of the dreary sky, no sun in sight either! At least you have a nice countdown to look forward to. I should probably book a trip, so I can have one, too!!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

It has been RIDICULOUSLY cold in Chicago this month, too. So sick of the dreary sky, no sun in sight either! At least you have a nice countdown to look forward to. I should probably book a trip, so I can have one, too!!

I firmly believe if you have a trip planned it helps!!! I don't care if it is 2 years away, it just gives you something to look forward to!