From Whoville to Disneyland - Velkommen to Solvang! update p. 7

[GreatBiscuit]

Hello, all you trip report readers out there!

Hello!

We had an easy, quick flight to Atlanta, where we switched to our flight to Phoenix (hence to be known as the bowels of hell).

Thirty more minutes and the grandma comes running up to us saying that they changed the freaking gate and the flight leaves in 15 minutes!!!

Thanks to Great Biscuit and the picture of his cute daughter for the inspiration.

I LOVE the photo! Most Excellent Job WGM!

Subbing so as not to miss any of the action. Can't wait to read more!

 

[burly]

Me too!

 

[whogirl'smom]

I'm in too Jamie. I've never been to DL so really looking forward to your report.

Your Todd English cheese and goodies tray has me drooling already .

Welcome, Bridget! When we got home, I had to get myself some Havarti cheese and dried apricots!

Hi, I jumped over from GB's thread, I'm in for the ride. Looking forward to this, especially since I will be taking my first ever DL trip (hopefully) this year after working for WDW for 37 years.

Hi, Marita! So glad to see you! You will love Disneyland.

Hello!





I LOVE the photo! Most Excellent Job WGM!

Subbing so as not to miss any of the action. Can't wait to read more!

Look who's here, straight out of the oven! Thanks about the photo.

Me too!

Hi, and welcome! I'm so glad to see so many familiar "faces"!

 

[hmgray95]

Ooh, so glad to hear this....we're taking Delta to Miami for our cruise in October. I am so getting one of these!

 

[ChelleinNC]

Believe it or not, your experience in Phoenix is better than DH's last time there his connecting flight was delayed for over 8 hours when they finally cancelled it at 10pm. He ended up renting a car and driving to get where he needed to go, arriving in the middle of the night

Hope the next leg of the trip was better

 

[eargal]

I'm joining late! Love it so far.

 

[Shenanigoat]

I only take carryon, so I feel your pain. Whogirl's expression is hilarious and adorable

 

[whogirl'smom]

Believe it or not, your experience in Phoenix is better than DH's last time there his connecting flight was delayed for over 8 hours when they finally cancelled it at 10pm. He ended up renting a car and driving to get where he needed to go, arriving in the middle of the night

Hope the next leg of the trip was better

Trust me, I was wishing we could have just driven on to CA!

I'm joining late! Love it so far.

Welcome to the fun!

I only take carryon, so I feel your pain. Whogirl's expression is hilarious and adorable

Hi, Laura! We found that taking pictures and playing around with the camera on the plane helped pass the time, especially in the 10th hour of travelling!

Plans are to have an update tonight if nothing happens!

 

[PNO4TE]

Jamie - after telling you that the Phoenix airport was fine, I hate to read that it was so horrible for you.

 

[whogirl'smom]

Whew! We've arrived!"

After just another short hour or so on the plane, we were preparing to descend into Burbank. Hallelujah!! What I remember about this part of the flight was a discussion with Whogirl about "descent" and "descend". She kept saying, "Are we descenting yet?" We talked about one being a verb and one being a noun. (I just loved English class; math, not so much.)

The view from the plane. Where is my green grass???

After skidding abruptly to a halt on the tarmac, we were outta there like rats off a ship! What a joy to see a nice small airport again! Through the terminal and outside the gates we found my Aunt S. and Cousin F. waiting for us with hugs all around. My uncle had passed away last spring right after we visited them in OR, and my aunt had moved back to CA, where they had lived for almost 50 years before retirement. I had not seen my Cousin (in-law) F for 10 years and she had never met Olivia, so everyone had been looking forward to our trip. Cousin F's granddaughter is Olivia's age, so she would be visiting some and joining us on one day of our Disneyland trip. (I gotta figure out this name thing--I can't keep typing Cousin all the time...)

We found the car quickly and loaded up, being that we didn't have to go to baggage claim, and were off to Simi Valley, chattering all the way. My aunt was gracious enough to let us drive her car during our trip, so we discussed some of the places we wanted to see and they shared ideas for things to do around L.A. I will tell you that we will be seeing several beaches and LOTS of Los Angeles county, but that's all the hints for now! Mean, aren't I?

Actually I did not plan this trip every minute because dh said that he wanted to "relax" . So I only planned the Disneyland days (well, not the first one since there were 7 of us!) and knew we'd go to the observatory one day because F. had already mentioned it. There was lots of "What do you want to do today?" every morning, but surprisingly I learned that I can be spontaneous and my head won't explode!

We arrived at my aun't condo and Olivia was introduced to the tiniest member of the family, Taffy. (oops, picture coming tomorrow. Dh is working on the other computer tonight. Need to download more pictures.) We enjoyed In 'N Out burgers for dinner, which we had never had before. Their menu is burgers, fries, drinks and a hot dog. That's it! No pictures of this since I figured everyone might think I was a bit wacky and that we didn't have hamburgers in Tennessee or something! We were joined by F.'s son, M. for dinner. (This was to be an ongoing thing, we soon found out. More on that later...)

There was a beautiful pool just one building over in my aunt's subdivision/condo complex, so dh took Olivia swimming while I unpacked and spent some time with my aunt. I was just so glad to be here! I love California; it's where my aunt and uncle lived almost all my life and where we always visited them until they retired. I cut my Disney teeth on Disneyland, so it always has a special place in my heart.

OK, before I go for tonight I'll do a rundown of family members and initials so I don't have to keep writing Cousin all the time.

Aunt S., 81, my dad's (deceased) brother's wife. Her son C. (my uncle's stepson, who is also deceased) was married to:

F., late 50's, lives two buildings over from my aunt in the same neighborhood, so we were together quite frequently.

M., F's son, (but not by C), 39, back living at home, not working, , but generally around a lot. This would be my ex, step, first cousin, once removed if we're being particular!

K., M's daughter, 8, who visits part of the week because M and ex-wife have joint custody of her. She and Olivia hit it off and really enjoyed each other's company! Whogirl and K are ex, step second cousins, once removed. I just love how silly this sounds when you break if down!

So, there you have it, you'll probably need a post-it note to remember all these odd relationships. We just call each other family and that's all that matters!

Next up "Big Surf" this weekend and I promise lots more pictures!

 

[whogirl'smom]

Jamie - after telling you that the Phoenix airport was fine, I hate to read that it was so horrible for you.

It's okay, I won't hold it against you! It probably would have been fine if we'd stuck to one airline. Live and learn.

 

[oybolshoi]

Glad to read that the rest of your travel day was smooth and uneventful. BTW, I loved that picture of Olivia in your other post - she's adorable!

 

[kabuki]

Great Pictures and report so far! Can't wait for more and thanks for doing it!

 

[Shenanigoat]

I am so glad you got to go to an In-n-Out. They do have a secret menu- you can order grilled cheese, get your onions fried, stuff like that. I love how they are just like "We make awesome burgers and fries, that's all you can order, deal with it."

 

[hmgray95]

Don't you just love modern day family trees! Much like yours, I seem to require a family grove instead of just a tree!

Glad to see that other than the Phoenix incident, your travels were fairly smooth. And Olivia is adorable in that plane shot!

 

[ChelleinNC]

Actually I did not plan this trip every minute because dh said that he wanted to "relax" . So I only planned the Disneyland days (well, not the first one since there were 7 of us!) and knew we'd go to the observatory one day because F. had already mentioned it. There was lots of "What do you want to do today?" every morning, but surprisingly I learned that I can be spontaneous and my head won't explode!

I don't understand that's just crazy talk

can you tell I don't do spontaneous well

 

[whogirl'smom]

I don't understand that's just crazy talk

can you tell I don't do spontaneous well

Trust me, it was my limit of spontaneity! By the way, I've been catching up on your blog tonight and I'm so jealous you got to see Capt. Jack! Great pictures everywhere!

 

[burly]

Still along for the ride.

 

[whogirl'smom]

July 24, 2009

Today began bright and early at 4 a.m. Remember we were still on eastern time. Thankfully my aunt is a very early riser, so we were all having coffee downstairs before 5 o'clock. After unpacking, showers and breakfast we decided to hit CVS for a case of water and Target to get dh some new sunglasses. Why he didn't do this before the trip I'll never know. Now that sunglasses were in hand we could decide what to do. I'm sure you know by now where we decided to go exploring...MALIBU BEACH, BABY!!

We acquired a nice laminated map of SoCal and off we went.

This was the easy road to Malibu through the mountains that were similar to what we drive through in TN all the time. I wish I could say that this was the way we took back to Simi Valley...

Pepperdine University

"Downtown" Malibu

I don't know what I expected Malibu to look like, but this wasn't it. Crowded was not even the word for it. Cars parked everywhere on the side of the road to get to the beach; the lots ($14!) were full, so we continued up the beach until we saw this:

Ah, that's more like it!

We just stumbled upon Paradise Cove and it turned out to be a great place to see the beach! Twenty four bucks to park or $3 to park if you spend $20 inside the restaurant. You know we decided on the food choice.

The inside of the restaurant was very inviting, dark wood, old pictures framed everywhere and huge windows all along the back wall. We were seated within 5 minutes of being given a beeper and we got a table only one row over from the windows! You could evidently be served drinks and maybe food outside, too, as there were several tables and bright blue umbrellas beachside.

What I could get of the menu...the light was blinding from outside and kept reflecting off the laminated page.

We decided on the lunch sampler, thinking we didn't want to eat too much because we were having homemade tacos with brisket tonight at F's house. Ha! Look at the size of this "sampler"--

This was so fantastic! Piles of calamari, lightly breaded and fried, the best BBQ chicken legs ever, sweet and sour shrimp,perfect french fries, just devine! Whogirl was chowing down on some clam chowder that was very creamy and rich, not too fishy. We gave this big platter our best but most of the fries and some calamari were sadly left.

Let's see us some beach!

The waves were huge, just crashing loudly on the shore every few seconds. I kept saying I didn't remember the surf being so loud last time we were in California....what we found out watching the news that night was that there was a warning all up and down the coast not to swim because of the 12' surf. One swimmer actually died that day down around Laguna, so sad.. Thankfully we did not have our suits with us since we were just exploring this day, but dh decided to try to race back to the beach every time the tide came in. Most times he made it...

the last time he did not.

He fell flat on his behind because he turned around to look at where the wave was, and WHOOSH, came the wave all the way up to where he landed! Wet clothes, wet wallet, wet hat!

As he was getting up he saw a woman a little ways down the beach getting up also, obviously knocked down by the rouge wave. Dh will talk to anybody so he struck up a conversation when she neared us, laughing about how all these people just got surprised and knocked over up and down the beach. Guess who she turned out to be??

No, don't be too excited, lol, but it was the wife of the drummer from Survivor! This was our only celebrity meet of the trip.

We had to be rednecks and take a pictures of the Lamborghini--you just don't see those around here! And hey, it was Tennessee orange!

More in next post:

 

[whogirl'smom]

Soon it was time for us to head back. I hated to go; it was in the mid-70's, breezy and perfecty sunny in Malibu. It was 98 in the valley. Sigh. But go we must, and we thought we would try Decker Canyon Road b/c it was listed on the map as a main road and looked to be a shorter way straight up into Ventura County.

Well.....

It was quite a drive straight up the side of the mountain. Our first inkling of this should have been the sign that warned vehicles towing anything not to take this road. No big deal, we are from Tennessee, right? The road wound around and around and around, shrank to about one lane and here's the best part--THERE ARE NOT GUARDRAILS! I know CA is in a financial mess, but come on people!

Poor DH is halfway up the mountain, won't look left, whogirl is freaking out b/c whodaddy is freaking out (he never does this) and panic-prone whomom is just snapping away pictures.

Me: Do you want me to drive?
DH: No, I'm okay...
Me: Really, it's no big deal, this is just like the old road to Asheville before they built the interstate..
DH: Are you crazy, there's no trees, no nothing, just 1000 feet straight down! I think I was having a panic attack back there!
Me: And you thought it was a good idea to keep driving why???
now, not so much then.

And out of nowhere, a stable on top of the mountain.

I was able to take these pictures after dh found a driveway to a construction site on the very tip top. It was sooo quiet up here, you could hear the breeze, hear bees buzz, really beautiful. We decided we were very lucky we didn't take this route over to Malibu beach because then we would have been on the side of the road with NO GUARDRAIL.

We arrived back with no more mental health incidents and were able to enjoy a scrumptuous dinner of tacos made with brisket, homemade refried beans, rice and salad. Olivia got to make the acquaintance of her cousin, K. and they hit it off singing Hannah Montana Karaoke before and after dinner. Olivia also got to meet F's poodle/chihuahua/terrier mix, Toby. She is terrified of most dogs and this was no exception because he barked, chased her and generally made her miserable until F. put him in his crate. My poor child, thankfully she got over this after the first night and was carrying the dog like a babydoll the rest of the week!

We ended the night by taking the kids swimming and then fell exhausted into bed, ready to recharge for another exciting day.

Next up we'll be heading to Hollywood!