I get to go to DL again? 2/24/08-3/3/08, Updated 9/11

[mla1977]

Woohoo! We booked our hotel!

I had just about given up on getting anything with the Marriott associate rate, and I was looking at other hotels in the area. I really wanted to have the Fairfield Inn right across the street, or even the Anaheim Marriott, but there is a big convention there the whole weekend that we are in Anaheim. I was thinking that I would have to settle for the Quality Inn around the corner from the Fairfield Inn, so I didn't even check the Marriott today. DBF checked and the Residence Inn in Garden Grove showed up! Woohoo! It is half the cost of the Quality Inn (thanks to his step dad working at the Marriott)

Well, I know that it is not "easy" walking distance to the park, but we can't beat the price and the quality that we know we are getting. It includes breakfast too!

Next up: Booking the rental car! I'll be working on that tonight...

 

[Goofster57]

Congrats on getting a good price.

It's only about a mile to the park from there up Harbor

The good thing is you are closer to Joe's Italian Ice

I think it is almost right across the street

 

[mla1977]

I was going to ask if the Italian Ice there could possibly be as good as Philly water ice, but that picture make me wish it was at least 20 degrees warmer here. I can't wait for the first day of spring! Free water ice! I'll have to give them a try while we're there.

 

[Goofster57]

I was going to ask if the Italian Ice there could possibly be as good as Philly water ice, but that picture make me wish it was at least 20 degrees warmer here. I can't wait for the first day of spring! Free water ice! I'll have to give them a try while we're there.

I've never heard of Philly water ice

"Free water ice"? Do they give them away the first day of spring?

Here are the flavors they had that day

They change daily depending on what they have in the way of flavoring

The fruit flavored ones have chunks of the fruit in them

 

[mla1977]

Philly water ice is basically Italian ice. Here they consider Italian ice the hard stuff that you get at the grocery store, but water ice looks like what you had in the picture. Rita's is a local chain and they give out free water ice on the first day of spring. It is one of my favorite days of the year!

 

[mla1977]

So I didn't get to follow through with the pre trippie, but I will be able to explain that later. I was able to go and I had a great time. I have most of the DLR pictures up on Photobucket, but I want to get the San Diego and LA pictures that I plan on using uploaded before I start writing. I will try to get started this weekend!

 

[momto2nenas]

Waiting, waiting, waiting!

 

[Mama of Indybride]

Hmmmm.....



Have we possibly been forgotten??

 

[mla1977]

Okay, okay, I think DBF is going out tonight, so I should be able to write a little bit!

 

[mla1977]

Okay, here is a bit a Pre-trippie before I move on to the story:

DBF had his conference planned for San Diego for the beginning of out trip and then we were going to head north to Anaheim and LA.

A few weeks before the trip his boss went home sick. It turns out that he was having a stroke and he ended up in the hospital. The whole conference was suddenly in question. Both DBF and his boss were going to the conference, but now the weeks leading up to the conference had DBF doing the work of the two people and the VP of their division wondering if he should keep DBF in the office.

I was upset, but since I knew that the conference was the only reason that we would be going to California to begin with, I had to accept whatever decision was made. For a change I wasn't worried about plane tickets though. We had purchased Southwest tickets, so I knew I wouldn't be losing any money by not flying woohoo: yay for Southwest).

On the Tuesday before we were leaving (on Sunday) we are given the okay. I start making the final plans to so that I can decide what we are going to see. Try to decide if we need to make any more ressies for the trip. Nope all set! I still need to pack though!

 

[mla1977]

Oh yeah. DBF's boss is okay. He is still home and going through rehab. I hope he can return to work soon though. DBF is doing so much more work than he ever needed to do when both of them were in the office.

 

[mla1977]

This was an easy travel day for us.

I had been sick all week though! My doctor gave me some antibiotics (which I usually avoid taking, but didn't want to chance it since I was traveling) and told me to take sudafed an hour before flying. I also purchased some Earplanes so help with any pressure problems that I might have.

We left the house around 8:30 to go to the airport and park at the offsite, but much cheaper parking lot.

No problems with check in. I checked us in the day before and we got #30-ish. (We found out later that #1-30 are for the people who pay the extra money to board earlier on Southwest. General boarding numbers start at #31. I really like this new boarding approach.)

Because of Southwest's new boarding procedures, we were able to walk around until our plane was at the gate and not have to sit in line at the gate.

The flight to Nashville was uneventful. I had hoped to get some BBQ in Nashville, which I did, but it wasn't very good at all. I'd rather head back to Memphis and get some yummy ribs from Corky's.

I was having some problems with one ear not popping though, so I didn't walk around the airport too much.

The flight to San Diego boarded quickly (maybe a few minutes late, but nothing bad). It was a full flight and an older lady sat down next to me. I think she was lonely; she seemed like she wanted to talk to me the whole time. I talked a little but I really wanted to watch movies on my ipod. I got one movie in at least. Oh, the ear pressue relieved itself once we were back in the air too!

I had to put to earplanes in an hour before landing, so I had trouble talking to anyone once they were in.

Landing in San Diego was interesting. The flight path takes you right past the downtown area. I was able to look out the window and see the skyscrapers right next to me. Kind of freaky.

Once we landed, our bags came out pretty quickly and we headed over to Avis. EVERYONE else on the Avis shuttle were preferred members and their cars were ready for them when we got dropped off. We went in and got our car. The "sample" car on the website was a Pontiac G6 which I was really looking forward to having since I drive a Grand Am, but they were all out so we got a Taurus. Not bad, nice big trunk.

We headed over to our hotel (The Catamaran) and checked in. The view of Mission Bay was awesome. After settling in, we went out to get dinner and found a Mexican place with delicious fish tacos. DBF raved about them. I was still somewhat stuffed up, so while they tasted good, I couldn't truely appreciate what I had.

My ears had also still not popped yet. I hoped that I didn't need to wait days before that cleared up.

Next up... A beautiful park!

 

[annieb727]

Looking forward to more!!

 

[mla1977]

More will be coming soon! I've got about 1 day of TR left for my May report, so I will try to finish that this weekend. Then I'll continue with this one.

Nothing like another trip to motivate you to finish your current TR.

 

[weslovesauntmeg]

Joining your trip report..excited to see how it went..and what mexican place did you go to? cause i live in san diego and was wondering which one it was cause there are a few good ones in san diego??

 

[mla1977]

I have to go through my papers that I brought home. I'm pretty sure that I grabbed a menu or business card from there. It wasn't too far from our hotel. A few miles maybe, it took less than 10 minutes to get to back to our hotel. I'll try to find it this weekend.

 

[disney-inspired]

You have another reader!
and not too far behind either!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

I want to come too! We're going to DLR at the end of June

 

[mla1977]

Day 2 - 4/25

We wake up bright and early thanks to the time difference. My ears are fairly clear and I can actully breath better too.

We had decided that we were going to see Balboa Park before DBF needed to head to the conference. We got directions from the rental car and put to address into TomTom and we were on our way!

Surprisingly, even though it was a normal time, there really wasn't any traffic. Maybe it was just the area we were in.

After finding a parking space (all free parking ), we started to walk around to see everything.

The volunteer in the visitor's center recommended that with visit the desert landscape:

This is my favorite picture. I love fountains and I love taking pictures of fountains.

We did wander around and take lots of pictures of the park. It is extremely beautiful and had tons of museums that I would love to go back to visit. I'm not posting all the pictures here though, so here is one more:

DBF told me to go up there for a picture so I decided to do a little dance.

We didn't have tons of time so we headed back to the hotel for the conference and made a little stop to see the Pacific:

We got another yummy Mexican meal right near the beach too.

Next up: Dinner by the bay!

 

[Disney owl]

thanks for sharing