December 31st
I want to tell you all that I was sad to be leaving Disneyland, but I just wasn't. Don't get me wrong...it's a wonderful place and definitely a must do for any Disney fan. I just never got that magic bubble feeling and was actually kind of ready to go. Unfortunately, I wasn't too into the idea of where we were going. More on that in a bit.
We got up early, made it through the crazy task of packing up this rental car for a third time, took a last couple of looks at the visible signs of Disney...like the Matterhorn and ToT, checked out and hit the road. We found a Walmart not too far from there to pick up some things for the road. I'd also forget that I took out some cash at Walmart and would later think there was some strange fraud issue with my account. Just goes to show how much stress there is of major splits in your trip. We also had to find a gas station to top off the rental before turning it in. Of course, I could have paid for them to fill it and just bring it back on empty, but even with CA's insane gas prices...it was still far cheaper for me to fill it on my own. We only burned about a half a tank and with gas at $3.05-3.09 per gallon (OUCH) it was still cheaper this way.
I was thinking we'd have to take a shuttle back to LAX to get another shuttle to the new rental car place, but we noticed as driving up that rental car place 1 was right next door to rental car place 2. It was a HUGE relief! We turned in rental car 1 with little issue and I went ahead of DH and the kids to start checking into rental car place 2. I had two of the checked bags as well as my purse and several carryons. That meant DH and he girls were somehow handling the other four checked bags and carryons. OY! The line wasn't too bad, but they were servicing rentals for two separate companies and turns out they were more aggressive with trying to sell the extras...so things were taking a bit longer than I thought. As I waited, I saw DH and Kendall come in, but I didn't see Sammie. My head started whipping back and forth, scanning for her, but no luck in spotting her so I go into a panic. I yell to DH "Where's Sammie?!?!?!?" And he starts looking around but acting like it's not a big deal...like she'll turn up. OK. You had to walk from one building to the next and 1. get the bags there 2. get the kids there...and number 2 takes priority over number 1. Just then, a teen sitting in the bank of chairs tells me that she thinks my daughter is getting sick in the bushes. DH wasn't moving quickly enough, so I get someone to hold my place in line and I run outside. This all went down in under 30 seconds, but it was an illustration in how mom reacts vs how dad reacts. I get things under control, get Sammie and her bags inside and get Kendall to take her to the restroom...and then I get back in line.
The woman who helped me check in was getting on my nerves. She tried to sell me insurance even though I turned her down 5x, she tried to sell me on car seats even though I traveled with the girls' boosters (and by CA law, our kids didn't actually need them), and she tried really hard to sell me on a full tank of gas. But once we got past that, we were told to head out to their garage to pick our car...and this time...there were lots of cars in a number of makes/models. There were no others renting cars in this size at the time, so we just went car by car to evaluate trunk size, seat comfort, and interior space. A Chevy Malibu won the competition. Unlike the Camry, it fit all of our checked bags as well as a couple of the carryons in the trunk. The only thing I didn't do was check tires. It probably would have saved me a good deal of anxiety if I'd done this, but everything I'd read and been told said the odds of getting a car with snow tires or mud and snow tires off of LAX were slim to none. Why is this important? CA has strict policies and laws regarding tires/chains and snowy/icy conditions. Now, I grew up in NJ, went to college in upstate NY, and even spent a couple of years in OH and I have NEVER seen laws and policies like this. From what I can see, it takes very little for CalTran to mandate some level of snow tires or chains. I was using their app and website and was praying I wouldn't see the tire chain logo on the map below go up on any of the roads for Mammoth during our stay.
Now, I had tried to take measures to ensure we wouldn't have to make this drive and deal with this issue, but I learned a very big lesson...NEVER book travel during peak times at work. I have about a month and a half in the fall where I put in 50-60 hour weeks...and it's a lot when you consider I also share softball duty with DH for the girls and still have to do regular things like get the kids to school and pack lunches. I had been watching the air from LAX to Mammoth for months and was waiting for it to drop back to the lows I'd seen before we were ready to book. One day in late Sept/early Oct, I came home...checked he prices and WOW- they had dropped...or so I thought. I must have checked everything 5x and it all looked right to me, but it turns out that I booked Mammoth to LAX instead of LAX to Mammoth (r/t). And I didn't realize my error until December 22nd. I called Alaska Air in a panic, explained to them what happened, noted it was my fault, and just wanted to see if there were any affordable ways to correct this. I had a feeling we'd just have to cut our losses with the air travel and drive, but the rep actually asked me if I even bothered to double check what I'd booked. Talk about adding insult to injury. One of our flights was sold out and I'd have to rework some things with our return flights and end of trip lodging...but before all of that, it was going to cost me about $1600 to rebook everything. Soooo, needless to say we didn't go that route. It also was unfortunate because the rental car in Mammoth was probably going to be a Subaru (that seems to be all they rent). So, we probably would have had a car with snow tires, AWD and the option of chain rentals had we been able to fly into Mammoth. Even though CA law mandates chains in a number of situations, many rental car places prohibit them. I couldn't find it written anywhere in my contract for this car from LAX, so we were now faced with the choice of buying chains before heading up into the mountains or chancing it. With the cost, size and weight of chains and the clear map and weather forecast, we decided to go without.
Part of me had actually been secretly hoping that we'd be snowed out of Mammoth and we'd have to find something else to do between the 31st and the 3rd. Part of me wanted to head to Pasadena to see the Rose Parade on the 1st and part of me wanted to drive to Vegas, but the weather clearly showed we'd be driving to Mammoth.
DH took the first leg of the drive to get us out of LA. As we got north of the city, we passed an area that looked like a real life Ornament Valley from Cars. I wasn't able to take pics, but the resemblance was uncanny. This would be my first pic as we left the sprawl of LA.
Driving into Red Rock Canyon state park was also pretty cool...
I was really hoping we'd drive through some nice little mountain towns, but there is a lot of nothing in between LA and Mammoth. Case in point, we drove by Manzanar, which was a Japanese internment camp during WWII. In other words, it's so remote and desolate that the government thought it would be a perfect place to send those they feared at the time. We stopped to get gas at the first commercial looking gas station just so we wouldn't get stuck or wouldn't have to go to some no name gas place in a near ghost town.
I knew Bishop was a bigger town and it was my plan for lunch. A couple of very helpful Californians on one of the forums said this would be the place for us to stop for a last minute chains purchase since they had a KMart. We passed a bakery called Schatts that was absolutely overflowing with people. We knew that wouldn't be an option, but they had a smokehouse just a little farther up the road that had just opened and wasn't packed- yet.
We had a nice mountain view from our table.
I also noticed that they must be Disney fans as well. (this was just a sample of their Disney stuff)
Kendall's magnetic Donald also came out to play...
The food was pretty good and the place definitely got much more crowded as our meal progressed. DH and I also had a good laugh as we looked at the parking lot and the road. On the ride up (so far), we noticed that everything on the road was either a local older vechile or a large luxury SUV. While there were a number of makes, we saw a ton of Range Rovers...so we dubbed the trip up as the Range Rover parade. I know we had a count going for a while...something like over 30 Range Rovers alone before we got to Mammoth.
The scenery was starting to look more pretty as we were leaving Bishop and getting closer to Mammoth.
We also got a bit of a scare before heading out of the Bishop area. I pulled up the map and it looked at first like chain controls were in effect for the roads going into Mammoth, but after refreshing the screen, they disappeared. I'm just glad I got this refreshed when I did because we lost all service as we started to wind into the mountains before actually getting to Mammoth. I felt like a bad AT&T commercial and we were in one of those dead zones with no cell service. Thankfully, we got service back on the other edge of this ridge and the roads weren't steep or full of winding passages.
Now, I picked our ski resort because it was ski in/ski out from the main lodge...which seemed like the best plan for the kids. The only problem, the main village isn't on top of the main lodge. In fact, it's a ways away. Yes, there were free shuttles and buses, but everything with this resort felt so remote. This was also the reason the DCH and the GC were out of the budget. We were paying quite a bit for ski in/out and even more for the holiday weekend. And I'll say it right now...while the skiing convenience would be great, the rooms and overall facilities (among other things) would leave us feeling a bit robbed.
So, we arrive a the ski resort around 3:15pm. Over the last 30 or so minutes, I've developed a nasty headache and some other issues. I thought I might just be tired, so we were hoping our room was ready. I head to the front desk and the girl who helped me was really strange about things. She said I was REALLY early. OK, I know we're early but 3:15pm for a 4pm check in isn't insanely early. She got me checked in though, put a message to housekeeping that we arrived and need our room, and told me to check back a little after 4pm if they haven't called or texted with the status on the room. So, I wander a bit and take some pics...
Lower part of the mountain.
Chalet section of the resort.
Main building at the resort.
Halfpipe off to the left.
More mountain views.
Girls posing in front of plowed snow and snow banks.
Heading back inside...
