Day 1 – August 13, 2012– Part 1
After two months of waiting to go back to the DLR to see the rest of Cars Land and Buena Vista Street as well as the revamped Matterhorn, it is now time to go back to Cars Land along with my DB and his GF for the first time to see the new lands.
This will be my DB and his GF first time back to the DLR since they attended MHP in 2010. They were really excited to see the new lands at DCA as well as going on some of the rides that they have enjoyed in the past.
We left Sacramento Monday morning around 6:30am and head on over to my grandmother’s house in Livingston which is about 10 minutes away from Merced. It takes an hour and a half to drive to my grandmother’s house. I always go to my grandmother’s house in Livingston on the way over to SoCal. The town is right on highway 99. Sometimes I have gone on highway 5 to SoCal, but I like to drive on 99 since I am used to driving down on that highway than highway 5. I know that highway 5 is way faster than 99, but there are more towns on the way from 99 than 5.
We stopped in for a short visit and left around 9am and on our way to SoCal. But before we head straight to Anaheim, we had to make one stop to LA to my dad’s friend office. I am talking about my dad’s friend who he and his family went with my family to WDW last year. My dad asked me to drop off some stuff for him so we had to make on stop before we got to Anaheim.
My DB and I switched off a couple of times during the trip down to SoCal so we won’t have any accidents. I could have driven straight to LA if I wanted too, but it was easier if we just switch off while we are fresh.
We stopped just one time to get gas at Burbank at Costo where I usually stop to get gas. Since I brought the TSX, I had to get Premium fuel and it was not cheap in Burbank. It was about $4.20 I believed when we filled up.
After fueling up at Costo, we head on over to my dad’s friend office which is on the east side of LA so we had to drive out further away from Anaheim. It took about 1 hour to get from Burbank to my dad’s friend office and we dropped the stuff at his place. Then we head on over to Anaheim.
It took about 45 minutes to get from the east side of LA over to Anaheim and we got in around 3pm. We were staying at BWAI which I have stayed a lot of times in the past with my DA. I just recently stayed at BWAI during my June trip with my DA during the CL/BVS preview. So it was nice to stay at the same hotel that I had stayed in the past. I was hoping to stay at BWPPI during the trip, but the prices were about $30 difference from BWAI and BWPPI.
Our room was ready when we got check-in around 3pm. Luckily for us we were on the bottom floor and we were a few rooms away from the lobby. I was happy that our room was close to Harbor Blvd than those other times that we had to walk a long ways to Harbor Blvd.
We relaxed in the room for quite a bit until we were hungry. Since my DB and his GF didn’t have multiple day PH tickets, they want to go to DTD to look at the restaurants and see what is good to eat. So we head on out of the room around 4pm and on our way to DTD. This was also my first time to try out the Nikkon lens as well as the density filter. I was so excited to use both of them during the trip.
When we left the room, it was about in the low 90s that afternoon and there were barely any people out on Harbor Blvd.
DL entrance sign on Harbor Blvd
We passed through the esplanade and see that it wasn’t that busy heading on over to DCA. Since it is almost the end of the summertime at the DLR, the esplanade wasn’t that bad as I have planned it.
Now we passed through the esplanade and over to DTD.
Now we were in DTD and it was quiet as well. There were the new CL banners which I didn’t see on my last trip in June which was neat to see while promoting the new land.
La Brea Bakery sign
Passing the WoD store
While we walked down towards DTD, my DB and his GF looked at Ralph’s Brennan Jazz Kitchen and asked what kind of food they serve there. I said creole food which is New Orleans style food. They wanted to try Jazz Kitchen so we head on over to that restaurant. I haven’t eaten at RBJK in almost a long time when DTD first opened in 2001. So I was looking forward to eating at RBJK. When I first thought about RBJK, I thought about Kim’s TR in June that they ate at RBJK during their trip and I thought this would be a great place to have lunch while there is barely anyone inside the restaurant.
It was still lunch time when we went to the restaurant.
When we got to the check-in counter, there was barely anyone in the restaurant and were seated instantly. Here are some pics of the restaurant from that day. We got to eat inside and I was considering eating outside. But it was still warm that day and they wanted to be in a A/C room.
Umbrellas on the ceiling
They were very impressed with the piano.
The menu
A light fixture inside the restaurant.
Our meals finally arrived and now it was time to have lunch. I didn’t want to eat heavy since it was almost close to dinner so I had the Gumbo Ya-Ya as my lunch. My DB had the Cheese Steak Po-Boy while his GF V had the Popcorn Calamari. Both V and I didn’t have big meals that day, but we did share each other plates. The gumbo was really nice and it was kind of salty. The calamari was nice and the breading was a little soft. The cheese steak was great and the Cajun fries were also very nice.
We were in the restaurant for about an hour until we were finished and about to do other things around DTD.
That is it for this post and I will have more later on from DTD.
