Scientific Test: Can Restaurateurs Go On Vacation?

[Grizzle Bear]

Good Day All!

We just got back from our trip but I thought I might as well post up our trip report for prosperity.

My wife and I own a full service restaurant (midtowncreperie.com), we opened it back in June 2010 and moved to a location three times larger in Feb 2013. We have gone on trips before but we don't currently have a restaurant manager or head chef so we would basically be leaving the "inmates free to run the asylum".

I spent over a decade making a living as a professional photographer working for several magazine, business, etc. so I apologize if this thread ends up being pic heavy. I also picked up a "new toy" a couple months ago, a couple GoPro 3+ Black Ed units with various mounts so I will post up a bunch of videos/time lapse eventually once I get a chance to edit them up.

This trip will be the first ever trip to Disneyland for my DW (married 10 years this year) and our two children DD (turned 7 on Sunday) & DS2 (almost 3). I've been to DLR before but it's been close to 20 years, back with DCA was just a parking lot. My wife is originally from South Florida so she went to DW several times as a child. The kids had no idea where we were going for vacation, their best guess was that we were going to the beach.

Below is a sneak peak picture of us from DCA.

Anyways...enough with the background stuff. Let's get on with our trip...

 

[Grizzle Bear]

Day #1 - Monday, April 21st (Travel Day)

We live in Northern California (Stockton) and I wanted to get down to our hotel by early afternoon to avoid as much traffic as possible. I got the DW to agree to get up at 6:00am and try and be on the road by 7:00am. We were up late packing after our huge Easter Brunch Buffet at the restaurant so the alarm clock was a rude awakening. Regardless, mission accomplished...we were on the road by 6:45 and settled in with charged up Kindles loaded with several movies for the drive. I took a time lapse of the trip down and I'll load it up here when I get it all processed.

[Place holder for time lapse of drive]

When we got about 10 miles away from our exit we broke it to the kids that we aren't going to the beach (very disappointed). We told them that we would play a game in which if they can figure out where we are going before we get there they would win a special prize. My daughter loves games and was reading every sign in sight to try and figure it out. Once she saw the sign for the Disneyland exit she kind of went into shock or something because she couldn't talk anymore. It was kind of weird because we were expecting a big reaction but all we got was stunned silence. LOL

We only made two quick stops along the way so arrived down to our hotel by around 1:00PM. We are staying at the Marriott Residence Inn Anaheim Resort on Harbor Blvd. We booked this hotel because our accommodations would have two bedrooms (kids get a bunk bed), two full bathrooms, living room and a full kitchen. The room looks clean and well kept, all are happy! Here are some pictures of our room (taken on our last day before check out)...

After unpacking our luggage we decide to run across the street to Target to stock up the fridge/kitchen for our stay and head to the park for a quick bite to eat and to walk around and gather our game plan for the rest of the week.

First line of the trip...

Let the shenanigans begin...

First ride of Disneyland!

Toon Town...

Finally grab a quick order of beignets before heading back to the room to rest up for a first full day at the parks.

Day Two Inc...