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[tink_lover]

We got back late Friday night from our first family Disneyland trip. Getting there wasn't the easiest - mainly because I tried to save some money by flying into BUR instead of SNA and we took two separate flights. But by 8:30 pm we were all together in our rental van heading to the West Inn & Suites in Carlsbad.

California is beautiful and I totally get why people live there. I couldn't mainly because as I have aged, traffic jams drive me nuts. It was insane to me that it took 2.5 hours to drive 45 miles - but on the other hand, I totally understand why people would never choose to live in Minnesota - too cold and snowy, windchills and never-ending winter. It is a personal choice everyone makes. Us? We live in MN and vacation south as often as we can.

We had a great time in Carlsbad. The ocean is fantastic and my hardy kids spent time there late on Sunday frolicking in the surf in barefeet. It was chilly! I was afraid they were going to get sick and miss out on the DL fun. Can you tell I'm the worrier in the family?!?

Saturday was spent at Legoland. I think my kids are on the edge of being too old for that park. My dd10 definately was not impressed. Boys thought it was ok but the funniest line of all was from ds7...we went to get on the first little dinosaur rollercoaster and there was quite a line. He turns to my dh and says (quite loudly), WHERE IS THE FASTPASS? I guess my kids are Disney kids at heart. They did not like standing in line for 45 minutes. Their favorite thing at Legoland was probably the little villages/cities. We ate lunch at Legoland and dinner at a place my girlfriend (who grew up in the area) recommended, Claim Jumper, which was good.

Back to the hotel which was fantastic! We LOVED the West Inn & Suites and would definately recommend it and stay there again. We had the double king suite and it was very comfortable.

Up early the next day for SeaWorld. I'll write about that later. I have to figure out how to post pics.

 

[kokotg]

Great start! We're going to Legoland in September, so I'd love it if you posted some pictures from there

 

[tink_lover]

I will - we got some great shots! I think your kids are the perfect age for it. When we left the park, we got asked to answer some questions about if it was our first visit, how we liked it, etc. For spending about 10 minutes answering questions, the kids all got to pick a lego box! They were really excited and had fun in the hotel room playing with their new legos.

 

[tink_lover]

I think I figured out how to post pics -

 

[tink_lover]

Day 2 - up bright and early for Seaworld. Going into the park, we paid the extra $5 to park closer and were we ever happy about that later. It was freezing! We went into the park wearing shorts/capris/t-shirts with jackets and made the mistake of doing the water ride first. DD got really wet, especially her shorts. I think a couple of kids were even wearing sandals. DH had to make a couple of trips to the car to get dry/warmer clothes for everyone. I ended up wearing about 4 layers of clothes but because we all started the day wet, it was hard to warm up. We all ended up with long pants, long sleeve shirts, shoes and socks, jackets, etc. DD bought the Shamu blanket to keep warm.

Seaworld was an easy park to see things at and we enjoyed ourselves. The best thing we did (I read about it on these boards) was pay the money to do the lunch with Shamu. The food was really good, I had the chicken sandwich and DH had the steak sandwich which he says was great. The kids had the hot dogs and chips. The adult meal had a lot of fresh fruit which we all shared and a little cheesecake for dessert. It was nice having a seat and not worrying about getting there early for a seat. The show was excellent!

Afterwards, we went to Coronado Island to see it. I was hoping to get to the Kippy's store to get a new belt, but it was closed We went out to the beach and went as far as we could drive, parked the car and went out. Kids and I walked to the Hotel Del while DH drove car to park and pick us up. I love that stretch of beach. Again, it was really, really chilly and I was worried kids were too cold.

We then went back to Carlsbad, ordered pizza from Pizza Port and ate that in the hotel room along with the chocolate chip cookies and milk the hotel has in the evening. A great day.

Tomorrow - heading to Newport Beach for a whale watching excursion then heading to Anaheim.

picture from Seaworld

picture from Coronado Island

 

[kokotg]

great pics!

Yeah, I think we're getting Legoland in just in time...before my first DS gets too old for it. I'll have to show them your pictures from there.

 

[tink_lover]

So I need to backtrack for a sec and mention that I used GoSedan to get us from BUR to SNA. The thing is that originally, I was scheduled to fly into SNA with 2 of our kids. DH was flying with the other kid on 2 AA frequent flyer tickets and also arriving into SNA same night. I pricelined a rental van to be picked up at SNA. There was the dilemma. I moved my flight to BUR to save about $600, but couldn't change the rental. GoSedan transferred us for about $125. I thought about renting a car one way, but just decided I didn't want to deal with it. GoSedan also picked us up from the GC for the return trip to BUR. They were very easy to deal with, confirmed things via email and cell phone and were on time. The cars we were in were very clean and the drivers very nice.

Monday morning we checked out of our hotel and drove to Newport Beach for some whale watching. We were booked with Newport Landing Whale Watching for a morning cruise. I spent a fair amount of time researching where to go whale watching and which company to use. I chose Newport Landing because of the good reports and the type of boat we would be on. Because of the slow time of year and not many people signed up - they ended up moving us to another company's boat. I was not happy. We ended up on a fishing boat which was not as safe for the kids and had no inside shelter except down below - where you couldn't see anything. I would not use them again.

We saw 2 grey whales on the excursion but no dolphins. The 2 whales didn't want to be followed and didn't really surface much. Mainly, we watched their "footprints" on the water surface.

We asked some of the locals where they would go for sushi and they recommended Ra Bar in Huntington Beach. We had a good lunch there and then headed to Grand Californian Hotel.

Next up - Disneyland and Jedi Training


Sea lions viewed while whale watching