Disneyland

Today was the last day of our incredible honeymoon. The goal of the day was to take more pictures and to go on the rides that we had not been on yet. We also got into pressing pennies which we had a blast doing throughout the day. We also used the day to tour the other Disney resorts that we had not seen completely.

We started the day with another character breakfast at the Storytellers Cafe which was located at our hotel. After breakfast we headed out on our mission. We started at Disney’s California Adventure where we saw a couple of attractions and got Emily her “I took the dare” sticker that is given out after you ride the Tower of Terror. (I had been hearing about how she had not gotten one for about 4 days so I had to take matters into my own hands) Not only did we get one but the lady gave me like 5 so I think that accomplished the goal.

We then headed over to Magic Kingdom where more pictures where taken as well as the rest of the shopping was done. After we rented a camel to carry our shopping bags we headed back to the Blue Bayou Cafe for our final lunch. This time we got a water view so we could see the Pirates of the Caribbean boats floating by during lunch. The food was delicious again! After lunch we did more shopping which I had been told we weren’t finished with? After more shopping the camel was complaining about his sore back so we had to trade him in for a cargo helicopter and had our shopping bags air lifted back to the room!

We spent the rest of the day running around the resorts and the parks to get our final fill of Disneyland. After many character encounters we said our goodbyes to the parks and headed back to the room for some room service as we packed. Needless to say packing was not a very quick process! When you start with 4 full suitcases and you buy Disney out of all their merchandise it is a recipe for a long night.

It was another fun day in Anaheim! We both had an incredible time on our trip and we hope that you had fun following along.

Pictures taken today – 831 – Total pictures taken on trip – 8049

San Diego Wild Animal Park

Today was an awesome day! We got up, had our morning muffins and headed south to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Emily had done some research and set up a 3.5 hour photo safari tour at the park. The photo safari was to begin at 12:30 and we arrived at the park around 11:00 am. After having some lunch we decided to check out the lion exhibit before the tour. They had 6 lions at the park, 2 of which were on display in the morning. After taking a ton of pictures there we were ready to head to the photo safari.

We boarded the photo safari with the two of us and 5 other individuals. There was a safari guide and a driver who took us through the 800 acres of wild animal park. The tours was an unbelievable experience! We saw a ton of animals and got close up pictures of most of them. We got to feed giraffes twice and rhinos once. What a cool trip, I recommend it to anyone coming out this way! I am not sure the pictures do this trip justice, but we did our best!

After the animal park we went back to our In-and-Out Burgers guide map to find the next one along our journey. Just to catch you up, in California, as far as we can tell, they don’t tell you what restaurants are at the highway exits that you are approaching. Not very helpful when you have never been there before. Well, Emily has been dying to try In-and-Out burgers while we were in California so she took matters into her own hands. On the way to the animal park she put together an In-and-Out Burgers flow chart that showed which exits the burger joints were located as well as smiley faces indicating which ones looked like good potential stops. Well when we about 25 minutes away from the park, we saw heaven. In-and-Out Burgers with a Krispy Kreme right next to it!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately we had to drive right past Jack in the Box to get there. We felt like traders but we could not interrupt the quest. Needless to say we had to stop at both In-and-Out and Krispy Kreme! At Krispy Kreme we took pictures of the donut making process and were greeted at the end by a free donut from our new friend Melissa. She liked us so much she gave us free hats (see pictures). After the double-double and a dozen donuts we were ready to be squeezed back into the car and sent back to Anaheim.

The day was great! I hope you enjoy the pictures, as you can see below we took a few!

Pictures taken today – 1216 – Total pictures taken on trip – 7218

Disneyland!

Today was an action packed fun day again at Disneyland! We started the day with a tour called A Walk in Walt’s Footsteps. This guided tour took you through the park and showed you all of the touches that Walt Disney put into the park. We both learned a great deal about Walt as well as the park that we thought we knew a lot about already. There were about 10 other people on the tour with us who shared stories of what the park was like back when it opened. It was a pretty cool experience.

Lunch was provided by the tour so after devouring that we headed back to Disney’s California Adventure for a couple of quick rides and then headed back to the hotel. We treated ourselves to a massage from the resort which was heavenly! After coming back down to earth we decided to head to California Adventure again and take some nighttime pictures of the park. You can see some of these pictures above.

After the California Adventure closed we headed over the Magic Kingdom and went on a few rides and set up to take some fireworks pictures. Still trying to figure those out but I think I got a couple good ones. After the fireworks we headed to Tortilla Jo’s for some Mexican food that was delicious. After dinner and a few margaritas we were ready to call it a night. Tomorrow we go to the San Diego Wild Animal Park! Can’t wait! Stay tuned for pictures of that! Oh yeah we took a few pictures today.

Pictures taken today – 853 – Total pictures taken on trip – 6002

Disneyland!

Today was another fun day at the parks. When we woke up it was rainy and overcast out, so we took Emily’s small camera but left the big guns behind. Hence, you will see the smaller than usual picture count at the bottom! We started by getting our chocolate muffins at Disney’s California Adventure and headed over to Disneyland. At Disneyland the first stop was Innoventions where we had gone the day before and saw that we could ride segways in the upstairs section. For those of you who don’t know about this new-fangled technology, the Segway is a self balancing human transporter that you stand on and use in place of other transportation. We rushed up to get in line, which was only about 3 deep so we didn’t wait long. The segway is very cool! It was definitely different that I thought it was going to be after only having seen other people ride it.

After Innoventions we decided to explore some parts of the park we hadn’t seen yet. We went on a couple rides and then headed to have lunch. We had not had our hot dog fix so we headed back to California Adventure to have some Award Wieners! The cool thing about the parks out here is that everything is very close together so it takes about 2 minutes to get from Disneyland to California Adventure to Downtown Disney. After the Award Wieners we decided to go the the Aladdin show which was really cool.

Following a few more activities in the park we decided to go to the Block, which is a bunch of stores as well as a place to get wireless internet access to update this very page! Emily of course took that as an opportunity to spend a little more money, but all in all, well worth the trip. (Self defense alert… Emily here… I went to ONE store and it was an OUTLET.) Back to the Grand Californian Resort we ate dinner at this amazing restaurant called the Napa Rose. Very comparable to Artists Point at the Wilderness Lodge, the food was amazing. A bottle of wine later and we were ready to hit the sack! Yet another fun day at Disney!

Pictures taken today – 72 – Total pictures taken on trip – 5249

Disneyland!

Today we decided to check out the newest park out here in Anaheim, California Adventure. Before our exploration we had a (delicious?) breakfast at Goofy’s Kitchen. This was a character breakfast, which in theory, characters are supposed to come to your table for photo ops. Well maybe it was the fact that we both look a shade over 6 but we didn’t get the attention that Emily was anticipating. Food was pretty good and after finally meeting Goofy we were off to California Adventure. The park was pretty cool and we did the run around and take pictures thing today. When we got there Emily wanted to go on Soarin’ Over California, which was a simulator ride. For those of you who know me you can bet that was my first priority of the day. After some convincing we got our fast passes and headed to do some more exploring.

Coming near our time to return with our fast passes we returned to the room to pick up my secret weapon for motion sickness that we purchased prior to coming over here, the Relief Band. This contraption is a little watch like thing that sends an electric current from your wrist to who knows where but it is supposed to stop you from getting motion sickness. Well I felt like I was back at Alcatraz with this thing on. You can adjust the settings to send more or less current through your arm. Well being the genius that I am I thought more must be better. Walking down the runway to the ride itself I decided to try setting #4. After putting out the fire on my arm I decided to return to setting #3 for the ride. Not sure what it was but it worked, no motion sickness. I will try it on a few other things and keep you all posted.

We continued on our exploration of California Adventure and then headed back to room for the afternoon relaxation period. After our afternoon break we decided to take the monorail to Disneyland. The monorail out here is a little different in that the Windows are open. Driving past some pine trees you actually need to back away from the window or you get hit by some branches. The openings are also large enough to jump out of? Kind of weird being Disney and their craziness about safety.

We did a few things at Disneyland, had some fried chicken for dinner, watched the fireworks and headed back to the room. Another fun day in Anaheim.

Pictures take today – 452 – Total pictures taken on trip – 5177

Disneyland!

Today was our first full day in Anaheim and we were loving every minute of it. We got ready and headed right to Disneyland where we picked up some breakfast on the go and started exploring the park. The park was not crowded at all so we were able to walk right on to most all of the rides that we were interested in. The weather was a perfect 68 degrees so we couldn’t ask for much more. After getting through almost half of the park we had lunch reservations at Blue Bayou which was an incredible restaurant in the New Orleans section of the park. I had some Jambalaya and Emily had the famous Monte Cristo sandwich. Both were excellent and the service was even better. By far the best service that we have had in California to date.

After lunch we continued to explore more of the park. By 3:00 we were ready for our afternoon break. We hadn’t moved this much since the dance floor at our reception! We came back to the room where Emily read/napped and I worked on the website.

After our afternoon break we headed to Downtown Disney for some shopping and then off to Yamabuki for some Japanese food. The food was great but we were wiped out from our day. We headed back to the room to retire early for the day. All in all a pretty great day!

Pictures take today – 239 – Total pictures taken on trip – 4725

Travel from San Francisco to Disneyland!

Today we had to say farewell to San Francisco, which at this point we were ready to do. We said our goodbyes to the strikers and hit the open road. The drive was approximately 7 hours so we needed to stop for some fueling. If your following along I think you know where we ended up for lunch. I was however surprised to find out that Jack in the Box is not on the South Beach diet. After clogging the arteries to the fullest we gassed up (no pun intended) and headed to Disneyland!

The drive was pretty uneventful, it reminded me of driving through Indiana, just windier! We planned our departure time out perfect in that it put us into downtown Los Angeles about 5:00 p.m., when nobody was on the road, except for 300,000 of our closest friends! We did however manage to get to Disneyland and we were excited as two kids in a candy store.

After we checked into the Grand Californian Hotel we used the two remaining park hours to tour Disneyland! We were so happy to be here and we ran around taking pictures of everything. They were having their test fireworks for the holiday celebration so we got to see a sneak preview! You can bet that is not the last time we will see those.

After more touring we returned to the room to find our entire room covered with paper heats and rose petals all over our room. I took many pictures which I will upload soon but it was quite a sight to see. We looked at some pictures of our trip before bed when we heard something being slipped under our door. We went to check and we had a signed picture of Mickey and Minnie congratulating us on our marriage. All in all it has been an incredible day!

Pictures take today – 313 – Total pictures taken on trip – 4486

San Francisco

Today was one of the few days that we actually had something planned before we got here. We had tickets for the Lion King Broadway show for the matinee. We decided to make our last breakfast stop at Sears, not like us to do things more than once but we made an exception here! Breakfast was great! After breakfast we headed to the Muir Woods in a attempt to see some really big trees. This we did and took a quick walk around the park with about 200 grade school kids on our heels. Sad that these kids knew more about the trees than we did!

After our quick trip through the woods we headed back to San Francisco on the windiest road that I have ever been on. Back in San Francisco we headed to Lombard street on our way back to the hotel to travel down what is actually referred to as the windiest road in the world. Back at the hotel and two dramamine later I am almost back to normal.

The Lion King show was awesome, a must see for those of you who have not seen it yet. After the show we encountered our first bit of rain on our trip and hailed a cap to dinner. Dinner was at Julius’ Castle which was an incredible restaurant that had spectacular views of the San Francisco bay.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel for another early sleep. Tomorrow off to Disneyland!

Pictures take today – 164 – Total pictures taken on trip – 4173

San Francisco/Napa Valley – Election day

Today we decided to venture outside of the San Francisco bay area and head to Napa Valley for some wine tasting. We had picked out Robert Mondavi as our destination. After a great breakfast at this awesome local restaurant, Sears, we got in the car and headed out. Another trip over the Golden Gate bridge was cool even though it was quite foggy and the visibility was very low. An hour and a half later we were at the door ready for some wine.

The tour was very interesting as they showed us the entire process from growing to bottling. Not every winery does all the steps so it was cool to see it done all in one place. At the end of the tour we got to sample some fancy wines and listen to people who thought they new everything about wine talk about it all around us. To bad there wasn’t enough in those sample glasses to drown out the surrounding noise.

After the tour and many pictures we head for the Griswald part of our trip and went to see a local geyser. It was a neat sight to see and we took many pictures which you will be able to see here. On the was we stopped at this fancy restaurant called the Home Plate Cafe (see pictures) I had a cheeseburger and Emily had a Philly cheesesteak! We really know how to do wine country!

We then decided to make the 2 hour drive back to the hotel. Upon arrival we got caught up on the election and went back to the breakfast restaurant for dinner. We really know how to branch out. We stayed up as long as we could, about 10 pm, and fell asleep only to wake up to no decision in the election. Oh well felt like we were back in Florida for a second!

Pictures take today – 309 – Total pictures taken on trip – 4009

San Francisco

Today we started with another room service breakfast, which was average. After getting ready we set out to the Fisherman’s Wharf again for our Alcatraz tour. We greeted the friendly, noisy protestors on our way. We arrived just in time to hop on the boat to the island. The tour took about two hours, which was a really neat experience to see the cell block where some famous criminals were held. The island also had some amazing views of the bay area.

After the tour we headed back to the main land to get some lunch. We ended up eating at Scoma’s, which was this amazing seafood place near the wharf. After devouring our lunch we headed back to pier 39 where we enjoyed a chocolate crepe that was TDF. Of course we took many pictures throughout the day and caught another glimpse of the sea lions on our way through.

We then headed back to the hotel room where we ordered some Chinese food to the room. Called it an early night as we prepared for our trip to wine country tomorrow.

Pictures take today – 457 – Total pictures taken on trip – 3700