We listened to "Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events" and then started
"All-American Girl" (which, despite this being about the third or fourth trip for that one,
we still like it). Lunch was great! Susie's a great cook, and we have a very well-stocked
cooler.
We got to Flagstaff at 2:30 (good time!), and Rick was waiting for us. (Nancy is working on making full professor this summer, and was putting a Saturday in at the University.) Their family has gotten into African dancing and drumming, and Rick showed E how to do it. She's got natural rhythm!
Clare had a friend, India, visiting. It took a little while for the kids to click, but soon they were all playing hard together.
Nancy and Rick had done fajitas the night before, and had wonderful leftovers.
From Arizona we went to Disney Land. It was a lot of miles to get there. Some oasis in the
California desert we got to stop and get gas, go potty (a looooonnnnggg line at the women's
toilet!) and run around.
About 3pm we got to Disneyland, out of the car, and off on the Tram to Disneyland!
We got FastPass for Indiana Jones, and then took a quick trip around Tarzan's House.
Elizebeth showed off on all the boys by climbing a rope all the way up to the treasure box!
Of course we did a little shopping! And Elizebeth found her friend. We are still looking for
the one (or two or...) to bring home....
The park hopper tickets are great! We (after the picture in the "O" in CalifOrnia) went to
the hang glider ride in the Adventure Park. Standing in line with fun people isn't so bad, but
we'll do FastPass on the ride the next three times we do it this week (we liked it!)
We didn't want to do the Indiana Jones on an empty stomach, but the car is a long way
away and we had already had picnics for two days. So we did Jamba Juice (yummy and healthy
too!) and croissants from La Brea Bakery in Downtown Disney, and then headed for the ride.
We survived! Susie liked it, and Elizebeth kept her eyes closed and her head buried in my shoulder so she didn't get scared. Very fun!
We woke up to dancing kids upstairs at 7:30 am, and were ready for Heather when she
arrived about 9 brought by Rob.
Heather brought her boogie boards and taught the girls how to surf.
And of course, somebody had to get buried. Susie had wiped out on the boogie board and had a bad scratch on her thighs, but she was a warrior and let the other girls bury her.
We showered, did lunch at Panera Bread (bad WiFi), saw "Ice Princess" (liked it), saw Heather's school, washed the car, and are now browsing Barnes and Noble. Got Mom's call-- Love you, Mar!
We had a lovely dinner at Rachel and Rob's on Monday night, and found our way back to the Inn and were in bed pronto.
We got a wake-up call at 6:45 am on Tuesday, and we were almost ready when Rob showed up with Heather. We talked music and schools and shopping on the way up to Anaheim, and were there about 9:30.
We got Heather's tickets, and got in line to go into California Adventure Park, We got FastPasses for Soarin' over California, and then had to wait until 10 for the rest of the park to open. Heather and Elizebeth slid up to the front, and then ran for the California Screamin' roller coaster. I worried about them getting trampled, but then said, Hey, I can sue Disney! and figured they'd be ok. They were in the second car. Elizebeth was really scared, but she loved the ride, and has now gone upside down once.
Susie and I meandered over more slowly, checking out the gift shops along the way. I took this nice picture of Grizzly Peak and Susie. When we found Heather and E, they convinced me to do the Maliboomer (a "froggy ride" on steroids!). I too had regrets as it launched me straight up at 60 miles per hour. Then H and E did the Orange Stinger as Susie and I headed for the Hang gliders to check out more gift shops, get FastPasses to do the Grizzly Peak ride, and wait for them.
Susie joked that she wasn't 40 inches tall and could not go on the ride. Both girls are plenty big enough for everything now. The Fast pass was "fast" this time; however, we ended up in the third row, not the first, and thus on the bottom, not the top, and the effect is not as good when you have legs above you and are nearer the bottom.
After we did the Grizzly Peak ride, Heather photo'd all of us. That was definitely the high point of the day, the best ride. We'll do that one again! We got wet (not as wet as later....) but it was a pleasant, fun wet.
Then we moved over to Disneyland. While I got Fast Passes for Autotopia, the girls headed for Critter Country and pictures with Tigger. E found these ears.
It was a bit of a wait, but finally the girls got to meet all three main Pooh characters. Heather likes Eeyore best, but of course Elizebeth's hero is Tigger.
We made our way back to the car (with a quick stop to Fast Pass Star Tours) and had our lunch. Everybody really liked the fresh, healthy food. Next time I'll simply pack and carry a picnic, since it appears Disney doesn't mind me bringing in food in my pack.
However, as we made our way back on the Tram, it started to sprinkle, and then rain. Heather had forgotten her cell phone in our car, and worried about it (and went through addictive withdrawal), but I didn't want to go back and get it and my one umbrella since we'd miss the time on our Fast Pass on Autotopia. So we drove in the rain, then saw Star Tours, and by now it was just pouring. (Second wettest winter in Los Angeles history!)
Heather suggested we do "Innoventions", which is really a big indoor area with lots of (free) computer games. I missed the $32,000 question, so I didn't make it to be a millionaire ("How many lanterns were really lit in the Tower of the Old North Church the night of Paul Revere's ride?" "One if by land and two if by sea," and the British came by land, and my "lifeline" phone call also thought one. But it was really two. Oh well.) And I programmed a really cool fireworks display over the Seattle skyline. But mostly I must announce that I took Elizebeth on in the dancing game, and I beat her! (Heather beat her too --- it was hard to hear the music I think!).
Susie found a hopscotch game that made sounds as you jumped.
We could have played much longer, but the cold/wet had drained our energy, and we were getting tired. We left into the downpour, but Elizebeth and Heather could not resist the short lines of the Matterhorn and did the ride in the rain while Susie and I checked out the FantasyLand gifts shops for dwarf shirts.
This is what the girls looked like when we got back to the car! My Gore-Tex was great, and I stayed pretty dry except in the pants. But the girls were all soaked through. I bought them dry clothes at the Downtown Disney store, and they changed in the car.
I found the California Pizza Kitchen in the Tustin Market Place mall (where we "always" eat) and they all had hot chocolate and some warm food. We got home (after buying gas -- my first $30 bill!) about 10, and Rob picked up Heather. The girls were asleep in minutes.
This day was a laundry day, working on this web page, and soon to the beach.
Sorry we've missed so many phone calls! We used the DVD and VCR player in our room
and watched some movies.
It is amazing how dirty the girls like to get in the sand. They like to bury each other. We also buried Susie again (but had pictures of that, so didn't take more).
We headed out to "Boomers!", a Family Fun Center type of place.
But it was starting to sprinkle again, it was noisy, and while Susie was interested
Elizebeth and I were not. So E said, let's go to a movie.
I pulled off a miracle: in 20 minutes I found a theater and we got to "Robots" just
as it was starting. The movie was mediocre, but it was a nice theater
and we enjoyed just sitting there. I had a nice nap in the second act.
We made it to Rob and Rachel's for dinner. I've gotten pretty good at navigating the hills and winding roads of North Coastal San Diego. We watched Heather's favorite cult movie, "Napoleon Dynamite" (about geek high school students in Preston, Idaho) while waiting for the chickens to roast. We ate about 9, but the stuffed chickens were delicious! Neither of the above pictures are great of Rob and Rachel, but those are the only ones the girls took.
So off to Disneyland (and C.A.Park as well) again! Rob and Heather picked us up about 9 and we drove up in Rachel's Lexus (thanks to Rob for driving and Rachel for loan of her car). We prepared for the rain: we had a suitcase of dry clothes in the car, we all had rain slickers this time, and we took our two golf umbrellas along and wrangled them on the rides. I packed a big picnic lunch in our backpack and carried it, so we could eat lunch whenever. Disney apparently allows outside food, we found out, so that worked great (as long as I was the mule).
We FastPassed the Grizzly Mountain ride while the "little girls" stood in line for the California Screamin' roller coaster. Susie and I tried to do the Brother Bear campground with a "smoke jumpers" zip line, but the cast member said she was too big when we got to the front of the line. Later we saw a women bigger than Susie do it, so we weren't too happy. But I learned Susie has no fear of heights, as she ran along the rope walks while I watched from below. I've become the wimp of the family.
We all did the Grizzly Mountain water ride, and Susie and Heather got pretty soaked.
We still think that was the most fun, especially since we can all ride together as a family.
We thought that would just be the start of the getting wet, with rain expected all day and
having driven a brief deluge on the way to the parks. But it slowly cleared up, and got
nice by the end of the day, and the weather was just fine. I gave Susie my coat since it
stays dry, and looked silly wearing Marilyn's green one which doesn't do much for the
water we again learned.
We switched to Disneyland, did "Pirates of the Caribean" (Heather's favorite ride, but we thought pretty boring), had our picnic lunch, and then did "Big Thunder Mountain" roller coaster. Susie tried it, and she liked it!! She pretty much tried all the reasonable stuff, and liked what she did. I was proud of her.
We then did the Buzz Lightyear arcade ride. It is new at Disneyland, but I'm sure I did it in 2002 at DisneyWorld before. Everyone scored around 11,000-13,000 points, except I got 77,000. Still only Level 3 for us all.
Susie and I tried to do the Gadget Go Coaster in Tune Town, but it was
closed 'cuz of rain. Meanwhile the others did the Matterhorn, and we all got a little junk food
(pretzel for Susie, churros for E and Heather, ice cream cookie for me).
We sent Rob and E and H over to the "Tower of Terror" in C.A.Park while Susie and I
shopped for presents. The lines were too long, so we called it a day and we met up at
the "O" in "CalifOrnia" and
finished some shopping at Downtown Disney.
We also took a brief informal tour of the nice park hotel at C.A.Park;
very expensive, but cool Western Mountain resort architecture.
Elizebeth found an Eeyore (Heather's favorite character) dressed as a Pirate (H's favorite "job") and bought it for her with her "Tigger money." They don't sell giant Tiggers, so E has bought three smaller ones (but each distinctive and different) instead.
We drove back south, to Solana Beach, and met Rachel at a Japanese restaurant called Samurai. We had huge plates of sushi and sashimi rolls with Kirin beer, and it was great! Rob took us home, and we finished "Star Wars (IV)" and then stayed up somewhat late watching "Harry Potter III [Prisoner of Azkaban]" together and eating S'Mores.
Elizebeth slept in until 11 am this morning! We just let her, as I decided this would be a total veg day. I was up at 9, and worked on e-mail. Susie was up about 10, and watched outakes and special features of Harry Potter. We did a breakfast at noon at a diner in walking distance, bought a little groceries for the next couple of days, and then hit the beach again. (Forgot the camera, so no pictures of the sand castle we built.) After showering, the girls have been "playing", which is good because I don't think they've had enough time to do that on this trip. Now I'm about to post this web site, make nachos for dinner (we'll watch Mary Kate and Ashley's "When in Rome" and talk about where to go) and pack for tomorrow.
The lines were really long on Saturday, but we did do the 10 minute wait to take the little
kids Pooh Ride. E liked that.
This was a really disgustingly wonderful caramel apple E and I shared that we bought at
the Critter Country store. She also bought two final Tiggers (to go along with the baby rattle
one she bought at the grocery store in Carlsbad, and the two she had bought previously, all
"for her birthday." She liked that present).
We rode the train over to Toon Town and rode the Gadget Go Coaster as a warm-up
for Big Thunder Mountain railway. It isn't Inspector Gadget, but Gadget the chipmunk
character in Rescue Rangers. We thought it had always been the Goofy Ride;
maybe in Disney World?
After Big Thunder, we were done (it was many hours for any more Fast Passes). We took a couple of final pictures (note my new hat!) and headed for the car.
We drove off about 1 p.m. I figured, Saturday, mid-day, traffic should be fine. Tell that to everyone going to Riverside that afternoon! Two hours later we made it to Hesperia and got gas. After that Red Rocket took over, and we did Wendy's in Kingman for dinner and got to Flagstaff by 10:15 that night.
The Easter Bunny was very very good at the Johnson's. They has gone out and got us all lots of chocolate (we now know their weak spot....), and there was a great chocolate egg hunt on Sunday morning. Nancy made more pancakes, and we were glad we had pushed through to their house the previous night.
Uneventful drive to Santa Fe, and home a little after 3pm. Paula and Selina and Will made Easter dinner for us all, to top off a tiring but wonderful Spring Break. Hope you've enjoyed reading about it and seeing the pictures!