Pacific Coast drive to Moonstone Beach

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Saturday, December 7, 2013

I was up so late last night that I slept past 7am today. Clay was snoring when I got up and got in the shower, so I don’t know what his excuse was. Breakfast was thus later and it was lightly attended. Perhaps because it was a rainy morning. Good for us, but sad for all those weekenders on their way to the parks! Today’s breakfast was biscuits and gravy and scrambled eggs with sausage bits mixed in. So, they must alternate. The silverware problem was solved today.

We packed up and checked out of the Desert Palms Hotel and were on the road north by 9am. It took us almost 2 hours to get across LA. We mostly crawled and it was a Saturday morning between 9 and 11am, but it was raining. It wound up taking us almost 6 hours to reach Cambria, or Moonstone Beach, our home for the next 2 nights at Moonstone Landing.

The coast drive was beautiful and the skies cleared about 100 miles north of LA. It was colder and windier though. The forecast is to be below freezing here for the next 2 nights and that was not in any extended forecast we saw for Cambria before we left home. I am wearing almost all of my layers! We more or less followed the El Camino Real by changing highways several times per Clay's GPS instructions. We drove through Los Padres National Forest and by Lake Cachuma.

It is about 245 miles from LA to Cambria evidently and for some reason neither of us thought that. We both thought it was less than 200. Oh, well. We did stop at a few vista points and for lunch at Dickey’s BBQ in Santa Maria. It was good, quick and inexpensive. It came with free vanilla soft serve, self serve ice cream cones as a bonus. The problem was that Clay had seen a handmade wooden sign propped up by the road out in the country about an hour before that said BBQ Today. He should have just slammed on the brakes and turned down the side road or made a U-turn and gone back instead of thinking he could find another or something similar. But, now Clay had a hankering for local BBQ. Our being at this Dickey's chain restaurant was a result of an incorrect photo of a non-chain sign attached to this place in Santa Maria according to Yelp on Clay's phone app. It was fine with me. I seem to be off my feed these days and just not hungry or judgmental about food.  Anyway, we thought it would take about 4 hours and we did not lollygag or stop for real sightseeing and it took it 6 hours. Something to remember. Wildlife spotted: 1 roadrunner, 2 deer and 1 wild turkey.

We found and checked into Moonstone Landing. It is right across from a wooden boardwalk along the beach on a short road on a bluff called Moonstone Landing. The beach is Moonstone Beach. We are about 10 miles from Hearst Castle, San Simeon. That was our goal for this weekend.

Bonus was the breeding colony of elephant seals at Piedras Blancas that is just north of there. We headed right out to find them before sunset since it is about 4:45pm these days. We found them just north of San Simeon and just south of Piedras Blancas lighthouse. It was so cold and windy and Clay did not wear or bring his layers since we had unloaded the luggage from the car when we checked in. Mind you I didn't have all mine either, but I did at least have the outer wear, while he just had a rain jacket. I still insisted that we stay out there looking at and for elephant seals until we lost the light, since we won’t see anything like that again. It was a lot more and a lot more active elephant seals than we saw in Antarctica. It was about the same wind chill though! All in all, it was very impressive and I wish we'd been better prepared for the cold wind and long walk. The other thing I was kicking myself about is not bringing my little binoculars. I have such a tough time over such a small thing. I never have them when I want or need them. I haul them everywhere and it seems I never need them, but the minute I am traveling without them, I really wish I had them. Anyway, I had decided to lighten the load and couldn't imagine I'd need them. I was wrong, again! They would have been most welcome on this portion of the trip. But, of course if I'd packed them, they'd have probably been in the room or in the trunk and not on me when I wanted to use them anyway. Oh, well.

We headed back to the hotel with the thought of eating at the Sea Chest restaurant next door but it was closed until after Christmas. There was only one other restaurant on our street and it did not appear in walking distance in the dark. We went up and asked the hotel receptionist and she gave us a book of menus to look at with our complimentary snacks from 4 to 6pm. We picked 2 and she liked one more than the other for dinner, but the other one, down the street from us, had a good Sunday brunch in her opinion. We went to Linn’s in Cambria on Main Street for dinner. It was very good. As Clay said, this is the kind of thing I expected in Vegas. Exactly. Anyway, Clay had a beer and the pork special which was a chargrilled pork tenderloin with Olallieberry sauce on apple gastrique. It sounded awful, but he really liked it. The portion was double what I would serve him at home, but he proudly finished it. I had a Hearst Ranch sirloin steak pot pie. It was a large serving too and the vegetables served with both were very good. Linn's is one of only a few place where you can be served Hearst Ranch beef, so this was special. They had a baseball cut sirloin steak from Hearst Ranch that Clay was and is obsessed with and though he really enjoyed his meal, he regrets not ordering the baseball cut sirloin steak since he probably won't get another chance. I offered to order it so he could have some; yes, I'll have the baseball cut sirloin and I'd like that well done, you can just butterfly fillet it. We both had a good laugh over that, but Clay is still full of regret. I was too full for dessert and the table next to us had come and gone after ordering just desserts. They both had the Olallieberry pie and the portions were enormous. I knew I was too full to eat any dessert. Clay was full too but ordered a slice of the pie to go.

That brings us back to our room, 101 on the ground corner of the oceanfront of the hotel. We are paying about $200 per night here so our expectations were pretty high. The carpet is stained and needs to be cleaned as well as the drapes, otherwise it is a WOW room. Mostly because of the view. It is a large room with 3 small chairs and a table, a large arm chair positioned perfectly by the window with a floor lamp. A king bed, TV and DVR in a cabinet with drawers. A small fridge and microwave as well as a coffee maker. It has a gas log fireplace with a wall thermostat as the heater. There is a single sink in a large bathroom, a whirlpool tub and a separate shower. It is quite nice. The view is spectacular from all the windows and patio doors. They have complimentary evening snacks from 4-6pm, tonight with sparkling cider. In the morning from 8 to 10am they serve a complimentary continental breakfast. We are looking forward to a restful stay here after the sensory overload of Disney.

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Last day at Disneyland

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Friday, December 6, 2013

We were up a little later than yesterday, but not by much. The parks opened at 9am for us today, so there was no rush. We arrived for breakfast on the 5^th floor about 7:20am and walked right in. Today was a repeat of Wednesday’s breakfast, maybe they alternate. Today I had oatmeal and waffles with a sausage pattie. The warm syrup is awful. It is not maple, nor even maple flavored, in fact it isn’t even terribly sweet. They were out of forks when we arrived but eventually they supplied plastic ones. They were out of sugar and I had to use brown sugar from the oatmeal area for my coffee. Interesting. Still it is not bad for an included hot breakfast.

We arrived at the park right after they opened the turnstiles and just walked right in through bag check and ticket scan without any waiting. That was convenient. We were entering Main St. as the Disneyland marching band was exiting.  Today’s crowd on arrival was the largest we had yet seen and that was a cause for concern. 

I was determined to ride Peter Pan and Alice today no matter the wait times or lines. We also hoped that Pirates of the Caribbean would be open today. So, we started in Fantasyland. I got distracted by Pixie Hollow and went there first. I met Tinkerbelle and another fairy, Fawn, an animal talent fairy who was thrilled to meet Bob and asked to keep him. That stopped my heart for a moment! Then I just said, no. Of course, Tinkerbelle was happy to meet Bob too!  Oh, I also loved the dancing fountains outside Pixie Hollow as well as the tall grass!

We saw a great big bird of some kind, maybe some bird of prey on top of the Matterhorn from there. We had an interesting conversation with the couple in front of us about our dilemma with ABC’s Once Upon a Time and Peter Pan being evil and being Rumplestiltskin’s father. We were all now conflicted about Peter Pan and didn’t like that feeling at all. Also, where is the show going now that Pan has Henry’s heart. I mean Henry has to live, but ABC can’t kill Peter Pan can they?  Anyway…

Then we walked over to Alice in Wonderland and waited about 15 minutes. It was the shortest line we had seen there. It was just OK. Again, I don't understand the long wait times for this ride, other than the fact that it isn't in Orlando. The bathrooms associated with the Queen of Hearts and King of Diamonds were much cooler and no wait! I think these were the best restrooms in all of Disneyland, both parks! Plus I loved the White Rabbit statue.

After that we walked around to Peter Pan’s Flight! It was about a 20 minute wait and again actually the shortest line we had seen there. It seemed different to me than the one in Orlando. I don’t remember the star room. I found it very disorienting, but that is probably the Meniere’s Disease talking. Otherwise it was magical. You couldn’t miss Tinkerbelle and I remembered her being easy to miss in Orlando’s ride.

That done, the pressure was off! We walked to Tomorrowland and did the alternate experience at Finding Nemo Submarines. It was a good choice. There was a long line and I don’t think either of us would have enjoyed the cramped submarine experience. The private TV room version was entertaining and enjoyable. I have no idea how it compares to the actual ride experience.

Then we went to Innoventions.  I loved the Stark Industries display of various Ironmen. If we had had more time it would have been fun to play with the video interaction things, but there were lines and we had some shows to see on their schedules. We had thought to see Thor: Treasures of Asgard, thinking it would be movie props and costumes or something and it may have been, but there was a long line to get inside the exhibit and meet Thor for a photo op and we weren’t interested it that.

So, we were there for the noon show of Honda’s ASIMO robot. We had some extra time and walked downstairs to the dream home of the future. It was interesting and well done.  We got caught in the living room and got a guided demonstration of it and the guy took our photo (badly) with his phone and printed a copy and gave it to us at no charge. We sped through the rest of the house without stopping or making eye contact.

The ASIMO show was good. He is 4’3” and 119 pounds and runs off lithium-ion batteries. He danced and walked and ran and kicked a ball and went up and down stairs. If only he had made a bed, cleaned, run a load of laundry or unloaded a dishwasher, I’d have signed up for one!

Time to go to another show. This one at 12:30pm, in Fantasyland Theater for Mickey and the Magical Map. I don’t remember how long it lasted but I want to say about 20 minutes. It was very entertaining and well done.

We walked by the back of the Sleeping Beauty Castle and I finally found the entrance for the walk-through. I loved it! I don't remember anything like this at Cinderella's Castle in Orlando, even though it is much larger. On the caddy-corner side of the Castle from there is a little fountain grotto place with a wishing well that was very quaint and cozy. Again, I don't remember anything like it in Orlando.

By now Clay was ready for lunch and I had picked out Rancho del Zocalo in Frontierland based on the information in the December 2-8 schedule that they had some new dishes for Celebrando las Fiesta Navidenas. Clay had Carnitas Soft Tacos and I had a Burrito Guadalajara with carnitas and black bean refritos and rice in a flour tortilla with zesty tomatillo sauce on top. It was a massive burrito, as big as my head. Clay’s dish was normal sized and he helped me eat mine. We finished it all as it was very tasty. We shared a plate of dulce de leche crepes for dessert. That was a weird disappointment.  It was like some kind of dulce de leche flavored instant pudding had been wrapped in crepes. It was flavorless and not even very sweet. It was as unsatisfying as the warm syrup this morning. The other thing was that we couldn't find a way to get a paper cup of water here and so spent the equivalent of an extra entrée on 2 sodas. When we got to the cashier, she had small clear plastic cups there that you could take and go get water at the napkin and flatware and condiments station in the sitting areas. But that was too late to help us and I guess you had to just drink tap water without any ice in it at that point. Just sayin'.

Lunch over it was over to New Orleans Square and on to Pirates of the Caribbean.  It was open and we got in what we thought was a long line. It was longer than the line we got in yesterday when it broke down for the day, but not as long as it was later today. Anyway, we waited about 25 minutes. This is a very different ride from Orlando’s. The drops are major and not nice. It also starts and ends on display. First past a restaurant that appears to be in a swamp and then past the ride queue. It also seems much bigger and longer than the one in Orlando. I don’t know about it. This is one of my favorite rides in Orlando, but I wouldn’t want to repeat it here.

Speaking of repeating…  We rode Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters twice more today. Clay loves it. He loves Toy Story Midway Mania too, but I can’t tolerate the jerky spinning around on that one too much. This one is easier on me. So Clay beat me 3 times at these games. I won the first game and the last. TSMM doesn’t take a photo and email you your score, but BLAB does. So he has photographic evidence of his 2 victories there. I miraculously won the last round there and we had a transmission failure and they did not have our photo for my victory. Boo!

After Pirates, we walked down to Critter Country. I didn’t think there was anything there for us except The Many Adventures of Winnie thePooh, but since there isn’t a ride like that at Orlando to my recollection, I wanted to do it. There are so few rides I can tolerate that I hate to miss one! We waited about 20 minutes for a quite short ride there, but I liked it. As we were in line, I pointed out to Clay that there seemed to be a lot more space and people past the ride than what it looked like on the map. We were studying that situation trying to figure it out, when we saw Tigger, Eeyore and Pooh down there doing greetings and photos. I was in! Next stop.

We waited about 30 minutes. They took a 5 minute hunny break when we were only 3 away from Tigger. When I met Tigger, he almost sucked my face off by sticking my head in his mouth with his paws and making a big kissing noise. He was crazy! He tickled me and then he grabbed Clay and tickled him. Then he had us one under each arm and escorted us over to Eeyore. It was a trip! Clay tried to take photos of Tigger during this and just managed to get extreme closeups of Tigger’s nose. It was hilarious. Tigger clearly had too much hunny on his hunny break! Eeyore was himself and a dear. Pooh was happy and gentle. It was great. I love that stuff. I love the characters and I love to see them come to life and give big stuffed animal hugs. Love it! For some reason, there was only a professional photographer with Pooh. If you wanted photos with Tigger and Eeyore, you had to take your own or ask someone in line behind you if they would take it for you.

Clay wanted to sit on a bench now and ponder our next move but I had other plans. What, he wanted to know, could be better than sitting on a bench? Sitting in New Orleans Square with a batch of Mickeyhead beignets from Mint Julep Bar at the French Market. We shared six with some drinks and some live jazz. Best Christmas carols of the trip! The beignets were good, but would have been better served hot. I had a peppermint mocha for the season and it was delish. Clay ordered the hot caramel apple cider from the seasonal drink menu but they were out. He picked their virgin mint julep instead even though it was chilly out and they did not have heaters on their outdoor seating.  We also got to see Jack Skellington and Sally walk past. It was so entertaining and enjoyable a break that we never did get out the map and schedule and ponder.

It was getting close to parade time though and we needed to get where we would be for an hour or more. Clay was antsy about dinner and we checked menus as we made our way. Clay was non-committal about everything and I didn’t see anything I wanted at any of the reservation restaurants' menu, so no bother, but I also didn’t see anything at the counter service places. Until I saw grilled cheese sandwich and tomato basil soup at Jolly Holiday Bakery Café. Good, we’ll be back and it is counter service so no need to sweat a reservation.

We hurried on through the crowds and into Tomorrowland. I had a plan to ride the monorail during the parade and unfortunately so did quite a few others. I studied Autotopia while we were up there and I didn’t see why it had a motion sickness warning. I asked a Cast Member about it and thought if I drove then it would really be fine. The monorail only stops  in Tomorrowland and Downtown Disney. We rode it in a circle and got off back in Tomorrowland. Clay feels we may have missed something by missing Downtown Disney, but I don’t. We had a five minute or so wait for Autotopia and it was like car-shaped go-carts straddling a rail. It was kind of stupid, but it was fine since it was dark with virtually no wait. Our last stop as the parade was finishing up was our final game at BLAB. The crowds were crazy after the parade. Of course, we had one final go at BLAB!

Then, we fought our way back to Main Street and had dinner at Jolly Holiday. I liked mine and so did Clay. He had the Caprese sandwich and was not happy with it. It was advertised as toasted and may have been at some point, but not right before being handed to him. He liked my soup though which was a little too fibrous for my tastes. My cheese sandwich had been grilled right before I received it. I forget what we picked for dessert, but we didn't love it. We both regretted not picking the green whipped cream looking stuff in the ceramic Christmas Mickey head cup that you could keep because that would have made a much better souvenir than the plastic Santa Mickey popcorn bucket. Desserts just seemed to be poorly signed everywhere we ate and we weren't sure what we were picking. The other downside here is that all seating is outdoors and it was dark and cold and they had no outdoor heaters as far as we could tell. You had to eat fast to get a hot meal!

Now it was time to use the restrooms and go stake out our spots for Fantasmic! At 9pm at the Rivers of America in front of New Orleans Square. We picked a spot earlier when we were there after the beignets. It was on a ramp just to the side of Pirates and below Royal Street Veranda. We stood at the railing and hoped it was a good spot. There were people sitting on blankets at the waterfront rails while we were having beignets at 4pm! I had read on Disboards (a great resource, btw!)  that those closest to the water had to sit down on the ground, while those farther back had to stand up. We planned to stand at the rail. After a while, the workers roped us into the area by the rail and I sat down with my back against the rail to wait. Clay spoke to one of the workers and asked him if it was a good spot and he explained how Fantasmic! worked and that it was a good spot for standing.

There were people sitting against the wall below the rail when we got there and we don’t know what happened, but suddenly they were gone and the area had become a stroller corral! Eventually, a Cast Member named Chauna came up and started a conversation with me about my birthday and our first visit and our first time to see Fantasmic! And it being our last night and she asked us repeatedly if it was just the 2 of us. She handed me a First Visit pin (I wasn’t wearing mine today!) and then an Honorary Citizen of Disneyland pin. She asked Clay if he’d like one and he agreed to take an Honorary Citizen button, because we hadn’t seen them before and wouldn’t have even thought to ask for such a thing or if they would give it for the asking or it had to be conferred. Finally she left and then she came back she invited us to go sit in a reserved section that would be even better viewing than what we had staked out, according to her, because no one would be walking back and forth in front of us and we wouldn’t be forced to stand. (I was sitting on the ground leaning on that railing at this point.) We said sure! She led us down a level and right against that level’s railing. We alternated between sitting and standing for the rest of our wait. Most of that time we were all alone in the reserved corral. By the time the show started about 20 people were in there. I am not sure how the others got status. At least one that visited with me was a Disney vacation planner and former Cast Member. Fantasmic! was fantastic. It is similar to the Orlando version, yet different, maybe mostly because of the different setting.

We tried to make our way out of the park during the fireworks and that was a mistake. We finally made it to City Hall and stopped off to leave thanks to Chauna. We were about to leave when I asked Clay if there was anything else he wanted to do since this was the end and the park was open for another 2 hours. He said no, but I looked up at the train sitting at the Main Street Station and said I’d like to do a night time circuit of the park. Clay agreed and we hurried up there and just missed that train. We sat on a bench and waited about 10 minutes for the next one. We sat right behind the steam engine on that one and had a great view especially of the clock tower show at IASW at 10:14pm. You would think they would get the time set right on that clock! IaSW is spectacularly lit up at night and around the time of the clock show, there is also a video show projected on the façade. So, it was lucky for us. The big surprise was between Tomorrowland and Main Street that the train passes by the giant bizarre dioramas that must be original to the park. The first one was of the Grand Canyon and was filled with taxidermy animals. The second one was of dinosaurs that were animatronic. It was a trip! They were indoors and behind glass like the backside of some buildings or something. There is nothing there on the map! What was that all about and how come I had never heard or read anything about it before?! That was the finale of our Disneyland 55^th Birthday Adventure on a surprising high note as Disneyland Honorary Citizens. We walked off the train in amazement and walked on to our home at the Desert Palms Hotel.

Well, it is past my bedtime and we check out of here in the morning to drive up the coast for a couple of days near San Simeon. More later.

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Disneyland

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Thursday, December 5, 2013

We were both awake about 6am again. We got upstairs to the 5^th floor a few minutes after 7am which is when breakfast begins here at the Desert Palms. It was about 7:05am before they opened the doors. We were behind about 30 people. Today was a Magic Morning for park hopper ticket holders. That means that Disneyland was open an hour early at 8am for us. Evidently there were a lot of us here and anxious to get to the park early. Breakfast was a little different today. There were no sausage patties. There was ham in scrambled eggs, and biscuits and gravy and strawberry yogurt, for example. So, the same breakfast in essence but a little different.

We were over at a line outside the turnstiles of Disneyland proper a little before 8am but they did not open the turnstiles until exactly 8am. They took everyone’s photo as we entered today and said it would be used to ID us later with our tickets. We headed straight back to Fantasyland and a cluster of early opening rides that we had chosen earlier. We passed Peter Pan’s Flight because the line was filled and estimated at 40 minutes already! We went to Snow White’s Scary Adventure and walked right through and on it in about 5 minutes. We did the same thing at Pinocchio’s Daring Journey.



We checked on Peter Pan again where we found the line even longer and the projected wait at 45 minutes. We left and waited about 10 minutes to ride Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. We still couldn’t see waiting for Peter Pan and walked by Alice in Wonderland but the wait was 45 minutes. This is a mystery to me. That Peter Pan ride is in Orlando too, but Snow White and Mr. Toad are gone from Orlando, so you would think those lines would be longer, but they weren’t. Go figure.

We went on over to Tomorrowland to ride Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters before 9am and the general public opening. We just made it. We saw where they had the horde contained on the other side of a rope now, instead of outside the park turnstiles where we waited to entered. Clay outscored me during a stop in the ride when the guns were still working. (I told him this as I tried it! My mistake! When TSMM stopped, the scoring stopped too. Anyway, he caught up to my score and whipped me then!) Unbeknownst to us in advance, this ride/game took photos of everyone and you could email them from kiosks at the end of the ride. Clay was so thrilled to have a memento of his victory.

After 9am Disneyland was packed and the ride lines were all more than 45 minutes. We did get onto Jingle Cruise (a holiday updated Jungle Cruise) and had a Dole Whip Float (and got 1^st pins for it because Clay did not remember having one in DW!) and we sat through the Enchanted Tiki Room. While we were in the area, I asked about Indiana Jones since it was broken and I was assured it would not make me motion sick. So, we’ll try that later.



It was after 10:30am now and we were both stressed by the crowds. We walked out of the park and got our hands stamped. We crossed over to DCA and went straight to Chase Disney Visa’s private character photo op. We got through the line just in time for Stitch to leave and to have our complimentary photo taken with Minnie Mouse. She was a sweetie and lavished kisses on Bob after I asked her to hold him. When we left she gave me a big hug.

Clay wanted to return to Ghirardelli for free peppermint bark again and ice cream. I was willing to try one of the other 4 hot chocolates. So we went on over because DCA was so completely empty! On the way we wandered through Bug’s Land sharing a Mickey head pretzel, but after we put mustard on it and nearly finished it, I dropped it on Clay’s pants and then the ground! We went on to Ghirardelli and Clay had a cone and I got the classic hot chocolate with whipped cream. Clay asked which was better but they were both delish.

Clay then proposed a rematch over at Toy Story Midway Mania since DCA seemed so empty. It was empty until we got to Paradise Pier and everyone was there! It was another 45 minute wait to ride. He beat me again. He really held a grudge about me outscoring him yesterday. I think he just didn’t get that it was keeping score while we were on the ride. I don’t know why because it was almost the identical ride as the one in Orlando and he rode it 3 times in a row the last time we were there. He loved that ride and couldn’t get enough. I insisted at that point that we return to Disneyland because there were so many rides I wanted to do over there and the lines were long. We saw Goofy on our way out and picked up our complimentary photo (a $10.92 value).

We went back and there was no line outside City Hall now. We went in and asked for 1^st Visit pins and a Birthday Pin for me. She wrote my name on my Birthday Pin. The rest of the day, people were wishing me Happy Birthday. It was great. I’m wearing that pin again tomorrow! They were giving Fastpasses for Indiana Jones Adventure when we got back, so we got one to come back from 4:15pm to 5:15pm. We got in line for Pirates of the Caribbean and after about 15 minutes they announced the ride was broken. It stayed broken for the rest of the day.

We looked at a menu at the French Market since I thought they had Mickey Beignets, but we didn’t see them and so left. We went and got in about a 45 minute line for Haunted Mansion where they had the Jack Skellington Nightmare before Christmas theming and Jack’s character out.

We got on the next train out of New Orleans Square and rode it to Toontown where we got off and walked to It’s a Small World which also had holiday theming. (It was funny waiting for the train there because the station had a telegraph thingy that you tap on sitting outside the window to the fake office and they were loudly playing the sound of the Morse code tapping. I am not sure that most people even recognized the sound, since probably no one knows Morse code anymore. But, the tapping was quite loud and intrusive to me, so I was looking around to figure out why and found the little telegraph tapper, whatever the actual name of the thing is, sitting there so obviously placed. I nudged Clay and pointed to the speakers and then the device and we both had a good laugh.) We got to see the clock at IaSW go off at 3:14 for 3pm. We were in line about 40 minutes. Then we checked Alice and Peter Pan again, but Clay refused to get in a projected 40 minute wait for either. We walked on over to New Orleans again and put on some extra layers as it was getting cold.

Then we went to Indiana Jones with our Fastpasses. Even with the fastpasses, it was still about a 25 minute wait. It was a rough ride and neither of us really liked it. There was too much rough motion in the dark for me and I kind of lost my horizon and felt bad for a while after. We had agreed to skip lunch and just snack until fried chicken at the Plaza Inn for dinner. People were camping along the Christmas parade route already for 5:30. We were hoping to eat and get to one of the rides while everyone was at the parade. Clay had the fried chicken and found it disappointing. I had the penne marinara and some of his ½ chicken. We shared a Yule log slice. The food was good. It was kind of like a buffet.

We got out and walked into Tomorrowland. I saw Captain Eo and it was going to start in 11 minutes so we went in. It is a 3D movie with Michael Jackson from 1986. I remember seeing it back in the 1980's in Orlando but I didn’t remember the seats moving! Anyway, that caused us to be trapped by the parade and we couldn’t get out of Tomorrowland. We should have just found something else to do in there, but I was too obsessed by missing Alice and Peter Pan.  So, we saw part of the parade anyway. It was crazy the difference in the size of the crowds between yesterday’s Pixar Parade and today’s Christmas Parade, or even the crowd size difference between the 2 parks today.

We went back to check on Pirates, but it was still closed. The hub area in front of the castle was crazy crowded, so I told Clay we needed to just stay there to stake our places for the 7:40pm fireworks. We bought a little Christmas Mickey-shaped bucket of popcorn and stood there for over an hour. (I thought this would be a good souvenir because I could use it as a Christmas cookie jar. Not so. It was cheaply made of a bunch of snap together pieces and leaked popcorn even. I don't think you could really use it for storing any food.) The crowd was insane. We watched a few of the light shows on the castle while waiting and that was great. So was the fireworks show, but what a crowd and we were so sore and tired. Clay said he thought that was probably the biggest crowd we had ever been in the middle of before. I don’t know. They blew fake snow on us afterwards. It was a madhouse though. We decided to just try to leave. I wanted to revisit a shop to check on a sweater I was thinking about. We made it to the shop, but it won’t work.

We walked back down Main Street and Clay got more smashed pennies and then we saw Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln while waiting out the crowds. It was a mostly empty theater but we were almost paralyzed by then and the sitting just made the walking on to the hotel impossibly painful!

Tomorrow we have to finish up what we can in Disneyland because it is our last day here.

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Disney California Adventure

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Wednesday, December 4, 2013

We were both up about 6am. Breakfast is served at Desert Palms Hotel on the 5^th floor at 7am to 10am. Disneyland opens at 9am. We were upstairs for breakfast a little after 7am. It was a zoo with about 50% of the room's population being children. Don't they go to school? They had scrambled eggs, sausage patties and hash brown potatoes. They had hot and cold cereal, pastries, yogurt and toast and make your own waffles. It was not luxurious, but it was certainly an adequate self-service breakfast. People were fairly tidy and considerate. They had seating indoors and outdoors. We were in.

It was bright and sunny all day with a bit of a chill breeze. It actually started out warmer and got cooler as the day progressed which was weird. Clay had brought a jacket but I did not and we had to return to the room at sunset to change clothes to get warm enough to make it through an 8:15pm World of Color Winter Dreams show.

So we walked about 15 minutes or so to get to the gate. We got right through the turnstiles where they changed our home printed 3-day park hopper tickets for small card ones and had us sign them. Mine had Tow Mater on it, and Clay got Snow White. We walked in a ways and then came to the ropes inside Disney California Adventure. We chose DCA for the reason that World of Color was available to us tonight with a FastPass that we could get in the morning here. We had to choose which way to go once inside DCA and I chose to go toward Grizzly Rapids to get World of Color fast passes for tonight at 8:15pm. The crowds seemed light enough that I thought we could get on Radiator SpringsRacers later. I was right. We got the blue group for WoC.

We walked on RSR in about 8 minutes in the single rider line and we were still in the same car. I got the front passenger seat and Clay was sitting right behind me. It was almost a mistake for me. It does come with a motion sickness warning and we watched and it was fast and dipping and sharp turns, but it looked doable. Anyway, I lost my horizon on the last dip and turn I had a single visual cartwheel and just about lost it, but then I saw the finish line banner and held it steady in sight and I knew the ride was all over. I just had to get my equilibrium back.

We then walked over to Luigi’s Flying Tires in Cars Land. It also had a motion sickness warning but we watched it and it looked pretty slow. We stood in line about 15 minutes to ride the silly floating bumper cars for about 1 minute. It was the slowest ride ever and we laughed about how anyone could ever get sick on it.

Next up, the Little Mermaid, or Ariel's Undersea Adventure. I am not sure of the exact name. 

I had checked the schedule when we arrived and wanted to see Russell from Up doing a Wilderness Explorer Ceremony in Redwood Creek Challenge Trail at 11am. I wanted to see the play Aladdin at 12:40pm and we wanted to go by Monsters, Inc. and near House of Cards get a free photo with a character courtesy of my Disney Chase Visa card between 10:30am and 1:30pm. The last is the only thing we didn’t get done. First, we waited about 45 minutes in line for Toy Story Midway Mania and then Aladdin lasted 40 minutes and they started later than the time posted in the schedule, so we didn’t get out of there until after 1:30pm. Too late. We’ll go another day. Aladdin was great. I loved it. We saw a lot of Mater and Lightning McQueen in Cars Land today. We had photo ops with Russell and Dug. They were great.

We also rode Little Mermaid, Toy Story Midway Mania (where I doubled Clay’s score with half his accuracy! I was pulling that string like a woman with Parkinson’s tremor!), and Monsters, Inc. We also went to Disney Animation and went through about half of it, we watched It’s Tough to Be a Bug and got soaked. Our glasses were so dirty later!

We ate a late lunch at Lucky Fortune Cookery and had rice bowls. Clay had spicy Korean beef and I had chicken teriyaki. I really liked it. We ordered edamame to share but they were out of it. Clay ate all his and part of mine so either he liked it or he was really hungry. He said his was very hot and spicy. We went to Ghirardelli after. They gave us each a free peppermint bark for entering. We checked the menu outside first and decided before entering, a good thing because once you get in there it is just cash registers and no menu or counter until you pick up after the registers. Clay got a double scoop cone. I got the Lombard Street hot chocolate. They had at least 4 choices of hot chocolates! It was suddenly cold when we came out of Aladdin. We ate sitting in the sun, but it was still a chilly wind. The Lombard Street hot chocolate was like a submarino from Argentina. It was steamed milk with 4 bars of Ghirardelli milk chocolate fudge-filled bars. I put them in and stirred it up and added a raw sugar and drank it down. Delicious! 

I saw a lot of people today wearing pins that said they were having a birthday or 1^st visit. Clay finally asked the family of little boy wearing a 1st visit pin where they got it. They said to go to City Hall on Main Street and just ask for the pins. (So, I now see from the link I just posted that we could have gotten our pins in DCA too. Live and learn.) Maybe tomorrow, since we only went to DCA today. Tomorrow Disneyland. We may go back to DCA tomorrow to try to get our Chase Disney Visa free character photo. We’ll see.

We happened to come out of the Animation Building just as they were roping off for the Pixar Parade in DCA. We found a spot on the curb where we could sit and lean against the trash cans. We decided to stay for the parade. I liked it. I usually hate parades, but maybe it is only Christmas parades that I hate. This was a nice little parade.

We walked back to the room about 5:30pm to bundle up. We saw a Tony Roma’s across the street and Clay wanted to eat dinner there. We got bundled in layers and went back out. We crossed over and ate at Tony Roma’s. Clay said he is done with them. The prices keep getting higher and he says the ribs keep getting worse.  I had chicken fingers because I wasn’t too hungry and it sounded like the lightest and cheapest meal. It was huge! I couldn’t even eat half of it. Mine tasted fine and seemed a good value, but Clay hated his and didn’t even finish it, he said it was that bad and he wouldn’t go again.

We walked back over to the park and reentered to get in a huge line with the 100's of other blue fastpass holders to jockey for viewing positions. We finally settled at the top of the stairs in the center. I could still only see the top and not the water level fountains over the 100’s of people in front of us. We could have gotten right on the water, but I didn’t want to get wet. So, all the rail spots were taken and we wound up where we did. It wasn’t bad though the show Winter Dreams was a little lame and Olaf is crazy annoying. The fountains show was like the Bellagio on steroids. Clay thought Bellagio was better coordinated to the music. Oh, I loved the giant floating snow flakes that were being launched to drift over the crowds towards the end of the show. I couldn't find the machine that was doing it, though I tried to look for it as we left. I think there might have been 2 of them near the back of the crowd and I guess that would only really work if the wind was blowing from the back of the crowd. Anyway, it looked like a thick layer of soap bubbles in a snowflake shape. They were probably larger than Frisbees and were just fascinating.

Anyway, we are back in our hotel room now and dead tired and aching from being on our feet since 7am to 9:30pm. It is going to be a short night and a long, hard 3 days in Disneyland! More later.

Doesn't Clay's new Olympus Stylus SH-50 take great photos? And it fits in his pocket without all that lens changing nonsense.

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Debbie's 55th birthday trip to Los Angeles and beyond

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Tuesday, December 3, 2013

We booked this trip to Los Angeles because Clay found these direct American Airlines' RDU-LAX round trip flights for $250 pp. and he had to do it. Plus it was near my birthday and as many times as we’ve been to LA neither of us had been to Disneyland. So, here we are.

The flight left RDU almost on time at 5:20pm. We left home early to take the bus to the airport again. Clay got his first free ride with his new transit photo ID. The bus was really full! The airport was really busy. When I checked us in online and printed our boarding passes Clay got a TSA pre-check and I did not. There was a huge lineup at security and Clay waited a long time after he walked right through without having to remove layers or shoes or open any bags. We had checked our rolling bags after a long line up there too, which was a good thing because our flight was completely full and they were offering to check rolling bags for free at the gate because they knew they wouldn’t have enough room on board. The plane was configured 3x3 and we were in the window and middle seats and a young woman was on our aisle seat. It was a six hour flight with only 2 beverage services. AA does not even serve pretzels or peanuts anymore. We had bought food in the airport to have for dinner after eating snacks in the airport. Clay had a sandwich and I had cheese, Ritz and grapes. The flight was a little rougher than we’ve had lately. They showed the movie Austenland, which thrilled me and we both plugged in headsets we had brought along and watched it before trying to sleep. It wasn’t completely miserable, but the happiest part was not having to change planes! There was a long delay in getting the luggage unloaded as well. When we finally got our bags we quickly and easily got a Thrifty shuttle and went to pick up our rental car. That didn’t go too smoothly either, though they weren’t busy. We finally ended up in a bigger car than we reserved because they just didn’t have what we had reserved and this was after the guy tried to sell us an upgrade and we declined and he told us he’d put us in a compact. There was only one compact in the lot, a red Fiat 500. We loaded it since it was where we were directed to go in the lot and it was the only car in that section. The Fiat 500 doesn't even have space for 2 carryon bags behind the back seats! It was really cold and windy out and we were anxious to get underway, but there were no keys in the car. Clay went inside a 2nd time to ask what car to take and was told to take a silver Nissan Versa right outside the door because the keys were lost to the Fiat. We unloaded and moved. We finally had ignition and were on our way in very light traffic. We had about a 20-30 minute drive to Anaheim and the Desert Palms Hotel and Suites.

We are in room 307 on the 3^rd floor. It is fine. It is a large room with 2 queen size beds. It has a desk and 3 chairs, a TV, a fridge and microwave and a coffee maker, a small closet and a small bathroom. The bathroom has one sink and a shower over a small tub. It is all adequate and for $150 per night prepaid, it includes parking, a hot breakfast and Internet. We are here through Saturday morning. We got to bed around 11 to 12 pm which was early morning for us.

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Leaving Las Vegas

Wednesday, November 20, November 20, 2013

We were both up a little before 5am. We got right about our business and got packed up and checked out. Our total bill here for 2 nights is unknown to me. Clay said he had checked out on TV or something while I was in the shower. For all the other hotels, they sent a paid invoice to email but not the Venetian. So, we expected to pay $461.44 and we prepaid it when we booked online. We stopped and filled the rental car’s gas tank and then returned it. The rental car ran about $26 per day. We had a short wait there and then walked right out and got on a shuttle bus to the airport. We went to an American Airlines self-check kiosk and got our boarding passes and checked our two rolling suitcases. We had TSA PreCheck on both our boarding passes this time, so we were through TSA security quickly and painlessly. We’re not sure how that happens but we have only had it on both once before leaving LAX and they didn’t have the line going or something. This time it worked well and we appreciated it. We stopped for breakfast at Cinnabun. I had an egg, sausage and cheese sandwich and Clay had a cinnamon bun. We went directly to the gate and didn’t wait long to board. We were on the same plane and the same seat as inbound. Smooth flight.

We got to DFW and wanted to eat but there was only 1 restaurant in the gate area. It was a Mexican place so that was fine but it was packed and they couldn’t seat us in time for our flight. We went and sat at the gate and ate Nabs and protein bars. While we sat there they changed our gate, so maybe it was good we weren’t eating in a restaurant! The flight to RDU was oversold and they were offering $500 to bump people. They were offering to check bags for free because they weren’t going to have enough space. Finally we got to board and after they scanned our boarding passes they gave us new ones and told us because of equipment change they had to reseat us. Instead of 8 A & B which we had all 3 previous legs, now we were 8 D & E. We got onboard and it was the exact same S80 we had flown on this segment inbound. The 8 row was the bulkhead and instead of the 2 seat side, we’d been moved to the 3 seat side. We had the middle and aisle seats and some guy had the window. Two men who did not know one another had our original seats. The first guy who was sitting in our row on the aisle acted a little put out when the window seat guy arrived, so we guess he must have thought he had displaced us for the row to himself. Anyway, I had to put my purse and backpack overhead since it was the bulkhead and my and Clay’s bags took a lot of abuse as several people and a couple of stewardesses tried to jam wheeled bags on top of them or crush them to the back and slam the door on theirs. It was ridiculous. It was a good thing we had checked our bags because there was no space for them on either flight home.

We were about 5 minutes late leaving because they were moving bags around so they could pull out from the gate. We ended up arriving home about 10 minutes early though. Then we lost that time waiting 20 minutes to reclaim our baggage. We missed the 6:10pm TTA bus 100 to downtown and got out about 8 minutes before the 6:41pm bus was expected. It was a couple of minutes late. We were the only people riding and that is the first time that has happened. The bus did not return to Moore Square Station, instead he let us off on Wilmington Street nearby. According to the schedule I had printed off the website before leaving home, there should have been 3 more buses to and from the airport last night. I hope he was just going off duty and some other bus went into Moore Square Station to pick up people waiting to go to the airport and back. Clay said he didn’t think so, he said he checked the sign posted at the bus stop at the airport and it said that 6:41pm was the last departure. It doesn’t make sense that they would change a sign and not a website. Anyway, we got home after 7pm and had a pizza and went to bed. Clay had told the people at work that he would be working today, in error, since he was flying all day. Anyway, that means he has to go back into work tomorrow.

Clay has told me that he updated his travel spreadsheets and that now Las Vegas is our most expensive trip per diem.

Vegas Day 8

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Tuesday, November 19, 2013

My nose started tearing yesterday. I wasn’t congested, just tears constantly running out of my nose. It feels like the start of a sore throat. Then late last night I started sneezing and couldn’t stop. Clay offered me one of his Benadryl. I don’t normally take that because it tends to knock me out, but it being bedtime that just seemed like a bonus. I took and it slept right away and through the night. Great. The drapes fully blocked the outside light and we were both still sound asleep at 7am. That was when the excitement started. It sounded like someone was playing bongos in the bathroom, then another bongo player started up. At some point we realized it was the sound we had heard from the bathroom sinks when you washed your hands in one the other would make loud glug noises. But now we were both in bed and not using any plumbing. Clay went in there and ran water and it got worse. We both used the toilet (which is our first in Vegas without that jet flush) and washed our hands and it just kept getting worse. It went out for about half an hour. It was funny for about 5 minutes and then we wondered how we'd get a 2^nd night’s sleep in here! Anyway, we slept in and now we’re up!

We went to Casanova for breakfast because it was the first place we saw serving breakfast. Honestly, we can’t find our own asses with 2 hands, a map and a flashlight inside The Venetian. It is a giant maze and makes no sense. I think the recreation of St. Mark’s Square and the indoor canals are on the floor above the casino. We had a coupon for 10% off at Casanova, so bonus. We just had normal breakfasts. We have yet to be served real maple syrup on this trip and at the prices that is just tragic. I had a cup of coffee and never was offered a warm up or refill. Clay said it was my cheapest cup of coffee all trip at $3.50.

We walked around and then over to Casino Royale so Clay could play $5 blackjack. The only seat at a table when we walked in was at Free Bet Blackjack. He didn’t like the rules and lost his $100 in about 30 minutes. I lost $5 in a penny slot machine in less than 5 minutes (it said 1 penny but the minimum bet was 35 cents). We walked back to Venetian to do the indoor gondola with our coupon for $18.95 for the 2 of us sharing with another couple. You could go by yourselves for $75, or $56 I think with the coupon. We shared. Our gondolier was Roberto and he sang 3 songs for us. It was good, I enjoyed it. At least we were sitting down for a while. Clay asked me at breakfast today if I thought the Disneyland trip in December would be as exhausting as this trip has been. I told him I thought it would be more exhausting. Three days walking outdoors all day and into the night in the parks, yeah it will be worse. He said you really have to appreciate the cruise travel experience. You can always sit down somewhere without spending money to do it. The food on all our cruises has been better than all of our expensive meals here and really there is no excuse for the bad meals we’ve had here. He said he thought he was getting too old for this. I have to agree, it is too hard and I seldom enjoy it enough anymore to go through the trials and hardships. I don’t know how much is me and how much is that so much of what you pay for anymore does not meet your expectations. There is not enough help working, or they don’t care or aren’t trained, the quality is not as expected, etc. Or maybe it is me. Probably it is some of both.

We used a coupon to buy Clay some big malted milk balls and another to get gelato. Neither of us could think of anything else we wanted to do or figure out how to get anywhere, so we’re back in the room at around 1pm expecting to nap until 4pm and early dinner before our last show, Mystere at Treasure Island right across the street. I think Clay picked out Enoteca Otto for dinner. We have a coupon for one free glass of Prosecco with an entree there.

I moved some things around in an attempt to be ready to pack. Now I guess I’ll nap. We have to leave here around 6am tomorrow morning for an 8:30am flight and to return the rental car.

We had probably our best meal of the trip finally at a named restaurant. Mario Batalli’s Otto Enoteca on St. Mark’s Square in The Venetian. We sat right out on the square and had an excellent view of the performance stage they have set up there for Winter in Venice. The location was great and so was the food. I had short rib in ravioli with tomato and mozzarella sauce. We had a coupon for a free glass of Prosecco with that so I had it. Clay ordered Butcher’s sausage with roasted red grapes and dandelion greens. It was some kind of white sausage that was very mild. We both liked all the food. For dessert, Clay had pistachio, dark chocolate malt and salted caramel gelatos. I had what was billed as warm chocolate cake with toasted meringue and dark chocolate malted gelato with salted caramel. Mine was a surprise. It came in a water-sized glass. The chocolate gelato on the bottom followed by a scoop of salted caramel gelato, then the toasted meringue which tasted like marshmallow crème with a cookie-sized or muffintop-sized round piece of cake nestled in next to the meringue. It was really rich and good, but we were both surprised at it since it was called cake and there was so little of that in the glass. I also had a caffe latte which was very good. Finally. At least we finished on a high note rather than a disappointing one. Enough of that already!

We wandered and finally found our way out to Treasure Island via the pedestrian bridge from Palazzo across the Strip. We had about an hour to kill. So we wandered the TI casino, visited the Mystere gift shop and found the pedestrian bridge to Fashion Show Mall. We went over and visited the art gallery where we had purchased a lot of art during the 1980’s. They were still carrying a lot of the same prints for obviously a lot more money. I told Clay he needs to contact them and offer to sell them back at even half of what they are asking now.

We walked back to the Mystere Theater and went straight in to our seats. We had good seats on the 2^nd row of the 2^nd section from the bottom. Mystere is in its 20^th year and is classic Cirque du Soleil. We really liked it. Our tickets were $77 per person.

It is about 9:30pm now and time to get to bed. We have to be on our way to the car at 6am tomorrow. We’ll have an early start and a long hard travel day flying through DFW. Not looking forward to that but looking forward to being home for a few weeks before our next hard trip to Disneyland! Good night and I’ll try to get these posted in a timely manner when we are home. I’ll see if Clay has any useable photos from either his camera or his phone.

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