Sing with me...California Here We Come! Days 7 & 8, updated 12/20 About This Page:

[chezp]

Don't be silly - of course your installments aren't boring. I'm loving reading them! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img] What awesome days - I just love your animal photos from the San Diego Zoo. Is that the same little baby panda we saw in April? My goodness, he's turning into quite a hulking thing now! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/jawdrop.gif[/img]

[Colexis Mom]

What an amazing day you had Laura [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img] How great to see the parks go from Halloween to Christmas overnight! All the pictures are fantastic [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img] I'm glad you had a great lunch as well (it did look yummy)!

Great job [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img]

[Meggera]

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<u>Day 7 – November 5, 2006</u>

This morning we slept in just a tiny bit. We wanted to go to church at Saddleback where Rick Warren, author of Purpose Driven Life is the pastor. So, we got up and got dressed, ate breakfast, got our directions, and walked out the door. We were off. The church was huge. I never took any pictures of the church though. We enjoyed the service and being able to hear Rick Warren in person.

As we were driving home, I took some photos of the landscape, but this one stood out above them all. What is it? We don’t know.


We also stopped by to see the Crystal Cathedral.


We had a very light lunch. I don’t even remember where. Then, we just rested until our dinner at Goofy’s Kitchen. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Our dinner reservations were for 5 p.m., so we left the hotel around 4:30. Michael dropped us off at the Disneyland Hotel entrance, and he parked.

The hotel was classic Disney. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]




I got us checked in at Goofy’s Kitchen and had a look around. I took a couple of pictures of the display about how DLR all got started.


And, Walt’s own CM pin.


We were called to be seated and walked up to a table decorated with balloons, party hats, and birthday bags in honor of Victoria’s birthday. This would be our last celebration for her birthday. It had been a great week!


The first character to come by and chat was Minnie.


Then we were greeted by Goofy himself. He did the Tango with Victoria. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]


The buffet was fabulous. I was brave and tried things I normally wouldn’t try. I really enjoyed everything. We all did! And, the desserts were great!


Terk stopped by for a great big birthday hug.


Victoria was busy drawing. I called her name and she looked up. I thought she looked so pretty in this picture. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]


Then, the server, Wendy, Peter Pan and other CMs stopped by to sing Happy Birthday to Victoria and bring her this lovely cake that Maxine had wanted to get for her. I had ordered the cake from DLR ahead of time. I thought it turned out beautiful! But, we were too stuffed to eat it and took it back to the hotel.


Peter Pan and Wendy were a hoot. Wendy drew a box in Victoria’s autograph book and said Peter could only sign in that box because he was always taking up too much room and not leaving her anywhere to sign. So, he fit his whole signature in this little box.


But then, Peter drew a teeny tiny little box and told Wendy that she could only sign in it. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/rofl2.gif[/img] She managed to squeeze everything in the teeny tiny little box. It was so funny! They argued and fussed. It was great!


After the autographing, they posed with Victoria.


When they left, Victoria mentioned something to us. She said, “I think that the person playing Wendy is the same person who played Alice. They sounded exactly alike.”

Victoria was absolutely right. What do you think? [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/questionicon.gif[/img]


We enjoyed our dinner very much and left the restaurant full and content.

We needed to do some more shopping and left of DTD. On the way, we saw this Mickey.


Maxine wanted to get Victoria a ring so we went to a sterling silver shop. Victoria picked out a ring and got earrings, too!


We dropped some cash at WOD on souvenirs. Michael liked these ears but didn’t get them. I should have gotten them for him. At least we have a picture.


While we were paying, we noticed that a CM named Danny had two cast lanyard pins on. Rats! We didn't have any pins to trade. Victoria had on her Tink ears, shirt and pins. We told him that we had just learned about the lanyard pins. He just stood, listened, and rang us up. Then, another CM took over and Danny walked away. Weird. Danny then came back and handed Victoria a pin. But, not just any pin. It was a cast member pin of Tinkerbell. He told her, "Happy birthday!" How [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img] is that? [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/thanx.gif[/img] Danny!

We left WOD and DTD and headed back to the parking lot to go back to the hotel.

We got back to the Candy Cane Inn, and DH and I decided to wash some clothes. So, we got our clothes together and headed to the laundry room. I'm glad I had brought some rolled quarters. We spent the rest of the evening washing, drying and folding clothes while Maxine and Victoria were at the pool. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img] But, we knew we would be happy going home with clean clothes, especially since Michael and I had an out-of-town conference to attend the day after we returned.

Clean clothes packed and ready to go, clean daughter exhausted from swimming, we turned out the lights and went to bed.

Tomorrow we head for home.

The best thing today was Peter Pan and Wendy’s banter!
The worst thing today was nothing!
The funniest thing today was Peter Pan and Wendy’s banter!
Today we tried Goofy’s Kitchen!
And the result was we loved it!
The most magical moment today was Maxine getting Victoria the beautiful ring and earrings. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/thanx.gif[/img] Maxine!

Up Next: Hollywood and Home


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[Meggera]

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<u>Day 8 – November 6, 2006</u>

The night before, I had gone to the front desk, and they printed out our boarding passes for us. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/thanx.gif[/img] Candy Cane Inn! They were so accommodating and didn’t charge us a thing!

We all had a good night’s sleep and woke up well rested. We got dressed and packed up. We didn’t have breakfast this morning. We had birthday cake! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/yuma.gif[/img] It was fabulous! It was a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling and frosted with a butter cream. Oh my goodness! It was extremely rich.

By the way, remember the huge signs we got to keep when we were Grand Marshals of the parade? I have forgotten to fill you in on those. They are HUGE! We knew we couldn’t fly with them, so we had to ship them home. But, we didn’t have a box for them. We asked the manager of the inn if they had a huge box we could use. We told him about the signs, and he said he would take care of it. The day Maxine stayed at the hotel while we went to DL, a maintenance man came by the room and made a box around the signs out of Cottonelle tissue boxes. The only problem was, he only wrapped up one. He did wrap up both of them.

We thanked the manager profusely for the help but said that one of the signs was left out. So, the next day, the man came back again and wrapped the other one. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/rofl2.gif[/img] They really went out of their way to help us.

We had an awful lot of Halloween candy, too. Maxine, Michael, and I didn’t want to keep all our candy. So, we took several pieces of our favorites and dumped all of the rest into one bag. Victoria added the candy that she didn’t want to our bag. We decided to take the candy and the cake to the front desk when we checked out.

We loaded up the car with our luggage and signs, double-checked the room to make sure nothing was left behind, and we shut the door. We drove around to the front to check out. We gave the ladies the bag of candy and the cake. We told them the cake was fresh and that we couldn’t eat it all and didn’t want it to go to waste. They were very appreciative. We checked out and said goodbye. I was so sad. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zcry.gif[/img]

We realized we didn’t know where a post office was, so we went back inside to get directions. The girls said they had peeked at the cake and it looked wonderful. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img] Anyhoo, they gave us directions, and we were off to the post office. We found it without a problem. We taped the two signs together and had them shipped to our home. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Our flight out of LA wasn’t until 10 p.m. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/woot.gif[/img] So, we had the day to explore Hollywood and go wherever we wanted to go. My first objective was to get a picture of the Hollywood sign. So, off to LA we went. Traffic was a breeze.

We drove through LA and into Hollywood and saw the sign. But, I didn’t want just any picture. I wanted a GOOD picture. I also wanted a good picture of the LA skyline. Michael drove and drove around. We followed the sign. We followed it into a very nice neighborhood that wound its way up and up and up. Then, I saw this view of LA. Perfect!


And the house we parked in front of to get the photo. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/jawdrop.gif[/img] Gorgeous!


I hopped back in the car and we kept winding our way around, and then we saw it. The sign. It was so nice to see, and I had a great shot of it.


This is a good perspective as to how close we got. I bet we could have gotten closer if we had explored other neighborhoods, but I was pleased with this result. And, it was nice seeing the lovely homes. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img]


We wound our way back down the mountain and took a drive through Hollywood. I was determined we see the Hollywood Bowl. In an old classic movie, Anchors Away, Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra go to the Hollywood Bowl looking for someone. I love the scene and really wanted to see it for myself.

We kept getting lost and turned around, but we did see Warner Brothers Studios and then the Disney Channel.


We finally found the Hollywood Bowl.


They were setting up for a Rolling Stones concert. But my DH told the security guard that we were tourists from Virginia, and we were leaving today and really wanted to see the Bowl. He let us in and told us where to park. We thanked him immensely. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

We parked and Maxine sat outside on a bench while we explored. The elevators and escalators weren’t working.

The sight was magnificent!


I didn’t want to climb all the way to the top. Call it out of shape, my blister, the ache in my foot from the sprain, call it what you will. I just didn’t want to walk all the way to the top. But, Michael and Victoria heroically trekked their way to the top and took some photos.


The Hollywood sign from the Bowl.


And a cross.


DH and DD joined me, and we made our way back to the car. I was very happy to have gotten the chance to see it. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

Our next destination was Graumann’s Chinese Theatre. I knew what street it was on, and Michael found the way. He dropped us off in front while he parked at the Kodak Theatre.


I was just in awe. I love movies, especially old ones, and there were so many of my favorite stars handprints and footprints here. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img] I think I read every one of them. I will only post a few of my favorites.


Victoria played Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird so she has a special love for Gregory Peck.


We all [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/love.gif[/img] Gene Kelly and his movies. We HAD to get a picture here. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Julie Andrews ~ need I say more?


Okay. You can't read these, but my hands are in Jane Russell's hands and Victoria's are in Marilyn Monroe's. This is after they had made the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Great movie! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img]



The Roosevelt Hotel…


We also enjoyed looking at the stars. We didn’t venture too far because we didn’t have a wheelchair for Maxine. She sat on a bench a lot.




The El Capitan Theatre and the Disney Soda Fountain were across the street, and we definitely wanted to go in there.


Inside the Soda Fountain was a great shop with lots of photos of all of the stars who had eaten there. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img] I only took one photo inside.


Maxine saw a cute Tinkerbell ornament, and she secretly got it for Victoria. Maxine just gave it to Victoria this week, and she couldn’t believe it! She said, “I saw this in California!” [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif[/img] Sneaky Maxine!

We left the shop and noticed the price for an adult ticket at the El Capitan ~ $15. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img] A little too steep for these pockets. We walked on by, and I took a photo of the Kodak.


Then Graumann’s…



There were tons of weirdos on the streets. A lot were dressed as “stars” and you could pay to have your picture made with them. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/ukid.gif[/img] No thanks!

Maxine found another bench at Graumann’s and waited while the three of us went to get the car. I wanted to check out the Kodak. I think we took four escalators down to get to our parking deck. It was huge! We found the car, and parking is incredibly reasonable here. Go figure! I think we paid $4.

We picked up Maxine in front of Graumann’s and were on our way to Beverly Hills. This whole trip, Victoria was most excited about going to Beverly Hills. That is all we heard about. We drove and drove, and Victoria was getting so excited. Then, there it was. THE sign.


The Wilshire Boulevard and Rodeo Drive.


The street lamps on Rodeo Drive were stunning! They were not your ordinary run-of-the-mill lamps. They were chandeliers standing on a box that looked like a wrapped present. No joke!


Prettiest street lamp I’ve ever seen! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img]

As we were looking at all of the exclusive shops, Victoria said, “That’s it? This is all Beverly Hills is?” We died laughing! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/rofl2.gif[/img] I asked her what she expected, and she said she had expected more than just stores. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/rofl2.gif[/img]

Victoria put her disappointment aside and played her GameBoy. Yes, you read correctly. She played her GameBoy. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif[/img] Kids!

We decided to take a ride down some of the neighborhood streets. Here is the entrance to one of them.


But before we turned in, we saw the Beverly Hills police station. No kidding!


The neighborhood we went into was lovely. All of the yards were perfectly manicured. Every blade of grass was the same exact height and the same shade of green. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif[/img] Really, it was beautiful. This picture was taken on one of the neighborhood streets.


The last place we wanted to see was Santa Monica. So, we stopped in Beverly Hills and asked the postman how to get there. He gave us directions and away we went. We stopped at Jack in the Box for some lunch. It was actually really good. We should have eaten there sooner on our trip.

We drove down Santa Monica Boulevard. (Singing in my head...)


And we ended up at the Pacific Ocean. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]


A bird-of-paradise ~ we saw these in bloom all over CA.


We found our way to the boardwalk and the Santa Monica pier. Maxine stayed on the pier while the rest of us explored. The sun was beginning to set. Great timing!





It was very low tide, so we walked under the boardwalk. (Remind you of a song?)


Under the boardwalk, we found a starfish who was missing an arm. Poor little guy.





There were all sorts of clams and mollusks on all of the beams under here. It was gross and fascinating all at the same time. There were some men who were taking them off and putting them into bags. I guess it was for dinner. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/questionicon.gif[/img]


There were beautiful, colorful starfish attached to the posts, too. We counted as many as 20 on one post. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img]


The sunset was gorgeous.



We walked back up to the top and found Maxine. We told her we needed to wash off our feet. The outdoor shower was broken, so we went to the restrooms and washed our feet off in the sink.

I had to capture the colors of the sky as best as I could.





I can’t believe our trip was coming to an end. We left Santa Monica and made our way back to LAX. The line for security was huge! We had to go through all sorts of different people. Maxine is a diabetic and had her medical supplies in her carry-on, so they searched her bag. She had her note from her doctor, so all was good. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

We found our waiting area and walked around a bit. I found some magnets I wanted, one of Beverly Hills and one of Hollywood. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

We were all getting a little hungry, but the only food around was Wendy’s. How weird is that? We decided to go ahead and eat there.

We ate, waited, and finally boarded. This flight, I was going to make sure I did not burn up on the flight. I also made sure I wasn’t sitting next to anyone I didn’t know. Michael, Victoria and I sat together, and Maxine was on the aisle seat next to Victoria. Thankfully, no one sat in the middle on her row, so she had plenty of room, too.

We took off, and the flight was a lot cooler than the one going to LA. However, it started getting really hot. We flagged down the stewardess and asked them to please turn on the air. They did, and the rest of the flight was better.

We landed uneventfully in Atlanta and had a three hour layover. We all found restrooms and then Michael and I got chicken biscuits and OJ for everyone from Popeye’s. It was very cold in the airport. Victoria curled up with me, and we slept. Michael had curled up on another set of chairs and gone to sleep, too. Maxine chatted with a man the whole time.

We were finally able to board the plane, and we took off. We landed safely in Richmond. It had been a fabulous trip.

Michael had constantly said this was a once in a lifetime trip. Now that we are back, he says he can’t wait to go back again. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img]

The best thing today was seeing so many of the sights made famous in movies and television.
The worst thing today was going home. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/pout.gif[/img]
The funniest thing today was Victoria’s reaction to Beverly Hills!
Today we tried Hollywood!
And the result was we enjoyed driving through it and finding all of the spots we wanted to see!
The most magical moment today was Santa Monica at sunset.

Up Next: My final thoughts


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[Meggera]

[ QUOTE ]
Don't be silly - of course your installments aren't boring. I'm loving reading them!

[/ QUOTE ]

Thank you, Cheryl! I'm glad they are interesting. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Colexis Mom]

What a great end to your trip [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img] Great pictures of LA, and what a great birthday cake for Victoria [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/birthday.gif[/img]

I'm glad you were able to get the signs shipped home [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img]

Thanks so much for sharing your trip with us! I can't wait to get out to SoCal one day [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img] Looking forward to your final thoughts [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[lauren-roxy]

Great updates Laura!!! I have really enjoyed reading your trip report, it was so interesting and the photos were fabulous!!! Thanks so much for sharing!! Can't wait for your final thoughts!!

[DawnDenise]

I've spent the better part of my afternoon catching up on your updates and have loved every single one of them. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img] I am REALLY looking forward to my trip out west again in February. Thank you for all the wonderful pictures!! Looking forward to your final thoughts!

[chezp]

What a wonderful trip - and it brought back so many wonderful memories for me from April as well. I kept reading your installments and thinking "we did that". I loved the last part about Los Angeles and Santa Monica and I know what you mean about the odd characters and how cheap the parking was at the Kodak Theatre - that shocked us as well! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us. I've loved reading about it and I do hope you get to go back again. We're hoping to head back one day as well. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img]

[gwugirl03]

Wow! It sounds like a truly amazing trip. I want to go so badly now I cannot stand it! Wonderful trip report!

[DrDolphin]

[ QUOTE ]
I've spent the better part of my afternoon catching up on your updates and have loved every single one of them. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img] I am REALLY looking forward to my trip out west again in February. Thank you for all the wonderful pictures!! Looking forward to your final thoughts!

[/ QUOTE ]

[img]/ubb/images/graemlins/yeahthat.gif[/img] My thoughts exactly!

[tinksmom]

Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful vacation with us. It's given me lots of pointers for our trip out west this summer. Absolutely love the pictures of the Santa Monica Pier and sunset over the Pacific!
I hope you dad is doing better!
tenya

[DyanKJ130]

Finally catching up now! Hope things are looking up with your dad!

Thank you so much for sharing your report. I have taken so many notes from your TR in my DL Passporter for our family trip February 2008. What an exciting time for you to have gone....you got to see Halloween AND Christmas! I had tears in my eyes reading your reaction to Fantasmic. Can't wait to get there myself!

[coffeechef]

I really enjoyed your trip report. You have a very nice style of writing &amp; I felt like I was with you. I am planning a trip to Disneyland &amp; reading your report was lots of fun &amp; good info too. Maxine looked like she had really good time. What a wonderful family you all are.

[loobyoxlip]

WOW! I just spent the last hour reading your entire report in one sitting. I loved it!!!! Your daughter is extremely photogenic and the way she poses in every picture is awesome. I can't believe you had the pleasure of being the Grand Marshals in the parade. Wow. GREAT REPORT!!!!! Thanks so much [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]