We are safely home from vacation. We got home about 11:45 last night. Todd's on the computer upstairs so I can't load pictures just yet. I don't know how to do that from the laptop yet & I want him to show me how to do a slide show if possible because I have soooo many pictures.
Of course we had fun & don't really want to get back to work tomorrow. We left for vacation around 9am last Saturday & for those of you on Facebook you know we ran over a big piece of metal on the way there that blew out a rear tire. We were close to Banning,CA. A couple had run over that same piece of metal shortly before us. We borrowed a tool from them, Todd changed the tire, & we were on the way again. Not the best way to start a vacation but the jolt of running over the metal magically made our A/C start working again. Just a few days before the vacation the air went out in the van. That's a real bummer because A/C is still needed here in Arizona in October. And apparently in California too. We get to the motel in time for check in & get everything up to the room before heading to the parks. I liked our room location-3rd floor at the back of the motel,end room. No one would be running past our room at night yelling. I enjoyed a full week of no dogs barking-yay for me! Oh, Joshua was not 100% yet but he was better by Sunday & he's back to "normal" (whatever that means) now.
So Saturday & Sunday were much busier than our last October trip. Yuck. Disney is really hyping up Halloween time. Since we don't do much for Halloween it's overboard to us. We usually miss Haunted Mansion the "good" way when we go in the Fall but it was okay since crowds were less & it wasn't a super favorite ride to begin with. We do not enjoy the Nightmare Before Christmas junk. Now they have done a Halloween overlay to our favorite ride-Space Mountain. It was not impressive. I tried to close my eyes and imagine the old music every time we rode it. We're re-thinking our favorite time of year & thinking of trying January or February instead.
Sunday we took the kids to the beach since the park was getting too busy. It was Hannah's 2nd trip to the beach but she was only 2 1/2 the first time so she doesn't remember it. We do though & that's why it's taken this long to give it another try. She didn't like the feel of sand on her hands & feet. That makes it a bit difficult to enjoy the beach. It was Joshua's 1st visit & they both loved it. They collected lots of shells at Huntington Beach. They went part way in the water. Not me-too cold. I was just the photographer.
We couldn't wait till Monday. Mon-Thurs was much better. I wish it was cooler though.
On Hannah's birthday we had lunch at Taste Pilots Grill in California Adventure. We got special treatment by being seated at a "reserved" table complete with tablecloth,linen napkins,actual silverware,salt & pepper shakers, glass mini bottles of ketchup & mustard, & plastic drink cups. Then they brought our food out on ceramic plates. Fancy, huh? This was fancy compared to packets of condiments,plastic forks,paper cups/napkins, & plastic food baskets with a paper liner. Then they checked to see if we needed refills or anything & our server (this place doesn't have "servers") brought out a birthday card for Hannah signed by the workers. I don't know if we got the reserved table by chance or if they saw Hannah's b-day button before giving it to us. I think they saw the button after we got the table & then got the card signed. Either way it was special & people were probably wondering why we were there. Kinda cool.
Since Pixie Hollow was built where Ariel's clamshell used to be Ariel can only be seen at the Princess Fantasy Fair which I greatly dislike. I really like the old ways of meeting a particular princess. There's no guarantee which princess will be in the meet & greet when you finally make it up to the front. Can you tell I don't like change? We wanted a picture with Ariel in her human form as we'd never got that before & Hannah wore her Belle dress that day so we were hoping for Belle too. We waited in line while the boys did something else. They hate waiting for that. After 15 minutes or so a cast member tells us (because of Hannah & several other "Belles" around us) Belle is usually a closing princess along with Ariel & Jasmine. If we come back at 5:20 we should get the 2 we need. So we did that. We came back & we were close to the front when there was some sort of medical emergency inside. We were never told what happened but they eventually had the 3 princesses come outside for pictures. It was not with each one individually but one picture with all 3 but I'd rather take it than leave it! I was bummed that the photo pass photographer did not come out too as you all have heard me say my camera takes lousy pictures in bad lighting & it was about dusk. I did get a pretty good shot though.
The birthday person usually gets to pick the place for lunch. Hannah had originally picked the Golden Horseshoe for lunch while watching Billy Hill & the Hillbillies. Well, they don't play on Tuesdays which is why we ended up at CA Adventure that day. We had to wait till Thursday to see them for Hannah's b-day. We were the 3rd group in for the 1st show so we got one of those tables on stage. Very fun. They are so funny.
We met a few villains this year. Hannah met Captain Hook,the Queen of Hearts,the evil queen from Snow White & her as the old hag. Joshua wouldn't go to meet Cruella DeVil who wanted to know if we had any dogs at home. If I had thought fast enough I would have offered her our neighbors' many annoying dogs. He also wouldn't meet the old hag who pretended to be afraid of him by hiding behind a curtain. I figure it must be fun to be a villain so you can be rude to people & just be in character. Like when Cruella came out. We were 2nd in line for the 1st pictures of the day. She came out but the 1st group in front of us was not ready. She made comments about how they should be ready for her & to hurry up because she didn't have all day. Hannah met the evil queen while in her Belle dress. The queen sneers at her and says "So, you're into princesses? Quite a downgrade from Queen, don't you think?" Too funny. We had just missed Jafar one day but I got a picture before he left. We'd never seen him before.
Joshua has learned to like the wet rides better IF he has a raincoat. He would ride Grizzly River Run over & over like his sister if I let him have a raincoat. One day we did ride it 4 times (I think) in a row. I guess I lost count. He refused Tower of Terror & California Screamin'.
We did Turtle Talk with Crush again. Hannah got picked to ask Crush a question. She asked him where his wife was. Apparently his wife's name is Shelly & she's on a beach somewhere relaxing before more little "Crushes" hatch. I really wish I could see how they do this attraction. It's so cool.
Another special thing we never got to do before was ride with the pilot in the front of the monorail. We rode the monorail out to Downtown Disney on our last day. Todd asked if we could sit up front-usually it's already taken. Only about 5 people can fit in there so it was a private ride. Cool view from the very front. Since we knew it would be busy our last day & our motel changed their parking rules (we had to leave by 3pm) we had to change our usual plans. We used to stay till 8pm & drive home. That's when crowds were low & the motel let us keep our van there the whole day of check-out. So instead we got in as many "1 more time" rides as possible before leaving the park for lunch & another beach trip. We ate one more meal at the Jazz Kitchen Express,picked up the van,went to Seal Beach,headed home,ate dinner in Banning, & got home late last night.
Seal Beach was too dirty & the waves were a little rough so we won't go back there. It was hard to find a decent shell too. I did get to see one seal while Todd took the kids down the shore so they missed it. We got a free chocolate cake at KFC for dinner last night since we had to wait for our food. It was not that long of a wait to us but who doesn't want free cake? And that ended the magic.
Now I'm doing tons of laundry & putting stuff away. I'm not looking forward to going to Discount Tire tomorrow. Not only was the tire shredded but it messed up the rim as well. We had just put a brand new tire on last week & here we go again. I just keep telling myself at least we don't have to pay to fix the A/C. The kids have P.E. tomorrow & I have to work. Dentist appointments for the kids Tuesday. Hannah's last theater class & performance Wednesday. Yep, real life awaits.
