Day 13 - Earthquake & Playing at Disney

VM:  Cross another natural disaster off the bucket list.  We have now experienced an earthquake.  OK. More like an earth tremor, but legitimate nonetheless.  Yesterday morning at around 9:30am, I was working in the hotel room and everyone else was at the park.  The "quake" measured about 3.5 on the Richter scale.  I wasn't sure of what it was, until JM checked in with me to make sure I hadn't freaked.  As expected, the Disney parks were well prepared, evacuating the rides swiftly, rerunning safety checks and then opening them up again.  

  

Can you see the castle!?!?!?

We spent Wed. at both parks with our friends CG & KG.  Both dads did a great job of traipsing behind the girls as they ran from ride to ride starting at 7AM!!!!  I didn't make it out there until 1pm and they had already hit the biggies.  At Disney, it really does pay to be the early bird.

Both parks are great.  I particularly like CA Advenure and feel like it doesn't get enough credit for being both an imaginative and fun theme park.

EM and I made it until 9pm while JM & HM stuck it out, not getting home until 11:30pm!!!!

So cool.  On the Matterhorn, they actually have
mountain climbers!

From one man.....

EM posing at CA Adventure.

Cars Land has the coolest souvenir cups ever.

Life is a highway....

Space Mountain West Coast won over Space Mountain
East Coast.

Day 11 & 12 -- San Diego Fun & House of the Mouse

VM:  The days are flying by. On Monday, we had a wonderful day in San Diego.  We decided to visit their world-famous zoo to enjoy the beautiful weather and see some cute animals.  We were not disappointed.

I'd been to the zoo many, many years ago as a kid.  It is really incredible.  They claim to be the world's largest and I believe it.  This zoo rivals most theme parks.  The animals' habitats are really impressive and overall, it is an incredibly maintained park.

HM found her kindred animal -- pack rats.

Keepers maintained the giant male
elephant occupied while his cyst was
examined.

We had various highlights -- a close encounter with an elephant who was having a cyst tended to by his keepers, elephants cooling off like the lion seals we say in San Simeon, a mommy jaguar and her two cubs playing, a mommy flamingo feeding her babe, a polar bear who would not show his face as he was working hard to get at a treat in the rocks underwater, but showed us many times his cute furry behind and of course, the lions.  While the SD Zoo is famous for its koalas and pandas, neither were really cooperating and with the crazy crowds, we decided to be happy with all the cute stuff we saw!

Elephants cooling off.

Momma Jaguar and her babe (on the right).

I

Lioness appeared like she might be expecting.

Baby getting lunch from Momma Flamingo.

Polar bear hiney.  

Girls posing.

In the evening, much to JM's chagrin, we had a mini-party at our dry cleaner's loft.  Prior to heading to the Padres-Cubs game with dear friends, we had everyone over for pizza, salad & beer. It was really a lot of fun and wonderfully convenient as the beautiful baseball stadium is downtown and just blocks from where we stayed.

EC showing us what he's got prior to the game.

Girls had a blast catching up with friends who are boys (NOT boyfriends).  For me, the game was great fun, not because of the sport, but because the San Diego weather and ambiance are so agreeable.  A highlight of the evening was when our friend, KC, caught one of the promotional balls thrown out into the stands.  She later gave the ball to EM as she was close to catching it herself.  As you can imagine, EM treasured it as if it were gold.

Padres made the night extra special by winning the game!

KC shows us she's a baseball momma by catching the
Padres promotional ball flung into the crowd.

Kids spent most of the night trying to make it onto the
big screen.  Unfortunately, to no avail.

"Old" friends catching up.

Two happy girls at the happiest place on earth.

We left SD on Tuesday and headed to Anaheim for the final leg of our Calication.  After an exciting afternoon doing laundry and shipping treasured souvenirs home, we decided to head to the house of the mouse early since I knew work was going to be a little hectic on Wed. & Thurs. and I didn't want to miss time with the girls as we experienced Disney's California Adventure and Disneyland for the first time.

Luckily, our fabulous hotel found by JM is just a 10 minute walk to the entrance.  We decided to first check out the CA park as we all really wanted to see the new Cars Land and it did not disappoint.  Disney Imagineers are truly the masters.  This new area, based on the Cars movies, is incredible.  Every last detail is spot-on.  We were even able to ride on the Racers which the West Coast's version of Test Track back home.  We all decided the theming was out of control, but that we still preferred the speed of Test Track back home.

In Cars Land, the car characters drive
around talking to the guests.

After a spin on their unique ferris wheel and a stop at the fun Monsters ride, we decided to take the plunge & walk across the way to Disneyland.  It was hilarious to experience as the castle in Disneyland is MUCH SMALLER than what we've got in Orlando.  While I'd been here as a kid, I had no recollection of that.  The girls couldn't believe it.  They kept saying how it didn't look "Disney" to them.  And in fact, it does seem a bit out of scale.

The crowds were thicker at Disneyland so we decided be strategic and hit something which was unique to this park -- something we didn't have back home.  So we hit the Matterhorn, the alpine-themed roller coaster.  Still a fun ride even though it was opened in the 50s.  Afterwards, EM gave out.  It was 9pm and she was done.  So was I.

We walked home so everyone could get a good night's sleep.

They headed out early today back to the parks as I had to finish some work items.

You will hear from them later....

Geena Davis

P.S. We had our fourth star sighting of the trip at CA Adventure -- Geena Davis was being escorted around with her family.  She is SUPER TALL.  We of course had to Google it, and confirmed, that yes, indeed, she is 6-feet tall.

JM heading out on his racer.

The attention to detail in Cars Land is typical Disney.

We had a blast checking it all out.

Like father, like daughter.

Braving the big ferris wheel.

Day 10 – Swag Diego & Appreciating our Troops

VM:  Much like Sydney, Australia, San Diego is a little piece of heaven on earth.  It is a beautiful city by the sea with a stunning harbor & picturesque hills in the background.  I’d visited once before, but this is my first time staying “in-town.” 

We are staying at a city apartment in what is known as the Gas Lamp District.  Girls think it’s fantastic as our place was once a dry-cleaning store which has been converted to a 2-bedroom/2-bath ground floor loft with full kitchen.  It is wonderfully located and is definitely funky.  The downside is that you have people who tug on the door during the day thinking they’re finding a neighborhood dry cleaner (yes, the signage is still up).  I wondered why the owner would do that and one of John’s work colleagues guessed that it was probably to not trigger others to what’s inside.  I think his assumption is probably right.

Learning the tricks of the trade from a pro.

We started our day meeting our friends at St. Joseph’s Cathedral for church.  Located downtown, it was built in 1940 and is quite beautiful.  Afterwards, we accompanied JM to the convention center so the girls could experience the “floor.”  This may have been a tactical error as now the girls think that visiting conventions is all about collecting swag from booths.  Our friend’s sons, CC and JC, showed them the ropes – go up to the person, ask politely and smile.  It works.  Most people can’t say no to a kid.  After the third booth, JC, the 12-year-old “trainer,” said to me, “Now they’re getting the hang of it.”  Needless to say, we have a lot of junk, I mean, logo’ed treasures, to haul home.

Product demonstration at a vet convention.

Many miles of convention floor to cover...

While I wasn’t impressed with the swag, I was struck by the difference between this conference and the ones I’ve attended whether for the TV or theme park industries.  This was definitely MUCH more quiet.  A bit more civil.  And definitely not as wacky.  And of course, the highlight was that there were many real-life doggies in attendance helping to peddle wares to the vets, including one who was actually convalescing from an injury.  We all enjoyed meeting JM’s many work colleagues and tried to be on our best behavior. 

After “walking the floor,” we picked up another friend, Dr. Emily, and headed to explore the Midway, a retired aircraft carrier permanently stationed in San Diego harbor.  

It was fascinating to check out the magnitude of the ship coupled with the tight quarters.  Reminded me again how much I appreciate our troops & the sacrifices they make for us. 

Going thru the mess line on the Midway.

We topped off the night at an Italian family-style meal with John’s bosses and peers.  They were all lovely & I don’t think we embarrassed him too bad…

Girls will blog later today.  We're heading to the zoo and a baseball game!

Dr. Emily & Hannah checking out the flight deck.

Top Gun pilots ready for take off!

Beautiful San Diego harbor.

Days 8 & 9 – Traveling the PCH, Zuma, Star Sightings & Laguna Beach

VM:  Our travels have kept us so busy we haven’t even had time to share our thoughts and pictures.  We’re now in San Diego and will try to catch up.   

Saying goodbye to our cute inn in Santa Barbara.

Our girls' road trip took us from Santa Barbara just south to Carpinteria to Rincon Surf Shop (yes, we've been to surf shops EVERYWHERE.) Outside of the store, we met Buddy, a very lovable Corgi who had just moved to the area from Maui (yes, he has a good life!)

Buddy was a mush much like our Millie.

We took the scenic way down via Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu.  We were struck by the MANY RVs who park on the side of the road and even hoist flags.  I guess they're staying awhile to enjoy the beauty that's still affordable.  

We made a stop at the famed Zuma Beach.  True to Baywatch lore, the lifeguards were fairly hunky.  I was expecting to see Pamela Anderson or David Hasselhoff at any moment...

We went down the road to Malibu Country Mart for lunch and had a bonified star sighting and a semi-sighting.  We DEFINITELY saw Andie MacDowell shopping in one of the cute shops.  If you know who she is, well, you're probably in my demo.  The girls were not impressed, but I was.  She was just as beautiful in person as she is on the magazine pages, TV or movies.  For those of you who aren't sure who she is, I've googled a reference pic for you. 

Our second "star" sighting was a bit more dubious.  We are fairly certain we saw Tori Spelling's husband, Dean McDermott,  driving out behind us and next to us on the PCH.  HM pretended she was paparazzi & snapped pics of him as we drove along side of him.  By the way he kept checking himself out in the mirror and casually driving his Mercedes, we decided it could indeed be him.  You decide for yourself....

Beach beauties at Zuma Beach.

Sand fight in Malibu.

HM & KG took the plunge.

HM as paparazzi....

Is it or isn't it Dean McDermott????

Our journey to Laguna via the PCH took us to Santa Monica where the girls spotted the famed pier that we see in TV shows.  Girls begged to stop and we joined the throngs of tourists hitting the oceanside midway.  We even tried to hear our fortune from Zoltar but I was disappointed to see he was nothing like the one in BIG and the girls were even more disappointed that they couldn't understand not a word he said NOR his printed fortune (I'm thinking it was translated from Greek or something cause it truly made absolutely no sense) prompting EM to say, "this is worse than a fortune cookie!"

Is this fun!?!?

Our only fail of the journey was from Santa Monica to Laguna.  I wrongly assumed the journey would be much like the Malibu portion of the PCH.  For the record, it is not.  It is stop & go the whole way down & by no means picturesque.  We finally made it to Laguna late in the evening, but at least we were there safely.

On Saturday morning we headed down to check out the town which pretty much involved visiting every surf store we could find.

Flowers everywhere, with dedicated
gardeners.

In the p.m., the girls had a 2-hour surf lesson with Soul Surfer, a Christian surfing school.  We had two lovely instructors who took the girls down to the beach to the "surf" area & worked with them.  While not big, the Laguna waves definitely packed a punch, but all the girls held their own & had a good time.  I enjoyed my role as mamarazzi & chief people-watcher.  Laguna is definitely full of beautiful people.  Lots of lean surfing bodies who clearly are passing up the cerveza. :-)

Taylor from the Housewives
was hangin' in Laguna

My last semi-"star" sighting was in Laguna.  For those of you who are like me, and admit to watching reality TV, I spotted Taylor from the Beverly Hills Housewives heading down to the beach with a man (no cameras in tow).  Assuming it might be a new beau.  Again, if you need a reference pic -- here you go.

Couldn't resist this quintessential Laguna pic -- note the
signs behind the VW.

HM: Laguna Beach was so incredibly beautiful.  But before I start there, let's go back to Malibu.  All I can say, is there were a lot of hot lifeguards and guys hanging out.  The surf was so big, but KG and I had fun trying to body surf.

We hit every surf store in the area.

Now back to Laguna.  We hit Rip Curl and a few local surf shops including one that was owned by the president of Billabong (VM NOTE: a big surf company) except he didn't want to name it Billabong so he named it after a breaker in Laguna, Second Reef Surf Shop.

Surfing was amazing.  Biggest waves I've ever surfed in my life.

San Diego is beautiful, but really, all of Cali is.

Soul Surfer was a great spot.

EM:  I had a lot of fun on the Santa Monica Pier.  I rode the roller coaster and it was really fun.  We all chanted "again! again! again!" and the guy let us go twice.  I liked our house in Laguna, but the problem was that the woman who we rented from got confused so the maid hadn't made our beds.  So mom made the beds cause we were really tired.

I had fun surfing in Laguna.  My person who helped me, Preston, helped me work on my pop-ups.  He was very nice.

We got to San Diego.  I love where we're staying.

All the girls carried their boards several blocks to the
beach with mamarazzi trailing behind them....

Practicing correct stance.

Surfer girl taken a break.

HM showing her moves.

Probably why the girls really like surfing.

Living the lifestyle.

After hanging ten in Laguna.  A pic at the Soul Surfer "surf shack."