We arrived in LA about 2pm. Our first stop in California was at Alamo Car Rental on West Katella in Anaheim. I can't wait to cruise LA in our convertable. Next, we headed to Anaheim RV Village and set up the RV for our stay. We are right next to the entrance to Disneyland. Luckily, we all showered before we left Vegas so we just changed our clothes and went to sight see.
**I wrote all of that before it actually happened, it did not really go down all that smoothly. Here is the real story**
Arrived in California about 4:00. Driving the RV through the streets of Anaheim was interesting. We had the GPS set to take us to the rental car company, but when we got there, it was obvious that we were not going to be able to stop in that location due to the size of the parking lot. They say everything is bigger in Texas, everything is smaller in Calli. So we proceded to the RV park which was not that far away. We were within walking distance to Disneyland. We got the RV set up and called Alamo to “come pick us up”. Jose (not sure if that was his name or not, but he looked like a Jose) came to pick us up in a mini van. The conversation to Alamo was quite interesting. Jose asked, “mind if I ask yous a question?” Of course, we replied, “sure” “Do you know cost of moving trailer from NC to here?” Matt thought he was asking how much it cost us to get across the country in our RV, but then we figured out he was talking about a mobile home, a “trailer”. Jose went on, “See, I have this friend that loves it here, got a job and everything, but her “home” is in NC, Charlotte.” Matt, “it would be better to just sell it”. “Ohhh, she cannot do that, she illegal and they are not nice to illegals there.” Matt, “I am from NC.” Jose, “Ohhh, are you a US citizen?” The look on Matt’s face was priceless. Luckily, he just said yes.
When we arrived at Alamo, Tricia, the nice Alamo lady, was very glad to see us. I had called earlier to let her know that we were going to be later than we thought and she remembered us. She asked about our trip and took our credit card. Then she said, “let’s go pick out a car”. As we were walking out the door, she went on to explain that the convertible that we reserved had some mechanical issues so we would have to pick something else. Matt looked at me, knowing how disappointed I was. I had sooo been looking forward to cruising the California coast in a convertible. I think I even pouted. The parking lot was full of SUV’s, Cadillac’s, Mini vans and in the middle of it all was a Mercedes Benz. Tricia had already told us we could pick any car, and Matt zeroed in on it right away. He was trying to hold back his excitement, knowing how disappointed I was. She said, “You want the Benz? It does have a sunroof. It’s all yours if you want it.” Matt just about jumped up and down like a child. The smile on his face helped ease my disappointment. So, for the next three days, we were driving a Benz. The best part, not only did we not have to pay full price, but we only paid the price for a compact car. We liked Tricia, this was the BEST customer service we have seen in quite some time. She even called us about 3 hours later to let us know that they found a convertible for us because she knew how disappointed I was. But we found out that there was not enough seatbelts in the Mustang so we just kept the Mercedes. Matt drove, or I should say, out drove everyone else on the road, he was like a kid in a candy store. I drove it some too, it was fast….way more power than my lead foot needs. It was fun though.
We then took a drive out to the Santa Monica Pier, where we hit the official end of our journey on Rt. 66. It was COLD. It was not sunny, at all, and not what I expected when we got to the beach. We looked for some sweatshirts but choose to just tough it out instead. As we walked down the pier, we stopped to listen to a one man band who was singing and playing about 30 instruments. As we stood there listening, we realized that he was on the current season of America’s Got Talent. His name is Arthur Nakane and he was really funny. He asked our names and then played a song for us. We laughed and he was great. Side note: while we were staying in Reno, (night from hell as Yoda would call it) we saw Walter on AGT on TV. We stopped at the end of the pier for dinner at Marisol, a Mexican Cantina. We bought our Santa Monica Pier magnet and headed back to the car. We had fun looking at the people…there were all kinds. We then headed downtown to Hollywood. We were on Hollywood Blvd. in not time. We walked around until we got to Gromans Chinese Theatre. We had fun looking at the hand prints and signatures on the ground as well as the stars. Michael Jackson’s star was drawing the most attention. We tried to go to Mickey’s Café for ice cream but they closed on us. We did see Spider Man though. He was hanging out across from The Kodak Theater. Spidey needed a new costume, his was a little small or maybe he needed to have on underwear?!? I know that leaping tall building in a single bound is a tough job and all, but undergarments are a necessity when around small children. Just sayin. Speaking of super hero’s, Batman and Cat Woman were at Santa Monica Pier. Forgot that important detail. At least they had on underwear. We tried to find the Holleywood sign, but we never found it.
We did not get back until late. We had planned to go to Disney the next day (Friday) but we were pretty tired so we decided we would figure it out in the morning. We did not wake up until about 8:30, so we decided to go to Disney on Saturday instead. We drove up to the coast on Friday, drove up to Malibu and tried to find some houses to the stars. We tried to book a studio tour but they did not have any times available. We also went to Downtown Disney. We were a little disappointed here….it is nothing like Florida. The highlight was watching them make Mickey and Minnie mouse candy apples. Megan decided she was going to get one before we left. We were not even there for an hour. We were hungry, so we looked for a restaurant on the GPS. We found Millie’s family restaurant. We thought we were going somewhere else, but we ended up there so we just stopped. There are parking attendants in all of the parking lots so that people don’t use the spots for Disney parking. The parking attendant kindly said to Matt as he rolled down the window, “Are you checking in with us?” Matt replied, “NO, I wanna eat!” We all laughed hysterically…he did not even realize that he said it the way he did…it was hilarious. We did eat…not the best food, but it was food and we were hungry. We then made our way back to the RV park for some relaxation. We swam a bit and just hung out until bed. Then, we needed ice cream, so we went for an ice cream run.
We got up early and headed to the parks. I had been worried that the kids were going to be disappointed with Disneyland since they have been to Disney World so many times. We were pleasantly surprised. We had a GREAT day and there was plenty for us to do. We rode Space Mountain first. It was much better than DW. It was darker and seemed much fast and longer. We ended riding it twice while we were there. The wait times were not bad. The only rides we had to wait for were the Toy Story and Splash Mountain. There was a HUGE Mr. Potato Head that was fully animated…it was cool and he interacted with the crowd while we were waiting for the ride. The Toy Story Ride was a video game where you had to play games as you rode through to gather points. That was a lot of fun. My arm hurt from pulling the target so many times. Matt won of course. Brett won Buzz Light Year, the ride. We walked over to California Adventure about 10am to get our fast pass for the reserved location for the World of Color Show later that evening. That took forever, but the show was spectacular and worth the time we waited for the tickets. During the show, two little children took a liking to Megan. They shared their popcorn with her and they had a grand time laughing and chatting while we were waiting for the show. The show was a light and water show and it was amazing. We will try to post the video when we get to a hot spot.
As we were headed to Screamin, one of the roller coasters, there was a Mickey location and we were able to get our picture with him. Mickey kissed Megan, wish we would have gotten a picture of that. The rollercoasters were great…much better than standing in line for hours at DW. We rode Tower Of Terror twice in a row too. Most of the rides took longer to walk through the line area than we actually had to wait…that was nice. We stopped at the candy store to get Meg’s Minnie Candy Apple. Brett got one too. They were almost too cute to eat, almost.
By mid-day my foot was killing me. The dry desert air had taken a toll on my left heal, it was cracked and started to bleed. Not good when you still have hours to walk around a theme park. I chose to rest at the castle while Matt and the kids whet to ride Buzz. When they came back, we had to walk back to the other park. I was in so much pain, by now, my entire heal was swollen. They decided to get me a wheel chair. Let me just say that Matt is a good RV driver, he is not a good wheelchair driver. It was Nascar, Disney style. He said if I have to wheel you around, I might as well have fun…and fun he had!! The kids liked the fact that we were able to go into the rides through the exit, which was much faster than waiting in line. We also had a special viewing area for the World of Color show too, so that was nice. I kind of wished I would have gotten the chair earlier in the day. Every step I took hurt so riding in the wheelchair made me feel much better, except when Matt was pushing. I had to use my own breaks…my right foot…so that innocent people were not harmed in the process. They had to push me uphill on the Indiana Jones ride…they made a train and all pushed each other…wish I had a picture of that one. We bought a Yoda Backpack. We had been seeing them all day. When you put it on your back, it looks like Yoda is riding piggy back…he is our trip mascot. He sits behind my captain’s chair in the RV and he navigates for us. Megan wants to wear him to school. We had a great day and everyone got to ride everything several times so that was great. We stayed until the park closed.
This has been a rough trip on our feet. Brett got a blister on heal, but he did not complain until we got home. I think I forgot this, while we were at the Grand Canyon, we broke a couple of glasses accidentally as they dropped out of the cabinets. (contents shift while in motion) Matt got a large piece of glass stuck in his foot and I had to do surgery to get it out. We thought we were going to have to find a park ER. It was not easy and he was in some serious pain but I got it out.
Sunday morning, we had reservation at The Castaway Restaurant in Burbank. We saw this restaurant on The Travel Channel as one of the top 10 Brunch locations. We dropped off the rental car and headed north. When we got to Burbank, it was obvious that it was not going to be easy to get to the restaurant. We had to travel through a neighborhood and up a mountain to get there. We took out some tree limbs, but we made it. As we drove up to the restaurant, the looks we got from the golfers were not as good as the looks we got from the restaurant Valets. They did not offer to park the RV for us, instead, they just moved the cones and directed us to the back of the lot, right off the side of the mountain. I don’t think they expected the tip we gave them. Brunch was great. Sushi, shrimp (with the best cocktail sauce I have ever tasted), omelets, Bananas Foster, Eggs Benedict and lots of other things were consumed by our family. Matt and I even had a glass of champagne. We were hoping to see some stars, but no luck this time. Although, I am not sure we would have recognized one if they had been there anyway. Brunch was all we had hoped it would be. Did I mention that Megan and I got Brunch Dresses for the trip.
We boarded the rv for the looong trip headed north east. We all had full bellies and we were quite tired. We had to stop several times. The kids slept for hours and I could not keep my eyes open to save my life. The Sierra mountains were beautiful. Some of them still had snow at the top. We enjoyed the cooler weather. There were several areas where one lane was closed going down the mountain. We all held our breath as we took the RV through the narrow barricades on the side of the mountain. We took careful strides to choose a place to stop for the night. We decided on stopping in Reno at the Atlantis Hotel after calling around. We figured we could swim for a bit and sleep well in a nice bed. I still had not put my quarter in a slot machine either, so I could do that there as well. We did not get to the hotel until about 9:30. After we checked in, we headed up to our room. When I made the reservation, I asked several times about the room having a pull out sofa. The lady told me it did. When we got to the room, it did not. It only had two queen beds. The room was very nice, but there are 5 of us. I called down to the desk and they told me that they did not have any rooms that would sleep 5. I could not put a cot in the room either. So we had no other choice but to buy a second room. But there were not any other rooms on the same floor so we had to switch to two new rooms. I was not a happy camper at this point. I explained that I was given the wrong information over the phone. She told me that there was a new person in reservations and that was probably who I talked with. Blah, blah, blah! So, she discounted our rooms $10.00 and we went on our way to the 6th floor, changed our clothes into our bathing suits and headed to the pool. One of the specific things I was looking for was a pool that would be open late so we could swim, the lady told me it was open until 11:00. Most of the other places I called had pools but they closed at 10:00. You guessed it, when we got to the pool at 10:02, it was closed. Not a good night at all….I did not even feel like dropping my quarter at that point, so we went back to our rooms. Matt went to the drink machine to get us all a coke. He came back, reporting that the coke machine had two cokes, $4.00 worth, stuck in the machine. Again, this was NOT our night. SO we called the desk again and he went to another floor for drinks. The kids watched a movie (that cost us $12.99) and Matt and I watched TV until our room service arrived. When I am mad or sad, I eat. We enjoyed some snacks and went to bed.
We woke up Monday morning about 8:30 and got ready for another long drive. We got breakfast at McDonald’s because the kids were having sweet tea withdrawals. They were disappointed when they did not have chicken biscuits but the sweet tea made up for it. We had to have a little chit chat with the kids as well. I guess it is good that we have not had to deal with teenager attitude until day 11. But, we don’t want to have to deal with it for the next 10 days so we nipped it quickly…we hope, anyway. I will have to let you know, it has only been a few hours. Along I-80, there were things written in the river basin (which was pretty dry, not completely dry, but pretty dry looking), so we stopped to leave our mark as well. We pulled over and got out of the RV. We all laughed as Matt slid down the small hill where the kids and I were writing our names. Brett, Zach, Hi, Matt <3’s Micki were all carved into the ground. Megan started collecting rocks to make her name, but gave up before she was done. We carefully started to walk back to the RV. I was last, making sure everyone else was careful, and my right foot went down into the mud, breaking the hard surface on the top. So, when I tried to lift my foot, my flip flop stayed in the ground, causing me to put more weight on my left foot which ended up in the mud as well. Brett came to retrieve my flip flops for me and he almost went down as well. I could not walk on the rocks do I had to put my mud covered rainbows on my feet. I tried to think of it as a mud mask for my poor feet. Gross is the only word I can think of when I recall that event. We are now driving to Yellowstone. We are not sure where we are going to stop tonight. We will pick up our rental car early in the morning and tour the park for two days. Did I mention that on this stop we have no electricity? And no generator use after 8pm. This should be interesting to say the least.
