Journal of our west coast vacation that we took in June of 2014. Some of the picture qualities are pretty bad since I used my phone to take a lot of the pics. I cannot figure out the picture spacing for this blog either so, even though it's driving me crazy to publish this post with the pics not lined up evenly I have spent way too much time trying to figure it out. So, here it is:
Day 1:
Flight from Charlotte to Salt Lake City, UT
Flight from Salt Lake to Las Vegas, NV
Drive to somewhere in CA
Day 2:
San Francisco
Stay the night in Monterey, CA
Day 3:
Drive the PCH to Disney
Day 4:
Disneyland/California Adventure
Day 5:
Huntington Beach, CA
Los Angeles and Hollywood, CA
Drive to Las Vegas to stay the night
Day 6:
Las Vegas, NV
Hoover Dam
Lake Mead
Day 1:
We flew out of Charlotte @ 7:50 am to Salt Lake City, Utah. The flight was almost 4 hours long. We landed in Salt Lake and boarded a plane to Las Vegas. We flew over Salt Lake and it looked so cool! Our flight to Las Vegas was a little less than an hour. When we landed we took a bus to Avis rental car where we picked up our van. Our rental car was a Chrysler Town & Country van and it actually had a DVD player!! Our first stop was the gas station to load up on snacks and drinks. Then we stopped by Redbox and got a couple of movies. Then we hit the highway. We were hoping to make it to the Sequoia National Forest before dark. As soon as we pulled on the interstate the traffic was at a standstill. It took us about 2 hours to go 30 miles and the kids were already asking "how much longer?" We stopped at the Mad Greek Diner and got a gyro and some fried zucchini to pass the time. It soon became obvious we wouldn't make Sequoia before dark. We drove several hours through nothing but desert. We saw several places along the way that were lined with windmills. The temp got up to 112*. Chris got pulled over for holding his cellphone in his hand to check the GPS. We stopped in Selma, CA for dinner at Pizza Hut. We arrived at our hotel, a Comfort Suites, in Modesto around 10:00. We spent about 9 hours in the car.
Day 2:
Up at 6:45, realizing it's 9:45 at home and our bodies are still on eastern time. Breakfast at the hotel and pack up. Stopped by redbox and picked up Ride Along and Free Birds. Have a 2.5 hour drive to Muir Woods. More traffic at a standstill before getting to San Francisco. Noticing a big change in temp from yesterday. It's 66 degrees outside!! We drove over the bay and passed San Francisco to our left to go to the forest. We are so excited but can see the fog over the Golden Gate Bridge is still really bad. We drove over the bay on a beautiful bridge called Richmond San Rafael Bridge. At the end of the bridge was an overlook with a very long pier and San Quentin prison was on the other side. We drove down a very windy road to a very busy Muir Woods National Monument. It was very peaceful and serene with beautiful trees but it's still disappointing that we missed seeing Sequoia. We took a few pics and stopped to get lunch at Subway. Then we started our drive towards the Golden Gate. As we rounded the corner on 101, there it was...so beautiful, and barely visible through the fog. We took the road for the overlook and drove up. We got out and took many, many pics. The water was hitting the rocks at the bottom and the fog cleared out a little for us to get a couple good pics. The kids were scared to drive over the bridge since it was so foggy but as you drive through it you don't really see the fog. As soon as we crossed the bridge we got a really good look of the city and a beach to the left of us. We tried to go down and eat lunch on the beach but you had to have an access card to get through. Turns out it was Fort Point at the Presidio. Very beautiful grounds and facilities. The Walt Disney Museum is here too, which we thought was a weird place for it but there must be a good reason for it. We really hated to ride by and not stop but we had looked this up before our trip and didn't think the kids would be interested. So, we ate lunch in the car and headed to Lombard St., one of the steepest and curviest streets in the world. It was fun to drive down that and there were people everywhere taking pics of the drivers coming down that street, it's only a block long. Then we drove down to Fisherman's Wharf and parked the van. (Don't think we have mentioned how much we hit the jackpot with the rental van-DVD player, about 10 cup holders, an actual power outlet that has come in very handy for charging the camera battery, and enough USB and charger outlets for every phone, iPod, iPad and Nintendo that we have!!) We walked down to Pier 39 and saw (and heard) the sea lions that gather at the end of the pier. Everyone was pretty interested in that. We hit up a couple of souvenir shops and Owen broke a snow globe in one of the shops :( THEN we went to Boudin Sourdough and picked up some jalapeño cheddar rolls and sourdough baguettes (yummy!!). We drove over to the cable car turnstiles to see about taking a ride but the lines were several hundred people long and that was longer than anyone wanted to wait. None of us were really interested in riding them, but it seemed like something that San Francisco is known for and we were gonna give it a try but it wasn't worth it. Then we went to Chinatown and there is a little store there called the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory that allows you to come inside and take pictures of them making the cookies. It was down a little sketchy alleyway but the people inside were so friendly. We had to pay 50 cents to take pics (it's free to watch if you don't take pics), and we bought a big bag of fortune cookies to take with us. Payton loved Chinatown, Hello Kitty was everywhere!! And one last thing before we headed out...we drove over to 1709 Broderick St. to see the house used from Full House!! The kids recognized the house even though it has since been painted purple :P. The drive to Monterey was nice, and Monterey is much more populated than what we thought. We checked into our room at Comfort Inn Monterey by the sea and then looked for a laundromat. Our hotel didn't have laundry rooms and someone put the cooler in the back with the suitcases and it leaked all over Camden's clothes. He didn't have a single dry thing except for what he was wearing and the laundromat was already closed. So we hung up his clothes and headed over to Dennis the Menace Park. They had the best time and we stayed until it was dark. We had reservations for 8pm at El Torito on Cannery Row but we stayed at the park until almost 8:45. We drove on over and there wasn't a crowd and they seated us right on the water, the view was beautiful but too dark to take any pics. We had some really good chicken, bacon, avocado and corn relish egg rolls. Kids were pretty happy with the food there too. After dinner we went to Safeway and picked up some groceries. They had pineapple fanta in 12 pack cans!! I have only been able to find that in New York and HHI. Back at the hotel we dried one of Camden's outfits with a hair dryer and then everyone showered and went to bed.
Day 3:
We woke up and went to breakfast at the hotel and then rode back over to take a pic of the restaurant from last night. Picked up Planes and Duck Dynasty Hawaii out of the redbox and headed south on the Pacific Coast Highway. First stop was Lover's Point Park, still in Monterey. We read that the sea lions hang out on the beach there with their babies but we didn't see any. It was 55* and drizzling. We did see a lot of fishing boats just off the shore there though and that was pretty cool. Next, we drove to Bixby Bridge. There are several bridges along PCH and they are all nice to see. Somewhere along the way, there was a mountain island in the ocean with a lighthouse and several houses on top of it. You could see the winding road that went to the top and we passed a gate on the road that said it was some sort of naval station. We drove through Big Sur, it was such a cute little town with a couple of rustic gas stations and general stores. On the other side of Big Sur is Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and that is where Mcway Falls are. We have been looking forward to seeing the falls. They fall right into the ocean off of the side of the mountain. Kinda scary keeping everyone off of the edges of the trail though, so we walked down for a couple of pics and left pretty quickly. There is no cell service along the route from Monterey to Morro Bay, which is where we got off, not sure how it is past that. The drive is very curvy and mostly pretty high up. There are houses at the top of the mountains and on the very edge of the cliffs. I think the kids were most impressed by the labradoodle cruising in the side car of his daddy's motorcycle. Just when we thought we couldn't take the windy, steep road we came down the mountain and hit a straight path of roadway right at sea level. We passed Piedras Blancas Light Station and then came up to Vista Point. Vista Point has a nice overlook on the beach and there are hundreds of elephants seals napping on the beach. After that we passed Hearst Castle up on the mountain, you could barely see it but it was well marked along the road. We drove into Morro Bay and had lunch at The Dutchman's which was right on the sea. Morro Bay Aquarium was right beside the restaurant. Payton and Rylee went in to take a look and feed the sea lions. There was a starfish there that looked just like Patrick from Spongebob! Morro Rock is an extinct volcano that sits right on the edge of the shore. After lunch we went down to the ocean to stick our feet in the water. The sand was very warm but the water was very cold. It was still only around 55*. Then we loaded up in the car to head to Disneyland. We drove down Hwy 101 and traffic was pretty bad again, it didn't help that we went through LA and Hollywood during rush hour :( We arrived at the hotel around 7:30. We stayed at Disney's Grand Californian. Some of the rooms overlook the theme park and it is pure luck if you get one, you can't request it. Guess it was out lucky day!! When we walked into the room the kids could see the rides right through the sliding glass door. Owen did not hide his excitement at all. The kids got to swim in the pool for a little while but it was very cold, near 60* outside and the sun had already gone down. We walked to the ticket counter and went ahead and got our tickets for Disney for the next day. We got park hopper tickets so we would be able to go to both parks. We decided to turn in for the evening since we will be getting up early to be at the parks by 7am for a Disney extra magic hour. Oh, and our room had a washer and dryer in it so thankfully we got a couple loads of laundry done!!
Day 4:
We didn't get up as early as we had planned. But, we were ready to go by 7:30 and walked through the hotel gates into California Adventure. We went right over to Soarin' and there wasn't a line. Me and the kids got in line and Chris went and got in the line for Radiator Springs Racers Fastpass tickets. The kids LOVED Soarin'! After that we met up with Chris and went to ride the Fun Wheel and some other fun rides in that area. We had fast passes for Goofy's Sky School so we rode that and then went over to Cars Land. It was pretty impressive, looked just like Radiator Springs from the movies. The line for Radiator Springs Racers was already 90 minutes long. With the fast passes we had we only waited about 5 minutes. That ride was so much fun!! We did some tractor tippin' and rode the air on Luigi's tires and then had a snack at The Cozy Cone Cafe. We went to A Bug's Land and then to Monsters Inc. After that we went to Disneyland. We stood in line for almost an hour to ride the Matterhorn Bobsleds. Then we went to get lunch in Mickey's Toontown. At Toontown we saw Mickey and Goofy's house and Chip and Dale's Treehouse. Then, we rode the train over to the Haunted Mansion. After that we rode some rides in Fantasyland and headed to the monorail to ride to Downtown Disney. We walked through Downtown Disney back to the hotel and the kids went swimming for a little while. We went back to Downtown Disney to Rainforest Cafe for dinner. After dinner we had fast passes to go to World of Color which is a water show that lights up to the music with Disney characters that tell a story. Really beautiful. We could also see some of this from our room. Everyone was exhausted and 2 fell asleep during the water show so we headed to the room and straight to bed.
Day 5:
We got up and packed up and headed to the pool. We hung out at the pool for about and hour and then walked over to Downtown Disney. Payton and Owen got to pick out souvenirs here. Owen got a Cars ball and bat, Payton got a stuffed Pluto and a stuffed Princess Sofia doll. We also got Uno and a Disneyland puzzle. Then we loaded up the car and headed to Huntington Beach. We stopped at an In N Out Burger to get lunch. Then we went to the beach at the pier of Huntington Beach. It was so pretty!! The kids ran around and had a great time. Camden and Owen played baseball, Jacob took selfies with my camera, Payton swaddled her new Sophia doll in a beach towel and the rest of us finished our lunch and watched the surfers. After the beach we headed into Los Angeles. First stop, Griffith Observatory. We did see the Hollywood sign from here but the view was not that great. It was still so far away. Then we drove down to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We parked and walked down the street and pointed out so many names we knew!! We stopped at Grauman's Chinese Theater and we all put our hands into someone's prints that we knew. Then, we decided it was time for dinner and we headed to Pinks!! The line was so long and the food was so yummy. Then we drove down Sunset and looked for a few stores we have seen on TV-DASH and Sur. We saw a crowd of paparazzi outside one of the restaurants, that was pretty exciting. We never did figure out who was in there that was so interesting to everyone. Next we rode down Rodeo Drive and that was so cool. The shops were amazing and we really liked looking at the cars that were in the dealership windows. It was a little after 9pm and we stopped at the gas station to stock up on a few drinks and snacks before we headed through the desert.
Day 6:
Day 7:
Today we go home :( . We got up and returned the van and headed back to the airport. First flight was to Minneapolis, MN. The turbulence was pretty scary. We went through a time change and it was around 4:00 when we landed. We wanted to go over to the Mall of America but we only had an hour and a half layover. Then some storms rolled in and they delayed our flight every hour for several hours. They also changed our boarding gate 3 times to a gate that was all the way on the other side of the airport. It was the best airport though to have a long layover. There were charging stations and ipads and comfy chairs everywhere. We finally boarded the plane around 11:00!! Then as we were rolling out onto the runway the pilot said we were getting delayed again due to more bad weather. We finally took off close to midnight. We got back home around 1:30 in the morning.
Hands down, amazing vacation!! Words cannot describe what an amazing time we had, hoping to visit again soon!! It literally was a dream come true, I have been planning a trip like this for so long. I feel so blessed to have spent this time together with my family.
