Observations from the So Cal Vacation

We just returned from a great 6 day vacation in Southern California. We are roughly five and a half hours away from Anaheim our first stop along the vacation trip. We left a little late and suffered through some stopped traffic along our route so that it actually took us 6 and half hours to get down there.

It was April in Southern California. The weather is pretty hard to predict. We have been there before and it was icy cold and rainy during our visit to Disneyland. This year's weather was not uncomfortable but not rainy or hot. Easter is very late this year. Our trip occurred just before Easter. Starting on Wednesday night, we were out of the Anaheim area on Saturday morning.

The park was not packed but it was full. Spring break for the kids in school, with testing and the like can occur almost any time in March or April. The week before Easter was the traditional time we had Easter Break.

Wednesday Night

We decided to meet the kids (our daughters) down in Orange County for three nights and two days at Disneyland. They met together in Oakland and flew down together. We picked them up Wednesday night at John Wayne Airport and drove them back to our hotel in Garden Grove, about four miles away. Our youngest daughter, flew down from Seattle, our eldest daughter had to work late on Wednesday so she made it over to Oakland and together they flew down. It all worked out. I picked them up at the airport and immediately made a wrong turn and ended up at UC Irving looking for a freeway that would take us back to the hotel. My tech savy daughters used the map function and Siri on their Iphones to get us back on track and headed on the right highway to our hotel rooms.

Sue and I had arrived earlier and had hidden a couple of bags of chocolate Sees foil Easter eggs in their room. When they arrived they had a great time together trying to find all of the eggs. You are never too old for a good Easter egg hunt. They loved it.  We had a blast finding tricky spots to hide the eggs in the hotel room.

Our hotel, the Crowne Plaza Hotel is a great 3 star hotel with a great customer approval rating through Hotwire.com. We have stayed here before and like its accessibility to the park independently of the Disney parking shuttles. We got great 5th floor with super beds and quiet surroundings. This is pretty amazing considering that the hotel was also occupied by masses of Korean tourists with their tour guide and 7 busloads of junior high school band students from Belmont, California there for a band review and workshops. Many of the band members had parents traveling with them trailing the bus and a group of adult chaperones. The only time I saw the kids a little out of control was when they tried to have a soccer match on the Mezzanine level.

Thursday 
 
The next morning the girls and I walked across the street to the Cocos and had breakfast. Also, next to the Cocos is a giant Target. We are always happy to see this as we seem to forget one thing or another that makes a trip to Target an easy connection.

Sue was up when we got back and Linzi drove us to the Chip and Dale parking lot. It was full so we were redirected to the Buz Light Year Parking lot. We got our own bus that knelled and produced a ramp for the powerchair to zoom up. We let the people know that Sue could "transfer" (move out of her powerchair once it was positioned.) They are always happy to hear that. They were also happy to hear that we had lift connections so that they could attach their straps to the sides and save several more complicated moves to secure the chair to the floor of the bus.

We made it into the Disneyland Park with little line. Sue wanted to do the small world attraction first. We made our way to it and had a great time people watching along the way. It was lunch time so we decided to do the Carnation dinning area on Main Steet. It was a great place. As in most places we bought  dinner for three and shared them around to feed four. Its a great equation for us. I ordered a hamburger that had a a fried egg on it. The girls ordered a couple of spinach salads with dried cranberries and hard boiled egg slices. The appetizer was deep fried pickles.. much better than it sounds.

Mom's next choice was Pirates of the Caribbean. The girls split off and did gift shops instead. Sue is a connoisseur of  Pirates and delights at all the differences that they have made since that last time that she had rolled down the waterfalls in the little boats.

We tried to do Peter Pan next, but its line even for that handicapped entrance was too long and they were taking names for a return, Its appeal is getting on a ski lift sort of boat as it travels over the city of London in the dark. Alice in Wonderland was down for repairs and that could have send more people to Peter Pan.

We took a ride on the Mark Twain steamship. Having Sue with us allowed us first dibs at the bow seats. It was the first time the girls had ever had a chance to be at the front of the ship as it made its way around on the Rivers of America. How fun. We were the first on and the last off.

Sue had a great time in the gift shops. She bought a new watch. It has a subtle mickey in a white face with a clear plastic band. She likes to get a new watch each time. It is practical souvenir and most of the watches are not available on line or in any other store. She also bought some small silver Tinkerbell earrings.   

Sue and I did the horseshoe review. It was not as great a show as it used to be. No dancing ladies just a cowboy country comedy routine. It was a nice place to stop and share a mint ice cream sundae.

After that we all met up and headed through the throngs of people stopped to watch the parade. At one point we were concerned with Ariel as she looked too animated on her seaweed pedestal high above the crowd. We headed out the gates and got on our shuttle to the parking lot.

Power chair battery stamina is always in the back our mind so the batteries were pretty drained by the time we headed back to the room.

That night we ate at Outback and had a great dinner.