Southern California Vacation

Emma and I flew down to Burbank on Saturday, August 13th where my family picked me up and we ate dinner that night at a delicious restaurant called Islands Restaurant. From our booth by the window we could see Aramark Uniform Services (AUS) Headquarters which was funny. Pat took a picture for me to send to Bry. Emma colored more than usual and it was great.

Most of the rest of the pictures in this post were taken on Becca's camera by Becca. Some, like the ones above, are pictures from my phone.

Sunday we took it easy (thank you those who went down and grabbed breakfast from what the hotel had out) and attended 11am church, came back for kids' naptime, and then did some sight-seeing. First we stopped at the Los Angeles Temple which was beautiful and we walked the grounds. Emma got a pretty good scrape on her knee which is mostly healed now (almost 2 weeks later). She enjoyed running around the temple, though. She does love to be on her feet.

From the temple we headed to Grauman's Theater which was really cool. In front of it were lots of the hand/foot-prints from celebrities and some stars along the sidewalk. Becca and I hopped out of the vehicles to look around and take pictures. It was great. Crazy busy being Sunday evening but still great.

My attempt at getting the Hollywood sign.

Monday and Tuesday we spent at Universal Studios Hollywood. It was so much better than Universal Studios Orlando, at least from what I remember of Orlando. Harry Potter World seemed pretty much identical but the rest of the park had a lot of really cool stuff that we got to enjoy. In HPW we did the ride in the castle after which we got some butterbeer (YUM). I don't remember the order in which we did everything anymore but during the 2 days we were there we also did the Hippogriff ride, ate food from The Three Broomsticks (Tuesday) which was REALLY tasty, walked through the shops, sent ourselves postcards with a Hogsmeade stamp on it (to be delivered by owls...), and watched Aiden and Patrick perform magic! They sell "interactive" wands that allow you to do "magic" by standing at different spots in HPW and waving the wand in a designated way while saying the spell. It was pretty cool.

Emma was a fan.

Sending a postcard to my house.

Cute kids. The boys liked to entertain Emma occasionally.

In other parts of Universal we saw a Special Effects show that was interesting and cool and an Animal Actors show that was cute but sort of short. We also did the studio tour which was awesome although we didn't see a lot more than the outside of buildings. The tour did have some fun parts to it and it was somewhat thrilling knowing I was in a place where so many movie people (actors, directors, producers, and the millions of other people involved in movie-making) have been and were.

We also did the major rides (that are in the Lower Lot, 4 escalators away from HPW and other areas) like Transformers and the Mummy which were 3D-4D-whatever-type-awesomeness like the Hogwarts ride sort of.  They had a DinoPlay area that was essentially an enclosed playground area which was GREAT. Emma loved it since she'd been stuck in her stroller most of the time we were at Universal. We did some other little things in the park and overall had a ton of fun.

Tuesday we only did a partial day, finishing in the afternoon, so we could head over to the rental house in Anaheim. Bry landed late that night. My dad took me to go get him from the John Wayne/Santa Ana airport.

Cute matching girls. Swim suits on ready to test out the house's pool.

By Wednesday morning my feet were sore from the two days of walking we had done with four more days of walking ahead. My feet were probably the worst part of the trip because they just hurt the whole day. Not in a crippling way but in a persistent way. I should have brought my cushy walking shoes but I thought my tennis shoes would be good enough and my walking shoes rub a couple areas on the top of my feet but at least the soles of my feet could have been saved some pain. Oh well. That was my biggest regret of the trip - not bringing better shoes. Now I'll know better for next time whenever that might be.



Disneyland and California Adventures were still totally wonderful, though, even with my lame feet. The kids were able to enjoy a lot of different rides. Emma's favorites were probably Ariel's Undersea Adventure, Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Storybook Land. She pretty much liked all the ones she got to sit and ride on, though, including It's a Small World, Heimlich's Chew Chew Train, Alice in Wonderland, Teacups, Jungle Cruise, etc. She enjoyed most of the rides she was able to go on which was great.

Emma on Storybook Land Boat.

This may have been on It's a Small World.

Heimlich's Chew Chew Train - already in awe from the start.

Before watching the preview for Pete's Dragon.

Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin - less of a fan of this one.

Alice in Wonderland - Bry showing Emma to wave to auntie. 

Dumbo she thought was okay.

I could have ridden this one a million times. Emma was probably happy with once.

Autopia

One of the highlights for me was definitely Friday night. We worked out having some of the group stay at the park late certain nights while the others took the kids back for bedtime. Friday night it was me, Bry, Becca, and Isaac staying late. After mom, dad, and Pat took the kiddos the four of us staying went on a couple rides. I had brought up dinner a couple times since Bry and I were hungry and Becca told me we'd check out restaurants by New Orleans area or thereabouts. So after a couple rides she and Isaac took off without really saying anything to us so Bry and I hurried to keep up. We stopped near the Blue Bayou and conversation went something like this:

Becca - "Wouldn't it be cool to eat here?"
Isaac - "Yeah. I heard you need to get reservations, though, 2-3 months out."
(pause)
Becca - "Good thing we did that."
Me (flabbergasted) - "What? Are you serious?"

I nearly cried - it was such a surprise! So we checked in for the reservation mom had made and not much later were led into the restaurant and seated at our table INSIDE the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It. Was. AWESOME. I was still sort of in shock for the first while we were inside but it was amazing. The food was really good and their lemonade was THE BEST. Their free birthday dessert was also SUPER delicious - a chocolate mousse shaped like a Mickey Mouse head with tiny Mickey-Mouse-head-shaped sprinkles. Mmmmmmm.

Hooray for amazing surprises. My family gets me every time - I'm such a sucker.

It was such a beautiful week and I wish I could do it again next week (now that my feet have healed).

Thank you to my family who made the trip not only possible (Bry and I wouldn't have done that trip by ourselves) but tons of fun. I'm so glad to have been able to go back to Disneyland since I hadn't been in 6 years. Loved it.