Last Day Continued...
After Cinderella we quickly made our way to the bathroom the kind of straddles Adventureland and Frontierland. Fortunately I had had the forethought to pack an entire, top to bottom change of clothes for both kiddos. So Audree and I headed into the bathroom and got her changed out of her gown. We brought her back to daddy and Brynn who were waiting on a bench nearby and got her achilles cleaned and bandaged. Traded those sandals in for socks and tennis shoes and we were ready to eat! It was time for corndogs. The red wagon corn dog was on our list of must dos for the day and it was high time to cross them off. Brock and the girls headed to the wagon while i veered to the right to obtain another must. The Matterhorn macaroon has been on my list of things to try for the first time, and I was excited to get the chance. As I waited in line at the Jolly Holiday Bakery I also saw the Raspberry Macaron and grabbed one of those too, because I knew that was right up Brock’s alley. I found my family sitting over at the Plaza anxiously awaiting my arrival. The corn dogs were, of course, amazing! The girls weren’t as into the corndogs as we expected, but between the four of us we cleaned our plates. The Matterhorn Macaroon was delicious, and easily gained a spot in the must eat every time we come list alongside dole whips and Plaza fried chicken.The raspberry macaron was pretty good too, neither Brock or I had ever had a macaron before so we weren’t expecting the light texture. When you look at it you expect it to be a bit more hearty, it’s pretty big and has raspberries sandwiched in it. But it was delicious and though it’s not a must do every time I would definitely get it again.
Yum!
By now the Friday crowds were really sinking in and we were starting to see the wait times creeping up. Among our must dos for the trip, and the day was Pirates. We had yet to voyage with the pirates which is crazy because we love that ride. So we headed toward the ride and found ourselves in a 30 minute wait. This is by far the longest I’ve ever waited for Pirates, but we really couldn’t imagine a Disney park vacation without doing Pirates so we settled in for the wait. Both of our girls wanted to be held the whole time in line, which makes for tired parents, but we did our best. The girls however, had very different strategies for waiting in line. Brynn handled it by laughing and goofing off. Audree handled it by crying her eyes out and saying that she didn’t want to go on the ride because it was too scary. Seriously, I mean it’s not and I know my kids very well. She went on this ride the year before and she closed her eyes and covered her ears the whole time. But this is a year later and she has done so many new, exciting and sometimes scary things since then and I felt like this little crying episode was more a result of her being tired at the end of a vacation and less to do with it being scary. We made it clear that we are going on this ride regardless. She continued to cry and say it’s too scary. So Brock and I told her that we are a family and that means that we put each others needs and wants before our own. We said “for example, meeting Cinderella was very important to you, so that means that it became important to mommy and daddy and Brynn. Going on Pirates is important to Mommy and Daddy which means that it becomes important to you and Brynn too.” This explanation kind of worked. She still didn’t want to go on it, but she understood very well that she was going on it and why.
Pretending to sleep
And then laughing her face off
Yep, this is what we dealt with through the entire 30 minute wait!
Thank goodness at least one kid was happy
Pirates was great and we enjoyed the nice long break from being on our feet. We still had plenty of time before our Radiator passes would be valid so we headed over to Tomorrowland to see if we could get another ride on one of our other favorites. The wait time posted for Star Tours was 40 minutes, but Audree really wanted to go on it. So while she and Daddy cue’d up Brynn and I headed over to Fantasyland because Brynn was asking for the teacups. Brynn and I did a quick turn on the Teacups and headed over to the Carousel next. The holding pen for the carousel was packed with people, and they were all really pushy. Makes zero sense to me why grown adults set that kind of example to their children. It’s a kid ride people, it is built to fit a lot on every ride. You don’t have to push, there’s enough horses to go around. Right as we got Brynn on a horse Brock called me to say that they were already done with Star Tours, turns out it was only about a tweet minute wait. He said Audree really wanted me to go on it with her. So after the carousel, which Brynn loved, we monied on back to Tomorrowland and Brock and I switched kids. Audree and I got in the quick 20 minute (though still posted at 40 minutes) line for Star Tours, while Brock and Brynn headed back to Adventureland to buy some Dole Whips.
Teacups!
Carousel!
Our tour into the galaxies was super fun and Audree further cemented her absolute love for the ride. When we got off the ride we headed into the gift shop Star Traders to see what we could see. We hadn’t really done any souvenir shopping yet this trip, but we knew that Audree had her heart set on a light saber and we had seen these BB8 mickey ears all over the park that we thought would be perfect for my brother; who was house sitting for use back in Oregon. Brock called me and said that Dole Whips were a no go, the line was just atrocious and he didn’t want to spend that kind of time waiting on our last day so he and Brynn had started shopping on Main Street. My husband is a watch guy and he had hoped to find a new Disney one while we were there, but unfortunately he wasn’t finding anything he loved. As Audree and I looked around I happened to see the Star Wars half Marathon Dooney and Burke purses on display and I was completely stopped in my tracks.
So, I feel the need to give a little bit of a backstory here before I continue. About 4 years ago I realized that I am indeed a purse girl. It’s not something I ever knew about myself but I do love purses. I first discovered that I love them when my husband got me a COACH gift card for my birthday. I bought a beautiful bag, that was big and roomy and purple and I loved it. I ruined that bag within months by simply being a full time worker and mommy of a newborn. My lunches were always on the go, throw in the bag and so were my daughter’s bottles. So I went back to a cheap American Eagle purse that I’d had for a decade and forgot about it. Then January 2015 Brock and went to Disneyland to run the inaugural Star Wars marathon and celebrate our 10 year anniversary. I knew that Dooney and Burke would be making purses for the run and I was really interested in getting one to commemorate our run and our anniversary trip. When we got there they had plenty in stock, but I hated all of them. I mean I just wasn’t into them at all. I didn’t like the design or the color scheme. I was bummed and still tempted admittedly. Here I was now a stay at home mom, ready to have a nice purse and not ruin it and I hated the ones I had really wanted to love. As much as I wanted a purse to signify the run (as the run itself was a monumental achievement to my completely non athletic self) I just could not ever justify the price for something I didn’t absolutely love. Then on one of our last nights in Disneyland we stopped into Disney Vault 28 and I saw this gorgeous Haunted Mansion Dooney tote and fell for it immediately. I loved it, and Brock could tell that we had found a winner instantly. The price was steep, so I took two nights to think about it and look around at all my other options. But ultimately Brock convinced me that even though it didn’t really symbolize our run it would be a great way to commemorate the anniversary side of our trip. We took a gulp, handed over our card and took her home. I love this Haunted Mansion bag still, I named her Eleanor and I use her all the time.
This is Eleanor. Don't mind my messy table in the background. I realized I didn't have a pic of her and just took this. I don't have time to clean for a picture of a purse!
So anyway when I saw the designs for this year on line I was floored by how much I loved them, but we weren’t running this year and when the race happened in January we didn’t yet know we’d be there in March. So the thought that I could get one of these beautiful purses never crossed my mind. Brock had told me before we left home that he would be more than okay with me getting a purse. He had showed me the diamond celebration ones and had me look on our first night, but I just wasn’t in love with any of them. Then I saw the Dooney’s still for sale at Star Traders and I called Brock and said “I’ve found her, and I can’t decide which style I want”. He knew immediately what I was talking about and he and Brynn started over to find us. Meanwhile one of the cast members pulled down a couple of the different styles for me to check out. The pattern I really liked was the one with pinks, greens and yellow but it was also nylon, and that’s a no go for me at this stage of life. So I was torn between the satchel or cross body letter carrier in a grey, blue, orange pattern and grain leather. Brock came in the shop and looked and he really wanted me to also get a matching wallet, but I could never justify the price of two Dooneys at once, plus I’m happy with my current wallet. Ultimately I decided to go with the letter carrier because I don’t currently have anything cross body. We bought her, named her Leia and I use her every single day.
Isn't she lovely?
Alright, now that we are through my purse love story I’ll get back to the actual trip report. After I decided on my new purse we found a light saber for Audree and a second one that glows and has sound effects. By now Star Traders was a mad house, it was getting on in the day and the Tomorrowland crowds were just ridiculous. We searched high and low for the BB8 mickey ears to no avail. Finally we asked the cashier while checking out and he told us they were sold in a separate store across the walkway in Tomorrowland. We checked out, headed to the other merchant and found the ears without further issue. Next we headed over to the camera shop on Main street to view our photos from the trip. The package we booked came with one 5x7 complimentary so we needed to decide which photo that would be. Before the trip we had planned on doing the photo pass plus where you get all of the photos from your entire trip for one flat rate. We learned a couple weeks before the trip that Disney had changed their way of doing things and that photo pass deal was no longer available. I was super annoyed by this. Now you buy your photos by day and it’s $39 a day. Knowing this now I can better plan our next trip to do all the meet and greet on the same day as character dining, and try to squeeze in as much photo pass family pics as possible to really get the most out of that $39. But at the time of our trip we weren’t super clear on how that all worked so we ultimately ended up buying three days @ $39 a piece once we got home and could view them at our leisure online. We chose the picture of Brynn hugging Mickey and moved on down Main street to the candy store. Brock had decided if he couldn’t find a watch he loved, than he wouldn’t be getting one at all (much like me and purses), which left him free to stock up on Goofy candy. In our regular lives Brock is not much of a candy junkie, but Disneyland truly brings out his sweet tooth. Or sour tooth really, because it’s Goofy’s sour worms that he likes to stockpile every trip. He throw some cotton candy, short bread, and giant cookies in for good measure.
With all that purchased we parked hopped back over to California Adventure to end out our stay at the happiest place on earth. We still had some time before our fast passes were ready and we still needed to get a souvenir for Brynn. It had already been decided before the trip that Brynn would be getting bath toys, unless she randomly fell in love with something else. So we headed into the Julius Katz & Sons off of Buena Vista Street and started showing her bath toy sets two at a time. Whichever set won moved on to the next set of two, you know, bracket style. Pixar leading character set, that had Woody, Buzz, Mr. Incredible, Sulley and Nemo was the winner. They aren’t labeled bath toys, they are actually called squeeze toy sets, but they go in the bath and the girls love them.
Finally done with our shopping we headed to Bugsland to let Brynn have one more ride on the Chew Chew train before the rest of us took turns on Radiator Springs without her. Heimlich was just as jolly and hungry as ever. We finished up in Bugsland and hurried into Carsland to finally redeem our fastpass. Audree and I went first and I smartly grabbed a rider swap so that she and Brock could share the last ride of the trip. We had a great time, and I’m pretty sure we won. Brock and I switched kiddos, and he and Audree made their way to the last ride of the trip.
They had a great ride and then sadly we started making our way towards the exit. None of us wanted to go, but vacation was over and we had a 13 hour drive ahead of us. We turned in the stroller and grabbed the shuttle back to the parking lot and our awaiting car. We got gas nearby and made our way to In and Out for some double double animal style grub, which Brock ended up not being able to eat because of his tooth pain(And spoiler alert he called the dentist the Monday after our trip and it turned out he needed a root canal, poor guy). The kids were asleep before we even made it to the drive thru.
We finally got on I-5 at 9:30pm and started heading north. The plan had been to push it as far as we could go, but any hope of driving straight back was long gone. We were hoping to get at least to Sacramento but there was no way. We ended up only lasting about 1.5 hours and pulled off in Lebeck for the night. We carried the girls up to the room and the four of us were out in no time.
The next morning we grabbed some breakfast to go from the lobby, bagels, bananas and yogurt at hit the road by 8:30am. After a couple hours we switched and I took over through Sacramento and beyond. As I was driving it started raining. Then it really came down and we hydroplaned a little. After a couple hours of crappy weather and some congested traffic Brock woke up and wanted to take over again. Fine with me! He ended up driving the rest of the way back and I’m so glad he did. It was awful, by far the scariest drive we’ve done weather wise. The rain didn’t let up the rest of the drive home and there were whole stretches where it was coming down too hard for safety. The worst of it though was driving through the Siskiyou Mountains. It was terrifying. Pitch black, curvy mountain roads with insane rain and a little hydroplaning thrown in for fun. We were white knuckling it a bit there, but what can you do? There isn’t anywhere to pull over and wait it out, and by then we are just a few short hours from home. Made me super grateful for my husband, he is an incredibly safe driver and is well trained (he used to drive semi for a living).
Any way we made it home safely by 8:30pm and were beat. We chatted with my brother for a bit before he took of back to Washington and gave him his BB8 ears. Tucked ourselves into bed, with thoughts of our next trip in our heads.
Important to note: The red bull in Brynn's cup holder was not consumed by Brynn!
Well, that does it. My first trip report is officially in the bag. To anyone who read along, thank you! I hope it was enjoyable, as I really enjoyed writing it. It has been so fun to relive this trip as I write it! It really does make me want to go back right now! Unfortunately I don't think we will be going back for a few years unless we come into some windfall of finances. But I do think whenever we go back I will be doing a trip report, this has been so fun!