°o° We're Busy, We're on Vacation! Our own California Adventure.°o°- w/ theme song

LittleBlue22

DIS Veteran
Joined
Nov 2, 2006
Bear with me folks, as this is my first ever official DL trip report. I'm excited to share about our travels to the west coast and of course our Disneyland adventure. We're still vacationing, so this trip report may not come as fast as some. However, if you are patient and can stomache several revisions, I hope you find this report an enjoyable read.


4/4- I just created a little diddy. Feel free to sing along to the Gillian's Island theme song.

Just...sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
a tale of a fantastic trip.
That started from the Midwest one day,
aboard a mini-van.

The mate was a mighty driving man,
The skipper brave and sure.
Six passengers set off that day
For a 96+ hour tour, a 96+ hour tour.

The desert started getting rough,
The tiny van was tossed,
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
The van would be lost, the van would be lost.

The van set ground on the shore of this charted desert isle
With Monsterpop
The Momster too,
The toddler and his sisters,
The Monster boy
No professor or Mary Ann,
Here on West coast isle!........... end
 
Woot! I can't wait to read about it, LB! :teeth: Have fun in DL. :thumbsup2
 
I'll be waiting for you to update your report!!! Hope you're having a great trip!!
 
We spent four days driving across country with a 9 year old (Monster Kid#1), 7 year old (Monster Kid#2) , a 6 year old (Mk#3), and a 22 month old toddler (MK #4). We stopped for one full day in San Antonio Texas to see the Alamo and the River Walk. We also dined at the Tip Top Diner in San Antonio that Guy Fieri visited. Driving with four kids was fine until we reached Arizona. MK#4 started getting antsy and was ready to reach his destination.

Here's a photo I found of the Tip Top Diner's sign: If you ever visit the restaurant you really have to wait in line outside. there is no waiting area inside. The interior space is maxed out for seating so, there's a hostess who opens the main restaurant door asking, "how many people in your party?", as she tries to accomodate seating. The men and woman's restrooms are located outside on the back side of the building. My perplexing expression tipped off a regular attender and she told me where to go. If you ever visit the Tip Top Diner, be sure to get their stack of onion rings, they were awesome and the other food portions were HUGE!
tip-top-cafe.jpg



Crossing Arizona we saw sand storms and saw one tumbleweed cross in front of our van. How is it that the farther you travel the smaller your vehicle feels? Stuff started surfacing in the isle ways and no matter how much I'd clean it out, "stuff' would appear!

I felt bad crossing the California border b/c we saw creatures flying up and on to our windshield. At first my husband thought they might've been locusts, upon closer inspection, they were in fact Monarch butterflies. I felt bad because my oldest MK loves them. I hated them because there were yellow guts being dashed on my van like a Van Gogh painting, blech!

That's it for the first installment folks, there's more to come soonish. :goodvibes
 


Marking my spot Lil'Blue! ;) Came right on over. Can't wait to hear more.

Where did y'all start from? How long of a drive was it to get there? You are a brave woman to travel with 4 monster kids, or insane! ;):rotfl2: Hope you know I'm kidding. I tend to be a jokester over there on the Moovers. :rolleyes1
 
Thanks Diznee Luver, I hope you have a fantastic visit yourself. Maybe we'll cross paths while on the 405 Freeway. :teacher:

This is a quicky trip so my hubby can interview with Disneyland!!!! We just got back from our week long dream vacation March 7-14. You ever get bored, take a look at my TR & my 1200 photos I uploaded to it.....lol

This is 2 days in the park with our twin babies....so won't be as much action as last trip (they didn't go for the week long trip).....first trip for them & hoping this doesn't overload them too much. They have major delays & sensory issues.

Looking forward to more!!
 


Hi LB! Subscribing. Hope you guys are having a great time.:)
 
Yeah a road trip with Little Blue's family. :cool1:

Can't wait to hear more.
 
We spent four days driving across country with a 9 year old (Monster Kid#1), 7 year old (Monster Kid#2) , a 6 year old (Mk#3), and a 22 month old toddler (MK #4). We stopped for one full day in San Antonio Texas to see the Alamo and the River Walk. We also dined at the Tip Top Diner in San Antonio that Guy Fieri visited. Driving with four kids was fine until we reached Arizona. MK#4 started getting antsy and was ready to reach his destination.

Here's a photo I found of the Tip Top Diner's sign: If you ever visit the restaurant you really have to wait in line outside. there is no waiting area inside. The interior space is maxed out for seating so, there's a hostess who opens the main restaurant door asking, "how many people in your party?", as she tries to accomodate seating. The men and woman's restrooms are located outside on the back side of the building. My perplexing expression tipped off a regular attender and she told me where to go. If you ever visit the Tip Top Diner, be sure to get their stack of onion rings, they were awesome and the other food portions were HUGE!
tip-top-cafe.jpg



Crossing Arizona we saw sand storms and saw one tumbleweed cross in front of our van. How is it that the farther you travel the smaller your vehicle feels? Stuff started surfacing in the isle ways and no matter how much I'd clean it out, "stuff' would appear!

I felt bad crossing the California border b/c we saw creatures flying up and on to our windshield. At first my husband thought they might've been locusts, upon closer inspection, they were in fact Monarch butterflies. I felt bad because my oldest MK loves them. I hated them because there were yellow guts being dashed on my van like a Van Gogh painting, blech!

That's it for the first installment folks, there's more to come soonish. :goodvibes

First off, love reading your TR so far. I haven't been to that diner before but it sounds like my kinda place. As I read further, I come across the "surfacing stuff" part and I'm LOL:rotfl2:. We did a big road trip two years ago to DL and can totally relate. The part with the poor butterflies always gets me too. Those poor butterflies and FOULING up my car!!!!!!
 
Marking my spot Lil'Blue! ;) Came right on over. Can't wait to hear more.

Where did y'all start from? How long of a drive was it to get there? You are a brave woman to travel with 4 monster kids, or insane! ;):rotfl2: Hope you know I'm kidding. I tend to be a jokester over there on the Moovers. :rolleyes1

First off, love reading your TR so far. I haven't been to that diner before but it sounds like my kinda place. As I read further, I come across the "surfacing stuff" part and I'm LOL:rotfl2:. We did a big road trip two years ago to DL and can totally relate. The part with the poor butterflies always gets me too. Those poor butterflies and FOULING up my car!!!!!!

Great point aldisneygrl and BackStage Gal, where did we start our four day (really five day) journey? Its not like we packed ourselves up to just drive across the street. (I'm having a Toy Story visual here, feel free to join me). Here's our coordinates of travel:

From Indiana:
Latitude: 39° 47' North
Longitude: 86° 08' West
Initial heading: 267.2° WestMap direction West
Final heading: 247.5° West-southwestMap direction West-southwest


To: Destination= aka: MIL's house.
Latitude: 33° 50' North
Longitude: 118° 20' West
Initial heading: 67.5° East-northeastMap direction East-northeast
Final heading: 87.2° EastMap direction East

Distance one way is 2931 kilometers or 1821 miles or 1583 nautical miles.

And here's a map!
mapforDIS.jpg


As you can see, we are truly land locked IN between DL and WDW.

Aldisneygrl, it was suggested that we pack Benadryl for the children just in case they started getting sick. There were few parts of the drive that I was the one 'feeling sick' ;) needing medication and ear plugs.

Great pun analogy there Charmama4! I'm so glad to have you all keep me on track as I write, my brain tends to leak due to Mommyitis.
 
This is a quicky trip so my hubby can interview with Disneyland!!!! We just got back from our week long dream vacation March 7-14. You ever get bored, take a look at my TR & my 1200 photos I uploaded to it.....lol

This is 2 days in the park with our twin babies....so won't be as much action as last trip (they didn't go for the week long trip).....first trip for them & hoping this doesn't overload them too much. They have major delays & sensory issues.

Looking forward to more!!
I hope your hub's interview went well, please share if he gets added to the cast member list. :thumbsup2
 
I hope your hub's interview went well, please share if he gets added to the cast member list. :thumbsup2

His interview is Tuesday....we're leaving Sunday for our looooooong 14 hr drive. We will definately let everyone know how it went.....and hopefully he will be a CM before we return home Wednesday!!!!!
 
Buzz_Lightyear_300.gif
To The California Boarder and Beyond!

For you history buffs, there's a George S. Patton Memorial Museum located at Chiriaco Summit On I-10 30 miles East of Indio. You can't see it from the road like you can the casino. If your gas tank is low enough, you get to pull in to the over priced gas station. It is then you get to see this fantastic museum. The guide said the county is making road signs for the highway. I hope they post them soon. Monsterpop was in heaven walking around the small, quaint, and information packed museum. Dh's a huge fan of Patton. Outside they had tanks and other military vehicles as well as an outdoor ampatheatre. Here's a photo I found of the museum entrance.

patton_statue.jpg


We have friends and family that live in the Riverside/ San Bernardino area so we'd wave in the general direction saying hi. I hope they heard us. I dread driving when ever we are in California so, MonsterPop drove though the late afternoon traffic. I kept looking for my cousin who is a CHP officer hoping he could give us an escort. I guess we weren't driving fast enough for him to catch us.

We lucked out with reaching our final destination. As heavy as traffic was we were able to reach my MIL's house in good time. I was more than glad to get out of the van for more than a potty break's worth of time. I felt like the daughter in The Pacifier (with Vin Diesel) where she falls to the ground and cries, "Land!", after enduring her older sister's driving. I was beyond being supercalifragilisticexpialidocious-ly happy about it.:yay:

Our day at DiSnEyLaNd is coming soon to a post near you.
 
I'm here to interject another trip report moment. I was driving down Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) trying to go some where and lo and behold, I see Say It With Style! Does any one watch Perfectly Peter on the Style Network? He revamps store fronts and their interiors to look Peter perfect. I happened to watch the epi with Say It With Style and I was excited to spot it. I'll stick a photo I took in this post soonish. :hourglass:
 
Oh, this is gonna be good! Can't wait to read more. :yay:

I have a friend who lives in Riverside, too. We're twins! :teleport:

Hope you are having a great time on vacation. :hug:
 

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