10 Mths of WDW Planning leads us to~~DISNEYLAND!! Report Completed~Pic Heavy!!!

Tyler was off enjoying some solo time at the parks and we were relaxing in the room. I noticed the Phineas & Ferb show coming out of the big building and getting ready (behind the scenes).

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Some random pics of Paradise Pier from our room.

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How about a couple of Disneyland from our room.

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And back to Disney's California Adventure.

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We had a dinner ressie at 6pm at Tortilla Jo's, so we headed over and met up with Tyler before going in to check in. In the lobby they had a Christmas tree.....Anthony took these pictures!!

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After about a 20 minute wait, we were shown to our table. We started out with the table-side guacamole........YUMMO!!

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Here's the menu:

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While we were waiting on our food, the all female Mariachi Band made their way to our table.

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I really don't remember what everyone ordered.....but everyone seemed happy with what they got!!

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Group pic!

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When we got done with dinner, we made our way through DTD and saw this horse drawn carriage out in front of Earl of Sandwich.

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We went back to the hotel with the kids and Tyler returned to the park. One of the Divas had asked if I could get her a keycard from the hotel so she could do an early entry with her son (who would have a parkhopper ticket and she has an AP). So I waited to get a text from her and figure out a place to meet up. She decided to have dinner at PCH Grill, so when Tracey/QueenDoOver and her son arrived, I ran downstairs to meet up with them.

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After a short visit with them, I headed back upstairs where the kids were getting ready for bed. I watched WoC one last time from our room.

 
WOW, you really had such great views from your room :thumbsup2

Tortilla joes looks like a fun place to eat

:goodvibes
 


Great updates, two places I can't wait to try! TJ's looks very yummy and I still need to try the famous EOS! :cool1:
 


Sunday, December 16th......the day we leave paradise, or should I~~Paradise Pier Hotel and start our drive home.

We like ending our trips at a character meal. So this morning we headed over to the Grand Californian Hotel and to the Storyteller's Cafe. A beautifully, detailed rustic restaurant. This meal is more "animal" based characters, pretty quiet & laid back with a buffet or ordering off menu breakfast. We did this is 2010 and enjoyed it because it was different and we got to see different characters.

We checked in & got some pictures from the lobby area.

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They had a gingerbread house in the lobby.

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We were shown to our table and immediately had a visitor~~Turk from Tarzan.

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And then Meeko from Pocahontus.

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We finally got a chance to look at the menu.

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More of the restaurant details.

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Here are some pictures of the buffet offered.

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Next visitor was Dale.

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Me with Shyann & Addy.

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Michayla.

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A few of us ordered off menu and a few did the buffet. Shyann got a special order from the chef of yogurt and Rice Krispies.

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One of the kids had Mickey waffles and one had the buffet.

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I had the banana stuffed french toast.

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Tyler & Mike also had the buffet.

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If you have the buffet, they'll bring you a plate of Mickey waffles.

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Chip & Dale gathered kids for a game of follow the leader through the restaurant.

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We saw Koda (or maybe it was Kenai) from Brother Bear during the dancing but he never made it over to our table.

Tyler and Michayla.

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Anthony.

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Chip was our final visitor at the meal.

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Chip spent quite a bit of time at our table interacting with all the kids, including Michayla.....so a very nice way to end our meal.

We headed back over to the PPH & started the sad task of getting everything out of our 2 rooms and packed into the van. WOW......we had a full van!! I don't think we could have put another bag of stuff in there!!!!

 
So with the van loaded from top to bottom with stuff and people......we were headed north. We were going as far as Willows (north of Sacramento). Pretty uneventful drive. We mad a stop in Sacramento for dinner. We stopped at BJ's Restaurant. It was pretty good!!

Shyann had the cheeseburger with fries.

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Addy & Anthony both had a pizza.

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Ty had pizza and Mike had a calzone.

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I had fish-n-chips......I loved their fries!!! They are cut really thin and just enough crisp and salt to make them very memorable!!!

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We hit the road and got into Willows. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express and now I feel like I could do brain surgery........:lmao: (hope you all have seen those commercials......lol)

We had 2 rooms that connected. One room was an accessible room and the bathroom was HUGE!!

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2 queen beds in each room.....comfy!

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There was a closet, mini fridge, microwave, table & tv. Pretty nice set up and roomy.

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The "regular" bathroom in room 2. Still pretty roomy for a motel bathroom.

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The toiletries.

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When we arrived, it was dark and super windy!! We actually were concerned the big storm they were expecting to hit northern California & the passes was coming in quicker. We were checking forecasts and hoping we'd make it over the passes before it got bad. We had a comfortable night and was happy with our choice of motel!!



 
The next morning we were up early and ready to tackle the last leg of our trip. One of the reasons we picked Willows for our stop was so we could have breakfast at the Black Bear Diner. We are fans of these restaurants. We used to live in a town with one but not anymore and we miss them!!

So Black Bear Diner it is!! So breakfast is not an easy meal for Shy and all her allergies (wheat, egg, peanuts & tree nuts) and she wasn't interested in cereal or oatmeal.....so she had cottage cheese & fries.

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Breakfast choices for the rest of the group.

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So I don't recall exactly how this happened, but I believe someone was giving one of the twins little bites of whip cream and when they looked down, they realized they had a hidden Mickey made of drips from the spoon!!

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Yup! Even our food knows we're a Disney family!!! :rotfl2:

So after a yummy breakfast, we're on the road and praying we get home before the weather gets really nasty!

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Back in Oregon!!

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Mt Ashland looked like it had seen snow pretty recently.....glad we were missing the brunt of it!

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We made it home, safe & sound about dinner time. I believe we did a McDonalds run......since we lacked groceries in the house. What a great trip!!!!

So this was my half of the toiletries collected on our trip.....Tyler collected them from the 2nd room (or 2nd bathroom) and had just as much as me.....lol

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Now, don't be sad......I still have a ton of photopass pictures to share with you!!!



 
Storytellers Cafe looks really nice in there

Love all the character interaction with the kids. Looks like they had a lot of fun :goodvibes


What a gorgeous view you have on your drive home. Those mountains are beautiful

Love the waffle at the Bear Diner with Bear Paw Print..too cute

Cool Hidden Mickey :thumbsup2
 
Storytellers Cafe looks really nice in there

Love all the character interaction with the kids. Looks like they had a lot of fun :goodvibes


What a gorgeous view you have on your drive home. Those mountains are beautiful

Love the waffle at the Bear Diner with Bear Paw Print..too cute

Cool Hidden Mickey :thumbsup2

The restaurant is really neat to look at. The food is pretty good too! It was a great way to end an amazing trip!!

Once we get north of Sacramento, the view isn't half bad!!

I thought the paw print was cute too!!
 
Hi Laurie -

Hope your Mom is feeling better and I'm glad you get to go on the Diva trip with Nick and Marie. It has been very busy as I continue with my nursing program and will finish in August. I have 4 classes, my preceptorship and capstone project left. My DH has started his new job as the children's minister at our new church. It is chaos around here as I have 3 more projects due plus a final in the next two weeks.

We have booked PPH (1st time onsite) for our next trip in Sept/Oct and are looking forward to our next vacation during Halloween time. A bit disappointed our oldest will not be joining us but she will be graduating high school this year and would rather go to her Grad Night in DL in May then with the family :sad1:. I'm disappointed, but she does not share the love of Disney like the rest of us do.

I have received our passport plus CD from our Christmas trip but have barely had a chance to look at them other than making sure they are all there. They turned out great and maybe I will be able to figure out how to post them one day. We have now experienced all of the character meals except Storytellers and was wondering what you thought of it. Our favorite for this past trip was Surf's up, though we had a wonderful time at Minnie's playing with Capt. Hook when my children started chanting "tick tock" which made Hook knock on my daughter's head with his hook. They are already planning on bringing a crocodile to torment him with on our Halloween trip :laughing:.

I just wanted to pop in and say hi :wave2: since you asked me too. Not on the boards much lately as I do not have much time for anything lately. Hoping my schedule will calm down soon, but I will check in your other thread to see how the Diva trip went with Nick and Marie in a couple of weeks.

Stay safe and hope you have a wonderful trip.

Kris
 
Hi Laurie -

Hope your Mom is feeling better and I'm glad you get to go on the Diva trip with Nick and Marie. It has been very busy as I continue with my nursing program and will finish in August. I have 4 classes, my preceptorship and capstone project left. My DH has started his new job as the children's minister at our new church. It is chaos around here as I have 3 more projects due plus a final in the next two weeks.

We have booked PPH (1st time onsite) for our next trip in Sept/Oct and are looking forward to our next vacation during Halloween time. A bit disappointed our oldest will not be joining us but she will be graduating high school this year and would rather go to her Grad Night in DL in May then with the family :sad1:. I'm disappointed, but she does not share the love of Disney like the rest of us do.

I have received our passport plus CD from our Christmas trip but have barely had a chance to look at them other than making sure they are all there. They turned out great and maybe I will be able to figure out how to post them one day. We have now experienced all of the character meals except Storytellers and was wondering what you thought of it. Our favorite for this past trip was Surf's up, though we had a wonderful time at Minnie's playing with Capt. Hook when my children started chanting "tick tock" which made Hook knock on my daughter's head with his hook. They are already planning on bringing a crocodile to torment him with on our Halloween trip :laughing:.

I just wanted to pop in and say hi :wave2: since you asked me too. Not on the boards much lately as I do not have much time for anything lately. Hoping my schedule will calm down soon, but I will check in your other thread to see how the Diva trip went with Nick and Marie in a couple of weeks.

Stay safe and hope you have a wonderful trip.

Kris

:hug: KRIS!!!!!

I'm so glad you stopped by!! I've been thinking about you all and was actually getting worried when I hadn't seen you on here!!

My mom is much better.....thank goodness!! My heart sank when my brother called and said she might be dying. The dr freaked out and scared the crap out of both of us before really knowing what was going on. She ended up with septic shock with the infection. It was worrisome but they were on top of it and pushing antibiotics like crazy.

Congrats to your hubby on his new position!! I imagine you are very busy with schooling......keep at it....the end is in sight!!

You'll love staying at the PPH......I'm looking forward to going back next week!!! It's hard to let our kids grow up......I know you're like me....want the family together, but it doesn't always work out as they get older. You'll still have an amazing time (and she will too going to Grad night)

Storyteller's is very different from the other ones. More relaxed and quiet. You get to see characters that you don't usually see (Meeko, Turk, Kenai, Koda are the ones I know about that are rare). The food is really good here too!

Posting pics isn't too hard. I use photobucket and upload pics to their site. Once the picture uploads, "copy" the bottom code (of 4) and "paste" it in your reply on here.

Minnie's is always fun & so is messing with Hook!! My boys offered to "give him a hand" with something......:lmao:

I'm glad you stopped by.....I hope you'll pop in now and then!
 
Time for the Photopass Pictures!! We did the Photopass+ so we got all our on-ride photos and character meal photos added to our CD.

The kids on Splash Mountain.....love how big Shy's eyes are....lol

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This picture op was up by the Big Thunder Ranch gates.

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I was getting some love from Goofy in the Big Thunder Ranch back area.

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The family in front of the castle......it's so hard to get the twins to both look at the camera......lol

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The girls getting some camera time in front of the castle.

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Anthony, not to be left out, also got some camera time!!

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