It’s Always Sunny in California!..Eh?...L’il Bit!

jenseib

Mommy to Claire
Joined
Oct 28, 2006
Hello all!
Welcome to my newest trip report! This time I totally went out of my comfort zone and took a trip to Disneyland!

Who am I? Well I am Jen.



Why did it take me 45 years to get to California? Well that is a good question. One reason was airfare. Every time I priced it….. I cringed. Secondly, the length of the flight also scared me a l’il bit! I tend to get anxiety when I sit for long periods. I have the same issues with car trips too.
And of course I have a husband who always talks of going, but then just can’t quite get up the nerve to go so far away and out of HIS comfort zone.

Finally my real chance came this year. We have talked of going off and on many times, but I kind of knew that unless I went first and gave it the official OK, there would not be much of a chance to go as a family in the future.

A work conference came up…. I jumped on it! ….This was my chance!!!!!
I told Skip about it, he said yes, I fainted…picked myself back up, and immediately booked airfare. And you are not even going to believe this! Air was the same (actually a L’il bit cheaper) than flying to Florida. This was meant to be, as in the past, air was always super high.

The next thing I did was contact my best friend since 3rd grade, Stacy. She lives in the LA area and I wanted to let her know I would be coming out and possibly, if it worked for her, we could get together. She jumped at the chance too and soon we had a few small plans set in place, with her picking me up from the airport and giving me a tour of the area.

Another thing about these conferences…they make you room with other people in most cases. Luckily I knew a few people who had signed up. When it came down to who being able to go, only one of my co-workers could make it work. Cass!



She posts on the Disboards and she is actually the one I contacted when I was looking into this career choice. We had never met, but I knew I liked what she wrote and from talking to her online, she seemed to be a pretty fun person and I figured I would get along OK with her. Boy! Little did I know how well we would hit it off!

Cass I talked via facebook and decided we wanted to come in early and stay an extra night. We also needed hotels for those nights and I went with her suggestions. We ended up getting the Disneyland Hotel for the first 2 nights for a pretty decent rate and then the Grand Californian for our last night. The conference was putting us up at the GC as well and we figured it would be nice not to move to another hotel that last night.

Then there was life at home. I had to make arrangements for Claire, my 9 year old. My husband shocked me once again and said he would do most of it and just have his mom help out when he was working. He is a dairy farmer and works right here at home and his mother also lives next door, so it would work out nicely. I was completely shocked at how well everything was falling into place.

Plans were in place and we just had a very short time to wait till we were both on our way to Sunny California!
 
Feb. 22, 2014, Saturday
Let's get going

Feb. 23, 2014, Sunday
California...here I come!
Lunch at Venice Beach
Beautiful Venice Beach
Stacy's Neighborhood
Hollywood
Off to Universal
Universal and Dinner
Disneyland Hotel
A Quick Walk through DTD and my First DL Park
Cass' Update
Looking for Keri and the Mad Tea Party
World of Color with Keri
My first look at Disneyland

Feb. 24, 2014, Monday
Early Morning Tour
Touring DLH
The Last of My Morning Walk and Getting Ready for the Parks
Early Entry into California Adventure!
Radiator Springs Racers
Flying Tires and One More Race
Mater's and Screamin'
Toy Story and the Death Trap
Lunch at Story Tellers
The Zoetrope and Crush
Tower of Terror
Aladdin 1
Aladdin 2
Aladdin 3
Aladdin 4
Aladdin5
Aladdin 5
There Be Pirates Here
Pirates and Snacks
Toontown
The Castle Walk Through
Park Hopping
Dinner at Flos & WoC
WoC2
WoC3
WoC4 and an end to the Evening

Feb. 25, 2014, Tuesday
One Last Look at DLH
The Worst Ride Ever
Indiana Jones and Haunted Mansion
Cafe Orleans and Time to Check in
Conference Time and a Great Tour
Walt's Apartment
The Windows and Castle
World of Color Dinner
Another World of Color Evening

Feb. 26, 2014, Wednesday
Conference and Breakfast
Checking Out the Pools
Lemon Trees and Flowers
The Lounge and Views From Above
The Monorail Courtyard
A Quick Single Rider Line
Little Mermaid
A Not so Tasty Lunch
DLH Suite
Frontier Tower
Adventure Tower
On to Paradise Pier
Theme Park View
Paradise Pool
Pop Goofy
GC Suite
Cass' Food
Kids Club and Space Mountain
Best Nachos EVER!!

Feb. 27, 2014, Thursday
Another Day, Another Conference
The Annabella
Annabella Rooms
On to the Courtyard
Pool and Rooms
Hampton Inn
Hampton Rooms
The Marriott
Rooms and Pretty Pictures
Marriott Pool and On to the Sheraton
The Beautiful Sheraton
Time for some Adventure
Pixar Parade
That's a Lighting Ceremony?
Lightening Bugs and Mosters
Monsters Inc.
Cars and Steaks
Back to the Grand


Feb. 28, 2014, Friday
Breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen
A Little Taste of Hawaii
Graduation
A Wet Day at MK and a Dole Whip Float
Let's Go For a Splash
A Big Splash
Time for One Last Haunting
Casey Jr. and Time for the Lunch Dash
Lunch and My Future
Our Final Fun in Disneyland
Downtown Disney and Nachos

March 1, 2014, Saturday
Time to Go Home
 


Subbed in! Can't wait to hear about your AEP again!:)
 


I'm so excited your TR has begun. I can't wait to hear all about your Disneyland trip! And, for the first time in...ever...I made it on the first page.
 
I'm here and I am so excited

Looking forward to reliving our trip and reading about it through your eyes (words!)

I had the BEST time, it was an incredible week! OMG, I haven't laughed that hard in so long! :lmao:

By the way, I still have my Matterhorn bruise :eek: :rotfl:

And so it begins!!
 
joining in. Teach me everything you know by November please :goodvibes
 
I've read most of your TRs and am interested to see how you like DL! We are headed there at the end of May. We have been there a few times but that was before Carsland! My younger 2 kids are very excited to see it!:cool1:
 
I'm here! :)

Woohooo! :cool1:

I am here too Jen! Can't wait to see what I missed!!!!!!!

Wendy

I wish you could have gone too. We had so much fun...and so much laughing.


:banana:

I'm here!

Jill in CO

:yay:

Subbed in! Can't wait to hear about your AEP again!:)

It was so nice seeing you again at WDW! I am sure you can related to some of things we did and the goofiness.

I'm so excited your TR has begun. I can't wait to hear all about your Disneyland trip! And, for the first time in...ever...I made it on the first page.

Yay for first page! I really enjoyed DL. At first it wasn't giving me the same feeling I get at WDW, but over time it really grew on me, but it is different. It wasn't a bad feeling, but it was hard to wrap my head around it being Disney too...it's hard to explain.

I made it over and can't wait to see the pictures.:goodvibes

Yay!!!

I am here, Jen! :cheer2:

Now going back to read.

Hi Karin!:love:

Can't wait to see how you liked Disneyland. I love that park.

It was different, but I liked it enough that I can't wait to go back and as of right now, my husband wants to go next year.

I'm here and I am so excited

Looking forward to reliving our trip and reading about it through your eyes (words!)

I had the BEST time, it was an incredible week! OMG, I haven't laughed that hard in so long! :lmao:

By the way, I still have my Matterhorn bruise :eek: :rotfl:

And so it begins!!

We had so much fun!!! I love laughing like that about silly things. It was good for the soul.
I had my bruise for a long time too. That ride is possessed!
Feel free to add anything or your pictures if I missed something. And of course my memory might be fading too. :confused3

Checking in.

Corinna

Hi Corinna! :goodvibes

Hi Jen, can't wait to read your report.


Thanks. It really was a fun trip and I am glad to relive it again.

joining in. Teach me everything you know by November please :goodvibes

I will do my best. The only time I ventured offsite was the day I flew in and my friend picked me up, so I can't help alot in that regards, but it might give you some ideas of things to see.

I've read most of your TRs and am interested to see how you like DL! We are headed there at the end of May. We have been there a few times but that was before Carsland! My younger 2 kids are very excited to see it!:cool1:

Thanks for joining in. Carsland is really pretty and the radiator springs ride is just awesome!!!! Are you staying onsite?
 
Feb. 22, 2014, Saturday.

My flight was for very early on the 23rd……I mean really early….6:45 AM. I live near Toledo, Oh, but I was flying out of Detroit, MI, which is about an hour away. After trying to figure out who would take me to the airport at such an early hour, I decided to just get a hotel near the airport on Sat. night. My Mom said she would drive me up and her and my youngest daughter, Claire, would spend the night and then drop me off at the airport in the early AM.

I warned Claire the night before that we would not be leaving for the hotel till late afternoon, but of course she was ready to go at noon. The hotel had a pool and that was all she could think about.
Finally 4:30 arrived and my Mom came over and picked us up and I took over the driving and we set my phone to get us to our destination.

If I remember right, it was raining and pretty much crappy weather. I was so excited to be getting away to warmer temperatures. Soon we arrived at the Courtyard near the airport and I got us checked in and we found our room and took our overnight bags to it. I took a couple of quick pictures while Claire immediately changed into her swimsuit.











We then headed down to the pool. She was pretty excited to be the only one at the pool and she splashed around and had a good time while Mom and I sat and relaxed.









I sat and took a look out the window and I thought it looked neat.



And then I saw it!



The planes went right over the place and I swear at times it looked like it was just missing the roof.



We let Claire swim about 45 minutes, but Mom and I were starving. We talked Claire into getting out with the promise of coming back after dinner.

We got her dressed and drove down the road to the Bob Evans we had passed coming in. Had the weather been nice, we could’ve walked there, but it was much too cold and yucky outside to do that today.

We had a great meal and I got a mushroom burger and coleslaw….big mistake. My stomach started bloating up right away. I never even thought about the coleslaw till later. I should’ve stayed away from it.

We headed back and I took Claire for a swim and this time the pool was packed. She swam a bit, but she was frustrated with all the people so we headed back to the room to get her showered and ready for bed. We watched TV and soon I drifted off. I woke to find Claire still up after 11, so I turned the TV off.
 
Oh my! Those planes really were close! I hope the noise didn't keep you from sleeping.
 
Oh my! Those planes really were close! I hope the noise didn't keep you from sleeping.

In the actual room we didn't hear them too badly. Claire said she did, but I really didn't notice them much at all.
 

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