San Francisco to San Diego
(and a lot of places in between)
Cast- Me (Cathy or also known as Mom) 39 obsessive trip planner.
DH- Brian 41. The relaxed optimist in the family.
DS- Brian Jr. 17 also called BJ. Takes after his dad.
Im going to split this trip report into 3 parts so those of you who are only interested in reading the Disneyland portion please skip directly to Part 3. This trip was our gift to our son for his upcoming high school graduation. We are WDW fanatics having been there for 11 vacations but this was our first trip to Disneyland. We decided to see as much as we could from San Francisco to San Diego since we were taking the long plane trip out. Im going to write about all of it to put it in our familys memory book and I thought maybe some folks here might include some of these places on their upcoming trips and be interested in what we did.
Day Four- Sunday February 20th
We were up at 6:00 am and decided to go swimming and in the Jacuzzi but they were closed due to flooding. It was raining so much that the water was over the edge of the pool. So we hung out in the room and had some cinnamon bread that we had bought in Solvang for breakfast. We went out to wait for the shuttle to the park at 8:30 am. While we were waiting Jay Mohr (host of Last Comic Standing and former SNL alum) pulled up and gave his car to a valet. He was walking right past us so I said Excuse me Jay. Can my son have your autograph?. BJ was a big fan of Last Comic Standing. Jay was very nice and signed something for him and razzed him about the Patriots because Jays a Jets guy so of course he wrote Go Jets on the autograph. It had been pouring when we woke up but by the time we got to the park at 9:00 am the rain had stopped. Universal Studios LA has just about everything that the FL park has but everything was much closer together which was kind of nice. We decided to do the Studio Tour first and it was awesome. They incorporate 3 of old FL attractions into this ride, King Kong, Jaws, and Earthquake. BJ was happy to see Kong again. He was sad when they closed it in FL. The tour is about 45 minutes and takes you through all kinds of sets including Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives. After the tour it was on to Back to the Future, which is one of mine and BJs favorite rides of all time. There is a new section of the park that you have to take 4 escalators to get to because its at the bottom of a very large hill. The new section has Jurassic Park, The Mummy, Backdraft, and the Special Effects Stages. The Mummy was very cool but also over very quickly. We had paid extra for front of the line access but because of the weather the crowd was very small and we really could have managed fine without it. Still it was nice to go to Gate A and walk on everything. We also saw the Animal Planet show (cute) and Shrek 4-D (awesome) before finishing out the day by walking through the Van Helsing Fortress Dracula. BJ did not like this last thing at all. Its like walking through a haunted dungeon with live creatures jumping out at you. The only thing we missed out on was the Waterworld show because it got cancelled when the rain started up again in the afternoon. We left around 3:00 pm and the guys did the Nascar Experience at Citywalk before we went back to the hotel. We got there around 4:00 and housekeeping hadnt done the room yet and there was no one in sight. I walked a few halls until I found a housekeeping cart and asked for some fresh towels. We put the privacy sign on the door and took a nap for a couple of hours. We left for dinner at 6:00 and housekeeping was in the next room so I took the privacy sign off the door hoping that theyd service the room but they didnt. Dinner was at the Chop House which is right outside the gates to the park at the end of Citywalk. Its pricey but the food is great and the portions were huge. Brian and I both had the fried chicken and when we were done our leftovers would have equaled one of the meals. We could have easily shared. We decided to relax and have a drink since we didnt have to drive anywhere and I almost died when our server brought out our drinks in big 1 liter carafes. Everything about this place was big. They also have a mechanical bull that you could ride for $3. BJ got a big kick out of watching people fall off.
Day Five- Monday February 21st
We had a tour of Hollywood booked with American Limos for 9:00 am but we were up early again so we decided to have a nice sit down breakfast at the hotel. The food was ok but $60 for a simple buffet breakfast is just too much. We checked out and put our luggage in the car and hung around the lobby waiting for our driver. I had booked a 4 hour tour of Hollywood in a town car before we left home. I was really looking forward to this and unfortunately it was the biggest disappointment of our trip. Our driver Noah tells us as soon as we get in the car that its only his second day on the job but not to worry hes never been responsible for an accident even though hes totaled 3 cars in his life. He wasnt kidding. It turned out we knew more about Hollywood then he did. We saw the Hollywood Sign (from a far distance) and saw a few Beverly Hills mansions. About an hour in to the drive I just wanted to end it but I had prepaid for a 4 hour minimum. I had him drive us out to the Santa Monica Pier so that we could walk around without him and the guys could touch the pacific. We did end up cutting it short and got out of LA as fast as we could. The best thing about the Sheraton was its right off the highway. We took HWY 5 South to San Diego. We hit some traffic so it took about 2.5 hours to get there. It was about 3:00 pm so we went to Old Town since it closes at 5:00. This was a really interesting area to walk around. Its old historic adobe homes and shops where San Diego was originally settled. Of course, mixed in are several tourist type shops and next door is a section called Bazaar Del Mundo with a lot more shops and food that were fun. After Old Town we drove to the Balboa Park Inn, which I highly recommend. This place is right on the corner of Balboa Park so its the perfect place to stay for the zoo and all the museums. Its an apartment complex that the owners turned into a unique bed and breakfast. So the accommodations are all suites. We had a living room with pull out sofa, bedroom with queen size bed and full kitchen with dishes, coffee maker, fridge, etc. It would be a great place to stay for several days if you wanted to be able to have some meals in. The people were very friendly and reminded us to call the next morning when we wanted breakfast delivered. After we checked out the suite we headed back out because I wanted to see the bay. We drove down to Seaport Village and walked around. The aircraft carriers were incredible. Ive never seen one up close like that before. We drove through the Gaslamp quarter and around the city some more before going to dinner at the Corvette Diner. This place was a lot of fun. Its a retro diner complete with waitresses in poodle skirts and a DJ playing 50s tunes. The food was great too with lots of interesting burger combinations and everything around $7 to $12 dollars. We really liked San Diego and wished we had spent one less day in LA and one more day here. Its a really easy city to drive around and Balboa Park is just beautiful. We had the best nights sleep of the week here.
Part 3 is the San Diego Zoo and our 3 days at Disneyland and the Grand Californian.
Thanks for reading,
Cathy K.
(and a lot of places in between)
Cast- Me (Cathy or also known as Mom) 39 obsessive trip planner.
DH- Brian 41. The relaxed optimist in the family.
DS- Brian Jr. 17 also called BJ. Takes after his dad.
Im going to split this trip report into 3 parts so those of you who are only interested in reading the Disneyland portion please skip directly to Part 3. This trip was our gift to our son for his upcoming high school graduation. We are WDW fanatics having been there for 11 vacations but this was our first trip to Disneyland. We decided to see as much as we could from San Francisco to San Diego since we were taking the long plane trip out. Im going to write about all of it to put it in our familys memory book and I thought maybe some folks here might include some of these places on their upcoming trips and be interested in what we did.
Day Four- Sunday February 20th
We were up at 6:00 am and decided to go swimming and in the Jacuzzi but they were closed due to flooding. It was raining so much that the water was over the edge of the pool. So we hung out in the room and had some cinnamon bread that we had bought in Solvang for breakfast. We went out to wait for the shuttle to the park at 8:30 am. While we were waiting Jay Mohr (host of Last Comic Standing and former SNL alum) pulled up and gave his car to a valet. He was walking right past us so I said Excuse me Jay. Can my son have your autograph?. BJ was a big fan of Last Comic Standing. Jay was very nice and signed something for him and razzed him about the Patriots because Jays a Jets guy so of course he wrote Go Jets on the autograph. It had been pouring when we woke up but by the time we got to the park at 9:00 am the rain had stopped. Universal Studios LA has just about everything that the FL park has but everything was much closer together which was kind of nice. We decided to do the Studio Tour first and it was awesome. They incorporate 3 of old FL attractions into this ride, King Kong, Jaws, and Earthquake. BJ was happy to see Kong again. He was sad when they closed it in FL. The tour is about 45 minutes and takes you through all kinds of sets including Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives. After the tour it was on to Back to the Future, which is one of mine and BJs favorite rides of all time. There is a new section of the park that you have to take 4 escalators to get to because its at the bottom of a very large hill. The new section has Jurassic Park, The Mummy, Backdraft, and the Special Effects Stages. The Mummy was very cool but also over very quickly. We had paid extra for front of the line access but because of the weather the crowd was very small and we really could have managed fine without it. Still it was nice to go to Gate A and walk on everything. We also saw the Animal Planet show (cute) and Shrek 4-D (awesome) before finishing out the day by walking through the Van Helsing Fortress Dracula. BJ did not like this last thing at all. Its like walking through a haunted dungeon with live creatures jumping out at you. The only thing we missed out on was the Waterworld show because it got cancelled when the rain started up again in the afternoon. We left around 3:00 pm and the guys did the Nascar Experience at Citywalk before we went back to the hotel. We got there around 4:00 and housekeeping hadnt done the room yet and there was no one in sight. I walked a few halls until I found a housekeeping cart and asked for some fresh towels. We put the privacy sign on the door and took a nap for a couple of hours. We left for dinner at 6:00 and housekeeping was in the next room so I took the privacy sign off the door hoping that theyd service the room but they didnt. Dinner was at the Chop House which is right outside the gates to the park at the end of Citywalk. Its pricey but the food is great and the portions were huge. Brian and I both had the fried chicken and when we were done our leftovers would have equaled one of the meals. We could have easily shared. We decided to relax and have a drink since we didnt have to drive anywhere and I almost died when our server brought out our drinks in big 1 liter carafes. Everything about this place was big. They also have a mechanical bull that you could ride for $3. BJ got a big kick out of watching people fall off.
Day Five- Monday February 21st
We had a tour of Hollywood booked with American Limos for 9:00 am but we were up early again so we decided to have a nice sit down breakfast at the hotel. The food was ok but $60 for a simple buffet breakfast is just too much. We checked out and put our luggage in the car and hung around the lobby waiting for our driver. I had booked a 4 hour tour of Hollywood in a town car before we left home. I was really looking forward to this and unfortunately it was the biggest disappointment of our trip. Our driver Noah tells us as soon as we get in the car that its only his second day on the job but not to worry hes never been responsible for an accident even though hes totaled 3 cars in his life. He wasnt kidding. It turned out we knew more about Hollywood then he did. We saw the Hollywood Sign (from a far distance) and saw a few Beverly Hills mansions. About an hour in to the drive I just wanted to end it but I had prepaid for a 4 hour minimum. I had him drive us out to the Santa Monica Pier so that we could walk around without him and the guys could touch the pacific. We did end up cutting it short and got out of LA as fast as we could. The best thing about the Sheraton was its right off the highway. We took HWY 5 South to San Diego. We hit some traffic so it took about 2.5 hours to get there. It was about 3:00 pm so we went to Old Town since it closes at 5:00. This was a really interesting area to walk around. Its old historic adobe homes and shops where San Diego was originally settled. Of course, mixed in are several tourist type shops and next door is a section called Bazaar Del Mundo with a lot more shops and food that were fun. After Old Town we drove to the Balboa Park Inn, which I highly recommend. This place is right on the corner of Balboa Park so its the perfect place to stay for the zoo and all the museums. Its an apartment complex that the owners turned into a unique bed and breakfast. So the accommodations are all suites. We had a living room with pull out sofa, bedroom with queen size bed and full kitchen with dishes, coffee maker, fridge, etc. It would be a great place to stay for several days if you wanted to be able to have some meals in. The people were very friendly and reminded us to call the next morning when we wanted breakfast delivered. After we checked out the suite we headed back out because I wanted to see the bay. We drove down to Seaport Village and walked around. The aircraft carriers were incredible. Ive never seen one up close like that before. We drove through the Gaslamp quarter and around the city some more before going to dinner at the Corvette Diner. This place was a lot of fun. Its a retro diner complete with waitresses in poodle skirts and a DJ playing 50s tunes. The food was great too with lots of interesting burger combinations and everything around $7 to $12 dollars. We really liked San Diego and wished we had spent one less day in LA and one more day here. Its a really easy city to drive around and Balboa Park is just beautiful. We had the best nights sleep of the week here.
Part 3 is the San Diego Zoo and our 3 days at Disneyland and the Grand Californian.
Thanks for reading,
Cathy K.
