california adventures: the last day edition

All good things must come to an end. Like summer camps (all of mine ended today), and cartons of ice cream (good thing I have a back-up in the freezer), and beach vacations (oh wait, that doesn't ever have to end for us), and California vacation recaps. I can't stop looking through all gazillion of the California pictures and reading through the blog recaps. Chyeah, I reread my own blogs. Hair flip. If my denial that this trip is over is this bad after only a month then I don't even want to be around me come 6 months time. Or a year. Or 5 years. 

Gotta get back to Cali!--said everyone ever, I'm sure. 

Our best week ever week ended in San Francisco. The city of...? NYC is the city that never sleeps. According to Google SF is the city that knows how and waits to die. So...okay. Moving on. 

I used Mara's handy dandy 36 hours in San Francisco blog and jam packed our day with everything. Everything! No rest for the weary and no free minutes for my family. 

Spoiler alert: We didn't get it all done. Freddie and I had one day and only got to jam pack in 40% of the fun while my family had 3 whole days there and got to hit up all the funnies. 

We started the 24 hours in San Fran tour with breakfast at The Buena Vista. 

That meant several glasses of the famous Irish coffee for Freddie and several plates of bacon and eggs for my father. 

Oh, and a pile of whipped cream for Ann. 

^^2 things: 1) this was the hill we rolled down walked down to get to breakfast and 2) Alcatraz. Right there. In your face. No big deal. 

We parked right by Lombard St. we figured Hey! Why not?! Such a touristy amateur thing to say, but...it was so cool to be on Lombard St.! And to be curving around it and to be squealing with glee about the fact we were curving around it! And to be taking pictures! I loved every minute of it. Which is good because it took quite a few minutes to get down.

Next up was The Walt Disney Family Museum. I don't really know how to even put into words the effect this museum had on me so I won't even try (I did kinda sorta try here). Just know that if you're ever in the area you have to go. Even if you're not humungous Disney fans. Just shut up and go.

Oh...and p.s.-this is the view from the museum. So...go.

We were there during the Mary Blair exhibit and it was fascinating. A woman, who in the 40's, 50's, and 60's (so taboo!), was a prominent artist and animator for Disney. Ever ridden It's a Small World? Her work. Ever seen the huge mosaic in the Contemporary? Her. Those among many other things. 

^^she did concept art for many movies including Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, and Peter Pan.

And on to the whirlwind walk through of every thing Walt Disney accomplished in his life. Hint: it's a lot. 

When we pulled up and saw the outside of the building we assumed we could get in and get out rather quickly. Three hours and one time cruncher Emily later we were reluctantly leaving. 

 Moral of the story? Plan for a 5 hour visit to this museum. At least ;)

Next up? The San Francisco Ferry Building for lunch and a view. It was a success on both accounts.

^^That top picture would be our view during lunch. A model in a sun hat. That middle picture would be my mom's reaction to anytime my dad calls her his soulmate. Obviously.

^^Family selfies: the theme of this trip.

We did a speedy tour of the Fisherman's Wharf area and Ghiradelli square. All ya need to know about those places are it smelled like fish and the chocolate was delish. 

Oh, and one more thing you need to know: it's cooooold. And people were playing in the cold ocean. Bless their hearts. Some people are just crazy. 

But wait! The day wasn't done yet! There were still more hours and minutes to be filled with all things San Francisco. So we headed to the Golden Gate Park to get amazing pictures with the Golden Gate Bridge.

...but the fog had a different idea.

...but we didn't care and still took a trillion of our gazillion trip pictures in this one location.

See?

9=one trillion

Finally it was time to head back to the hotel and whine/wine about having to leave on a jet plane the next morning. However, we couldn't leave SF without a stop to the Painted Ladies. <<<as my father was driving us and we were guiding him via Google Maps and we were getting a little lost, he finally emphatically asked why we were going to see a painted lady. Pretty sure he had a Moulin Rouge-esque night club in his mind. Actually I'm not pretty sure about anything that goes through his mind. Regardless, these are the Painted ladies.

Just houses.

Phew.

 ^^there's a Full House fanatic right there.

What. A. Trip.   

I can't wait to reread this entirely too long of a post in another week and get all teary. Sigh. California, you treated us so well. We'll be back.

california adventures: get thee to a winery

When it comes to Northern California, I'm kind of an expert. I mean, I did spend a whole five hours in the hills of Santa Rosa one afternoon and visited one whole winery that same day. This girl knows her NoCA stuff (is that a cool slang term or what?! wink).

But in order for you to fully appreciate my one winery experience, I need to start at the beginning.

The very, very beginning starts when we road tripped up the coast of California from Anaheim to San Francisco. 

Uh-mazingly b-e-a-utiful. There was a perfectly blue ocean, cliffs and rocks, mountains and forests. Downright dreamy. The West Coast was definitely representing that day, Katy Perry style. 

Road trip stops included but were not limited to: In n' Out (in muh belly), stopping for gas and feeling like we were legitimately in a Zombie Apocalypse ghost town, overlooks for picture taking time, and one more gas station for a candylicious pick-me-up.

This is the part where the story gets exciting. 

!!

We Pricelined a hotel because a) cheap b) it said it was 4-star and c) we were getting into SF super late.  

Let me make a really long story short by saying it was not 4-star, it had fully mirrored walls, they only gave us 2 rooms with one bed each for 6 people, and this was in the closet...

this meaning the robe and flashlight, not Ann. She wasn't in the closet. Her modeling pose does not include the yoga mat and umbrella that were also in the closet, though.

So...there's that. 

Russ Moore announced that we would be leaving ASAP/first thing in the morning. Leaving and checking out of a hotel quickly means you need a plan of where you are going next. We wanted to do a winery, but my family isn't huge on drinking wine. As in my dad sips on one alcoholic beverage for about 5-6 hours, my mother can't comprehend why any wine other than Rose Regale exists (what else does anyone need?!), and my brother is beery much into beer. There's also the small fact that Ann is underage. Details, details. Then there's the fact that most wineries require a reservation and money for tours. This all takes us back to the fact that my family isn't huge on drinking wine.

Here is the part of the story where mine and Freddie's new best friend, Mr. Whipple, walks in. We had only met the most eclectic and impolite employees at the hotel, so far. My father was pacing the lobby waiting for valet to bring our cars so we could escape this mirrored wall prison. Some man walks up to me and Freddie and strikes up a conversation. A very friendly conversation. We learn he has friends down in Charleston, he has his own wine company, and he has loads of recommendations when it comes to what we should do winery-wise. 

So even though we stayed in a nut house, and even though we told Ann she is probably forever unclean after putting on that cheetah robe, and even though the walls (and ceilings) were mirrored we took Mr. Whipple's advice and headed up to one of his favorite wineries, Sunce.

...and it was perfect.

(Sorry, I know you were looking for a more exciting end to that story given the mirrored walls and cheetah robes and all). 

Joseph's very important notes on the tasting. MMMMM.

I spy an underaged Ann eyeing the wine bottles.

Papa-Paparazzi.

We stopped in the cutesies town of Santa Rosa so Freddie and Joseph could check out Russian River brewery and Russ Moore could check out the icees at Burger King. Hey, the NoCA BKs could have been different than the GA BKs, okay? ;)

and that, my friends, is the story of how Ann contracted an unknown virus my family spent the day in the beautiful Russian River Valley. 

Other California adventures:

San Diego

LA is not a-okay

A miniature castle

More Disney

california adventures: california adventure style

Now that we're all on the same page about Disneyland vs. Disney World, let's talk about California Adventure. 

Otherwise known as My Favorite. 

California Adventure is a weird mix of part Hollywood Studios, part Epcot (why hello, alcohol), and part awesome. That part awesome is divided up into different awesome things, one of which being that there was an entrance to the park straight out of our hotel. Kind of Platform 9-3/4 style. I like to pretend it was a secret entrance. 

^^When exploring new Disney parks always wear the ears. Unless your name is Joseph, MC, or Freds and you're too cool.

^^but no one is too cool for a matching Star Wars day. Except me, MC, and Freddie.

^^fake LA slash a version of LA we actually like.

^^Story time!! When Ann was little she had an imaginary friend named Princess Atta. But it wasn't like any 'ole imaginary friend it was the person Ann was always talking to, always talking about, and always doing what Ann was not allowed to do. Princess Atta was more like a part of the family. The End. 

^^While this is a blurry picture, no one can resist Freddie's windblown hair model status picture. No one, I tell you!

^^My "brave" sister, brother, and father decided to ride the Ferris wheel of death. Freddie, my mother, and I were "not brave" and found margaritas, milkshakes, and Mickey bread. You decide who won this game in life.

^^one of my brother's friends is a manager at Disneyland and got us VIP seats for the Aladdin show. Hair flip. And also, thank you!

The night show at California Adventure is called Colors of the World. It has water that shoots into the sky, images projected onto said shooting water, and music that makes you want to dance and sing (Spoiler alert: I did). 

So yes, the show was awesome. But you know what was even more awesome?  

??

My dear mother ended up standing next to a man who is the father of one of the dancers in The Wiggles.

ARE YOU SCREAMING AS MUCH AS I WAS?!

No? Okay, well The Wiggles is a children's band who sings songs that are so ridiculous you can't help but love them. I saw their ridiculousness and lovability and had Wiggles sheets throughout college. Weird, yes. Also not weird and kinda cool? Maybe. People, I was obviously in the presence of a celebrity. He was the nicest Australian man who told me that I should move to Australia and teach ballet there. Apparently it's in high demand.

Done. 

Now, back to some colorful worlds. 

I'm sure you can guess how the story ends. Our tired feet managed to take us back to the top secret entrance and we crashed hard. 

Disneyland, I'm sorry your castle is small and your technology isn't as advanced at Disney World's, but despite these setbacks (wink) you were super duper fo' shizzle fun.