
To see a slideshow from our trip -
Our California Adventure!!We had such a wonderful vacation. Our flight out to LA (all 5.5 hours) wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. We flew out on Virgin America and I have to wholeheartedly recommend them to anyone. Besides the satellite TV, they have texting from seat to seat, games, music and you can order food and drinks from your seat, and all of this in coach. Brendan was very loud and drove our seatmate crazy, but didn't fuss or say he was bored. And on the way onto the plane, Brendan got to go into the cockpit and sit in the captain's seat. Very nice!!
We got into LAX and got the shuttle to Anaheim where we met our friends and M and M at the HoJo. We had great rooms. The main pool area was closed down for refurbishment and we had asked for and gotten upgrades to the Disneyland view rooms. It was so cool to see the Matterhorn from our balconies.
Having been 4 times to Disney World in the last 2 years, Brendan and I had alot of fun getting to know Disneyland and California Adventure. We both decided that we really liked Disneyland better than Magic Kingdom and that we loved having the two parks and Downtown Disney right there by each other and being able to walk to them from our hotel. Brendan loved the Davey Crockett Canoes and Monsters Inc that we don't have at Disney World. He also liked Winnie the Pooh better there and Autopia more than Indy Speedway. Buzz Lightyear was as usual a great hit.
We went to the parks on Monday and Tuesday and on Wednesday met up with I and her boys L and S at the San Diego Zoo. We were enchanted with the pandas and Brendan loved the children's zoo area while I loved the hippos. The zoo is fabulous and it was a nice break from the parks. But it was also getting a little hot that day.
The next day was the big day - Brendan's 6th birthday!! He was just the happiest boy that day. We started off with a fabulous character breakfast at the Plaza Inn. He had his Happy Birthday Mickey ears, a birthday shirt and a birthday pin they gave him at the restaurant. He told just about anyone who would listen and plenty who wouldn't that it was his birthday that day. Did I mention though that it was really hot though?
The next day we realized we were fully in the midst of the major heat wave that was hitting CA when it was about 98 degrees at the park. Or at least that's what it was earlier in the day, who knows what it was later on. I actually got a stroller for Brendan just so he'd be out of sun, which if you can imagine my jumbo boy in there, it was amusing. And hot. Really hot. But it was a really nice day.
The next sweltering day we started out on the nice cool Balboa Pier at Newport Beach. We had breakfast at Ruby's Diner and then Brendan and I went into the surf. The water was beautiful and cool and in one of my finer parenting moments Brendan's shoes got washed away in the surf. Well they showed up eventually, but soaking wet and full of sand. We were heading over to the farmer's market in LA anyway which has a nice outdoor mall built around it and we got a pair of Geox sneakers at Nordstrom that Brendan is in love with. Considering he had been wearing size 1 and the new sneakers are size 2, maybe it was a good thing that we had the waterlogged shoes. After that we went to the LaBrea Tarpits and did the Hollywood tour around. As more of my fine parenting, I ran Brendan out into traffic to get a shot of him with the Hollywood sign, but hey you got to do it.
The next morning we said goodbye to M and M and flew up to Oakland to stay with my friend J and her daughter S (and parents and dogs and cat). Brendan freaked out on the last 20 or so minutes of the flight saying his ear was in alot of pain. He'd never had that problem before and I hoped it was just a fluke. J picked us up at the airport and drove us back to their house in Pleasanton. Brendan and S hit it off immediately and were like two peas in a pod and were off playing together while J and I had margaritas. We had a nice early evening while the puppy (a big 40 lb puppy) jumped on us and licked our ears and chewed our feet.
The next day we met C and her daughter H, and C's sister G and her son S at the Monterey aquarium. J, C and I all met for work 10 years ago and have remained friends since. But I live in NY, J lives in CA and C lives in FL. We've all met up at times, but never all together and with the kids. It was soooo good to be altogether, with C's trip to visit her sister G in CA coinciding with ours. The kids had fun and Brendan especially loved the jellyfish. He was very tired though having spent the previous night with croup and a cold and actually slept part of the way back to Pleasanton.
He had another night of croup after that but the next day we went into San Francisco for our touristy day. We went to Pier 39 and saw the seals and went to Fisherman's Wharf. We checked out Alcatraz and toured a submarine. I got Brendan black and white striped Escaped from Alcatraz pajamas, lol. Then we rode a cable car and saw some of the city. Later on we went to the Alameda County Fair where among other things Brendan took a pony ride, the first time I've ever gotten him near anything equine. It was a really nice ending for our trip.
J drove us back to the airport the next day. We took JetBlue home form Oakland. Normally I really love JetBlue, but compared to Virgin America it actually seemed a little shabby, but still nice to have the satellite seatback TVs. Brendan has the previous night said his ear hurt and in the morning had wailed about it hurting and I was dosing him up with Tylenol, sure his ear was probably infected. He was fine on the flight and I was sighing with relief until again the last 20-30 minutes of the flight when the pressure changes made him wail with pain. I felt really bad for him, but a trip to the pediatrician the next day got us a prescription for Zithromax and he's on the mend.
All in all it was a fabulous, fabulous trip. It was great to see M and M again and to share the week with them. And then stay with J and S (where Brendan was very enamored with J's little niece R who was 10 months, who her mother watched every day) and for finally J, C and I all to be together with the kids. The only bad part of the trip was having it end.