Monday, March 30, 2009

i may be the only one

[ducking tomatoes]

who doesn't really understand the mystique that is disneyland... i mean it was a well-planned community and had some really interesting architecture, but there were just too many people for my liking. maybe had the kids been younger, it might have been more magical. believe me, i'm trying to figure out why i wasn't entranced, i think there may be something wrong with me. maybe it's because i didn't go as a kid, and i don't blame my parents for that at all, they took us on many wonderful vacations all over the country, we just never made it to disneyland. happily, kelly felt the same way, so at least i'm not totally alone. it was fun and all, but not all that i'd hoped for.

because i always have grand intentions of giving a day by day account of our trips, then somehow manage to get sidetracked about day 3, i decided to just post highlights all at once.

now with the admittance that i'm not a life long disneyland fan, i will say that i am starting to get the whole california thing. it's a pretty state. and it has beaches, which i'm all for.

we did the 16 hour drive in 2 days, stopping on the way down in st. george, utah.
the stop was a nice surprise for our family. our church has a temple in st. george, it's the oldest operating temple we have. we spent sunday attending one of the st. george wards then toured the visitors center next to the temple. ethan had a special experience where he really started to understand what faith and testimony is to him.


we toured the jacob hamblin home as well, he was a pioneer to the area and a trusted friend to the indians during the early days of our church history.


southern utah is GORGEOUS. we did something spontaneous and stopped at all the viewing areas along the way (ethan now completely understands the meaning of the word spontaneous). here are a couple of pictures from the stops. the first is at a place called ghost rock, isn't that canyon amazing?


this was just along the side of the road, it looks like a cow's head to me :)


we stayed in newport, a very ritzy part of town apparently. kelly enjoyed seeing a few astin martins, lambourghinis and ferraris. lexus, mercedes, bmw, land rover are more common stock apparently. we were out of the ordinary in our little VW jetta. despite feeling a little out of place, the beach just down from our place was gorgeous. we went to two different ones, it was cold and windy one day then very nice and windy another. i could definitely live on the beach. too bad everyone else feels the same way. some of these are taken at newport beach and others at crystal cove state park.












welcome to disneyland...


we started our experience on the jungle boat ride in adventure land, i know you should go to the back of the park first, we made a rookie mistake. it just wasn't fun, the tour guide was bitter and made very bad jokes. he must have been bitter because he hadn't gotten "a-head" in life (bah dump bum!). i don't think he should have been working at disneyland. maybe that's what flavored the experience for me...


ok, had fun here. first ride of the day that i actually enjoyed. my kids like to go fast. i happily joined in.


i had to take this picture, it's a parent law or something like that.


this was pretty funny. the jedi training camp or some such... the jedi was hilarious, well worth sitting through the show just to hear his quips.


kelly and the kids on big thunder mountain. i didn't get to ride any of the roller coasters because of my heart condition. that COULD have flavored the experienc i suppose. see, i went to high school in cleveland, home of cedar point, only one of the best roller coaster parks in the world. i was spoiled. i LOVE roller coasters. every time i go to my heart doctor appointment, i ask, every time he says no. wah. poor me.


stood in line for this one because it's a SMALL WORLD! had that idea reiterated over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. i think i should have just enjoyed the experience from the line. i really wanted to go on this ride, it's something from my childhood impressions of disneyland. by the time we got to switzerland, i was really hoping it would end soon. i took way too many pictures inside. i could definitely see james bond chasing some deranged character around the interior of this ride. i'll spare you the interior shots, this is from before, when i wanted to go on the ride. see, i had a little cock-eyed optimism in me...


toontown was another place i wanted to see, the buildings and such were delightful in every way. i almost felt like a kid again...


someone was tired.


last stop on our way out of california, not super impressed by the fries, but the burgers were very good. annie got the 2x4:


we drove back and spent the next day in cedar city, utah, but it was so cold and we were dressed for california weather, so we spent the day in our hotel, watching too much tv. we don't have cable here at home so when we go on vacation, we tend to watch a little too much. we all agreed we'd had our fill by the end of the trip.

so to wrap it all up, it was a great time, we slept in, ate in (our villa had a kitchen so we got to go to trader joe's and buy food for dinners and breakfasts! i love trader joe's, we don't have them here in CO.), i did my wii fit (yes, i'm a nerd), went to the pool, and took it easy. it really was a vacation from life. that's something you need every so often.

thank you for reading my blog :)

12 comments:

Houston said...

Seriously Em, I totally agree with you about Disney, although the fireworks shows are always fantastic. The photos you took are all amazing but the seagulls with the binoculars is my favorite!

Jaime Lee said...

Hi Em, I totally agreed with you that we need these sort of vacation every once a while :).

I don't think having yourself on Wii is a nerd. I do that too with my siblings on every weekend. Well, I can say its a good thing to release some stress too...lol.

Tina Cockburn said...

So sorry to have missed you!!!!

We had our phones switched to that cable/internet phone thing and it was all screwed up for nearly a week.

So, get in your car and just come on back, okay?

*Paula* said...

I'm with Houston. I'm eh on Disney but was wowed by the fireworks. Sorry about the roller coasters!

lisa d said...

i'm pretty sure i'm with you on the whole disney thing. if nothing else, you got some great photos. and now i need a BURGER. :P

Aly Dosdall said...

too funny! we just got back from disneyworld. had a great time, but the kids pooped out much sooner than we expected. oh well. =)

Anonymous said...

Oh! An arrow through my heart you guys! Disney is the greatest place ever!!!! Other than the crowds. I like to go in Mid-December - not many people, plus you get to see all of the wonderful Christmas decorations. Small World is my 2nd fave ride - Splash Mtn. is the best. Sigh.

Your trip sounds like it was quite fun. I adore the beach. So glad you had fun (in spite of Disney). LOL

Anonymous said...

As a native Californian, I don't really get the fascination with DL either. Don't get me wrong, I love to visit and now that I have a little boy, part of me wants to go more often.

HOWEVER, I've been to Disney World too and I don't get the fascination with that. Its like DL is the prototype for DW. Walt Disney had a vision and limited land to work with in So Cal. Florida offered him so much more. So yes its bigger and the castle has stuff in it but the CA version is better. Its the original. Whenever we're there, I hear people around us that are from out of state saying how much better the Florida location is and I totally want to get into a debate.

Sure Florida has a princess hotel room IN the castle but we have the original vision. The park is bigger, more rides, more lands etc. I prefer our smaller version.

Julie said...

Um...Disneyland is the happiest place on earth! Didn't you know it is a requirement to be happy there? ;)
I loved going to Disneyland with my kids when they were younger. It is so much more fun to see the thrill in their eyes and on their little faces. I will never forget the 1st time we went. Z was 5. He HAD to see Mickey Mouse first. It was like he would not believe we were in Disneyland unless he saw Mickey mouse :)

GCD Studios said...

DUDE! I'm like 30 minutes away from Disney Land. What a bummer! We could have had a little visit!

Oh well! I'm happy you got in some In-N-Out. A trip to cali without it is super sad! We had some on Friday night for dinner. Yum!

PS next time try the animal fries. Those are soooo good!

Lyn said...

I enjoyed reading about your vacation... have never been to Disneyland, but DH and I are freaks about Disneyworld, I am not sure why, I never visited either as a child, in fact the first time I went I was 25, with DH, and I felt like some sort of happiness bubble burst inside my brain. I was running around the parks trying to snap pictures of characters. He kept saying, "You know those are people dressed up in costumes, right?" Hilarious. The beach looks gorgeous, I want to visit there so I can say I visited the Ryan-Marissa OC beach.

Unknown said...

Maybe you need to go to DisneyWORLD... I just love Epcot. fun, fun. :)