Cali trip part 1

Hey there, folks! We just got back from a 5-day trip to California. It was muy fabuloso y fantastico y estupendo and I have had so much to do and have been so tired since we've gotten home on Sunday that I haven't managed to blog. Which is really saying something, seeing as I did manage to blog mere hours after giving birth to Luke, for example. Of course then I was just sitting in the hospital and did not have three thousand things to unpack and put away.

We did so many things that I'm going to have to do a separate post for each day. I took over 400 pictures, so you know, it's a little much for one post.

DAY 1: A Rocky Start

 All we had planned for Wednesday was to make the drive from Cedar City to Anaheim in time for a 6:00 pm dinner reservation we had at Tortilla Jo's in Downtown Disney. It's 444 miles and should take around 7 hours. We had a lot going on in Cedar and were up late packing and tying up loose ends and didn't leave till 9:30 am. Still I thought we had plenty of time.

But...then we got stuck in traffic at a dead standstill for nearly an hour outside Baker, CA. Oooooohhhhh California traffic. It's a good thing we had a Harry Potter audiobook to listen to (Book 6--The Half Blood Prince, which is my absolute favorite) because otherwise I would have gone stark raving mad. Also the kids each had their own portable DVD player. Man, I wish those things had been around when I was little!! Kids are so spoiled nowadays, not having to just stare out of a window (or fight with their siblings) for hours on end in the car. *Update 4/12/12: Luke's already broken the lid of his clean off. Must be some kind of record. Thank goodness Mark is handy and fixed it...

We finally got going again and made good progress for a while until Madelyn suddenly announced that she had to find a potty RIGHT NOW and I pulled off at the next gas station we saw. (Gas, by the way, was like $4.45 a gallon for the cheap stuff in CA...) When we got back in the car, I saw a local street sign that said we were already in Anaheim. So hey! We should be a few minutes from the hotel!

*Back up a little* Usually when we go on a road trip, I print out step-by-step MapQuest driving directions to everywhere we're going. Especially in LA, you need something like that to not get hopelessly lost. But Mark had just borrowed an old Tom Tom GPS unit from his brother James, and he assured me that we wouldn't need the MapQuest directions. So I didn't print off any.

Anyway, after the gas station, Mark told me that the GPS said we had 17 miles left to go. That seemed odd, but oh well. The GPS lady kept telling us in her annoying, dispassionate voice to "keep left" and not get off the freeway. So I go the 17 miles and I start to suspect something is wrong when the freeway ENDS, meaning we are approaching the COAST, and the street signs say we are in Costa Mesa. We had overshot our hotel by 15 miles! STUPID GPS!!!!! I wanted to punch that disembodied GPS lady in the face.

By then it was 5:00 pm and we hit major gridlock when I turned around and got back on the freeway. We finally managed to get back on the surface streets and had to travel about 14 miles up Harbor Blvd. going through all the stoplights. Uuuughhhhh. We finally made it to our hotel and I raced in (and stood in line for 10 minutes) to check in so they wouldn't give our room away, and then we drove around to Downtown Disney parking (and had to change Luke completely because he'd been chewing on his shirt the whole time and was soaked) and hurried our butts to Tortilla Jo's. We were 11 minutes late for our reservation, but they let us in. Good. Freaking. Grief. It had taken us 9 hours to get there.

 Tortilla Jo's is a really nice Mexican restaurant, and I'd scored a $30 gift certificate by signing up for their restaurant group's emails on my birthday (they give you a gift certificate that's good for 60 days after your birthday). Woo-hoo!

 I had just come back from the restroom with Madelyn (who, by the way, was in a super duper sulky mood until I threatened not to buy her anything that night) and they brought me ice cream with a candle and a couple of waiters sang loudly to me and people started clapping. It was awesome!

 The kids helped me eat the ice cream and it was so yummy. And so were their chicken flautas!

 Anyway, after all that, the rest of our night was great.

We went to the Lego Store and strolled around the plaza

  

Then went to this enormous Disney store that stretched on and on foreverrr.

 Of course everything is way overpriced, but you come expecting it. Madelyn ended up getting one of those blue Cinderella nightgowns the next day ($35...*choke*). She got a pink Aurora one the last time we were there and has worn it about 500 times. So at least I knew the new one would get used.

 Luke got an R2-D2 light up toy that spins around and beeps and screams just like the real R2. He was mesmerized by that thing. I don't know how Star Wars got hooked up with Disneyland, but they're sure making $$$$$$, is all I can say. I guess they had to have the boy's equivalent of all the princess stuff.

 Around 8:30 pm (California time, which is 9:30 pm Utah time), we headed back to our hotel and unloaded the car.

 We stayed at The Red Lion, which was very nice, had reasonable rates, and was within walking distance to Disneyland. Of course the first thing Luke does every time we get to a hotel is to run to the phone and start dialing out on it before we even have a chance to put down our bags. Then we have to unplug it because...

 He plays with it every time he gets the chance. We gave the kids a quick bath and then we got to watch the Disneyland fireworks from our room!

 We were up on the 7th floor (we had requested a room where we could see the fireworks, which go off every night at 9:30 pm) and had a great view. The fireworks are shot off mainly behind Sleeping Beauty's castle in Disneyland (which is actually quite short so you can't see it from here) and there on the far left you can see the lit up Ferris wheel called Mickey's Fun Wheel over at California Adventure.

 The kids loved it and we started to get excited for Disneyland the next day!!

Stay tuned for that post tomorrow, if I haven't scared you away by this crazy post!