(K)not(t) Disneyland, but That’s OK

A free day + a free ticket = a trip to Knott’s Berry Farm

Math is fun!

I took a PTO day at the end of my work trip, used a free ticket I received from MyCokeRewards, and went to Knott’s. (A shout-out to the nice supervisor at KBF who extended the expiration date on my free ticket so I could use it past Labor Day. I’m sure I more than made up for the ticket price in drinks alone. It was hot, yo.)

Halloween Time at Disneyland 2014

The only holiday I have experienced at any Disney park is Halloween. I have to say that Disneyland has the edge over Disney World on its offerings in that it transforms two rides for Halloween and doesn’t charge extra for these attractions.

I love the Haunted Mansion, so I was a little iffy at first on it being transformed to Haunted Mansion Holiday with the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay. After riding it six times over four days, I have to say that it grew on me. I had never seen the movie until a few weeks before my trip, and (confession time) I fell asleep and still don’t know how it ended. But, I love that little ghost dog and what they did with the stretching room, so yeah, this was cool. However, I still wanted to see the original Haunted Mansion and actually think it is more fitting for Halloween since Nightmare Before Christmas is about, well, Christmas.

Disneyland Revisited

I hadn’t planned to visit Disneyland again so soon, but when your job sends you to Anaheim, whaddya gonna do?

The trip had an exciting start as a Jim Gaffigan lookalike immediately reclined his seat all the way into my lap and stayed there for almost four hours. Good times!

That’s All Folks!

Finally, the last installment of the Great Road/California Trip 2013. I feel like I’ve been yammering about it for months (I have).

As part of our Hollywood tour with Anaheim Visitors Center, we went on the Warner Brothers VIP tour. You would think this is their fanciest tour, but you would be wrong. This is the basic tour, but it really provided enough time at the studio, and we got to see plenty.

With many things, the guide can make or break this tour. Our guide was more of a breaker than a maker. I volunteered to sit up front with him, so I at least got to ask him a few questions and sort of steer him towards things I was interested in. If I thought he mentioned something I wanted to know about, I kept asking him to repeat himself until I could understand him. For the rest of the group…who knows? He was difficult to understand and seemed to know only about “Pretty Little Liars” and movies made post-2010.

The 411 on the Anaheim Visitor Center

During our stay in California in July 2013, we took two tours offered by The Anaheim Visitor Center, AKA Anaheim 411 (that’s their Web address). I tried to find information about them on TripAdvisor before we booked anything, but it was difficult to pin down. Some people seem to have had bad experiences with them (it seems usually when they booked through a third party), others raved about the personal attention and smaller tour sizes.  We decided to take our chances and book with them as they were the only tour operator we could find that went where we wanted to go. Our experience fell on the high end of the spectrum, for the most part. They are a legitimate company (or were as of July 2013), they showed up, they did what they said they were gonna do, and it was fun!

The first tour we took was the Warner Brothers Studio and Hollywood combo. I’ll talk about Warner Brothers in a separate post as Anaheim Visitor Center has nothing to do with that tour—they just drop you off and pick you up there. And arrange the tickets. Plus you get a small discount in the gift shop.

Tour Guide Tom (who is also an owner of the company) picked us up promptly and gave us some Hollywood history lessons on the way to our first destination: Beverly Hills. Looking at my photos, I see snaps of a bunch of gates and driveways and some homes, but I cannot recall now who lived where. But at the time, we were all, “Yeah! Cool!” I think I can safely say that this one is Tim Burton’s house (or so Tom said):

Want!

Surfing Up and Down the Coast

On our July 2013 trip to California, we spent one day in San Diego. We caught the Pacific Surfliner at Anaheim station and took it to Old Town station in San Diego. From there, we caught the Old Town Trolley and took a lap around and back to Old Town. My brother and nephew visited the USS Midway while the rest of us opted to shop in Old Town. We rounded out the day with lunch at Anthony’s Fish Grotto and an early dinner at Cafe Coyote. It was a laid back day that we all enjoyed, but especially my nephew because trains were involved.

The only glitch we encountered was being totally unsure if we were on the right side of the tracks for catching the Pacific Surfliner back to Anaheim. We boarded at the same place we disembarked in the morning. Didn’t seem to make sense, and most of the people on the platform were nervous about taking the train the wrong way. But, turns out, we worried for nothing, and for some reason the train picks up and drops off at that station on the same side of the tracks. Hmmmmm.

The Happiest Place in Anaheim, Probably

At the end of our long cross-country road trip in July 2013 awaited shiny, happy Disneyland Resort. Everyone but my parents bought five-day park hopper passes. My niece and I weren’t going to be there five full days, but we had a few evenings where we were able to spend about five or six hours in the parks, thanks to Disneyland being open until midnight throughout our stay.

From what I read, I was expecting overwhelming crowds since we were there at the height of the summer season. Also, from what I read, I expected extremely hot weather. I guess the lesson is that you really need to decide for yourself what constitutes “crowded” and “hot.” We had to wait in a few long lines, and if standing directly in the sun for hours, yes, it got hot. But, compared to Disney World, this place was a glorious, humidity-free breezefest! I loved a lot of things about the original Mouse House, and the weather was at the top of the list. Also, except the last day we were there (a Friday), it didn’t seem that busy. I mean, there were people, and they came out of the woodwork for the evening shows, but let’s just say that I was not bumped in the ankles by one stroller.

Instead of giving a blow-by-blow recount of what we did, I will just comment on the highlights for me.

On the Holiday Road 2013: Las Vegas to Anaheim

July 13, 2013—Day 8

Our goal today was to meet up with the rest of the family in Anaheim, first stopping a few short miles away in Yorba Linda for a dead prez fix at the Nixon Museum and Presidential Library.

The ride itself was rather uneventful. We downloaded the Tina Fey movie, “Admission,” and watched that for part of the journey. Hmmm. Best part of this film: Paul Rudd, who is usually the best part of any film he’s in. I was hoping it would be funnier, but not so much.

We ate at our first In-N-Out burger somewhere near a strip mall. The place was packed! I can see why everyone raves about this restaurant—it’s tasty and cheap. And that chocolate shake lasted for many, many miles.

We spent a lot of time looking at the exhibits at the Nixon museum. I thought the part about Watergate was intriguing and pretty comprehensive. Kudos to this museum for not trying to cover it up. (Heh heh.) I think the museum did Nixon justice and painted a rounded portrait of him, not just focusing on the good, but also not showing only the crooky-ness.

California There I Went

I recently spent a few days in Los Angeles for a work conference. I stayed at the Sheraton Universal, so I spent a little time the weekend before the conference at Universal Studios Hollywood.

Universal has some great attractions. I saw everything in two days. My favorite of course was the tram tour. I tried it on two different days, and it did change each time. One time we got the Mummy attraction, another time the parting of the Red Sea. But, not both on the same tour.  I loved seeing the back lot and sets from so many movies. I just recently watched Bruce Almighty just to see the brownstone set from Universal’s back lot. Good times.

Town square from the “Back to the Future” movies.