California Dreaming Part 3

Our last couple of days in California were spent in San Francisco. Our first night was July 4th and unfortunately our room was on the street side of the hotel..ground level. Yes it was noisy pretty much all bloody night. I declared that I hated San Francisco and tried to teleport myself someplace else...with my mind. It didn't work which was for the best, because I actually really loved San Francisco...even more so after we got our room changed.

Here we see another boat of prisoners being taken to Alcatraz.

At Pier 39 there is a shop called Chocolate Heaven....the name does not lie..there was lots of chocolate and I was in heaven. The kids got a sugar high just looking at the store front.


After some shopping and lunching at Pier 39, it was finally time to pay homage to the greatest hot fudge sundaes in the world, by visiting Ghirardelli Square. It was like visiting the Emerald City...and I wept softly. I counted about three different shop locations at the square all packed with people. My plan was to visit them all..

Wonder-pea and I are enjoyed our Ghirardelli Square experience. Me perhaps a little more. Yes that is a second sundae sitting there. Through some mathematical miscalculation, my Dad ordered one more sundae than was needed. Since Ghirardelli sundaes are protected under California law, I had no choice but to eat it. It was the greatest day of my life.

After prying me away from Ghirardelli Square, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge to visit Golden Gate Park.

The vegetation was huge!

Here we are at the top of a waterfall.....

...and my parents at the bottom.

I do have an almost, sorta, fear of heights. Not so much fear of being high, but rather falling to my death from a high spot. Regardless, I was determined to get a kick ass picture of the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped at an overlook. The wind was blowing like crazy as I made my way up the path to the top.

The actual overlook was slopped down towards the bay so that if you got a running start you might actually clear the side of the cliff as you plummeted to your death. Nice. After taking some long deep breaths and focusing on a happy childhood memory, I inched closer and closer to the edge and snapped this......
..not too shabby.


The very last thing we did in San Fran besides visiting the airport to come home, was to visit Muir Woods. Home to some HUGELY amazing trees.






Lil Pumpkin made friends with a local.

The End.

Good times were had by all! It was a busy trip but still pretty gosh darn fun. I would have loved to visit all my buddies out there in Cali, but perhaps next time. California was great fun and I am sure we'll be back. I must admit that late at night, when its very quiet, I can hear the chocolate of San Francisco calling to us......my precious.....and we must haves it..

California Dreaming Part 2

Our visit to Monterey was more laid back than our Disneyland visit. No big crowds, the weather was cooler and no giant talking animals.

One of the highlights was 17 mile drive, a scenic drive along the coast.

The worst thing about 17 mile drive, if not the entire trip was our stop at Bird Rock. As the name implies, bird rock is populated with a lot of birds(and few sea lions). The smell was perhaps the worst thing I have ever smelled....ever. Take a dumpster full of moldy food, through in 100 lbs of dirty diapers and 50 gallons of yak vomit, and you would have something almost as bad as this. The amazing thing is that there were picnic tables nearby...and people were sitting there eating. I would have taken a picture of this but I was on the ground, convulsing.
Near the end of the drive stands the Lone Cypress; its that tree on the rock. It may not look like much, but this baby has withstood the harshest of storms for nearly 250 years. Pretty amazing.
Another day we took a trip down to Cannery Row which has lots of shops, restaurants and cans

We stopped into the Ghirardelli shop and got sundaes.....mmmm boy I love me some Ghirardelli hot fudge sundaes. This was a prelude to the chocolate greatness awaiting in San Francisco.
Wonder-pea had her eye on a bake good or two...or ten...at a super delicious bakery. Oh sweet Ghirardelli weep not, for it will never replace you...in my heart

Waving good-bye to Monterey, we headed further north for the extremely steep streets of San Francisco.

California Dreaming Part 1

Our big summer trip this year was to California. We met my parents in LA and set out to visit Disneyland, Monterey and San Francisco all in one week. It was a busy trip but really fun nonetheless.

I haven't been to Disneyland in nine years and wow has it changed. The Downtown Disney area and new park were under construction when last I visited. We stayed at the Grand Californian and this was our view from the room. It was pretty nice, looking out your window each morning and feeling like your NOT in Anaheim.


I love night time pictures...much more than my camera does; if only I had a tripod.


Unlike Disney World, Disneyland still has Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. I'm a big fan of the cartoon so it was fun to get to ride it once again. Wonder-pea was not impressed, as going to Hell is not her idea of a good time. O-K fine be like that....


Lil Pumpkin looks for attractions that won't send you to Hell....



We all really liked the Storybookland ride. The attention to detail on the houses and scenery is super cool. Plans are underway to build this ride in my backyard.



It was great to see the subs running once more. A few buddies worked on the Nemo redo and I so wanted to check it out, but the line was over an hour each and every time. I bet the management folks in Florida are regretting filling in their sub lagoon; damn us!


Fun little spot off to the front of the castle that we happened upon. I hear it has been bulldozed for a Tinkerbell/Fairies area......boooo


Wonder-pea is a HUGE Wall-E fan. Wall-E himself is HUGE at Disneyland.




This was the first time we had every been to Disney's California Adventure, and I was surprised that we actually spent a good bit of time there. The park is not a total bust there are some nice sections like this.....


...but then there was this.


Notice the complete lack of shade. The only sunburn I got the entire trip was from walking around Paradise Pier. If the intent was to recreate the hot, summer time misery of walking along a ocean boardwalk then: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

I was looking forward to checking out the Animation attraction but was bummed that it's more or less a one visit deal. Once you take the quiz in Beast's library or record your voice in Ursula's Grotto (the inside IS very well themed and neato looking), you don't really need to come back here again....ever. I welcome the changes the park will be experiencing in the coming years.


After a couple days of Disneyland fun, it was time to drive up the coast to Monterey.

Georgia Aquarium

A few weeks ago, while in Atlanta, we visited the Georgia Aquarium. It was without a doubt the coolest aquarium I have ever visited.

In the main area there is a ginormous video screen showing fish and rainbows.

Inside this area resides the biggest damn viewing area I have ever seen. It measures 63 feet long and 27 feet high. Each panel (6 total) is 2 feet thick. It was like sitting on the ocean floor. Super cool. I want Home Depot (the sponser) to build one in my house.



Whale shark!!!

The River Scout area had some pretty unique fish displays.

One of the ballrooms was open so we took the opportunity to take a break. There were a few nice viewing areas there as well.

Whale shark!!!

What's that in the distance???

WHALE SHARK!!!

This area had lots of hands on activites for kids as well as a kiddie play area. The next two areas we dimmly lite so the pictures were pretty grainy....so the entrances are all I have to show.

Those are video displays and not actual tanks.

Nemo!!! Actually this guy, who has his own 3D movie up stairs, is named Deepo. Now I am assuming that since Home DEPOt is a big sponsor...and their store color is orange....that was what inspired this character. Nevertheless I amused myself several times asking Wonder-pea if she had seen Deepo. No? Then we should go Find Deepo....come on everyone....we're Finding Deepo.

We had a great time and the aquarium is pretty awesome. The World of Coke is located across from the aquarium but we didn't have the time this trip. Next time...oh yes....