….As I mentioned at the end of my last post we had hit Sea World on the Saturday. We decided to take the Sunday off and relax at the beach house. It was the best day for weather while at this place and we needed a down day. A little sun, sand, waves, pool – pretty nice if you ask me.

Monday we headed out for the San Diego Zoo. It was pretty impressive as far as zoos go. Outside of their Polar Bears, their zoo is just in a better climate than ours and MUCH larger. The animals can be outside all the time, unlike our Calgary Zoo. Zoos are still tough for me as was Sea World, but they really stress the rescued animals as their tenants. Seeing some new animals like their Koala and Panda exhibition was pretty cool and their Ambassador companion program was also really interesting – They pair dogs with Cheetahs at birth to form a bond.

After the Zoo, we headed back for a nice meal at the beach house. Because we took Sunday “Off” we had to make a decision on what we were going to cut out. We decided to chop the Safari Park. We just did the zoo and even though the kids liked it, we figured they would have enjoyed LEGOLAND more than the Safari Park. Plus, the safari park has some great Safari Tours in addition to your ticket, but they are allowed only for 8 and up. Audrey would not have be able to go.

So Tuesday we headed out to LEGOLAND. It is certainly not as impressive as Disneyland and it could use some upkeep, but it has some pretty cool stuff. The Miniland area with the Star Wars feature was awesome. It is a theme park that is geared to kids under 12. The rides were fun, but not all that thrilling. Although at days end we did decide to go on the Pirate’s Reef ride. This wasn’t so much a ride as it was a dunk tank. When we got up to go on it, the carnie says your going to get wet from head to toe. Half our family backed out at that point! BOO!! But yep that is exactly what happened. Log ride up, make a turn and go crashing into water. And it wasn’t the first wave that gets you, its the tidal wave that comes from behind that really does you in. WE WERE SOAKED! But it was fun none the less and made for a soggy drive home.

Wednesday we checked out of the Beach house 😦 , but I would definitely stay here again . We headed back to LEGOLAND as we didn’t have a full day Tuesday and so with Wednesday, it was enough time to see everything. After LEGOLAND, we drove back up to Anaheim to check into our house close to Disneyland (We broke up the Disneyland trip). We still had another day on our 5-day park hopper pass for Thursday and we were also looking at going again Friday as one of favourite rides was re-opening that day – Pirates of the Caribbean!

We woke up Thursday morning and heading to the Parks. We stayed mostly on the Disneyland side as we had a lunch reservation at the Blue Bayou. You pretty much have to have reservations for this place. Its the restaurant inside of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. I couldn’t even get a dinner rezo, had to go with a lunch, but it was still pretty cool inside. The menu is definitely geared to a dinner offering as well. HOWEVER, the best part of our lunch was we overheard a server talking to a customer that Pirates of the Caribbean was likely doing a soft opening today. NO WAY!? So we stuck around close that afternoon and as we were walking in that direction we noticed people lining up and we jumped in and went for a Pirate ride. MADE OUR DAY! Not only that, it saved us over $1000 as we no longer really needed to go back on the Friday now. YEP, we would have spent the money just to do Pirates of the Caribbean and so thank-you Disneyland, you made our day and kept us a little more flush! 🙂

Friday we stuck around and had pool time and then did some mini golfing and enjoyed a nice family dinner. Saturday was another pool day and then Renee, myself, Carly and Neil (my sister and brother in law) headed to the LA Angels baseball game. Ah…baseball, I really couldn’t be in a much better setting. I am able to let my guard down here and just enjoy being at the ballpark. Peanuts, Hot Dogs, Garlic Fries and Beer – I did it all and it was fantastic! It was a great game and went into extra innings although Kansas City ended up winning in the top of the 13th. After the game we headed for a bite at JT Schmid’s. It was a brew pub right beside Angels stadium and the Honda Centre. We sat on the patio and our bartender was great. Food – average, but they had some nice craft beers. I would go here again if visiting these stadiums and avoid the spicy wings eh Neil??

Sunday was our last day and we decided to head to Downtown Disney to return our rental cars a day earlier and my Sister and Niece wanted to do some shopping. I like walking through Downtown Disney, but on this day we went from Hero to Zero in a week. Last week we were staying at the Grand Californian with passes to Disneyland in our pockets. Sunday, we were just a bunch of teenage mallrats with no where to go! Ha ha ha. The rest of the day we just hung around the house, playing games and swimming in the pool. It was a nice updated home and we could walk to Disneyland in about 20mins. Would stay here again, but there are a lot of homes similar to this.

Monday was travel day home and a good bye to a trip that I wish didn’t have to end. Having my family close like that was pretty special. It makes me smile and choke up at the same time. Attached a few pictures. Still trying to work out the media thing on this so they are just random.

Dan