For most of us, that knowledge should come with congratulations and condolences simultaneously....but all kidding aside it is time for this family to saddle up and get some time away. We have asked our kids to be very patient with the movie events for Right To Love that we have asked them to attend and they have have been champs through it all. They have watched the movie through several times without complaining.....much, they have stood onstage with us and and answered questions from multiple audiences, and they have put up with getting dressed up and staying put together despite their every impulse to be kids. The kids have earned something special and this trip is our way to say thank you to them.
So we will be standing in long lines....hopefully not in the rain which is currently pouring like cats and dogs here in Northern California. We will be tag teaming escorting the kids on rides while the other watches the two year old, responding to repeated requests for a bathroom halfway through an hour long line, and paying way too much for theme park food. That's life in Disneyland...and a very peculiar kind of magic if you ask me but that's o.k. because they have something for dad too!...Disney's Star Wars ride, Star Tours, has been revamped to be a completely new experience with up to 50 alternate endings. That's a lot of waiting in line and don't think my kids are THAT patient with me. But speaking of patience....
Road trips with family take a little extra patience and taking the long drive down highway one will mean that the trip will be an overnight one. One the whole, Long drives in the car as a whole are something I enjoy because I like to be on the move and see new places. While traveling with the kids has it's challenges...the act of driving itself has a sense of freedom to it that I have always enjoyed. In spite of my otherwise overly cautious tendencies...I like to wander and discover new stuff and hidden treasures. Doing that with kids just means we stop more often to let the kids use the bathroom, stretch their legs, and get out all their nervous energy before the next leg of the journey. And it also means that stopping for meals is super ultra-mega important as the last place you want to be is in a car with hungry two year old with a healthy set of lungs.....bring lots of snacks. My husband loves to skip meals to try and get a little farther, which just means that when we finally do stop we are all so hungry we are growling at each other like wild bears in a pit fight...building in meals and bringing lots of snacks is super important for a happy and peaceful road trip. Fortunately, my kids are not the, "We there yet?" types and I have never once had to threaten to turn the car around. In spite of how long it takes to get there, a little food and a dvd player makes long trips bearable for the kids and I hope one day that they will develop a taste for exploration and seeing new places...it helps keep life interesting and reminds you that your world does not stop at the borders of our daily routines.
And so we are off....We are going to take our time driving south and try to enjoy the sights, while simultaneously being trapped in a car for very...very..long time. Sounds like a recipe for fun right?! We hope to hit Disneyland, see the sights along highway one, and possibly see Universal studios if the rain isn't too bad. If any of our readers have any recommendations on any must-see things in the Disney area...feel free to let us know!
I'm not sure where your routes through OC/LA will end up taking you, but I'd highly recommend the following:
ReplyDelete1. The Getty Museum: aside from a great collection, the architecture and garden are really beautiful; check out pictures on google. A huge plus is that you only have to pay for parking (no admission fee).
2. Laguna Beach: great food, beautiful scenery, some neat beaches with tide pools
3. C'est si Bon bakery in Newport Beach: unbelievable pastries, especially in the morning when they're right out of the oven.
If you happen to stop by Downtown LA I'd be happy to give you a tour; but other than spending some time looking at the whimsical Walt Disney Concert Hall it's perhaps a place your kids wouldn't enjoy as much as you.
Have a great trip to the happiest place on earth!
I love road trips, I love to drive, you get to see so many new things, and places, like you said there is such a since of freedom. How long is that drive? My parents where super lucky with my brother and I we where always good on road trips, to this day I still have a tendency when I'm not driving to fall asleep in cars. (my parents used to do the drive from SF bay area up to Bellingham WA in one day even when my brother and I where very little kids, heck apparently I saw practicly ever sight know to man in northern CA before I was five, from what mom tells me)
ReplyDeleteThe thing that tends to drive people that I road trip with, especially if I plan plenty of extra time into the trip is the fact that I like to stop and take photos quite a bit. I can say that I will be so like my dad when I have kids and probably drive them and my husband up the wall, with my constant "stop I need to take a picture"! Heck I annoyed my brother on our cross country trip by my photography tendency when we stopped at Mount Rushmore, he snapped a couple pics and was done, I had/wanted to tramps all over the complex to snap pics of many different things from many different angles!
Be safe, have lots of fun, oh and which one of you is the family photo bug?
I love car trips for the reasons you stated. I have driven in 44 states and I'm not even American.
ReplyDeleteWill this be Daniel and Selena's first trip to Disneyland? Is Baby Boy back with you guys?
Have a great trip. I can't wait to see the videos. Don't hold back. I've never been to Disneyland. Am curious but not enough to wait in line. Your videos may satisfy my curiosity.
A great place to go, although its a bit further south, is Legoland, particularly since you have young children. The younger ones absolutely love it and the young at heary typically will get quite a kick out of it too. Its a bit of a drive but well worth your time and won't cost you a left kidney to get in either!
ReplyDeleteI don’t live in Los Angeles or even California, but I was there on a vacation roughly 20 years ago to visit my best friend from law school. So I have no idea where anything is in relation to Disneyland. You mentioned Universal Studios. I saw that myself and, yes, that is a must if the weather permits. Some other places I really liked were some of the clubs on the Sunset Strip. Not appropriate for kids and better suited to headbanger / hippie types like me, but there’s The Roxy, Gizarri’s and The Whiskey A-Go-Go.
ReplyDeleteThe Whiskey is famous because of a buzzworthy and notorious performance there by The Doors probably back in 1966, when the acid rock craze was just starting to catch fire. The lyrics for “The End” –perhaps their greatest and scariest psychedelic masterpiece—got way more explicit in that performance than on record and Jim Morrison, ripped on acid on stage, was so volatile that he got The Doors banned from The Whiskey but the Strip buzzed about that performance for weeks afterwards, so it must have been especially intense.
Perhaps you’re starting to be able to tell that my gayness doesn’t inform my musical taste at all. I’m not clubby at all, so there’s no Madonna or Lady Gaga or anything like it in my collection. Jimi Hendrix is more my speed. The more stoned or hallucinogenic something sounds, the happier I am.
Sorry for getting so off-topic. Enjoy your trip.
Hey Guys if your Still in the Happiest Place on Earth Check out an app on both Android and iPhone called MouseWait its a Fun App that tells you How Long the Lines are and Many Really cool Features Like a Fan club specifically for Star Tours
ReplyDeleteKirk Equality Linn(on Facebook)
Hi there! I can't give you any recommendations because I live in Portugal, a little country beside Spain. :) I've been following you for a while and i'm so curious about one thing. I've just watched your video about the roadtrip and you showed the baby! Are you keeping him? :)
ReplyDelete(Sorry the writing. As you can see, english is not my first language!)
Have a nice holiday!
Your friend,
Luísa
Hi Luisa,
DeleteI spotted a partial answer to your question in some of the comments following the vacation video. Another viewer asked if Baby Boy was a Leffew now and the answer was merely “not yet.” Whether there have been any significant developments beyond those depicted in Bryan’s March 3rd post called “Foster Diaries: Risking Your Heart”—do read that if you haven’t already—meaning any further change in Baby Boy's odds of remaining permanently with the Leffews is unknown to us because Bryan or Jay haven’t said anything more about it to my knowledge.
Anytime you manage to see Baby Boy is only a fleeting glimpse and purely accidental and you shouldn't read anything into it for now. They have said in the past that they intend to avoid filming him before any adoption occurs.