We decided we needed to take a trip to CA to visit Curtis' mom, Shauna, in San Jose. That is quite a long drive. To break it up and have fun on the way we stopped in Los Angeles for a few days to check out The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios. This one just opened up in April.
We actually started the trip with a "pre-game" event. The Alamo Drafthouse theater had a showing of the first Harry Potter Movie for $1. We watched that on Saturday, the day before we left. Alamo is a different kind of theater. Instead of Popcorn and soda, it has a full menu. Appetizers, brunch, lunch, dinner even dessert. It is kind of a different movie experience. You put your order in and they bring you the food during the movie.
Early Sunday morning we woke up and headed west. We left the house about 5:00 a.m. We kept telling the kids we were going to leave early and they could sleep on the way. Trey kept telling me he was going to sleep in the car. I said that's great, the drive will go faster if you sleep through it. Saturday night, Trey told me he was going out to the car. What Trey was thinking, is that he would literally spend the night in the car and sleep there, so the rest of the family could just jump in and start driving and he wouldn't have to get out of bed. We put a stop to that and made him sleep in his own bed, he was a little irritated and he told us he would sleep in the car and we agreed at the time.
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| We watched the moon rise as we headed west |
The drive over was pretty uneventful. We arrived sometime before noon. We had originally planned to hike up the to the Hollywood sign. We set out to do the 3.5-mile hike. It turns out there is no parking anywhere near the trail head on weekends. We were going to have to add another 2 miles to the hike just for parking. That was going to be a very long hike for the kids, and difficult for Curtis' back. It was a pretty hot day, we were a little disappointed, but we decided to sit this out.
We headed for the Walk of Fame instead.
The Walk of Fame of pretty fun. We saw a lot of familiar as well as unfamiliar names. I was surprised at some of the people who were on it. A few seemed like "one hit wonders" a few people had multiple stars in different categories, like Walt Disney. We stopped and had ice cream at this Ghiradelli shop. There were a bunch of Disney stars outside this shop, Disneyland, Tinkerbell, Roy Disney and Winnie the Pooh. I thought most of those were interesting since they are fictional characters and not real actors.
As we were walking along the kids made up a game that if you saw a name you recognized and could name something they did you got a point, then if you saw a specific one that that they predetermined to find (like Walt Disney) you would get 50 points. If you saw a star with your name (first or last) you would also get 50 points.
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| I Won the walk of fame game. |
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| Hollywood sign in the background |
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| we also saw this character hanging around on the walk of fame. Not sure if it was the real Zach Galifianakis, the baby was fake. |
After the Walk of Fame, we headed to our hotel in West Hollywood, which ended up being an experience. As we drove into West Hollywood, we saw the gay flag and a few other things indicating they were gay-friendly. We didn't think much of it because it was California. We checked into the hotel. Long story short, the hotel room only held 4 although the reservation had 5. Curtis had it out with some poor guy named Chad, we eventually changed rooms it was a bit of a fiasco. After all that we went to the pool. The pool was interesting there were a bunch of gay men at the pool. Derek even said, "why is everyone in Speedo's?" The family was a bit out of place there, but they were nice, so whatever.
Later we went to dinner, all we saw were gay men walking by as we ate pizza outside on the patio, kind of interesting how they seemed to outnumber everyone. Then Curtis and I went walking around town after dinner. Wow. There was really only gay men everywhere. They dominated the town. We walked past several gay bars (I didn't know they really existed) I would have taken a picture of the gay bar, It was quite a sight to see, but they were all on the patio and I didn't want to seem rude. They were pretty friendly to us, we didn't want to cause a scene on their turf.
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Lisa Vanderpump restaurant "PUMP"...
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San Francisco has nothing on West Hollywood. Now I know why on the show "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" the lady, Lisa Vanderpump, who has two restaurants in West Hollywood (which we walked past) is so friendly and accommodating to the gay men on the show. They are her bread and butter, the main clientele. I'm not exaggerating I bet we only saw about 10 women the entire time we were there and I'm pretty certain they were tourists like me.
I understand why Lisa Vanderpump said " Villa Blanca is where you take your wife (her other restaurant) SUR is where you take your mistress, and PUMP is where you take your boyfriend.
Early Monday we set out for Universal Studios and the Wizardly World of Harry Potter.
Harry Potter was a much-needed addition to Universal. There are not a ton of rides at Universal, it is very spread out (have to take 3 elevators down a mountain) to go to half the rides and it does not WOW you like Disneyland. The kids had a great time, we all love Butter Beer. Trying Bertie Bots (Harry Potter jelly beans) was interesting. Very nasty flavors, grass, earthworm, vomit, ear wax. I feel bad for the person who had the taster job creating those.
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| Family pic in front of Hogwarts, pretty impressive how they built it |
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| Jurassic Park, one of Trey's favorite rides |
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| We came prepared with dollar store rain covers. |
We spent two days at Universal, which was plenty. Time to move up the coast.
We left Tuesday late afternoon/ evening and headed towards Santa Barbara. We stayed at an interesting Mom and Pop hotel. Curtis took me to dinner at an authentic Italian restaurant across the street. We didn't think the kids would like it so we left them at the hotel. I'm glad we did. The place was tiny and barely room for us to sit. After we placed our order, the man sitting at the table next to us knocked down Curtis drink (it was so cramped) he ordered him a new one. Everyone seemed to speak Italian there, the man who spilled the drink, the manager, our waiter all seemed to speak Italian and English. We waited and waited our food never came. Finally, our waiter came and told us he forgot to put our order in. He felt bad and apologized, he said all drinks and desserts were on the house. It was an interesting experience. We took him up on the dessert.
The next morning we continued north. We stopped in Solvang and had a Danish. This is a little Danish settlement. It was a fun, interesting town.
Then there is the Madonna Inn..... Oh my.
As we drove past it, Curtis said: "oh we have to stop and go check out their bathrooms". I'm glad we did, it was a sight to see. His family used to always stop here on their travels.
The Madonna Inn was very Garish and Gaudy, I believe Elvis would have loved it. The men's restroom had a fountain it in (I'm told). It was a fun pit stop.
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| Shauna, Monica, Curtis, Audrey |
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| Chris and Trey, Noodle face |
We made it to San Jose and went to dinner with Curtis' family that night. We all had a great time at Olive Garden.
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The kids had a great time with their cousins.
Derek, Chris Ralston, Trey, Jacob, and Dax
The Fam |
We stayed with Curtis' Mom Shauna, it was good for the kids to be able to spend time with her. She lives in a retirement community and she is always a giver and looking for ways to help others. She had these motorized scooters that she needed to deliver to some people in the community that needed them. They boys grabbed one or two and hopped on. These pictures crack us up. They look like one tough entourage off to cause some trouble in this Senior Citizen community
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Parallel parking
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Up the road to San Fransisco. We loved our drive up to San Fransisco driving past Stanford and checking out the Google campus. We stopped at the new 49er Stadium. Unfortunately, it was a blackout day so they wouldn't let Curtis have a tour, so he settled for this mini replica.
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| We thoroughly enjoyed the gift shop, or the gift shop thoroughly enjoyed our wallet. We found the Ronnie Lott jersey Curtis had been looking for, for a few years. |
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| Lumbard Street. Dax and Curtis drove down, Trey, Derek and I hoofed it down. It was a fun quick walk |
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| Lumbard street by foot. |
Exploratorium - Because this is one of the coolest science museum's we have ever been to, we did it again. This time the entire family was able to do the Tactile Dome. A totally dark section of the museum, with different textures throughout, you have to feel your way out of it. A very cool experience that makes you appreciate your eyesight.
The famous toilet drinking fountain. Totally clean water, never been used as a toilet, yet most people won't drink from it. I am one of them. Looks like a different toilet this time.
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| Derek toilet water 2017, he actually drank this time |
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Derek toilet water 2011-no water consumption
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| look close for the water droplets |
We had a wonderful time at this museum, the exhibits are fun, amazing and I learn something every time. Once again the kids said it was one of their favorite things from the trip, we wish we could have stayed longer.
A quick look through a sequoia forest.
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| A beautiful view, the Golden Gate Bridge |
We finally made it to Alcatraz
Last time the family went to San Fransisco back in 2011 we wanted to go to Alcatraz. We didn't think it would be a big deal, so we didn't make a reservation. Apparently now you have to or you won't get in for a few weeks. We were bummed and hoped there would be a "next time"
This year when we started talking about going out to San Fransisco, I made our reservations to Alcatraz early. Except I didn't double check the date. I actually made them from the wrong date. I thought I had made them for Thursday 3/16/17, it turned out they were actually for Friday 3/17/17. It put a little kink in our itinerary, everyone was a good sport and we finally made it. The setback was we didn't get to see as much of the Redwoods and we would have liked, maybe "next time"
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| Ferry ride to Alcatraz |
Alcatraz was interesting, looks just like the movies. I think the worst thing for the prisoners in Alcatraz is that they were on the outside of freedom looking in. They could constantly look out to the bay and see the city of San Fransisco, yet they knew they could have no part of it.
They day we were there they had an actual prisoner from Alcatraz there having a book signing. He was a bit of a celebrity to the tourists of Alcatraz, I think to the rest of the world he is an outcast. The Alcatraz guides said he spent close to 50 years of his life in prison. Not likely a "nice" guy.
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| Derek got off the Ferry and onto the island before the rest of us. |
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| Alcatraz group Showers- No thanks |
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| Lock him up |
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| Pier 39 |
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Observation Deck of Oakland temple. Why don't more temples have this?
The end of our trip, time to head home. We loved it. |
