Theme Park-athon

9 People
2 Vehicles
1 Stroller
3 Days
3 Theme parks

Our Goal: To optimize the theme park experience in Southern California.

Before we left, Britton pulled up a map of the parks, and started to do his research on optimizing our time at Disneyland, California Adventure, and Universal Studios. Turns out there are a lot of other engineering-type fathers who tried to do the same thing, but the reports from the daddy blogs he read were unanimous, families interrupted the plan! Nothing went according to schedule.
But we did our best to make the most of the official hours of operation. Did you know Disneyland is only open until midnight, but the stores and restaurants outside of Disneyland are open another hour!? You can get back to your hotel by 2 AM and then go right back when they open the doors at 8 AM! Crazy? I think so.
Here are my best tips for navigating these three parks.

DO take advantage of the FAST PASS. Our runners, Derek and Britton, took everyone's tickets ran across the park to get fast passes for crowded lines like Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones.

DON'T buy too much food in the park. Bringing your own lunch and snacks will save you TONS of money, and then you can treat yourself to a leisurely dinner outside the park.

DO share the chocolate lava brownie volcano at the Rainforest Cafe. It's gigantic!


DON'T get too close to the giant chipmunks. They're really creepy.

DO bring lots of sunscreen no matter what time of year it is. It was beautiful and 80 degrees in March.

DON'T take your 1.5 year-old to the Bug's Life movie. The squirting water will scare him. Ghosts and pirates, however, will not scare him.
DON'T make your son wear the "Sassy Lassie" shamrock headband.
DO visit Disney's California Adventure. I wasn't sure what to expect there, but it was so much bigger and better than I expected! I loved California Screamin' the rollercoaster, Tower of Terror, and the cute Bugs Life kids area.
DON'T club anyone with a giant turkey leg.

DO take a kid with you. They make everything more magical. (Britton counts as a kid.)
Universal Studios

DO dress to impress in case you see anyone famous at the studios.

DO wait in the long line for the tour of the studios. It's worth it. My favorites were the studio tour, Simpson's ride, Jurassic Park, and The Mummy.
DO walk ahead of your sister-in-law and her friend in the House of Horrors. These two were magnets for the creepy monsters and water...which kept me completely safe and dry:)

DON'T be fooled by the cute face. He's only interested in the pretzel.

Spring Break on the California Coast

I've always wanted to drive down highway 1, and it did not disappoint! The drive took a lot longer than we expected, and it was annoying to have to slow down so much on some of the curves, but at least we were entertained the whole time with the amazing view of a bright blue ocean, giant waves crashing against the rocks, and the rolling emerald hills dotted with wildflowers.

We stopped at Hearst Castle on our way down to SLO (San Luis Obispo). I loved it, and would definitely go back. It just seems such a shame they don't let people really enjoy these pools. I'm sure Mr. Hearst would have wanted us to swim. I would definitely pay extra for a swimming tour.


Here's the hilltop view overlooking the ocean.
Hearing the story of this guy reminds me of Howard Hughes except with children. Turns out they were buddies, and Hughes would fly his plane to Hearst's personal runway. So the story is that Mr. Hearst was an eccentric man with money to indulge his eccentric ways...until it ran out. That is why his mansion on the hill is now a California state park. I found it hillarious how they tried to make him sound so noble in the tour bus audio and various movies. They really had to play down some of the tabloid-worthy moments of his life too.
Will became ravenously hungry and whiny during the tour. Our eccentric, tour guide was not very happy. But he let me feed him in one of the marble bathrooms during a short movie.
Ornate spanish-style ceiling. (I think)
I love this indoor pool! It was empty when we saw it, but doesn't that high-dive look so fun!?
Ok, so we finally met up with KK. She took us to this fantastic hole-in-the-wall burger joint (Sylvester's in Los Osos in case you're interested), and then this beach.
We also toured downtown SLO and Britton was about to take Will down the infamous "Gum Alley" when Will dropped his pacifier...
We also saw the old mission in SLO. This is about as old as buildings get on the west coast!
Thanks for showing us around KK, miss you!

Spring break didn't end there...no! Then we picked up Britton's fam from the airport and spent the rest of the weekend with them. I guess we didn't take many pictures, but here's Will at AJ's baseball game. Not too much longer Will, and you'll be using that bat too.