California Summer 2015 part II

August 14, 2015

California Summer 2015 part II

Pasadena & Disneyland

Day 3

Day 3 started as usual with breakfast in the hotel, for me, that was an egg and cheese pre-fab omelet, a few links of brown and serve turkey sausage, and a waffle. The first two, not so good, but the waffle was awesome. Next we drove a round a little, looking for the Arcadia Heritage Museum, but after finding it, we passed, as it really didn't look that interesting. On to the giant REI in Arcadia, where we shopped for slightly more than an hour, becoming members, and getting a hat for Liz, a new jacket for me, and a new wallet for Mike. We had a blast. Next, we drove into Pasadena, and did a driving tour of several of the Greene & Greene houses, and stopped at the Gamble House, taking pictures and walking around the grounds. Unfortunately, all of the tours were already booked for the day, so we did not get to see the insides. The gift shop had some nice things, and I took a lot of pictures. If I were disgustingly wealthy, I would decorate my house entirely in Mission/Arts&Crafts style furniture.

After that, we drove passed a number of classic bungelow houses surrounding a central shared courtyard - as they were originally intended. Next, we tried to go to Blaze Pizza or an In-n-Out Burger, but ended up at a Del Taco, which was way cheap and pretty good. We had a mixture of chicken burritoes and cheese quesadillas. Finally, since Mike was feeling a little under the weather, and the weather was HOT, approaching 100 degrees, though reasonably dry still, we decided to head back to the hotel for some rest and battery recharging. The plan is to head out at 4pm to the California Art Museum or the Asia Pacific Museum before picking Sarah up, then to the Veggie Grill, a vegetarian restaurant in Pasadena for dinner. The menu is way cool, and I think we are all excited about eating there.

Dinner was quite wonderful, I had a Santa Fe "Chickin'" sandwich with Lentil soup. The "chickin'" was a meat substitute made from vegetable products, but I probably wouldn't have been able to tell the difference if I didn't already know. Very good. After that, we headed up to Griffith Park Observatory, but unfortuately, it was so crowded, we didn't even get to the observatory. Very disappointing.

Day 4 Disneyland!!!

Rides we went on, in order

Tramride from Parking Garage. Enormous garage, we parked on the 5th level and took the escalator to the trams.

Star Tours - nice. Very similar to WDWHS, short wait. Only 4 "terminals" unlike WDW, which has 6 or 8.

Buzz Lightyear - this one was cool - short wait and the guns aren't mounted on the cars, but just connected with a tether. This was fun.

Star Tours - Fast Passed it, Fast Passes work like they used to in WDW, not the new system, which I do not like as much as the old system.

Lunch at French Market (Red Beans & Rice) This was good, but after seeing the corn chowder in a bread bowl, I decided I had ordered poorly. Still, access to the sitting area was limited so that you couldn't get there until you had your food, so that meant that we got a nice table.

Pirates of the Caribbean Wow! This one almost made the trip worth it by itself! Far more ride at the beginning, going thru the bayou/swamp area... oddly reminiscent of the Mexico boat ride area by the pyramid in EPCOT. Longer and better than the ride at WDW.

Indiana Jones Ride of Doom Great theming, but the ride itself was way to bouncy for me. So much so that you really couldn't enjoy the story so much. Still, no counterpart at WDW, so that was cool. The mechanics of the ride and bouncing reminded me of the Dynosaurus ride at WDW-AK

Haunted Mansion Pretty similar to WDW-MK. Good, fun

Pirates of the Caribbean Again, this one is wonderful - much better than at WDW-MK

Ice Cream Shop A much needed break - it was about 100 degrees outside, and the sun was blazing! We all enjoyed the ice cream.

Live Action Frozen Good show, funny - I admit, I didn't watch much as I walked around and took pictures of Sleeping Beauty's castle and texted with my sister, Edith.

Seven Dwarves Same as WDW-MK Kinda lame - Mike was annoyed at the abruptness of the ending.

Pinnochio Similar mechanics to previous, similarly abrupt ending. Also, why is there a copy of the Mona Lisa with a mustache drawn on? I joked that it was a Hidden da Vinci

Mr Toad's Wild Ride Same ride mechanics as previous. Liz says this used to be at WDW-MK, and was removed. MK is not less for the loss.

Peter Pan - Similar to WDW-MK, but without the conveyor belt loading, so the line moves slowly, like it did at WDW-MK prior to adding the conveyor belt. A visually striking ride, however.