The Magnet Mission

The 22 Spanish mission churches of California are very near and dear to my heart. Not because I'm religious or into period architecture or fountain designs or anything like that. Mostly because many years ago, I got drunk and put it on my bucket list to collect a magnet from every one of them. 

Now it's become a personal challenge. 

Plus,

 you know, 

I think they're pretty buildings.

So the previous visit to California we stayed mainly down in Orange County, however this time was predominantly up in LA. It was pretty much a straight shot from my mom's house to the San Fernando Rey De Espana Mission and from there it was only another hour up to the Mission Buenaventura. 

The San Fernando Rey De Espana mission is by far the coolest in pop culture history for a couple of reasons.  For one, it's the burial place of Bob Hope and his family which I had no idea when randomly stumbling on his tomb in the back gardens. (It's also the burial place of Ritchie Valens and Fred from I Love Lucy!)

For two, this mission is where they filmed the scenes from the Alamo in Pee Wee's Big Adventure! Now, we all know how I feel about the Pee Wee movies so this made the two hours in the car the best two hours of the trip. I've officially seen the same Alamo as the same person who rode in a car with Large Marge. My life is pretty much validated at this point. 

Next stop was a quick 45 minute to drive up the 101 to Ventura. Upon pulling into the parking spot, you can see immediately how much smaller and non secluded this second mission was. We put 20 minutes in the parking meter and didn't even use 5 of them. There were homeless people everywhere and the lady working the counter had a unnecessary attitude that made me want to kick her ass. Plus their magnet selection sucked. 

After a pit stop for milk shakes and burgers at my beloved In-N-Out, we headed back down to Long Beach and it was really just a perfect palm tree day hanging out with my mom and my baby girl. 

So I'm on magnet 9 out of 22, not too shabby! Looks like a trip to Northern California is in order to finish up the collection! Anyone want to put me up for a week?

Abalone Cove Tide Pools

Stepping out of the airport and into Los Angeles is like Dorothy opening the door of her tornado tossed house to the colorful world of Oz.
It's a completely different planet.
I hopped into my old pickup, flipped on the radio and the very first thing I hear is a commercial about "treating yourself" to body improvement.

Buy a new boob get the second one for free!
Use the plastic from your Starbucks cup as an implant for your ass!
No lips? No problem! We'll tattoo them on for 20 low monthly payments of $99.99!

It's so different from au natuale hippyville Fort Collins where people are more interested in getting stoned than making themselves look like they're perma-smiled and on Ecstasy.

It had been a minute since my last visit so it took me a bit to readjust to the same things that I never even used to notice.
Like, for example, every single corner has a kid with a surf board in their arms. I forget how prevalent the surfing community is in all the little towns, and although I'm not a surfer, it was refreshing to be reminded for some reason.

Anyway, since I wasn't quite feeling 100% yet, we decided to drive up through San Pedro and go wander around the Abalone Cove tide pools. It's the perfect thing to do if you're on vacation and you feel like shit but you still want to be out in the sunshine and keep your 4 year old busy and entertained.

So,
you know,
if you're ever in that same predicament...

We had an absolute perfect and crisp view of Catalina Island. 

There happened to be a surf contest going on that day, with swells higher than they had been in over 30 years, so there were a ton of people in the water and a ton of people up on the shore cheering them on.

It takes some energy to get up over the rocks, but once you've made it you'll find the hike was completely worth it. Even if you felt like you might lose your lunch and the world is spinning and you have a fever. Still worth the hike.

Our timing probably could have been a bit better had we gotten out of bed early enough to catch low tide, but there were still tons of star fish, crabs, sand dollars and sea anemones for our viewing pleasure. 

We had perfect weather, clear water, and a live sporting event to check out so other than my constant nausea, I really had no complaints. 

All in all, aside from teetering on the edge of fatality from this awful flu, I'd say day two was a success. I had to postpone my trip down to Orange County for fear of passing along my near death experience to my BFF, but we reunited later in the week and all was well in the world. 

The following day we headed over to a couple of missions that I hadn't seen before but more on that later in the week. 

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Saint Patrick's Day!

It's Always Sunny In California

So vacationing isn't as relaxing as I had originally hoped.

Kalynn came home sick from school last week with the flu. I thought my mommy super powers would have kicked in at this point but apparently even the super-est of matriarchs aren't excluded from the super-est of barf attacks.

We were driving to Denver International Airport when it started to really hit me.

I was doing ok even after checking our baggage, but the tram ride (anyone who knows the Denver airport knows what I'm talking about here) from drop off to Terminal C made me terminally sea-sick.
I spent 45 minutes kneeling on the airport bathroom floor tossing my cookies while my precious kiddo sat and played the iPad with the patience of a saint.

"I still love you, Mommy. I'll take care of you."

I was so afraid I was going to miss our boarding call but equally afraid to leave the toilet so my thinking was going to need to be quick, proficient, and sly.

And then it dawned on me that when I was pregnant with Kalynn flying to New York, they let me pre-board because pregnancy is considered a temporary disability. So I whipped up some tears (which wasn't hard to do) and explained that my "morning sickness" was really kicking in and that I needed to be boarded as quickly as possible to insure my closeness to the bathrooms.

Now.
I know that lying about a pregnancy to get myself into or out of a situation isn't the morally correct thing to do here. I'm also aware that by doing something like this I'm exploiting all the generosity that people have for pregnancy all over the globe.

However.

I've never felt so shitty or thrown up so many times in my entire life.
(and I'm even including the hangover of 2011 so you can trust me when I say it was bad)

So they sat me and my daughter in the front row, gave me 4 barf bags, 2 trash bags, ginger ale, and vanilla wafers.

Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

I made it through the flight, but not out of baggage claim before my sickness reared it's ugly little head and reminded me that I needed to get back to my mom's house as quickly as possible.

So far, it's been a day and a half and I'm starting to finally feel a little better. We've hit up In-N-Out Burger and Sunset Beach but that's about it. I've been posted up in bed the remainder of the time and plan on doing exactly that for the rest of today.

We have the next 2 days with Disneyland written all over it so this ass kicker better move along as quickly as it has arrived...

I'll keep you posted.

California Birthday Trip Day 2

This was not just an ordinary vacation. My baby girl turned 3 years old. This only happens once in a life. Important stuff here.

Accordingly, Kalynn woke up in our hotel to a room full of balloons, a princess Disney cake and a handful of gifts to unwrap. She was a very happy kid. 

Her party was in the monstrosity of a lobby at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel. We opened gifts with Kalynn's God parents, her Grandma Diana (DiNana), and another great old friend of mine. She had cookies and cake and even got the Happy Birthday song played for her on the grand piano by the hotel's professional piano player. 

Now.

 I'm absolutely not admitting to taking my mom's pass so that I could sneak into the park for just a few minutes before we had to leave for the airport the next day. All I'm saying, is that should you ever think you can get into Disneyland on someone else's annual pass, you most likely will get caught, thrown into the Disneyland doghouse, get the annual pass you were trying to use taken away and end up paying an additional $100 for a valid pass in order to get your mom's back from security. Not that I tried. I'm just saying. Don't do it. I'm assuming.

Since we were in the park unexpectedly for a brief hour before our flight took off, we used the opportunity to get some final signatures on our picture frame mat.

I figured, the majority of the kids I saw running around had autograph books to be signed, but what are they really going to do with them once they got home? Put them in a box somewhere in the basement? This way, we can at least display everyone we ran into somewhere in Kalynn's bedroom so she never forgets her birthday trip. Total, we were lucky enough to get autographs from Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Chip and Dale, Goofy, Snow White, Princess Aurora, Pluto, Alice, The Mad Hatter, The Queen of Hearts and The White Rabbit.  

It was an awesome trip and it went by way too fast.

I want to say a GIANT thank you to my Mom who went way out of her way to make sure the weekend was absolutely perfect. Which it totally was. Thank you, mom!!

And thanks to you guys who came out to celebrate with us. Fancy-pant hotels and gifts are great and everything, but in the end, celebrating is just not the same without the love of great friends and family in your life! Nothing is for that matter.

Happy 3rd Birthday Kalynn!

California Birthday Trip: Day 1

Alright, lets get the ball rolling already.

Overly excited toddler in stow, we flew to LA on United Airlines last Thursday afternoon after getting a ride from my oh-so-generous brother-in-law to Denver International Airport. Kalynn did awesome on the plane and mostly drew Paint Sparkles on the iPad while munching on Goldfish Crackers. Having skipped her nap that day, I was super relieved there were no melt downs. Not one. High five.

We went straight to my Mom's house, ate dinner, and directly climbed into bed. Traveling, as I'm sure everyone knows, is totally exhausting. We had a big day ahead of us so we needed some good rest.

Friday morning we spent a few precious hours with my grandparents taking pictures and hanging out before heading off to Disneyland. The Paradise Pier Hotel let us check in early, which was awesome because Kalynn was already ready for a nap by the time noon rolled around. Our room was totally adorable, decked out with characters in a beachy theme.

We had an amazing view of the water slide and the pool although we never got to use either of them because it was record breaking low temperatures the whole time we were there. Parts of LA County even got snow. Can you believe that? Leave it to us to choose the one weekend of the millennium that the temperatures decide to chill out in the 30's.

She woke up happy and ready to go! Thank God!

Off to Sleeping Beauty's Castle!

It felt so good to be back! We immediately headed to Fantasyland to meet up with our friends Melissa and Brandon and their son Elin (the same ones who gave us the hotel suite a couple December's ago in San Diego).

I can't even explain how nice it is to be around my friends again. People whom I've known for eons. People I can just pal around with and feel like we never skipped a beat.

Our kids played, we rode rides, we caught up on everything there was to talk about and we got to just have an awesome day.

Kalynn and I took a detour to say hello to Snow White while my mom saved us the perfect spot to watch the parade. Although Kalynn was initially super excited to meet her idol, she was a little nervous when Ms. White wanted a hug. 

Walking back from Snow White's Wishing Well to my mom, who was saving our parade watching spot, we got a bit of a surprise. There she was, sitting in the middle of a circle in mid conversation with Alice in Wonderland, The White Rabbit, The Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter. The 4 characters must have sat and talked with her for 10 minutes about absolutely nothing important while lines of patient Disney fans waited for pictures and autographs.

Kalynn wasn't as enthused. She's pretty terrified of the Queen of Hearts. Rightly so. Anyone who goes around yelling "Off with their heads!!" should expect a frightened toddler to deny a photo opportunity.

After the parade we met up my my friend Chris and his daughter Lilly for more rides. We kept the kids awake until 8:45 (9:45pm our time) to watch the fireworks, but they were canceled at the last minute due to high wind advisory. Just as well. Someone was a little tuckered out anyway.

My mom and I popped open a bottle of red wine (by popped open, I mean accidentally pushed the cork through the wrong way forcing a volcano of Cabernet to explode all over my face, the walls, the floor and the couch) and blew up a million balloons to cover the hotel room floor for Kalynn o have the next morning on her 3rd birthday.

Day 1 had overly exceeded my expectations of our first visit since our move to Colorado. It couldn't have gone any more perfect.

Day 2 (just as awesome) coming soon!

The Happiest Place On Earth

Oh...

Disneyland!

160 acres of dreamy perfection that has captured my heart since I was just a tiny little girl. A place of tradition to my Southern California based family. A place of peace, of memories, of laughs and of pure magic.

My mom's side of the family are all Southern Californians. Since 1949, it's been pretty much a constant of 75 degree weather and palm trees. The benefit of growing up in a family like this as a kid was having grandparents who lived directly up the street from the World's most famous theme park. We all had annual passes, even if we lived states away, mainly because we vacationed there so often, they paid for themselves with just a couple visits.  (Spoiled? yes. Appreciative? YES.)

This is a picture of my mom with my aunt and grandmother at the entrance of Frontierland in 1957 heading to the Rivers of America to ride on the Sailing Ship Columbia. My mom was 6 years old. The park had only been open a year.

Dumbo The Flying Elephant

 Being able to have photographic memories of my mom as a 6-year-old child riding the same Dumbo ride as now with her almost 3 year old granddaughter is mind blowing to me. What a trip to watch all of us enjoying the same place, time and time again for decades.

The Haunted Mansion

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

 We have so many photos of Mr. Toad I couldn't even fit them in 2 collages.

I can't even begin to count the number of times we've seen Mickey.

What a sicko...

And then there is Geppetto!:

Happiest Faces On Earth

In 2004, Disneyland started to collect 200,000 of the best family photos in commemoration of their 50th anniversary for mosaics placed around the park.  My sister's photo with Mickey, taken 30 years prior, was chosen as a small piece of multiple collages. Still to this day, being a part of Hurcules' neck, is the pride and joy of that year.

(closer view)

For a brief time, Disneyland offered guests personalized commemorative paving stones that were placed in the walkway between the main entrances to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure parks. Although the stones are still there, Disney discontinued their "Walk of Magical Memories" back in early 2011. If you didn't get your stone then, your chance to be apart of Disneyland history is long gone, at least for now. My sister's stone was placed, complete with limited edition gold coin, just in time for the 50th anniversary of the Park.

My point to all of this is that we love Disneyland. It is a part of me that was embedded by my family from the minute I was born. I'm incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to pass our tradition onto my own daughter because we're going back for Kalynn's 3rd birthday! You can take the girl out of the overpriced-theme park, but you can't take the overpriced-theme-park out of the girl!

We have a room at Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel complete with heated roof top swimming pool, water slide and private firework viewing area with piped in soundtrack! There is no better place I can think of to spend a 3rd birthday than with her fellow princesses eating too many sweets, watching parades and riding rides.

See you soon So Cal!