Happy Anti-Thanksgiving

For the second year in a row we celebrated with an anti-Thanksgiving.  This idea started last year when no one really wanted to cook a big meal nor deal with the day after turkey hang over.  Since we had a good time last year, we decided to give it a go again this year. 

We booked a hotel room in the big city and made reservations for Thursday night.  Nana & Papa were joining us for the duration of our stay while Grandma & Grandpa were going to join us only for dinner.

What the kids do when the shower fogs up the windows

On Wednesday we let the kids jump on the hotel beds while we caught up with N & P.  For dinner we walked down to Cantina Loredo.  From first look one would think it would not be kid friendly, but we were surprised.  They had a kids menu and it was slightly loud (which was great for dining with G).  I had the steak fajita tacos, and could have eaten them all night.  Then I realized I needed to save room for dessert.  Totally worth it.

Putting the kids to bed was a lesson in why we try to get hotel rooms with separate bedrooms.  Of course G needed to go to bed before the rest of us, and Matt volunteered to sit with him in the room while M and I hung out with N & P.  I brought the baby monitor along so we could put him to bed and then play some games while still monitoring the boy.  The monitor turned out to be our entertainment.  We could hear G talk to Matt in the dark while Matt passed the time on his computer.

G - "Daddy, I go to sleep now?"
Matt - "Yep, buddy it's time to sleep."
G - "Daddy, my eyes tired."
Matt - no response
G - "Daddy, my eyes tired.
Matt - no response
G - vehemently "Daddy, my eyes tired.
Matt - "Yep, buddy it's time to sleep."
G - "Daddy, you sleep now?"
Matt - "Yep, buddy it's time sleep."

Cut to N & P's room and imagine hilarious laughter.  90 minutes later the boy finally fell asleep.

On Thursday morning we knew our options for the day were limited since not many stores were open.  After breakfast we walked to the Christkindlmarkt at Daley Plaza.  We visited last year and the weather was so biting cold that it was a super short visit.  We felt that the weather outside was quite nice when we walked out of hour hotel.  Walking a few blocks into more open areas proved our forecasting inaccurate.  We were a bit chilly...

On the walk we passed by the tail end of the State Street Parade and watched for a few minutes.  Then it was time for the Christkindlmarkt with a few thousand of our closest friends.  Matt and Papa took G for a spin around the plaza since glass ornaments & G don't really mix.  We got to use our scant bit of German when Nana was purchasing ornaments.  Megan said danke schön to the cashier and she got a huge smile on her face and replied with bitte schön!  That's about it for my German other than how to say one (eins), no (nine), Tuesday (Dienstag - thanks to German MTV promos) and car (das auto - thanks to VW commercials).

After a brisk walk back to the hotel we had a little lunch and then napped until dinner.

Dinner......now that was a meal.  All the grandparents joined us at Buca di Beppo for some obnoxious amounts of pasta.  Carb hangover was had by all, especially Matt.

Matt got the really big spaghetti :)

Remember last night's conversation with G when he went to bed?  Just copy that conversation here.

Can you keep a secret?

Saturday in Cali started off much the same as Friday - not in a good way.

An unscheduled 4:15 wake-up call, again.

True to form we had no problem going back to sleep for a few hours.

After a mediocre breakfast we started making plans for the day.

Drive into Hollywood? Nah, too touristy
Drive up the coast?  Nah, too much in the car time on such a gorgeous day
Find a spot at the beach to read and nap? Nah, the fog stays at the coast until at least noon this time of year

Go to Disneyland?  Heck Yeah!

I had immediate guilt thinking about having a day at Disneyland without the kids, but then I got over it.  We have not been here without kids in about 6 years.  There are very few pictures of this day because I did not have to carry a bag with diapers, snacks, and bottled water, and neither one of us was sporting a belt with which to hook the camera.  There are a few iPhone photos, but you've seen it all before, right?  The only noticeable changes were the Halloween decorations.

Mickey and his friends decorating the entrance turn-styles

We started our day at California Adventure and the ride lines were extremely tolerable.  I suppose they were more tolerable since we had no preconceived notions of what rides "had" to do - other than Toy Story Mania and Soarin'.

The Toy Story Mania line was pretty long, I'd say it was about 45 minutes.  The wait was well worth it.  Matt and I get very competitive on this ride.  We've only ever ridden it with the kids so we have never rode together to see our close scores.  I started off with a narrow lead, but Matt eventually beat me.  I would say it was a close competition.  Matt would not ride California Screamin' because the guilt of riding it without M was too much for him. 

After a few more rides at California Adventure we spent the rest of the day at Disneyland.  We rode our favorites including the Finding Nemo Submarines and Indiana Jones.  There were two odd occurrences - Pirates of the Caribbean was closed!  They say it was closed for refurbishments, but we were still mad.

The second odd occurrence was the wait for The Haunted Mansion.  Now we say "duh" to the long wait, but I never expected this.  The sign outside the mansion read 85 minute wait from the gate.  However, the line had an overflow corralling that went over by the Disneyland Railroad stop and New Orleans Square.  Yeah, I may not be in a hurry to ride the rides, but I can find something better to do with myself than spend almost 2 hours in line for The Haunted Mansion.  We definitely got a Fast Pass for this one.  Plus the Fast Pass was for about two hours later so it was a win-win.

While we waited for The Haunted Mansion we rode another favorite, Buzz Lightyear.  Today's ride was particularly spectacular as it kept stopping.  That gave maximum opportunity to rack up points.  I love the Disneyland Buzz Lightyear ride because you can hold the laser zappers in your hand and shoot wherever you want, unlike Disney World where they are stationary on the safety bar.  I say that only knowing what it was like the last time we were in Orlando.  Matt scored big when he hit a high scoring target that was also blinking (blinking targets =  mucho points).  See how he turned out....

He certainly beat me today

Once we got in line we realized what all the excitement was about.  The Haunted Mansion is seriously decked out for Halloween, starting with the front gate.

  The mansion takes on the Nightmare Before Christmas theme, and they did not disappoint.  In the entrance room that stretches, the usual wall portraits were replaced with movie-themed scenes.  As a matter of fact just about every other possible spot in the ride was replaced or enhanced with movie-themed scenes.  Check out the backdrop as you get into your doombuggy.

Scary Christmas

The low level of light on the ride made all the rest of the iPhone photos come out black.  I think everyone should check this ride out at Halloween.

After a quick run to the car or our jackets we grabbed some dinner at Downtown Disney.  The main restaurants were 90+ minute wait for walk ups.  The UVA Bar is a small extension of the restaurant Catal and the line for an outdoor table looked manageable.  

We ate this trio of dips that could have sufficed as my dinner - hummus, baba ghanoush and mouhammara (hummus-like but made with walnuts and red peppers and our favorite of the three)  with warm pita slices.

Enough about the food, we had one ride left for the night - Indiana Jones.  I will make a confession right here, I had never ridden Indiana Jones before.  The lines were always crazy long and the Fast Passes were all out by the time we made it over there.  I think we picked the perfect night for it because we watched the fireworks through the trees as we waited in line.

Our day had come to an end, and we were certainly fulfilled.

*Update - M knows that we went to Disneyland.  She bluntly asked Matt when we got home and he was the good dad and told her yes.  I think she was sad, but understood that she can't go every time.  Although she wants to go every time!

Long Cali Weekend

The time had come for our Cali Weekend. Thankfully Matt’s parents graciously took the kids for us. They picked them up on Thursday afternoon. Unfortunately M missed a day of school, but I think she got over it.

We left on on a Thursday night and arrived at LAX around 10:00. The first stop was In ‘N Out Burger. There is a relatively new location just on the edge of airport property.

Friday morning was bit of a shock as we received a 4:15AM wake-up call that we did not ask for. After immediately rolling back over to sleep we woke up at 7AM PacificTime. Isn’t Pacific Time lovely, I got to sleep in and still got up at 7.

Mid-morning in Pasadena

Matt knew just where we were going for breakfast, Marston’s in Pasadena. This was one of my top 5 breakfasts of all time. All time. I had the Fantastic French Toast, which is sourdough bread crusted in corn flakes. My mouth is watering right now. Matt had the San Pasqual Omelet which had bacon, cheddar cheese, and fresh sliced avocado on top. OMG. We ate as much as we possibly could before we burst. Rest assured not one of those strawberries was left behind, nor was a lick of the avocado.

After breakfast we rolled ourselves back to the car for the day's activities. We started off touring the Gamble House in Pasadena. The Gamble in reference is from the Proctor & Gamble company. My pop culture friends should recognize this house as the outer shots of Doc Brown's residence in the Back to the Future movies.

The gorgeous front door

The inside was amazing! Unfortunately interior photos are prohibited, so what you see are from the Gamble House website. The family needed a winter home to escape the cold eastern winters; this is some winter home. The architects were the Greene & Greene. They commissioned the Hall brothers to create virtually all of the furniture and floor coverings in the house. Each room was highlighted by different woods. The staircase railing was teak, the wood trim on the walls was cedar, one bedroom was bird's eye maple, another ash, and so on. The funniest part of the tour was in the kitchen when our docent showed us the back screen porch & servants' entrance. She highlighted that the Gambles did not think that the servants needed such nice furniture on the porch. So they commissioned a different company to make a table for them. You might have heard of the designer - Gustav Stickley.

Sunny kitchen with the Stickley table on the servants' porch

Side view with front porch and sleeping porches

One of several sleeping porches

A final interesting fact about the Gamble house - Each year two USC Architecture students receive a fellowship to live at the Gamble House for a year. Sounds great, but one of them must be in the house 24 hours a day. I think they live in the basement as I bet they aren't sleeping in the priceless beds upstairs.

We spent the rest of the afternoon back at our hotel reading and maybe napping :) Since breakfast was so huge we never did eat lunch. That left a lot of time to get hungry for dinner.

I've been following a few food trucks on Twitter, particularly the Grilled Cheese Truck. Our area does not currently have food trucks, however there is a big push to create an ordinance to let this happen. Well this was our night, five food trucks were meeting in a parking lot in Pasadena!

The Grilled Cheese Truck had the longest line, and we soon found out why. Matt ate the Caprese melt and I had a regular good old sharp cheddar. So worth it. The Carne Asada tacos we ate from the Knock Out Taco Truck were stupendous.

I think we did enough for today. Just wait until you see what we do tomorrow. Shhhhh, don't tell the kids.

Kudos to Matt

Matt is what one might call an airfare hawk.  He knows who to read to find out about upcoming sales what websites to stalk for unpublished sales.   Knowing that let me tell you about a little airfare sale back in July.  Matt heard that the big airlines were planning a sale, and he was going to check it out.

Matt was online when the sale was released, and here’s where it gets good.  Someone at the main office of one of the big airline make a small error when loading the fare.  Instead of $142 each way to LAX, they punched it in as $142 round trip.  Yes, round trip.

Knowing that this was an absurd price, Matt immediately bought two.  There was no preplanning for who would take care of the kids.  This was too good to pass up, and they would fix their mistake soon.  No sooner did he complete his purchase that the big airline pulled the fare.  Score!

Now I just had to wait until October to enjoy some Cali.