Day Ten - Six Flags

It was sad checking out of our little "home" this morning.  So I covered up real good yesterday and had my umbrella up walking around the zoo and I wore my sneakers but wouldn't you know it I still burnt.  On my hands!!!!!!  Hahaha I can't win.  Packed up and had our last breakfast.  Haha haha the lady knew as soon as we walked in and had already started making my waffles.  Then we checked out.  Onto Six Flags Magic Mountain!

We chose to go to Six Flags on our last day cause its on the way outta town.   We got there about half an hour after it opened and parked in one of the outer lots.  They had shuttles taking people to the entrance so we hopped on that. 

On a side note, we have been thouroughly impressed with the theme parks down here.  They are super good about a parking (directing you and lining everyone up in the mornings instead of a free for all), majority of the parks had shuttles to and from the parking to the main entrance or parking wasn't that far away from the main  entrance,  every park we've visited, had bag checks for security purposes, bathrooms have been imacculate despite the ridiculous volumes of people going through, staff have been friendly and helpful, gift shops have been good and other than Disney the prices in theme parks have been extremely reasonable.  We have hit everything so perfectly timed for shows or rides or eating we've barely had to wait in lines.  We've both been very, very impressed.  It's made our time down here downright pleasurable despite the massive amount of people.

Kels had a wonderful day.  He is such a roller coaster lover.  His favorite was a toss up between Batman, The Ride (suspended looping steel coaster) and Twisted Colossus (wood and steel coaster - world's longest hybrid coaster).  We also did Full Throttle (somehow we ended up in the front row for that one - world's tallest looping coaster), The Riddler's Revenge (stand up roller coaster), Apocalypse - The Ride (classic wooden roller coaster), Roaring Rapids (twice - it was like the Grizzly one in Disney California Adventurepark), Viper (seven inversions, steel coaster), Tatsu (world's tallest, fastest and longest flying coaster - yes folks your "flying"), Green Lantern: First Flight (spinning coaster), Jet Stream (log ride with a 57ft plunge at the end), Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth (it spins you around in a circle so fast it plasters you against the back) and Sandblasters  (bumper cars).   The bumper cars were awesome.

We left the park just after 6 and started our trek up the coast.  Tonight we are in Monterey.

Next up: Monterey Aquarium.

Signing off...

Day Nine - San Diego Zoo

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!!

Breakfast room was busy this morning.  Then kels said Ya cause its the weekend.  I've lost track of my days.  Yup I'm officially on vacation brain.

We've discovered down here that sun on top of sun on top of sun produces sunburns.  Specifically farms tans LOL.  Oh we are sun screening it up in the mornings but that afternoon sun sure gets hot!  I've been taking the sun screen in my travel purse to the parks so we reapply in the afternoons.  So much for my porcelain skin *sigh*  (hahaha ha so on a side note we ran into a pushy sales kiosk girl in Vegas who tried to sell me "top of the line skin care products" and wanted to use me as an in in Calgary so all my friends would buy through me.  Boy did she not know who she's dealing with!   I don't used that stuff in anyway shape or form.  I subscribe to the au natural boutique - ie this is what nature gave me so this is what I present to the world.  Then she tried to spin it don't you want to get rid of those crows feet or laugh lines?  I told her I was proud of every one of those and earned them all.  Haha haha ah the mentality in Vegas.  Needless to say she didn't make a sale outta me.  Poor girl she picked the wrong girl)

Anyways back to today.  When we got to the zoo we got on a double decker bus (on the top of course) and did a tour of the complete ground before deciding where to go.  It was a very informative tour and we found out there are quite a few babies that have been born at this zoo.  Once the bus tour ended we set off to explore.  I got out my umbrella and trailed along behind kels who brought the big camera today.  He got some lovely pics of the animals.  I really love zoos.  I don't really love the giant strollers people cart along and don't watch where they are going and run over feet.  But seeing the animals out and about and their behaviors is pretty awesome.

After the zoo we headed over the Coronado bridge.

Then we decided to have some real Mexican food.  We hit up a place called Oscars and the ONLY regret I have but eating there is I didn't order enough!!!! I got a surf and turf taco and the flavors were amazing.  Corn taco shell and there was a green sauce and a red sauce.  The green sauce was great when you first tasted it then the jalapeño after bite kicked in.  Seriously my mouth was burning something fierce after I finished that taco.  But the flavors before the burn were fantastic.  I would go back.

We headed back to Oceanside for our last night here and went down to the water to watch the sun set and walk along the beach.  There was a really long big pier and we walked to the end and back again watching the sun set.   I get it mom.  I get why you love the ocean so much.  The sound of the waves crashing and watching them tonight...Ya I get it :D

Back to our room and packed.  We check out of here tomorrow.  But our trip isn't done!  Oh no not by a long shot.

Up next: Six Flags and driving up to stay in Monterey Bay.

Signing off...

Day Eight - SeaWorld

Slept in a lot this morning.  All these theme parks must be slowing us down. We missed breakfast but that's OK cause we got the eat all day pass for SeaWorld! 

Got to SeaWorld about 5 mins after it opened.  Went and had breakfast (breakfast bagels, milk and watermelon - breakfast of champions!) then we decided to hit our first show - Sea Lions Live.  It was hilarious and very entertaining.  Then we walked through shark reef (and under it).  Saw the Turtle Reef (there was a HUGE guy there that was 150 years old!!!)  Then we headed over and saw Dolphin Days show. 

I'm kinda sad that there are animals in captivity that do the things they do but I will say that I was glad SeaWorld is stepping up not only it's conservation efforts and captive animals awareness but I'm glad they are educating people about it too.

The dolphin show had Pilot Whales in it which I had never seen before so that was pretty neat.  After the show we went over to Explorers Reef.  Now this was totally awesome.  There were 4 pools and you could go and touch whatever was in those pools.  They had cleaning fish that nibble at the dead skin on your hands, they had horseshoe crabs that look very prehistoric, they had all different kinds of sharks that you could pet.  Those pools were definately a highlight for us.  We kept coming back to them. 

We saw the One World killer whale show.  Kels insisted we sit in the splash zone.  Got some good pics.  Then we headed over to the manta area.  You can feed the manta rays!!!!!  It was so unexpected and amazing.  So we did and it was pretty cool.  You stick tiny dead fish between your fingers and lay your hand flat and they come along over top of your hand and suck the fish right up like a vacuum!  One accidentally thought my hand was part of the fish and sucked on the top of it just below the knuckles but it didn't hurt or anything. 

We rode the manta ray roller coaster, saw the freshwater fish aquariums, enjoyed the wild artic exhibit with belugas, penguins, polar bears and walrus and ate.  Park closed at 5pm so it was a early night for us for once.  Or was it?

Kels drove us over to Balboa Park.  Now this was very interesting.  The park itself is 1,200 acres but it houses the San Diego Zoo, multiple museums, several theatres, several gardens, the San Diego Art School and various other gift shops, resturants etc.  In 1915 San Diego held a Panama - California expo and many of the buildings were constructed.  However they were not supposed to remain standing after the exposition and so were not constructed of long lasting matetial.  Since the exposition was such a hit and even Roosevelt approved of the architecture, it was determined that the cost to restore them would cost only a slight margin over any cost to demolish them, work got underway by the generous donations of San Diegans.  Some of those buildings still stand today.

It was very interesting to walk through even just a small portion of this park.  There was a graduation ceremony going on in the Japanese Friendship Garden.  We saw a guy playing a very cool instrument that sounded like Australia, people jogging with their dogs, street cart witnessing in a foreign language (dunno what), people dressed up to go to one of the theatres and people picnicing on the grass.  It was such a lovely night for it too.

They we came back and still had tons of time to relax.  Probably what we need.  We've had a very very busy last couple of days. 

Up next: San Diego Zoo

Signing off...

Day Seven - edit

Sorry folks blogger had a hiccup and wouldn't let me finishing editing the last post.  It was supposed to end:

It took us nearly 3 hours to get back home.  We got drive thru and ate in the room.

Next up: SeaWorld

Signing off....

Ps the first pic was supposed to caption: it's sooooooo fluffy!!!!!
And the last picture was supposed to caption: Mel you been holdin out on me!!! When did you open a diner????

Day Seven - Universal Studios

Lol its funny, when you think about vacation you think you'd be well rested and sleep in and so on.  But we have been up everyday around the same time we would if we were going to work.  But we are enjoying ourselves and are oh so busy.  Did two loads of laundry last night.  Our hotel is fully equipped and it was nice to be able to do it.  Only $5 and we will be good till we get home.

I have to admit that I am enjoying the waffles every morning a little too much.  They are tiny like dollar pancakes but delicious.  Kels finally had some this morning and agreed.  Weather has been cloudy every morning but the sun burns off the clouds and it blares down pretty good.  Mel honey you'd be in heaven down here.  I'm trying to enjoy it for your sake 😊 

We both have been using sun screen religiously but yesterday managed to get a little bit burnt - kels on his feet, back of his legs and forearms and I got it on my nose, neckline and forearms too.  Not badly but just enough that it looks bad lol.  We covered up today real good and slathered on the sun screen before we left the hotel.

Traffic has been not too bad in the  mornings, even though it takes us an hour to get to Los Angeles every morning so far (San Diego starting tomorrow).  Kels has been doing awesome with getting us to where we need to go, parking and dealing with crazy drivers (oh look people are just as crazy at driving as they are back home).  I feel very fortunate to just "be along for the ride" so to speak and be able to enjoy the sights on the side of the road without having to worry about traffic or driving.  However this morning seems to have caught up with us.  Boy did we hit traffic.  But we were also going literally downtown LA.  It's a good thing universal isn't as large as Disney.  It took us 2 1/2 hours to reach Universal.

Upon arrival we opted for the preferred parking and save ourselves a 20min hike to the park.  Once inside the park we headed down to the lower lot (outside escalators.  Seriously I still cannot fathom this) to some of the rides.  First one up was Jurassic Park.  Seriously Mina you have ruined me for life.  I was scared crapless again.  Poor kels got drenched.  The next ride we did The Mummy.  And I pretty much kept my eyes closed the whole ride.  Didnt...do...well.  Then I got to meet Bumblebee from Transformers (he's my fav) and got my pic taken with him.  Then we did the Transformers ride.  Which was 3D and very cool.  Booted it back up the 3 very long escalators to the main part and decided to have lunch.  Kels grabbed a Krusty burger and I had a chicken and waffle sandwich and we took our food and ate in Moe's.  Yup there's a Simpsons land at Universal.  Right down to a Kwik-E-Mart.  After lunch we headed over and watched  a very cool special effects show where they show how they do things like sound effects and  lighting people on fire in the movies.  It was extremely entertaining and the ending was a riot of laughs!!  After that we went and saw the live Waterworld show and it was fantastic.  Then we headed over to Universals newest attraction Harry Potter world.  Now I've never actually watched the movies or read the books but I've seen snippets on TV and head people talk about it and from what we saw they created an exact replica.  There was a roller coaster (super short) that we tried and we awed at how many fangirls and boys (mostly adults) we wandering around.  But then again I probably mirrored them at Disney so who am I to judge?  Then we watched a fun animal actors show that kinda talked about how they trained animals for movies, what queues they use from behind the camera and showed us how they did things like getting birds to soar.  It was pretty cool seeing tons of different animals. Then we got in line to do a studio tour.  There was about a half hour wait for it.  The tour was about an hour long and they drive you all around the different sets that some are used constantly and told little stories and they also took you through some garages that had 3D videos that you watch but the whole tram moves with the movie as well.  It sure was entertaining and enlightening how they go about getting different shots for different parts of movies, or TV or commercials.  Then after the studio tour we did one last ride and headed back to Oceanside.

Traffic was again ridiculous and it took us

Day Six - Disney Adventure Park

Bit of a late start.  Lol we overslept and almost missed breakfast.  The hotel we are staying at offers complimentary hot breakfast so we have been enjoying waffles, eggs, hash brown and sausage since we got here.  It would have been a travesty to miss breakfast this morning!  But we made it with 1/2 an hour to spare. Phew!  With full bellies off to Disney Adventurepark!

Line for security was nothing this morning unlike yesterday morning (they do a bag check) and the guy this morning was super nice and kindly asked me what Kels's epi-pen was.  Then let us through.  After we got through the gates we headed straight for the Grizzly River Run.  We did it twice cause there was no line.  It was a cool water ride and we loved it.  After the we headed to cars land and got fast passes for the cars ride but it had gone so fast the soonest we could get a fast pass was for 6:30pm. 

So we discovered yesterday the magic of fast passes.  You take your normal park admission and go to a select ride.  Normal ride wait times are listed but  they also have ticket centers at a few select rides that you can insert your park pass and it will print you a fast pass so you don't have to wait in line.  You come back to that ride between the times listed on the fast pass ticket you were issued (say from 2:45 to 3:45) so you can go enjoy another part of the park without standing  in line.  We really wish we had known about that yesterday.  Ah well lesson learned for the next Disney vacay!! 

So on the second log ride a nice family from New Zealand recommended us going back and trying the Soaring Over California ride.  So we booked it back to the ride and only waited maybe 10mins.  It was a pretty cool ride.  We did a lot of rides today and a lot of walking.  We have been very fortunate with wait times, shows and various other things these last two days.  The most we had to wait for a ride was last night for Space Mountain and that was a long one (45mins wait) but so totally worth it.  The picture was epic. 

We rode the Grizzly River Run about 5 or 6 times today.  The Screamin Roller Coaster for 3 or 4 times.  We tried to get on the ferris wheel but it broke down.  There was quite a few rides down today unfortunalty.  But all in all it was a fun day.  Not as epic as yesterday but a fun day none the less.  We got to take an animation art lesson  (both kels and I did it but he would let me take a pic of his even though he did awesome!) of Captain Hook's face from Peter Pan.    The more  I draw and take "lessons" and talk to artists the more I realize that art is just shapes and everyone can draw shapes so therefore everyone can draw! 

Our favorite was definately the other side, Disney Park original but we are glad we did the adventure park today.  We've been impressed with the rides, level of service and cleanliness and sometime in the future we will come back.  But for now our days at Disney are done.

Next up: Universal Studios tomorrow.

Signing off....

Day Five - Disneyland

It happened.  I went to the most magical place on earth.  Spirits are high and feet are only a tad sore.  I don't know how I can write anything about how special today was to me but I'll try.

We did Disneyland, the main park.  And we did it all.  From Frontierland to Fantasyland to infinity and beyond (yes that was a reference to a Disney movie more specifically Toy Story).  We did rides, we did shopping,  we did dole whip (I finally get it!! How fabulous it is!!) and we had so much fun doing all of it. 

Disneyland was everything I hoped it would be and more.  And I'll never forget this trip for the rest of my life. 

Thank you Kelsey.

Day Five done.  Up next Disney Adventurepark