On our sixth day in California, we jumped into the Camaro and flew up to Joshua Tree National Park. I loved the little pubs we hit up — the first one, Joshua Tree Saloon, has plenty of character: (click for larger).
Next, we went to the Barker Dam where, as we soon discovered, there isn’t a lot of water to be dammed. The state of California has been suffering a severe drought for the last 5 or 6 years but the desert was still beautiful. The panoramic photos I shot of the area don’t do it justice:
We also took a look at the Coachella Valley and the San Andreas fault from a lookout point before we went for dinner at Pappy and Harriets. Which, it turns out, has a rich history. Apparently The Pixies played there just last night.
A complete trip to California includes some time at the coast so we made Laguna Beach our next stop. As you can see by the panoramic photo below (click for larger) it wasn’t the sunniest morning at the beach.
We spent our morning shopping around, took some time on the beach, and then by afternoon decided it was time to head back to Palm Springs. On the way back, we took the more scenic route up the coast and by this point it had warmed up so we put the convertible’s top down. That car is fun to drive and more than one person commented on it!
Day two at Disneyland. Because we hit the park hard yesterday we felt it in our legs today. That didn’t hamper our spirits though and we strolled over to the park after a couple of continental breakfast pastries. I was thinking about an early morning dip in the hotel pool but it doesn’t open until 9am pretty much guaranteeing any serious ride goer like myself won’t be taking advantage of their facilities.
Hollywoodland
Today was a chance to catch-up on rides and attractions that we missed on day one. We were not disappointed! Rides we went on today included:
On our third day in California, we rose bright and early to hit the road pretty much exactly when the rest of Calfornia was on their way to work. While I knew that it was going to be a driving adventure, navigating that many lanes (at times as many as 8 going our direction) was something I hadn’t totally expected. Luckily we arrived without incident.
Plenty of traffic.
Once in the park, the secret to getting the biggest return on investment is knowing which rides are worth waiting in line and which are better to get a Fastpass. The newish Radiator Springs Racers Cars is a very popular attraction, so first things first, we found the Fastpass station and got hooked up! The thing about Fastpasses is that you’re only supposed to be able to get one at a time, however, we raced over to the line for Fastpasses to the World of Color because I had read that it isn’t on the same system as the other Fastpasses and, just like that, we were already working the park like pros!
Grizzly River RunAscending Grizzly Peak
Having secured our afternoon and evening at Disney’s California Adventure, it was time for our first ride and since we were standing next to the 110-foot Grizzly Peak, it was an obvious choice. Our first ride would be Grizzly River Run, the white-water rafting adventure at the mountain’s base.
Being early in the day, and a bit cool still, meant that we wouldn’t be waiting in line for very long. After a mere 10 minutes we found our selves strapped into the giant rubber rafting tube, slowing ascending the rickety conveyor belt, wondering who would get soaked first.
I came away from the ride only a little wet, Andrea got it worse than me, but one of the other guys on our raft was almost completely soaked. It was a lot of fun.
The rest of the day was great too. Next we popped over to Disneyland and discovered we could hold Fastpasses for one of the attractions in this park at the same time as we held them for DCA. We made some great memories as we hit up:
The Jungle Cruise
The Pirates of the Caribbean
The Haunted Mansion and
Splash Mountain
Bengal Tiger from The Jungle Cruise
The Pirates of the Carribean
Splash Mountain
The Haunted Mansion
Then it was back to DCA for our chance to race one of the cars from Cars.
Cars from Radiator Springs Racers zoom by in the background.
Probably my favorite ride of the day was California Screamin. Here’s the video.
The last ride of the night was Space Mountain and then it was a well deserved rest back at the hotel so we can do it all over again tomorrow.
After starting the day off with fresh picked oranges from the tree in the yard and a couple of fruit trays in the hot tub, we also had some French toast, eggs, and turkey bacon for second breakfast. We spent some time finishing up the couple remaining errands from our working lives and when it was done headed immediately out into the hot California sun for some fun on a bicycle built for two.
The beautiful thing about riding a tandem bike is that it compels even the grumpiest of strangers to perk up when they see the two of us racing along, ringing our bell, laughing, and loving all that is good in the world. I don’t know why it is exactly, it’s just hard not to crack a smile when you see a bicycle built for two.
After lunch, we played three rounds of a game called Sequence. Ange and I barely scraped by with a win in the rubber match making us the day’s champions for card games.
Another bike ride for some drinks and nachos at the Yard House took us through the afternoon at which time we returned to the house and indulged in another dip in the pool and hot tub (because one can never spend too much time swimming when you’re on vacation). We followed that up with dinner at a restaurant called Babe’s where the portions were humungous (and also delicious) so I give an enthusiastic thumbs up for Babe’s.
The last stop was Albertson’s for snacks for tomorrow and then a quick reminder on the steps for putting the top down on the convertible before we all headed in to bed to try and get some rest because tomorrow is going to be a very big day. We’re going to Disneyland!
We have arrived in Palm Desert. The weather is amazing and after leaving the snowy flurries of southern Alberta I can safely say that we came here not a moment too soon. Hopefully in the next two weeks we will have bypassed the last remnants of winter in Lethbridge and can transition straight into full fledged summer when we return.
One of the highlights was running into the lead singer of the roots, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, whom you may recognize from Jimmy Fallen’s Tonight Show band.
We saw him walking around our gate at SFO and immediately felt he was in a band playing at Coachella this year—he appeared to have that celebrity/larger than life aura about him (not in a negative way, just something about him seemed familiar) but we couldn’t put our finger on where we might have seen him before. It was another passenger on our plane that reminded us who he is. I smiled and nodded as I walked by him when getting off the plane. He smiled back and asked how we were doing. He seems like a pretty nice guy and I saw him posing and getting photos with the pilots after the flight. It’s fun to talk to celebrities even though I like to pretend it doesn’t do much for me.
Now that we are in Palm Springs we wasted no time and headed out for some “authentic” Mexican food, followed by swimming in the pool and more eating and drinking. We didn’t exactly stay up late—I’m barely keeping my eyes open after having been up since 4:45am Alberta time and now it’s almost 17 hours later—but it’s been a great day and I think this is going to be one of my best vacations ever!
Before flying out to sunny California tomorrow, Ange and I will make a couple of stops. The first is to see my sister Jackie and her boys. The trip to Okotoks looks like it might be a little snowy but ironically that makes it all the better — we can’t wait to get out of this frozen desert so that we can have fun in the sun and maybe enjoy a little frozen dessert.
One of the things I noticed studying up for our trip was the Captain EO Tribute show now playing at Disneyland. As a kid visiting Disneyland, I always wanted to go to the original show, however, either it wasn’t playing or the lines were too long and I never got a chance to see it. Looking at the show’s logo I had a flash of nostalgia and made a connection with my childhood that I had forgotten about years ago.
I was always a bit of a daydreamer, doodler, type and the Captain EO logo was something that I took back from my trip and would draw over and over in elementary school, modifying and warping it as time passed. Eventually we were asked to create a personal logo in that class and what I came up with became a symbol that I have redrawn hundreds if not thousands of times since. Though I had forgotten its origin, I believe it was a direct response to the Captain EO logo. Here is a quick drawing I made of it just now:
Do you see the resemblance? Maybe it’s just me but it makes me smile. I’m hoping to catch the Captain EO tribute while I’m down there. If you’re unfamiliar with the story, here’s a very quick summary.
“Michael Jackson is Captain EO, who with his rag tag band of alien creatures travels across the galaxy to find and alien queen and deliver a gift. This gift is in the form of a song that will change the world, from a dark, gloomy, evil world to one that sings and dances in a 80’s version Munchkinland.”
It’s been over ten years since the last time I set foot in Disneyland, and I’m so excited about my trip next week that I can barely contain myself.
Disneyland won’t be the only place we’ll visit but it’s certainly the one I’m most excited about. I’ve been researching which days will be the busiest (they will all be equally busy), which rides to rush in and get fast passes for (the new Radiator Springs ride tops my list), and even which route we’ll drive when we get up early next week (it’s still up in the air between the California 91 Express and the 60) I guess I will decide based on that morning’s traffic report.
Here’s an animated gif of fireworks from the last time I was there. Back then, the closest thing my camera had to video capabilities was burst fire mode.
Yesterday at 3am, a bomb went off at the Canadian Forces Recruiting Centre in Centre Ville, Trois-Rivières. Nobody was hurt. Catch the CBC’s coverage here.
I am in Trois-Rivières this month studying French.
