La-La Land

We just returned from a 5-day jaunt to Los Angeles.  This was the first trip to California for the kids and me, and John's first trip to LA.  This was not our original plan for the trip--we had planned to tag along on Nana and Papa's ski trip, but once we realized that trip would involve 18 hours of travel each way (with at least 2 flight connections each way) and mucho dinero, we started looking for alternatives.  But where do you go in February?  We decided a visit to California and Aunt Laurie was a good choice.

We took an evening flight from Orlando to LAX and arrived at 10 pm California time--and 1 am our time.  We were all bleary-eyed, but luckily the kids went straight to sleep.  Unfortunately, we all woke up at 4 am (7 am our time) and couldn't go back to sleep!

Our first stop was Hollywood Boulevard--we looked for our favorite stars:

(Mickey is definitely a favorite at our house!)

We put our hands and feet in the imprints outside Grauman's Chinese Theater:

Donald Duck

Arnold Schwarzenagger

Julie Andrews

Then we stopped at the El Capitan Theater and the Disney Soda Fountain next door.

We arrived 4 days before the Oscars, and the red carpet was already laid out in front of the Kodak Theater (covered with plastic so us regular folks didn't scuff it up):

The staircase was flanked with columns listing the Best Picture winners from each year:

1977--a very important year!

The kids fell sound asleep when we got back to the car, so we took a long winding drive to see the Hollywood sign:

Afterwards, we went to the La Brea Tar Pit museum.  I have to say the Ice Age movies significantly contributed to Will's enjoyment of the museum.  He had fun looking at the skeletons of Manny, Sid, and Diego (mammoths, sloths, and saber-toothed cats).

The kids particularly enjoyed the hill outside the museum--that was Anna's favorite part.

We continued our tour of tourist hot spots by having a late lunch at Pink's.

We didn't spot any celebrities, but we did get a mild case of heartburn, and I think we were in line behind some paparazzi.

We headed back to our hotel in Santa Monica and walked over to Santa Monica beach and the pier.

It was incredibly windy and cold, so we took a quick spin on the ferris wheel (awesome view) and then headed back to the hotel to warm up.

The next day, we drove into downtown Los Angeles to see the Walt Disney Concert Hall.  It was beautiful, but unfortunately was closed to tours on the morning we were there.  So we admired the exterior, and then left and headed to the Hollywood Farmer's Market and the Grove.

The kids enjoyed the live music and fountains, and we caught a glimpse of Mario Lopez on our way out. :-)

We spent the afternoon at the LA Zoo--this was a great kid-friendly stop:

Daddy and Will checking out the tigers.

A family of giraffes--there were four of them, and Will enjoyed pointing out the Mama and Daddy giraffes, the Will giraffe, and the Anna giraffe.

A cute little prairie dog.

A cute little Anna.

Both kids loooved the lions.

A lion says, "Roar!!!!"

We drove to Pasadena to meet Laurie for dinner--while waiting for her to arrive, we checked out the Rose Bowl:

And the house from the Father of the Bride movie:

We began day 3 with a drive up the Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu.  It started to drizzle, but that didn't keep Will and I from hopping out at the city park and admiring the view:

We drove back along Sunset Boulevard and admired the swanky homes in Brentwood and Bel Air, then headed for Sprinkles Bakery in Beverly Hills:

From left: Vanilla, Chai Tea, and Lemon Coconut cupcakes.

They were sooooo good!

We drove along Rodeo Drive but didn't stop--fancy shopping and kids do not mix well!  Instead, we went to the Natural History Museum.  I had read that it housed one of the best dinosaur collection in the nation, as well as one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeletons in the world.  Well, the T-Rex skeleton lived up to the hype...

...but the dinosaur collection did not:

Will was quite disappointed, so maybe we will have to visit Laurie again in July!

We did enjoy the rest of the museum, though:

Do you see the tarantula?  Ick.

Whale skeleton and Will

A genuine T Rex phalanx! (Toe bone!)  And you can touch it!!

Now this looks familiar...go Gators!

We left the museum and headed for Anaheim and our last stop in California--Disneyland!  We checked into the Grand Californian (which looks a lot like the Wilderness Lodge at WDW), and then spent the evening at the California version of Downtown Disney.  I didn't snap many photos from that night, but I did get a few of Anna in the Lego store.  She was too funny--they had a Lego statue of Woody available to take photos with, and she started squealing "Woody!!" the minute she saw it.  She ran straight to him, pushed another kid out of the way, and threw her arms around his leg.  I think she thinks he is her BFF:

The next morning, Laurie met us at the park bright and early, and we commenced our tour of Disneyland.  We had heard that it was much smaller than the Florida version, so we kept our expectations low--but we loved it!  It was essentially the same as the Magic Kingdom here, but smaller and much more walkable.

Thunder Mountain Railroad:

The teacups:

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (ahh...nostalgia...)

The carousel:

Goofy and Will:

The weather was the best we had all week and the lines were short, so we had a fantastic time.  We ended the day with a character dinner at the Disneyland hotel.

Anna was not particularly thrilled with the first few characters that came our way:

But apparently Pluto is special--he got a big hug and a smile:

As for Will--he spent the entire evening like this:

He didn't stir, despite the best efforts of Sleeping Beauty...

and Alice...

and Pluto...

I think Pluto's whiskers in my ear would have woken me up, but Will just kept snoozing.

We went back to the hotel and all took a snooze--then rose before dawn to head for the airport and home.  We made one pit stop at Randy's Donuts:

Do any of y'all recognize this?  John swears it is in several movies--it does look vaguely familiar.

After a major huge terrible temper tantrum by Anna in the terminal, we boarded the plane for an uneventful trip back to Florida.

Overall it was a fun trip--I did a LOT less planning for this trip than I usually do, which resulted in us not getting to places at the ideal time and probably not making the best use of our time.  We were also a little hampered by illness (Anna and I were sick), jet lag, and the cold weather.  But I think we found some fun things to do with small children--and John and I saw enough things that we would like to go back and do (sans kids!) to warrant another trip out there.  Two thumbs up to Disneyland, too!