I suspect that this one will take some time to enter, so please understand if some parts get redundant.

In the weeks leading up to this vacation, my car decided to completely fall apart. Earlier in the year, I had replaced the tires, replaced belts, had a full tuneup and oil change, replaced filters, everything...or so I thought. Two weeks before the vacation start date, the air conditioner failed. The repair took until the following Tuesday and cost over $500 for a new compressor.

 

When I got the car back, something smelled wrong, but I couldn't put my finger on it. The following Friday, when the "LOW COOLANT" light came on, I identified it. I put in a gallon of coolant, but it was low again the next day. I had a punctured hose which cost another $200 (and required three days worth of car rentals).

 

When I got the car back again, the battery light came on. It needed a new alternator (and another day of car rental). The car was ready at the exact moment that I wanted to leave town. But now I had to return that final rental, pick up the car, deposit money to my checking account, pick up the girls, get some snacks for the road and get started. I had intended to leave at 2PM. We left at 5PM.

The trip was simple enough. It started with a ride out of town on I-10. Unfortunately, I had enjoyed a Diet Cherry Pepsi as I left, and the gas was accumulating in my stomach. In fact, so much gas accumulated that I started having chest pains. I thought I was having a heart attack. Not revealing my fears, I pulled into the next truck stop under the pretense of getting snacks. As I entered the store, the burping began. Two embarassing minutes later, I felt great, and the trip continued.

 

The night before the trip was pool night, so I had stayed up rather late. Since I also had to pack that night, I stayed up extra late. With a late departure, I was also becoming quite tired. I asked Katie to take over the driving chores. She expertly continued for the rest of the trip. But she also knows my rule about music in the car: the driver chooses. Thankfully, she has surprisingly good taste. I slept some, but mainly valued not worrying about being tired myself.

 

As we pulled into Yuma, we got gas and stopped at McDonalds. Since my phone is WiFi capable, I welcomed the sign indicating WiFi access. That is I welcomed it until I saw the charge. Nothing like getting greedy, Mickey D's.

 

We arrived in San Diego at 11:30 PM. I had promised to stop by Linda's apartment first, but when we arrived in the parking lot, I found that her apartment complex has spaces for maybe 20 visitor cars and all were full. I told her I'd be by the next evening.

 

Next, we arrived at the Sheely household. What a beautiful place they live in. First, they have valet parking, so the normal California headache of fitting a Ford Taurus in the Geo Metro parking place did not apply. A short elevator trip later, and we were there. And for the record, Erica's couch is as comfortable as my bed at home.

The day began well. I woke up early (not as early as some) and found Ava awake in her crib. She allowed me to pick her up and walk around with her. This was a first.

 

So everyone got up and around, and we headed out for a day of seeing the sea life and "Shamu Rocks." But first: breakfast. We decided to go to Denny's, and I remembered a location near Sea World, so I led the caravan down some side streets only to never see a Denny's along the way. Funny how things change over the course of 21 years (it was there the last time I drove by).

 

So we decide to eat at Sea World. Not a bad meal (not a great one either), we found the location following our disappointment at seeing a sign promising breakfast with Shamu only to discover that reservations are required. Afterward, we visited the clydesdales and the mule in training to become a clydesdale. Quite humorous, indeed.

 

We saw every show that day only skipping the R.L. Stine attraction out of fear that the younger ones would get too scared and the older ones would get too bored.

 

A special note about the dolphin show: We sat in the "Soak Zone." Don't get me wrong. I understood what it meant to be in that location, but there comes a point in the show when a whale swims around the tank splashing water on the crowd. He does this by swimming along the edge and kicking his tail laterally to splash a significant amount on the crowd essentially kicking the water to the side of his body. After observing him do this to half the crowd, he comes around for a pass at my half of the crowd. He makes his first splash, and I begin to laugh at my family members who took the brunt of the splash. What I didn't notice was that the whale then turned around and scooped up a much larger volume of water to hurl over his body while facing me. The word "soak" clearly meant me.

 

This happened at the rapids ride as well. Never mind the fact that the rapids ride tends to get everyone wet thanks to sheets of water functioning as showers during the path, guests also get the opportunity to fire water cannons at passing boats. As our boat passed, the guest at the helm aimed the gun directly at me and held it there the whole time we passed. I stayed away from soak zones from that point forward.

 

To end the day, we watched the Shamu Rocks show which is as entertaining as you would expect it to be. We then made our way home with the group dropping me off at my sister's apartment.

 

I went upstairs to find her watching "The Devil Wears Prada" on HBO. And while she has a high def TV, she was previously unaware that she had to tune to the special HD version of the channel to get the HD picture. Now she knows. Since I had not yet had dinner, I asked if we could get a bite to eat. I told her I wanted a sit down establishment, but she assured me that there were none in the area that were open at 10PM. Knowing there was a Friday's just around the corner, I asked why not Friday's? She assured me that maybe Friday's was open late where I was from, but not around her. I acknowledged that certainly Phoenix is a much more metropolitan society than a hick town like San Diego but encouraged her to check anyhow. We ate at Friday's.

 

Back to Erica's apartment and a night of sleeping before the trip to Hollywood on Sunday.

Sunday began with the long trip from La Jolla to Hollywood. At the start, Eric led us, but I found his driving to be too fast for this old timer. I called Erica to let her know that I'd be a little slow, but that they shouldn't slow down for me and enjoy the CityWalk while they wait for us to arrive. Eric predicted that I was calling to say he was driving too fast. So I'm predictable. Thankfully, we still had plenty of time to enjoy the park.

 

Upon arrival, we walked by the Ben & Jerry's store, and I made a mental note to stop there later for "Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream." Sadly, when I passed later in the day, we were on our way to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, and the stop just didn't happen.

 

We entered the park and immediately went to the back portion to beat the crowds who were concentrating on the first things they found.

 

The first stop was Jurassic Park. This begged the question of whether or not Mackenzie could handle it. She had not enjoyed Atlantis at Sea World because of the water component but had loved the roller coaster portion of it. I was not sure. I suggested that she would enjoy it but let her know that there was a large hill at the end, but that the large boat made it less scary than, say, Splash Mountain would be. She braved it. While on the lift hill just before that final drop, she could take it no more and started crying. It was not a happy ride for her.

 

Next came The Mummy. There was never any doubt about this one. We loved it (it strangely had no inversions), but Mackenzie did not ride. That is one fine roller coaster, though I miss E.T.

 

Next, we visited the Backdraft attraction. I assured Mackenzie that only one room would be scary and that we would stay to the back where the floor doesn't fall. I was wrong. That room is scary no matter where you are, and the floor fell anyhow.

 

We needed something less scary for her. How about the Special Effects show? It was okay for a while, but in the second room (sound effects), Mackenzie volunteered along with Eric. Mackenzie did the brushing of the chimes to augment Tinker Bell's flight in "Hook." Eric was called on to voice King Kong, but they intentionally misfire on the cue for that effect forcing Eric to go to another room where we only see him in silhouette. While in there, Mackenzie got to observe him being torn limb from limb. But they weren't finished. In the next room, the monster room, they asked for a young volunteer to "control" a "mechanical" monster. The quotes are because the kid never actually controls the monster which is really a person in a monster suit who eventually gets out of control and lunges at the audience. When Mackenzie refused to wear the aparatus, the host said, "That's what we do here at Universal Studios: we traumatize little children." Trying not to traumatize Mackenzie became my goal for the day.

 

We visited the Lucy exhibit then made our way back upstairs. Learning that Waterworld was about to begin, we moved on to that show. Everyone enjoyed it, and no one was traumatized.

 

Lunch came next after which the older ones in our group chose to visit the haunted house. What a horrible haunted house. It consisted primarily of mildly interesting sets and humans dressed as monsters jumping out at guests as they passed.

 

Next came Shrek which was mildly amusing. We then did the studio tour which is as good as it ever was. I'm amazed at how many shows are still produced there. With location shooting being so popular, it's interesting to note that most television still gets made on soundstages.

 

After returning, we went to the Fear Factor show, then made our way to the Back to the Future ride (it's closing next month), and Mackenzie loved it. We then finished our day going to the Terminator show and left the park.

 

Dinner was at the Hard Rock Cafe which was great, as usual. We then drove to Disney's Grand Californian hotel. A quick note about the hotel, the soda machines did not work, and the rooms no longer included a stocked refrigerator, so getting a drink at bed time required going out to Haagen Dazs (Wetzel's was out of bottled water). But the rooms now have LCD TVs. That said, I had to reconfigure both the DVD player and the TV to properly format the picture on the screen.

The day started with breakfast at Storytellers. As usual, the breakfast was great. At the start, I left to get an autograph book for Mackenzie, and the picture taking and signing took off in earnest.

 

From breakfast, we made our way to the ticket booth to convert our CityPass tickets into park hoppers. Just before the vacation, I learned that $164 of the $204.99 purchase price could be applied toward an annual pass, so Katie and I upgraded to passes. As a result, our first stop inside the park was the bank on Main Street for our photos. I made a point of putting on the biggest grin I could muster. I've shown it to everyone.

 

Moving into the park, we started to the left, getting FastPasses for Splash Mountain then riding the Jungle Cruise. By the way, thank you, Disneyland, for not making trauma a part of the show. Next came Pirates, then we wanted to enjoy the Haunted Mansion, but it was closed for the moment.

 

Having reached our appointed time, we next enjoyed Splash Mountain. While Katie and Erica rode, I took Mackenzie and Ava to see Winnie the Pooh. They were thrilled.

 

Returning to Adventureland, we had FastPasses for Indiana Jones. While Katie and Erica rode, Mackenzie picked out a rubber snake that she wanted. We also got advice from Shrunken Head Ned as well as a fortune from Aladdin's lamp.

 

Next came It's a Small World. This one was high on Mackenzie's list, but I suspect we all enjoyed it. Next it was the Materhorn, where Erica, Katie and Mackenzie rode together while I stayed with Ava. After a while, Ava was getting restless. I got the feeling she was getting hungry, so I bought a churro, tore of a small piece and offered it to her. She grabbed the large remainder. Just seeing that in my mind still makes me chuckle.

 

Next we moved on to Tomorrowland to enjoy Buzz Lightyear (no one can approach my scores) followed by Space Mountain. Happily, Mackenzie loved all of these.

 

Dinner was at the Blue Bayou after which we made our way through the Fantasmic! crowd on our way to Autopia. While waiting for Katie and Erica, we watched the fireworks, then Mackenzie and I took a tour of the Autopia track.

 

Having exhausted ourselves, we returned to the hotel to get some rest. We had already made plans to show up early for the submarine ride on Tuesday.

We had a good idea. Enter the park early, and go straight to Finding Nemo before the crowds could arrive. What could possibly go wrong? Well, first, we weren't the only ones with the idea. It took nearly 15 minutes just to get in the main gate. And when we arrived for the ride's line, it was already wrapped around to the Materhorn. The reason: the ride was down already. It was not planned, and they had no word on when it would be up. I sent the others to enjoy other rides while I waited in line (at the suggestion of a Disneyland employee).

 

The ride quickly came back online, and after the others enjoyed a Fantasyland ride or two, they joined me in the Finding Nemo line. My total wait was around an hour, so I'm happy with the delay. The ride was fun and a great reminder of the calm joy of the subs. Once done, we moved on to breakfast on Main Street. That was some good eating, but after the meal, we found that we were tired from going non-stop for several days and decided to take a nap back at the hotel.

 

We almost overslept. But we got up in time to eat yet again. This time, it was Ariel's Grotto at DCA. That's always a fun place for food, and everyone loved their meals. A note about finances: I had planned for plenty to get me through this trip, but prenotes at the hotel and some multiple transaction prenotes (due to forgetting to get a premium annual passholder discount until the last moment), made my account balance appear unusually small. When I made that mistake one time too many, the waiter had to apologize for not being able to run my card. After getting some emergency funds into my account (thanks, Mom and Dad), I was back on my way.

 

After eating, we moved on to the Animation building where Mackenzie, Katie and I enjoyed watching Turtle Talk with Crush. That's some amazing technology. When the 10 year old kid next to me said he had been dating his girlfriend for a year, Crush's jaw dropped for a moment. How do they do that?

 

Next came the Tower of Terror followed by the Muppet movie and another break in the hotel room to rest our feet. Linda had arrived while we were at the restaurant, but was already set to leave when we went back for a break.

 

When we returned to the park, it was time for Soarin'. Mackenzie, Linda and I rode first with Linda leaving after the ride. I then waited with Mackenzie and Ava while Erica and Katie rode. Mackenzie had learned by this time that I was a soft touch for toys, and asked if she could look inside the store for something. I let her, but couldn't go in the store because I was handling Ava. She came out more than once urging me to go in to pay for her new toy eventually settling on a checkered flag. What fun to see the smiles!

 

After doing the roller coaster, Mackenzie was eager to get wet, so we moved on to A Bug's Land for her to run through the water areas. We did this for 45 minutes, then made our way back to the hotel for one last break before returning to Disneyland for Fantasmic!

 

After resting a bit, we did, indeed make our way to Disneyland and got surprisingly good seats for viewing Fantasmic! Afterward, we did some shopping, and went back to the hotel to sleep.

So the final day had come. We started with breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen, and followed this with a final visit to Disneyland where we finally visited Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Mackenzie loved it). We also did another visit to Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear. And after some final shopping at Downtown Disney, we left for home.

 

I planned the trip well in advance using Google Maps, but after dropping Erica off in Oceanside, the highway Google suggested turned out to be a surface street much like Grand Avenue. At rush hour, that took quite a while to get through. Accidents on I-15 and I-215 didn't help matters, and neither did my ill-advised decision to ignore the Google advice on driving directions. It took us 9 hours to get home. But the trip was more enjoyable than a 9 hour trip with an infant has a right to be. Ava was unbelievably reasonable (and slept enough as well).

 

So it looks like I spent two weeks getting my thoughts together to describe a six day vacation, but this was one I'll be remembering for years to come.