Our trip to Anaheim was a hectic one through southern California rush hour. What was supposed to be a 1 hour 45 minute trip took more like 3+ hours not to mention that the mapquest directions we used were less than accurate. We finally arrive to the hotel about 6 pm and had a few adult beverages at the hotel's manager's reception then off to explore downtown Disney. If any of you have gone to Disneyworld's Downtown Disney, you will be terribly disappointed in the California version. Disneyland's downtown is not nearly as large and was extremely overcrowded. Oh course we has another Shawn "I need a prize" meltdown and headed back to the hotel rather soon after we arrived.

The next two days were spent at Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure which was similar to Disneyworld's MGM Studio's park. Shawn discovered the joys of amusement rides during this portion of the trip. He even when on one of those white water rafting type rides were you basically get soaked and loved it. Unfortunately the folks at Disney don't think it's enough to charge you $350 for admission for two adults and a child for two days but they also see the need to charge you $3 for an apple, $4 for a coke, 7.95 for a basic turkey sandwich.....etc...etc...

The second day we were at Disneyland, we decided to head back to Downtown Disney to sit and relax for dinner. The lines for all the restaurants were pretty long but decided on a Mexican joint called Tortilla Jo's. The food was decent but again with the large Mexican population in the Southern California area, I really thought that the mexican food would be much better. I opted for the Carnitas Burrito and Lisa had the Chicken Burrito. The pork was really dry but the chicken seemed to be much better that night. The bright spot was the guacamole; pretty tasty and there was plenty enough for six to share.

Saturday, it was time to start heading back to San Diego for our Sunday flight home. On the trip back to S.D., we stopped in Long Beach. Long Beach is the permanent home to The Queen Mary. The Queen Mary was one of the largest cruise ships build in the 1930's and now is a permanent museum and hotel. The Queen Mary is also said to be haunted but major draw for us (Shawn) was that it is now hosting a traveling Titanic exhibit. The exhibit was really neat. There were tons of artifacts taken from the wreckage and quite a few facts about the passengers and their fate. When we walked into the exhibit we each received a card with a passenger's name on it and toward the end of the exhibit we each learned the fate of our passenger. Lisa's passenger was the only survivor of the three.

As part of the package we purchased for The Queen Mary included admission to a Russian Sub that was decommissioned in 1994. The Russian Scorpion tour was pretty interesting. If you have never toured a sub, it is worth the tour. This tiny little vessel housed 78 men for long periods at a time and walking through the tiny corridors, you would be amazed that people didn't off themselves on a regular basis.

We left Long Beach and drove down the pacific highway or highway 1. The drive was very scenic and a nice end to a rather busy vacation. We ended up stopping in Balboa Island for dinner and to walk around their quaint tourist trap of shops which reminded me of the Western Michigan beach towns that we experienced when we lived in GR. We ate at a place called Ciao. I think that Ciao means not so great but overpriced Italian food (seemed like a common theme throughout our stay).

When we arrive back in San Diego, we had to find a grocery store in order to find Shawn some milk and to replenish our snacks for the plane. On our way to the store, we notices a pretty cool election sign on the side of the road that I just had to have for a souvenir (see photo below).

All in all a great trip!

Shawn after the water raft rideQueen MaryScorpion Russian Sub