Westward Ho! To Disneyland We Go!!!!

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Dinner looks good.  Love all the old pictures!

[lightbikes 73]

That looks like a fascinating restaurant - and I loved the shape of that soup bowl!

[momof3kids-Yvonne 596]

Ok I just have to ask... Did that wall in your room freak you out when you woke up each morning? I think I would be looking around making sure there wasn't a squirrel nearby.

Oh and I love parades so thanks for sharing the parade photos.

[dvccamper 32]

That restaurant looks cool. Is that inside Disneyland?

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Dinner looks good.  Love all the old pictures!

 

I could have looked at those pictures all evening..... There were lots more, but they were scattered around areas where folks were still eating, so didn't get to see all of them.

 

That looks like a fascinating restaurant - and I loved the shape of that soup bowl!

It really was, and the soup bowl... hmmmm I didn't really notice it :)

 

Ok I just have to ask... Did that wall in your room freak you out when you woke up each morning? I think I would be looking around making sure there wasn't a squirrel nearby.

Oh and I love parades so thanks for sharing the parade photos.

You know, when I was looking at our hotel online, I thought I would be really bothered by the wall murals, but honestly, in person, I didn't notice it.

 

That restaurant looks cool. Is that inside Disneyland?

That restaurant is a fairly new addition in the remodeled California Adventure Park. The shape of the building is a recreation of the Carthay Circle Theater where Snow White premiered. The downstairs lobby and bar, supposedly is patterned after the lobby of the theater.

 

Oh, I forgot to mention, while we were waiting on our table, we did relax at the bar for a bit. Another couple joined us at our table, and we had a really nice conversation with them. There may be pictures on Rick's Cell phone, but not on my camera, thus I don't have any right now. But anywho, we got to talking about why this trip came about, and our wedding anniversary, and the other couple bought our drinks :)

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Now, we are up to Sunday, April 19th

 

We had plans in Hollywood on Monday, so we needed a car, so found a Hertz place about a block from the hotel, and rented a car on my points for 2 days. Even on points, they make you pay the taxes with cash, so the rental cost was going to be around $10.00

 

 

Here we go, heading for the rental car place

 

 

If you are staying on Katella and want some other dining options, Anaheim Garden Walk has tons of choices

 

 

 

 

 

There is also a movie theater

 

 

plus other high end shopping

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

more dining

 

 

Once we arrived at the rental car place, Rick saw a couple of convertibles in the lot..... He was bound and determined that we were going to have a convertible to drive. He finally talked the counter guy into a convertible for only an additional $60 for the 2 days.  If I had known Rick wanted a convertible, I probably could have gotten one on points...... grrrrr, but all points reservations have to be 48 hours in advance, no last minute.

 

Here we have dropped back by the hotel to pick up stuff we would need for the day. We decided we were going to cruise the coast!!

 

 

Here we goooo

 

 

First we had to get to the coast, so I had looked up on the computer to find the closest beach town from Anaheim, which happened to be Huntington Beach. Once we arrived there, our plan was to head North on the Pacific Coast Highway

 

 

The Anaheim Convention Center was busy this weekend with a Star Wars convention

 

 

 

Before we got to the coast, though, we had another mission. We were told we HAD to visit In-N-Out Burger

 

 

 

And there it is.... Burger, Fries, and a Milkshake..... It was not anything spectacular, just a burger, fries, and a milkshake

 

 

Now, we're looking for the beach. Early blooming daylillies.... Ours don't bloom till later in the year

 

 

and this is a good breaking point. The Pacific Coast Highway coming next

[Total Joker ... TJ 203]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Someone help me out. What is this picture for? What movie? 

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

1965 Oscars:  Julie Andrews won hers for Mary Poppins and Rex Harrison won his for My Fair Lady as Henry Higgins.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

The parade was fun to watch. I actually can't imagine it at night.... no lights

No need to imagine- here's what it looks like at night:

This was a Pixar parade.

Roz kicked things off:

The Monsters, Inc. franchise was up first. So, we had a few monsters:

And Sully:

Then it was the Incredibles. Mrs. I:

Mr. I and Frozone:

Note that there are guests viewing the parade from the balcony of the Carthay Circle restaurant. I'm not sure if that's open to all guests, but it looks like a nice place to watch the parade:

A flaming Jack Jack. Did this happen in the movie?:

Next up was Finding Nemo, so we had Crush:

And some random fish, and lots of bubbles:

Then it was Bug's Life. This Heimlich character was funny- the segments were not connected, but they somehow were able to synchronize their walking:

I'm not sure why the bubble machines were still going for the bugs, but they were:

This has something to do with Toy Story:

Aliens and random bubbles:

This Toy Story float was pretty spectacular. The blurry things you see hanging from the float are gymnasts who were swinging around the poles up there. Kind of like Tumble Monkeys, but these were cowgirls:

Slinky Dog came in two parts:

The parade finished up with Cars:

That was a fun little parade, but they missed a bunch of Pixar movies. Nothing from UP!, Wall-E, Ratatouille or Brave.

But, at least California Adventure has a parade.

They took the daily parades away from Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom a while back.

As far as I know, they're aren't any plans for new parades at those parks. You have to go to Disneyland if you want more than one park with parades.

TCD

[Total Joker ... TJ 203]

1965 Oscars:  Julie Andrews won hers for Mary Poppins and Rex Harrison won his for My Fair Lady as Henry Higgins.

Thanks!! I could not remember a "Disney" film those two were in together.

[mommy rainbo.....Bo 41]

I'm in and all caught up. What an adventure so far. Love it.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Wow, has it been two weeks since I've added to this. Dang I've been busy. Thanks for the comments every one. An update coming in a minute (as soon as I figure out where I left off).

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

We had just left In-n-Out Burger and were working our way to the coast and the Pacific Coast Highway.

 

We found it and our first view of the ocean

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, the first little bit of our drive North was the only true "coast driving" we did.

 

There was a lot more stuff like this

 

 

 

 

We actually had to leave the PCH and go a couple of blocks west to park and do this:

 

 

 

Some more sites along our drive

 

 

 

Not really the coast, huh....

 

 

Hardee's is Carl's, Jr. out west

 

 

Some more of the "not the coast"

 

 

 

There's Knob Hill

 

 

Here's some more of that same stop from before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some residences across the street from where we were parked

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo limit

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Are those oil rigs close to the shore?

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Continuing on

 

 

Now, we're continuing North and we're at Redondo Beach

 

 

I got this picture for Kelly

 

 

 

The closer we get to LA, the more smog we can see

 

 

Now, we're in Santa Monica

 

 

and there are some pictures of the Santa Monica Pier.

 

 

The traffic and parking was so miserable though, we didn't stop.

 

 

Another famous landmark

 

 

and here we are passing LAX

 

 

 

 

 

Some big companies I've familiar with and actually do some business with back here at home

 

 

We had been on the highway for a good 4 hours now, and knew we need to drive back, so decided to work our way back South and also find a bite to eat.

 

 

 

 

 

We were at..... The Hermosa Beach Fish Shop

 

 

 

and now we're heading North again. It was actually getting chilly, so the we put the top back up.

 

 

another iconic sign

 

 

either clouds or smog

 

 

one thing we started to notice, there were a LOT of car washes on the PCH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was starting to get dark, and I actually missed quite a few of the signs.

 

A bit more of our drive back in just a few... that is picture limit.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

 

terrible picture, but that was an RV park right there on the coast

 

 

and that's it for the day. We got back to the hotel, about 9ish, and crashed.

 

Coming next, we go to Hollywood!

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Are those oil rigs close to the shore?

 

Yeah, I'm thinking they were, looking at the perspective, don't think I had that much zoom on the lens. Then again, they "might" be natural gas rigs. When I took the Mobile Bay ferry with the camper a few years ago, there were some rigs similar to those that were very close to the shore.

 

FYI - I was using my new 18-135 lens for this trip. I found it to be really versatile. I got it for Christmas to replace my original 18-55 lens that hit the pavement on our Halloween trip. I have a 75-200 lens, but found it to be too much of a zoom for general picture taking, and I don't want to lug two lenses.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Oh, and now that I think about it, our LAX pictures were on our way back South, cause I'm pretty sure we started heading back South when we got to Santa Monica.

[TnBob 311]

Damn, I thought you forgot to finish, this is the only TR I've read in a long time and you left me hanging. I am waiting for the PIR part :)

[keith_h 420]

Some of the beach shots look like Newport Beach or Huntington Beach. I lived in Huntington Beach in the late 70's. Yes the oil rigs are fairly close to shore along that area. I don't know about today but at one time the oil from that area was exported and the oil used for gas and other products came from Alaska.

 

I noticed you went through Hermosa Beach. I used to play a jazz club there called the Lighthouse.

 

There are a lot of car washes in SoCal. At least when I've lived out there the residents seem to be more OCD about keeping their cars clean than other parts of the country I've lived in. I have a nephew that moved there from a northern state and decided pretty quickly he just couldn't continue to drive his northern rust bucket if he wanted to fit in. 

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Damn, I thought you forgot to finish, this is the only TR I've read in a long time and you left me hanging. I am waiting for the PIR part :)

Nope, not forgotten, just when work keeps coming at you like a fire hose, no time to play  

 

The PIR day is coming next, unfortunately, as far as TR pictures, it will be very boring. (You'll have to read a little bit Bob)

 

Some of the beach shots look like Newport Beach or Huntington Beach. I lived in Huntington Beach in the late 70's. Yes the oil rigs are fairly close to shore along that area. I don't know about today but at one time the oil from that area was exported and the oil used for gas and other products came from Alaska.

 

I noticed you went through Hermosa Beach. I used to play a jazz club there called the Lighthouse.

 

There are a lot of car washes in SoCal. At least when I've lived out there the residents seem to be more OCD about keeping their cars clean than other parts of the country I've lived in. I have a nephew that moved there from a northern state and decided pretty quickly he just couldn't continue to drive his northern rust bucket if he wanted to fit in. 

We started and ended at Huntington Beach. That's what I asked Google Maps to find for me between Anaheim and the PCH.  Looking at the map, it looks like we went through Seal Beach, Long Beach, Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, past LAX, and then Santa Monica.

 

I'm also seeing that we probably drove the worst possible stretch of the PCH as far as coast views.  If we had kept going North past Santa Monica, it looks like the PCH hugs the coast. It also looks like if we had gone South first instead of North, we would have hugged the coast a little bit more. Oh well, live and learn.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Monday, April 20th

 

Today we are going to be on TV!!!!  As I said in the beginning of the report, we got tickets for the Studio Audience at the Price is Right. They actually pull the contestants from the studio audience without any advance auditioning, or prior notice, so everyone in the audience has a chance to be on the show.

 

They have two tapings a day. The first taping you have to be there about 8am, the 2nd taping, you have to be there by noon.  I chose the noon arrival time.

 

To get tickets, I googled Price is Right Tickets, and found this website: http://on-camera-audiences.com/shows/The_Price_is_Right

 

I picked the dates I wanted, and received confirmation of guaranteed seats.

 

We read all the stuff on the confirmation they gave us, figured out where we were supposed to park (a shopping mall parking garage very near by $24 a day).

 

Read that we weren't supposed to wear clothing with any logos, and not to wear white, and to wear closed toe shoes, no sandles, no high heels, no flip flops, etc.

 

Also noted that we need photo ID and our Social Security cards with us.

 

Also, no cameras or phones allowed.

 

So we dressed as they asked, planned to leave the camera and phones locked in the trunk, and headed for Hollywood.

 

Oy, at the traffic

 

 

and the smog

 

 

getting closer

 

 

some hilltop homes

 

 

These are "Ethical Drugs"

 

 

and here we are

 

 

See that sidewalk. That was our first destination to wait in our first line of many on that sidewalk.

 

 

This is where the pictures stop. We locked our stuff in the trunk and proceeded to where we were supposed to be. We then noticed CBS is as bad about enforcing rules as the Fort.

 

We saw folks in logo shirts, many folks had their phones with them, many were wearing flip flops, on lady was in very high heeled sandals....... OY.

 

We got in the line outside the gate, and at 11:30, they started letting folks in. We actually moved up ahead of some folks because we had guaranteed seats, where some had standby tickets.

 

They checked our IDs at the gate, then we were let into this covered seating area with long benches, concessions, and restrooms. We were handed release forms and a number.

 

Then we had to sit in our spot on the benches in the order that we arrived. As we filled our our release forms, folks came around to collect the forms, check our IDs again, and create the famous yellow name tags.  They are created by hand. We then had to put on our name tags, and attach our numbers to the bottom of the name tags. We then were allowed to move about in that area to use the restrooms if needed, visit the concessions area, or visit the CBS store (they had lots of Price is Right merchandise, and merchandise from other CBS shows.)

 

I'll continue on in a bit.

[keith_h 420]

I was co-executor of the trust for an uncle's care. He went there on an outing sponsored by the assisted living facility he lived in. It will be interesting to hear your take on it for comparison.

 

Being it was Huntington Beach in the shots I used to go shark fishing from that pier at night. I also used to drive by Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station going to and from work everyday when I lived in that part of Huntington Beach.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

I was co-executor of the trust for an uncle's care. He went there on an outing sponsored by the assisted living facility he lived in. It will be interesting to hear your take on it for comparison.

 

Being it was Huntington Beach in the shots I used to go shark fishing from that pier at night. I also used to drive by Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station going to and from work everyday when I lived in that part of Huntington Beach.

Cool on the Shark fishing. More on our day at PiR coming up!

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

After they were about 2/3 of the way through handing out nametags, they started moving folks through the process. Coming up next were green screen pictures, and some basic interviews.

 

They took our pictures in front of a green screen. Individually, and then as a couple. They asked a bit about how excited we were and took pictures to get our reactions. Then took a "normal" picture of the two of us.

 

 

 

As you can see the pictures were for sale. We bought the "normal" one, as the others with us yelling were not attractive with our mouths wide open :)

 

We then moved to a different area around the corner, where we were brought in groups of 25 to actually be interviewed by the producers. They asked where we were from, what we did for a living, and some other random questions.

 

After the interviews, we were moved out from under the awnings along a sidewalk to go through the metal dectectors and this is where they also took phones and cameras from folks that brought them in. We were standing on the sidewalk a LONG time, as they were giving signed and stamped receipts for every phone and camera.

 

We waited here in yet another covered outside area to await time to actually enter the studio for the taping.  In this area is where the folks came by to show us our pictures and give us the opportunity to purchase.

 

We arrived at 11am, and it was now 4pm. Taping was to start about 4:30.

 

I'll leave off here and start inside the studio next.