The first day, we headed out to the airport to catch a 6 am flight, ate some breakfast on the way, and flew to Los Angeles. Once we arrived, we headed to grab our rental car, left the bags at the hotel and walked on over to Disneyland for a day at California Adventure! When we walked into the park, checked the new-ish app to see where we should go and we were off. The last time we made this trip was about 6 years ago, and we had a stroller in tow with a nursing baby. We were so excited for Dawson to experience it all and have some fun. One perk that we hadn't really planned on was that all of the parks were still decked out in Christmas decor, so it was fun to see all the had done for the holidays!
At California adventure, we hit the Cars area first (I just love that racing ride- it's so cute), and the boys began schooling Dawson in the ways of pin trading. They all had fun doing it, even though Covid has changed it a bit- they trade off of boards at the gift shops instead of with the Cast Members walking around, but it was still a hit. I think the unanimous favorite ride was the Incredi-Coaster (formerly Screamin'), and we rode twice. Everyone was tall enough and brave enough to ride everything too, so our timing was just right. The new Marvel aspects were fun- Ash and Beck are fans, so seeing some of the vehicles and street demos were cool. On this trip, I rode on the 2 rides with shooting games within them (one is at California Adventure) with Beckett and both times he killed my score! Too much Nerf practice? Corey's favorite place is the Planes area, and it really is cool. One of the biggest surprises and hits, which we saved for the very end of the day, was the new Soarin' ride- just WOW! We kept putting it off because the lines were so long that we kept waiting to see if they would get shorter, but nope. The wait, however, was totally worth it. A mini trip around the world, beautifully done, and the smells made it amazing too. As far as lines went, we only waited an hour for 2 rides (Soarin' and the Rise of the Resistance) because we ended up forking over some extra cash for the Fast Pass replacement- the Lightening Lane pass. While somewhat ridiculous that you now pay for an option that was free before, we did appreciate the fact that we waited 15 minutes or less (usually nothing, actually) for almost every ride you could use it on. Expensive, but nice. Day one was so fun! We headed back to our hotel (15-minute walk door to gate) and crashed after a long but super fun filled day. As far as the weather goes, it wasn't bad- and better than being too hot! Coats were worn pretty much all day, with the high around 58 degrees, although the remainder of the days ranged from high 50's to low 60's.
Day 2 was for Disneyland. We had hopper passes (were forced to buy them actually because we wouldn't have been able to go to California Adventure unless we did) but ended up just doing full days in each park. As soon as we walked through the gates, the boys all hopped up on the old classic firetruck, and then right behind us were Mickey and Minnie! Perfect, and lucky. Covid has changed a few things for sure- masks, of course, had to be worn indoors, pin trading is different, and meeting characters is done from a distance and with no actual interaction but from behind a divider of sorts. Still fun, just different. Our first ride, unanimously decided on by the boys, was Thunder Mountain Railroad. Just so fun! We hit that one later on as well. Corey and the boys (all wearing Star Wars shirts for the day- maybe my idea and maybe coerced a bit, but oh well), who are all Star Wars fans were SO excited to see the new Star Wars land, which was under construction the last time we were here. It was AMAZING. Seriously, the whole place was really cool. The shops, the buildings, the grounds, the characters, the rides, even the smallest details....just amazing. We hung out in that area for a while, did some rides, and then came back later on to see it at night, and when we were ready to wait in the line for Rise of the Resistance (which we did twice because it was that cool). It was worth seeing during both the day and the night. And the 'Resistance' ride blew all of our minds and was the favorite. Good job, Disney! When we walked around Toon Town, we saw Pluto and Mickey, and Dawson was ecstatic and shouted, "I just love Pluto so much!" We had no idea! So he had to get a quick pic in front of Pluto. Food was lots of snacks we brought in, some churros, a late dinner of fish and chips that we grabbed and ate on the Columbia steamboat cruise around the 'river', followed by some Mickey Beignets. Yum. Maybe we earned it with all of that walking? We loved the awesome firework show, and stayed until 11, enjoying the thinned-out crowds.
The next morning, we headed out to Hermosa beach area, which is only about 20 minutes from LAX. We had a hotel that was literally a 2-minute walk to the beach, which was amazing. That first day at the beach area, we walked around, then rented bikes for a couple of hours and rode along the coastline from Hermosa down to the Redondo Beach Pier, then back up to Manhattan Beach Pier, people watching and taking in the beach view as we went. For dinner, we hit a Cafe Rio, grabbed a few grocery items at Trader Joes then settled in at the hotel, where the kids watched a movie and crashed.
Our last beach day, we spent half of the day just hanging out at the beach. We all waded into the cold water a bit, but Beckett and Dawson took it to the next level and ended up with shirts off and wet from head to toe- B even body surfed. I know I did the same when I was a kid, but it seemed unfathomable to me now! We beach combed- the boys found some shells and Beckett found some whole sand dollars. The boys made a mounded sandcastle fort and had a riot trying to protect it from the incoming tide (Corey and I helped with reinforcements!). We had some lunch at our hotel room, and the kids ended up being enthralled with a 'Deal of No Deal' Channel they found on cable. Hilarious. After lunch, we walked back to the Manhattan Pier, checked out the little aquarium there then back up the street to Becker's for surfboard sugar cookies (a place we'd stopped before). We had pizza at a place on the main drag just off of the beach, which tasted amazing after a fun and active day at the beach. After that the boys watched Madigascar 3, and we all went to bed so we could catch our early flight back. Getting home was a little trickier than our easy flights out to Cali because the flights were delayed due to crew issues (sounds like there wasn't one- a common problem right now because of the omicron Covid variant, sigh), then a quick repair, so we were stuck waiting a couple of extra hours, but we did finally get home around noon. It was glorious to get outta town, see the beach again after over 2 years, and to make some fun new family memories. Yay for vacations!
