LOS ANGELES

LEAVING FOR LOS ANGELES

Joshua and I left on Thursday, June 18, 2009 for our most anticipated two-week 15th-wedding anniversary trip to Hawaii, with a side trip to Los Angeles first. Before we left, we met my parents at the airport. They were coming to watch our children while we were away. (The kids did many, many fun things with their grandparents and had their own vacation while we were gone. Check my Mom's blog HERE to see what they did.)

It was a little tricky getting off because just as my parents were coming in, we were checking into the airport for our flights. Josh dropped me off at my airport terminal first (there are 2 different Metro-Detroit terminals), then he drove to the other terminal to pick up my parents and give them the car & house keys and the minivan. Josh wished them luck and they left for our house where our kids were waiting for them. Then Josh checked into his airline. We boarded separate planes in different terminals. I got a free airline ticket back in January when I was coming home from Orlando in bad weather and involuntarily got chosen to get booted off the plane. But in return I got a free ticket, a hotel stay that night, and an airport food voucher. Not too bad... So I used the free ticket to fly to California. We decided the $600 for Joshua to fly with me on my flight wasn't worth the extra money since we found a $300 flight to L.A. on a different airline. (But we did fly together from L.A. to Honolulu and back.)

Our flights got into L.A. pretty late. We got a rental car and drove to Anaheim to check into our hotel, which was just across the street from Disneyland. We were so tired the next day, and slept in. Afterwards, we spent the day exploring Downtown Disney, and enjoyed the pool at our hotel. The day after that was a wet and drizzly day, and we spent it at Universal Studios Hollywood. It's much smaller than the one in Orlando, so we were done with everything in the park by mid-afternoon, so we decided to explore downtown L.A. on the way back to our hotel. We went to the Graumann's Chinese Theater which had many handprints and footprints of the stars. We also explored the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Towards sunset, we took a Hollywood Star's Home Tour up through the Hollywood Hills, Mulholland Drive and Beverly Hills. It was very interesting to see these gigantic, gorgeous homes. We saw Jay Leno in his car driving around the Hollywood Hills.

The next few days after that, we hit the Disney Parks -- Disneyland and California Adventure. We could walk there every morning from our hotel. I am a HUGE Disney fanatic (if you didn't already know) and neither one of us had been to Disneyland since we were teenagers. I've been to Disney World in Florida over a dozen times, but Disneyland is much farther away and always seems so far out of reach. So much had changed since we went as teenagers, like the addition of California Adventure, so it was practically a new experience for us. I love NEW Disney experiences, so I was psyched! We had a grand time exploring, running around, riding rides, watching shows & parades, meeting the characters, and staying at the parks from the time they opened until the second they closed -- This made our days very loooong.... But most definitely worth the time and fatigue!

It was sad to leave Disneyland, but we were eager for the next leg of our trip -- Hawaii -- which we thought was far more exciting! Early on Wednesday, June 24, we took a flight out of Los Angeles and headed for Honolulu!

Julie and Joshua at Universal Studios Hollywood

Julie at California Adventure's Paradise Pier.
The rollercoaster behind me is "California Screamin". A really fun coaster!

California Adventure is currently under construction for some new
rides and attractions coming next year.

In front of Grizzly Peak, a river raft ride at California Adventure.
This is us before we went on the ride and before we got really wet.

Joshua posing in front of a model of the San Francisco Bridge at California Adventure.

Our first ride at Disneyland was "Splash Mountain".
No lines, so we rode twice, but got soaking wet!
(I'm not exaggerating! We were wet for half the day!!)

In front of Sleeping Beauty's castle.
(This was my hairstyle the rest of the day because of Splash Mountain)

Joshua in front of the Indiana Jones temple.
We rode the "Indiana Jones Adventure" ride 4 times. Really fun!

The Haunted Mansion
(and still wet from Splash Mountain!)

Trying to escape from jail in Mickey's Toon Town

Inside Mickey's House in Toon Town, Joshua is singing
a song and playing a tune on the piano.

They've changed the theme on Tom Sawyer's Island to "Pirate's Lair"

Next to a treehouse on Tom Sawyer Island

On the swinging bridge in Tarzan's Treehouse

Leaving Disneyland ... sniff, sniff...
(On my head are some flashing Mickey ears that Joshua bought me for my birthday while we were waiting for the night-time "Electrical Parade. I wore them the next two nights we were at Disneyland too.)