Our Spring Break Disney-cation, Part 1

EEK! It's been almost a month since I blogged anything. We have been very lax bloggers for the last month or two. In fairness, our family has been very busy; on the other hand, that means I have a ton of blogging to do in the next few weeks. Here goes nothing.

As I may have mentioned a few months ago, our family was planning its second trip to Disneyland. We had been meaning to take this trip for close to a year, with one thing or another putting us off. Last summer was difficult for us financially (we needed to treat the house for termites, our A/C unit went out, our garage door opener needed repairs...you know, "life" stuff that is annoying but necessary), and we had been playing "catch-up" ever since. We were worried that a trip to Disneyland would be more than our wallets could bear.

Unfortunately, Nathan and I are both the "worry a lot about money" types of people. Fortunately, only one of us seems to be in "freak-out" mode at a time; somehow, we manage to balance each other out and give each other the support, perspective, and encouragement we need. Over the course of a few months, both of us ultimately came to the same conclusion: yes, the Disneyland trip would be expensive, but the whole family would really enjoy it and we would have a lot of great memories from the experience. We have learned over the years that we will always have struggles with money...everyone does, after all! However, there is also something to be said for splurging once in a while and creating some awesome memories with our family. This was (hopefully) going to be one of those times!

We decided to take this trip during the first week of our kids' Spring Break. We'd leave on a Monday morning, spend three whole days at Disneyland, and head home that Friday. Since our school has a two-week Spring Break, that would give the girls an extra week to rest up after all the Disney excitement. So we packed our bags, got our affairs in order (haircuts, piano tunings, laundry, you name it!), and impatiently waited for Spring Break to come. And on Monday, March 17th, we hit the road!

We decided to take Interstate 8 west into San Diego, before turning north and heading into Los Angeles. We love San Diego for many reasons, so we were excited to take our "lunch break" there. Nathan found a beautiful city park, Mission Point Park, surrounded by water on three sides, with a little playground for the girls to play in. After driving through desert for several hours, it was a beautiful, welcome sight, and a good chance to stretch our legs.

 

After that lunch, we told ourselves we'd take our sweet time heading north. Turns out, our desire had nothing to do with our speed...driving between San Diego and Los Angeles is always going to be long, congested, and tedious. To break things up a bit, we decided to find a nice beach and take a stroll before getting to the hotel. The good news? We found a beautiful beach, Doheny State Beach, that was relatively deserted. The bad? It cost us $15 just for the privilege of parking there! Welcome to California, indeed.

In the end, we deemed the money well-spent; the view was spectacular and spiritually refreshing after a long dusty drive. It felt great to take our shoes off and get a little sandy between the toes. Well, it did for most of us: once again, our girls ended up scared of the ocean!

On our last trip to California, Aurora got caught in a wave and flipped over, soaking her through. She was traumatized by it, and apparently has never forgotten it, because she didn't want to get near the water this time! She warmed up to the beach experience over time, but she rarely ventured close enough to the water to get the least little bit wet.

This time, Celeste and Lorelai got to experience the mighty power of the ocean. In her eagerness to play on the beach, Celeste ran a little too fast (and too recklessly) toward the water's edge. As luck would have it, she was knocked on her face into the water by an oncoming wave. She was soaked. After that, she was more cautious about venturing near the water; she still looked like she was having a great time, for the most part.

Lorelai was also enjoying herself...until the waves almost washed one of her Crocs out to sea. That terrified her more than it should, and she thereafter viewed the ocean with distrust.

I guess our kids just aren't beach people! That may sound shocking to many who love the beach, but Nathan is no fan of the beach either, so maybe it's partly hereditary. I was raised in Colorado, and prefer mountains to beaches. Oh well, to each their own. At least they enjoyed playing in the sand, in a large mound well up the shore, away from the water...

 

After our "dangerous" beach trip, we finally drove the rest of the way to our hotel. This was a different hotel than the Anaheim Del Sol, which was our destination last time. That hotel was directly across the street from Disneyland's main entrance; you couldn't beat the location! This time, we got a better deal at the Stanford Inn & Suites, about a mile south on Harbor Boulevard. We got bus passes, though, so we didn't feel too far away from the action.

Since we weren't entering the park until the following day, we decided to take a quick visit to Downtown Disney, the large shopping complex just outside the park. Just like our last trip to Downtown Disney, our favorite stop was the ginormous Lego Store:

 

 

The Sleeping Beauty tableau outside the store was amazing! I love Dragon-Maleficent!

We enjoyed walking around for a bit, but we tired out quickly. We headed back to the hotel and snagged some Taco Bell to tide us over until the morning (we did not eat like kings on this vacation!). The hotel room wasn't especially large, but it was cozy and met our needs just fine. We all went to bed excited, eagerly awaiting the adventures to come the next day.