I woke up this morning at 6:30am, threw on some clothes and walked down to the corner Starbucks.
Pooped a short while later - hooray!
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| VMAs are over - looks like they're taking Miley down |
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| The Walk of Fame stars are everywhere. They're over here by our hotel... |
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| ...the Pantages sidewalk is lousy with 'em. Oh look, they're setting up for an event on the 3rd floor balcony. |
We packed our bags, checked out and got going at 11:30am. We drove down to the Playa del Rey beach where we didn't have any problems parking on the street (it's Monday). We walked down to the water, took off our sandals - well I did; Todd left his on, which he would regret later - and waded along the waters edge.
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| La Mer |
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| L'homme |
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| L'homme regarde la mer |
We rinsed off and drove to Anaheim and the Disneyland Hotel, arriving at 1:45pm. When we started planning this trip we were originally going to drive up the coast from Los Angeles to Monterey and Carmel-by-the-Sea (we were originally-originally going to fly into Vegas, drive to L.A., then drive up the coast), but plans change.
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| Here we are |
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| The Disneyland Hotel - 60th Anniversary decorations are everywhere |
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| Lobby men's room wallpaper |
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| Detail |
We decided to have lunch at
Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar at the hotel, so we left the bags in the car and walked over. It was like being in another world. There was one outdoor table left in the shade, and as we sat down and ordered drinks and lunch, all tension and thoughts of the outside world just melted away.
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| Tangaroa Terrace restaurant behind Trader Sam's |
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| Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar |
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| The view from our table |
Tiki torches were lit, the weather was pleasantly warm but not hot with a cool breeze blowing, quiet tropical music was playing, it wasn't crowded, and every now and then you could hear the sounds of laughter from inside the bar. It was like being on an island, and it was quiet enough that the dominant sounds were the breeze rustling the palms and our own conversation.
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| Oh look, there's Goofy by the fireplace |
For our cocktails Todd had the "Piranha Pool" and I ordered a "HippopotoMai-Tai". A Piranha Pool is strawberry vodka blended with pineapple juice, cream of coconut, strawberry puree and Blue Curacao, and a HippopotoMai-Tai is light and dark rums, Orange Curacao, orgeat (almond) syrup, organic agave nectar and fresh lime juice. Both were so good, and strong (Disney didn't pull any punches with these punches!).
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| Liquid magic at our (coffee) table. It was like being in an outdoor living room...in Paradise. |
For lunch I had the Teriyaki Chicken Breast Sandwich with a side of sweet potato fries: "sautéed chicken breast with Teriyaki sauce, fresh caramelized pineapple, Havarti cheese, bacon, lettuce, and tomato on a multigrain bun". Just look at it below - doesn't that look good?
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| I just had dinner and thinking of this still makes my mouth water |
To top it all off, I got a souvenir tiki glass with my drink - after we were done they gave me a nice new clean one.
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| Happy side... |
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| ...angry side |
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| Happy in blue... |
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| ...well, you get the idea |
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| Disneyland hotel on the back of the swizzle stick |
By this time it was 3pm, so we headed to the car to get our bags and check in. On the way we passed the Monorail Pool and slides and the E-Ticket pool.
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| Monorail-themed water slides |
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| The main, E-Ticket, pool |
The
Disneyland Hotel is comprised of three separate buildings arranged in a u-shape. We checked in and were booked in the Adventure Tower. The girl at the desk asked us if we had ever been here before. We told her no, not to Disneyland, but that we had been to Walt Disney World. She paused and then her only comment was "Well, we're quite a bit smaller." My thought at the time was: well, thank you Princess (since we're at Disneyland) Obvious, that is not enlightening at all. But after I thought about it a while - the pause, the slightly cautious, slightly weary way in which she said it - I wondered how often they do have to deal with guests that only know the Florida park(s) and are unpleasantly surprised because they incorrectly assumed this would be the same vast conglomeration of parks. How would you deal with such people?
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| Our adventure awaits |
We took our bags over to the Adventure Tower and up to our room on the 5th floor. The room was a nice size, ultra-clean, and well styled. It was also in between a utility room on one side and the elevators on the other (which I worried would be noisy, but you couldn't hear it in the room), so we didn't have any neighbor noise to contend with. Nice.
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| Entryway |
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| Room and view |
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| TV/dresser and desk |
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| Bed... |
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| ...with light-up headboard |
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| Bathroom |
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| Bathroom |
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| View and my reflection |
We got situated and rested/napped until until 6:30pm when we got out and took a walk through
Downtown Disney. The Downtown area is right next to the Disneyland Hotel and is filled with shops and restaurants. On one side behind the shops is the
Grand Californian Hotel. Guests staying at the Disney hotels walk through Downtown Disney to get to the park entrances. We had read online that some people complained about how far and how much walking it was, so we wanted to time it. It took all of 10-15 minutes to get from the hotel to the parks, at a nice easy pace. I have no idea what those people online were talking about.
The entrances to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure are directly opposite each other in a large open plaza. You can walk from one to the other in about 1-2 minutes.
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| Disney California Adventure |
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| Disneyland |
We walked back through Downtown Disney, exploring as we went. We spent time in the really cool
WonderGround Gallery, featuring some fun pieces by artist Joey Chou.
Then we grabbed a garlic pretzel and lemonade from the incredibly incompetent staff at Wetzel's Pretzels (I think I could have had better service from one of these Homer clones),
checked out the goods in D-Street, Ridemakerz, and The Lego Store, and while Todd got a smoothie from Jamba Juice I had some pumpkin fudge from Marceline's Confectionary (really good).
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| Buzz and Woody with Beast in the background at The Lego Store |
We walked through the Grand Californian lobby and out the front door for a different way to our hotel. The path led us down the street to the Paradise Pier hotel (the third Disney hotel at the resort), then back to our hotel for the night.
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| Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa |
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