J&M got Maui'd!

We, well I, got up early to get ready and pack any remaining stuff before heading out. We said our last goodbyes to the Kims before they left for work/school and made our way to the airport. It was fairly uneventful and this time we gave ourselves ample time to get through to the gate. After filling up on gas and dropping off the car, we were able to make it too the airport in under three hours, which was still an hour longer than I had expected. Getting through security was a chore, but because we had a toddler with us, we were able to join the priority line and get past the main group of travelers. We even had time to grab a bite before boarding the plane. Oh, and this time we were able to board first because we had a child under five. We definitely were able to take advantage of our advantages this time. The flight back was late, but fairly uneventful, until the last hour when Elsy started to get a bit stir crazy and did not want to stay in her car seat. She started kicking the ...

The Disneyland Magic Morning only takes place on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. As we had the option of one Magic Morning with our ticket and this was the only day we would be at Disney in the morning for one of those days, we decided to take advantage of it today. (We were watching Fantasmic! last Thursday so thought that a Magic Morning that day would be too much for Elsy - and us for that matter.) Also, forcing ourselves to get up early in the morning was good training to get us accustomed to Eastern Time again. Elsy on King Arthur Carrousel. In any case, it was harder getting Elsy up on time and after picking up breakfast for Maggie, we actually arrived after the Magic Morning was already finished. We were, however, still able to catch all of the rides we missed out in the past two visits to Disneyland: Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Peter Pan's Flight, and after lunch at the River Belle Terrace, a cruise on the Mark Twain Riverboat. Els...

For our third day at Disneyland we decided to check out Disney California Adventure. This side was newer than the Disneyland side and had some of the newer Disney products like most of the Pixar and all of the Marvel stuff. As we were planning on watching the Disney Paint the Night parade that night, we decided to head to the park after lunch and went to visit Maggie's aunt one more time in the morning. We ended up staying there for lunch, with her aunt cooking us a nice vegetarian meal. We arrived at the park at a good time as they were loading cars into the remaining covered stalls on the parking garage. We explored parts of Disney California Adventure side where Elsy could enjoy the rides, including all of the rides in "a bug's land". I wanted to check out the Guardians of the Galaxy dance off but a technical glitch cut the show short. I thought seeing the actors run off was part of the show until we were told that they would come back at five for another showi...

We did not have any predefined plan on what we were going to do while we were in San Diego. Since there was a triathlon scheduled to use the road in front of the hotel in the morning (until 0930), we decided to sleep in. We still slept in a little later than that. Our check out time was 1100 and we got pretty close. Having brunch at Solunto Restaurant & Bakery. We drove down to Little Italy to find something to eat for brunch. After walking around a bit, we stopped at Solunto Restaurant & Bakery where we had some of their yummy breakfast fare and pastries. We then walked down to the Waterfront Park where the kids ran wild on the playground. The sun was out so it had warmed up quite a bit since the morning (and previous day) so I tried to hide in the shade as much as possible. The playground was not too busy, but there was some sort of yoga event taking place on the other side of the pond so we wandered through marveling at the number of people and their yoga mats that wer...

We got up early to leave by 0700 to reach Legoland and beat the crowds. Amazingly enough, we actually left the house ten minutes before the hour, which is quite impressive when you have three young children to get ready and load into the car. We watched most of Despicable Me 3 on the way to Legoland so I did not really pay much attention to the scenery unfortunately. The kids were awake and ready for a trip! The day turned out to be overcast a lot colder than anticipated and I was actually cold in my shorts and T-shirt. As such, the park itself was not very busy and the water park was less than half fill. Apparently this never happens on a weekend so it was the opportune time to take advantage of all of the water rides, but it was definitely too cold for me to take advantage of (I also didn't bring my swimming trunks due to a miscommunication). The Setos at Legoland California. Elsy really enjoyed the playground but was a little small for most of the rides. We had lunch...

Today was another "off" day where we were able to sleep in a little bit. These sleep ins are useful as each day has been packed with so much adventure that we barely have time to rest! The plan was to take part in a Hollywood Behind-the-Scenes Tour by Red Line Tours at noon. However, we had a rude awakening when we found out that our rental car had a flat tire. (The front tire on the driver's side.) Fortunately Bonnie had noticed this as they were leaving and gave us the heads up as well as a tire pump we could use to fill the tire. I was able to get out early, find a tire repair shop nearby, and got the tire fixed for a very reasonable price of $10. I was also able to get the tank filled but had no luck finding any post cards. As such, I did not really get to sleep in, and we were worried that we would be late for the tour so Maggie rescheduled it. In the end, with the help of the GPS and HOV lanes, we were actually able to make our original scheduled tour time of no...

Maggie had already reserved a dinner and show for Fantasmic! a week ago at the Hungry Bear so we decided to try to sleep in a little this morning and head to Disneyland after lunch. We went out to pick up some healthy food but there was some sort of event and the whole street was shut down for pedestrian traffic. We ended up picking up food from Jack In The Box instead. The food was pretty good, and we ended up eating it in the Disneyland parking lot before heading into the park. After our experience the first time we were at Disneyland on Monday, we decided to check out a few of the rides we didn't go on, like the Casey Jr. Circus Train, or the Storybook Land Canal Boats. Our timing at the boat ride was serendipitous as we were able to watch the Pixar Parade while we were waiting in line for the ride. Something to consider for the next visit at Disneyland. We also were able to catch a show of Jedi Training: Trials of the Temple, although I realized later that the show was mo...