So we made it to LA on the Saturday before Easter for our spring break and had a fabulous time! Good thing Allison and Scott had the same week off. Won't happen again I am told.
We flew into LAX after a stop over in Nashville. Tom saved up his airline points with all his traveling so we could all fly out to LA on Southwest(nearly free). If you don't use those points by a certain time, they expire and you have to pay a small amount to keep the tickets. Anyhow, it was a lot cheaper! The kids were pretty excited about flying since neither one remembered their previous trips. And that is a long flight. Tom had us all set up with inflight entertainment-movies and games on Ipods, etc.
We picked up our rental car at LAX and headed to Mike Bozyk's place north of LA. Traffic actually was terrific for us all week-we couldn't believe it. We got to Mike's early enough for a quick tour and to get the kids to bed before the Easter bunny arrived!
Easter Sunday the kids were up early looking for their Easter baskets(and they managed to find them!). We were up and dressed and on the road down to Disneyland in Anaheim. We had put in volunteer hours and earned free tickets to Disney. Mike had a California discount and got a free return ticket to Disney or California Adventure. We had an incredible time at Disney, even enjoyed Tom's official birthday since it fell on Easter Sunday. He had his "It's My Birthday" button on at Disney and got lots of good wishes and a free dessert when we stopped for lunch at the Bayou in the Pirates ride. Our day was interrupted though by a 7.2 earthquake which occurred in Mexico in Baja, south of San Diego. I had told Allison it would be a one in a billion chance that she would experience an earthquake while visiting LA. Both kids have been studying earthquakes in science class, so they were very fascinated(and concerned) about being in one. And since lots of earthquakes have been occurring lately around the globe, there was a slight possibility. And we caught it! But surprisingly, the only one of our group that felt it was Allison. I said since everything at Disney shakes you and rocks you on the rides, who could tell the difference! Unfortunately for us, they shut down the rides for several hours for safety checks, so we stopped for a snack and to walk around the park, check out the castle. I did not realize that the castle in Disneyland belongs to Sleeping Beauty, Aurora, and the castle in Disneyworld in Florida belongs to Cinderella. Who knew? The Disneyland castle is a whole lot smaller too. I was just disappointed that they didn't have the Fantasia show running-that was pretty spectacular when Tom and I saw it 15 years ago! By the way, I had not been back to LA for ten years. Tom did a drive by of our old home, Downey to show Allison and Scott our townhouse(Allison was there for a year). We thought it was amazing that the Downey high school had a viking mascot just like Allison's high school here in Maryland. We spent the whole day at Disney until we could walk no further, and the rain started about 11pm.
Monday we promised the kids a trip to La Brea tar pits. They studied it in school and wanted to see for themselves. Tom and I had visited many eons ago, and I even showed the kids photos before we left. It pretty much looked exactly the same-lots of gooey tar coming up from the ground(bubbling ooze). And smack dab in the Hollywood area. They got to see the Hollywood sign from the top of the parking structure at the new shopping mecca, The Grove. Mike took us there and we enjoyed lunch at the Farmer's Market. We also visited Mann's Chinese theatre and the Ripley's museum and read lots of Hollywood stars on the Walk of Fame(the kids really don't know too many movie stars, but they recognized the star wars and Harry Potter characters.
Tuesday we headed down to San Diego and visited Sea World(we have season passes). No more swimming with those killer whales by the way! Weds was a full day at the San Diego zoo. We saw cute baby Koalas!
Thursday we were back at Mike's place and headed to Universal Studios. Mike got a CA discount and received a free pass to Universal for the rest of the year. The kids were not very familiar with too many old movies or movie stars, but they were fascinated with all the movie magic and the shows, as well as the rides. We actually ran into several filming sets around LA that week, including a few CSI sets and a movie premier, The Perfect Game(kids baseball movie with Cheech Marin). I had wanted to stay at the Barnes and Noble bookstore to see Gene Wilder at the Grove shopping center as he was selling his new book.
Friday we spent the day at the beach. We took a 25 mile bike ride up and down the coast from Rehobeth to Marina Del Rey and stopped for lunch on the pier. We were excited to see sea lions swimming around the piers! The kids ran up and down the beach for an hour before heading home.
Saturday we drove up the coast to Santa Barbara and Solvang. We toured the Santa Barbara mission(very cool). We stopped for lunch and a tour at the Firestone winery(one of our favorites) and had dinner at a Seafood restaurant on the pier. While waiting for our table, we enjoyed searching for starfish, crabs, sea lions and manta rays around the breakwater.
Sunday we ended our trip with a visit to Disney's newest park, California Adventure. How fun. Mike had a free pass, so we thought we'd try it out. It was a combo park of Epcot, Disney's MGM studios and amusement park. Again we had a wonderful time, and the kids got to spend their Disney dollars that they found in their Easter baskets. Scott found a Club penguin for the computer game(Disney owned) and Allison is now a Disney pin collector. She was busy searching for Disney's dragons. The disney workers wear pins around their neck, and you can swap pins with them if there is something you would like. Most people pick up cheap packets of pins to trade for the better ones.
So on Monday we flew back to Baltimore through Houston. Our flight was terrific, our trip was terrific! I would have loved to visit my old hospital, Rancho as well as some LA friends, but I am not sure where we would have squeezed that in!We thank Mike Bozyk for being such a wonderful host.
The kids missed one day back to school and had to make up a lot of homework, but it was worth the trip.
Another Happy Birthday out to Dad Bozyk, Sandra Bozyk and Sarah Bozyk! What a busy month. And Sarah hit the big 18 this year! The kids are growing too fast!