Goin' Cali

My wife, daughter & I recently returned from a very nice Summer vacation to Southern California. We flew into Orange County and stayed at the beautiful Hyatt Huntington Beach. The hotel is located right across the street from the beach and we even had a great oceanview from our room.

We spent our first day just relaxing by the pool and walking long the beach and into the town of Huntington Beach to watch the surfers. For our next day, we were up early (our bodies still on East Coast time) and got to Disneyland before it even opened. When the park finally did open, they corral everyone on Main Street until the "official" opening time and from there it's literally a sprint to the first ride to take advantage of the short lines. We had a great time & managed to cover the entire park in a day (thanks to Fastpass!). We had been to DisneyWorld many times and found Disneyland to be quite comparable with a few minor differences (Disneyland has the Matterhorn Bobsleds and Indiana Jones ride, plus Cinderella castle is MUCH smaller). Otherwise it is classic Disney, including the expensive food, screaming babies and complete exhaustion you feel at the end of the day!

Our next day, we travelled up to Los Angeles and explored around Hollywood, Beverly Hills and the infamous Rodeo Drive. We ended the day out in Santa Monica to explore the infamous pier and Third St Promenade.

The next day, we travelled down to Carlsbad, CA to enjoy Legoland. I wasn't sure what to expect with this part as I had read mixed reviews, but it turned out to be alot of fun a great place for my six-year old daughter where she even got to go on a roller coaster for the very first time - and loved it!

The following day was back to "Disney" by starting the day at California Adventure, a Disney park which is directly across the plaza from Disneyland. We had also heard mixed reviews of the park, but all in all we enjoyed it. It seems to be a slight hybrid of Epcot & Disney/MGM in Florida, with rides like Soarin' and Tower of Terror, in addition to some other more standard amusement park rides. However, the highlight of the park was "Toy Story Mania", which just opened this year in both CA & FL. It's very similar concept to the "Buzz Lightyear" ride at Disney, but here you play numerous virtual arcade games as you go through the ride wearing 3-D glasses. The technology & effects were very cool!

Our last day was spent back at the hotel, relaxing by the pool and enjoying the California sun before flying back to NJ and getting back to reality of work and school. Now, the job begins of identifying and planning for our next Summer destination!