November

Not much happened the first two weeks of November.

School, homework, the end of soccer season, election day and we saw a stunt dog show.

Lots of dog cuddles and conversations about moving to Canada also occurred.

Remember that sleeping bag that was left in Katie's room a while back....

....It's still there.

 The Friday before Thanksgiving, we hopped on a plane and flew down to San Diego.

Pretty, huh?

The first morning we were there, we had a visitor.

The windows opened just a bit...enough to stick an arm out to share your brekkie with the birds if you wanted. 

This guy obviously was hoping we'd fall in line.

But, nope, no brekkie for you, bird.

The kids called him "Red Beak".

We found out, after a visit to the beach, that all the seagulls around there had that red spot on their beaks.

Oh well.

Our first day trip was to La Jolla (pronounced "la hoy-ya") to visit the beach.

Here we are at La Jolla Cove, an ecologically protected home for fish, sea mammals, swimmers and snorkelers.

Speaking of sea mammals, a sea lion climbed up on these rocks to take in some sun.

And on the other side of those same rocks, in a cave, Huzbend and the kids went adventuring.

The surf was rough, so we told the kids they couldn't go in past their knees.

We let the kids splash around for about an hour or so.

They said the water was warm.  They always say that.  But, I noted there were people swimming out into the surf in full wetsuits.

One sea lion came in to investigate all the racket on the beach.

His head is poking up there to the right in the picture.

He rolled up onto the beach just a few yards away from the kids and Huzbend and I.

The kids thought it was hilarious.

After the sea lion excitement, the kids started getting cold.

We had forgotten to bring them towels.

Ooops.

We bundled them up in sweat shirts and extra swim suits we'd brought and walked over to the "Children's Beach".  The "Children's Beach" is a protected cove that was originally created for kids to swim in.  But, it began to fill with sand annnnnnd harbor seals.

Now, it's pretty much owned by harbor seals.

They're fun to watch.

Next up, lunch time at Smashburger.

Gluten free burger WITH a gf bun AND gf fries.

Katie was super happy.

We headed back to our hotel and walked over to visit the USS Midway Museum.

It was very cool to walk through the huge ship.

It was like a giant maze of historical goodness.

There were lots and lots of stairs to walk up and down...

...and lots of buttons and toggles to play with.

Mikey had a blast pretending to be Spider-Man.

Katie was fine until we got outside and she realized how high up we were.

She has this thing with heights.

See.  Not happy.

Still not happy.

Mikey, happy.

Mostly because Katie was not.

That's normal for little brothers.

Much to Katie's delight, we made our way down off the ship and on to dinner.

Since it was so close to Thanksgiving, holiday decorations were slowly cropping up here and there.

The next day, we headed to LEGOLAND.

The kids got to meet Lego Santa!

There was a cool ride on which they could drive freely on Lego City streets and at the end of the ride get souvenir paper drivers licenses.

(You could add a photo of your kid...for a fee, of course)

All in all, LEGOLAND was cute.  The kids had a good time.  Most of the rides were simple amusement park rides with Lego overlays and were more for the little little kids.

Lines weren't that bad and we didn't wait more than 10 minutes for anything.

I like how Mikey's face matches Lion-O's Laval's face in this picture.

This was impressive.

I'm actually surprised we don't have one of these in the house...

Mummy looking for directions.

Drive your own Lego boat.

We raced - boys vs. girls.

Girls won.

Yee-haw!

Next up, LEGOLAND's world famous Granny's Apple Fries.

Also known as "sheer apple awesomeness in a cardboard fry container"

Apple Fries are granny smith apples cut in french fry shape, fried, dusted with cinnamon sugar and served with whipped cream for dipping.

They were delicious.

You got a little somethin in your mustache there.....

Lip-lickin' good.

Our second to last stop in LEGOLAND was the Ninjago section where we rode the Ninjago ride (you used your hands to shoot out ninja elemental powers and defeat bad guys!!) and met Kai, the Red Ninja.

Our last stop was Miniland USA.  At the center of the park was an area filled with Lego sized replicas of NYC, Washington D.C., Las Vegas, San Francisco and other places.

There was also a huge section dedicated to scenes from Star Wars.

They have the same look on their faces and the same hair.....

Jazz hands!

The kids could not resist the cute Lego snow man.

Who could, really?

I really liked LEGOLAND's bathroom signs.

For some reason (more money) they also have a small aquarium next to LEGOLAND.

Katie insisted we have our picture taken with Giant Lego Poseidon before we left for the day.

Monday was San Diego Zoo day.

The first thing we did was visit the pandas, who, I read, usually had lines to see them later in the day.

Because we saw them first thing in the morning to avoid lines, they were sleeping.

Oh well.

That kinda backfired.

Don't let that blue sky fool you.

It was raining soon after this.

But, rain doesn't put a damper on a kids need for ice cream.

Oh no.

We shoulda got Mikey a bowl.

Where's MY ice cream?

We got to watch the keepers feed this polar bear a snack.

Katie was in love.

"He looks just like a white Ralph!!!", she was overheard saying in between high pitched "AWWWWW's", squeals and exclamations of, "SO CUTE!!!!"

Those same exclamations of love and cuteness were repeated for every animal we saw.

Even the snakes.

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!

The San Diego Zoo was huge.  It took us all day to walk through it.

All in all, I thought it was cool, but when it comes down to it....it's still just a zoo.

Were the kids tired after all that?

NOPE.

Not when there's a pool to be swum in.

Even if it was downright frigid.

"They don't have hypothermia yet?"

I think the jumps to the hot tub helped stave it off.

That night, we went out for a fancy dinner at a fondue place.

Shocker.

The kids liked fondue.

Mikey liked the cheese.

Katie preferred the chocolate. 

The next day we spent at Balboa Park visiting various museums and just walking around.

He could give even the toughest, most stubborn pharaoh a run for his money.

I think he plans on building one of these thrones at home.....

How convenient!  They must've known we were coming.

We didn't have to pay 4 dollars to find out the kids names in hieroglyphics.

The park was really, really pretty.

I think all in all we toured through four museums and ate lunch somewhere in there too.

We made it back to the hotel to find even MORE holiday decorations had appeared.

The day before Thanksgiving was a travel day.

We had to make our way from San Diego to Los Angeles.

We headed to Santa Fe station to catch our train.

Is it time yet?

We took the Pacific Surfliner.

The coastal views were beautiful.

Lots of beach and lots of surfers.

After about four hours, we got off at Union Station in LA and hopped on the LA Metro Red Line headed in the direction of Universal City.

Bet ya didn't know LA had a subway system.

I didn't, until I researched for our trip.

We had talked to the kids about subway rides.

No staring and such.

On our ride, a guy walked aboard with a wheelchair that was filled with a person that he had created out of old, raggedy, super dirty clothes and old plastic soda bottles.  The head was one such bottle with a face drawn on it and a hat on.

Yeah.

Katie tried really, really hard not to stare.

Okay.

When I booked our hotel, I checked how far away it was from the Metro station and how close it was to Universal Studios.

On the map, it was close to both.

Perfect, I thought.

But, nowhere did it say that when you got off the subway you had to climb a literal mountain to get to the hotel.

Seriously.

We walked up a HUGE hill to get to the hotel.

And, to get to the front lobby of our hotel we had to walk through the set-up for a wedding.

But, we made it!

This was the view from our room.

Before dinner, it was pool time.

We had promised the kids.

"Come on in, Daddy!  It's warm!!!!"

Does it look warm to you?

I did not swim.

I sat under about 3 towels and shivered.

I had a towel draped over my shoulders while I took the pictures.

I was also wearing a sweatshirt AND a jacket at the time.

We pulled the kids out of the pool so we could head to Universal CityWalk for dinner. 

We ended up eating at a Wolfgang Puck Bistro.

It was yummy.

After dinner, we walked around a bit to explore.

And we walk-danced a bit too.

Then we did some touristy photo-type things.

Thankgiving Day dawned bright and chilly.

We were up at sunrise so that we could hit Universal Studios for early entry rope drop.

So that we could get HERE first thing in the morning....

....and do this.

Mikey was finally tall enough to ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.

Added bonus, the Hollywood version is in 3D.

The ride didn't disappoint and we didn't have to wait.

AT ALL.

Hooray for early entry!

We also got to ride the Hippogriff coaster two times in a row before stopping to enjoy some Butterbeer.

Mikey doesn't like fizzy drinks, so he just slurped the foamy topping of his and Huzbend finished off the actual butterbeer part.

I had to grab as many sips as I could get from the one Katie and I were sharing.

She is not fizzy-averse.

Next up, we tried the interactive wands.

After a bit of stumbling and many flubs, we finally got a few to work.

I guess we have to work on our wand flourishing.

Before we ventured out of Hogsmeade, we stopped in Zonko's Joke Shop/Honeydukes so Katie could adopt a pygmy puff.

Remember the hill I mentioned?

Well, USH is on two levels.

You have to ride about four giant escalators down to get to the bottom level.

The bottom level is where they have the 3D Transformers ride (Katie STILL hates this ride), the Revenge of the Mummy roller coaster (the kids loved this one) and Jurassic Park the ride (super splashy fun).

After we crossed all those off the list, back up the escalators we went to stand in line to get into The Three Broomsticks.

Yes.  We queued up just to get into the restaurant.

Then we queued to order.

Then we had to wait for our food before we were ushered to a table.

It was quite organized.  And it had to be for the amount of people trying to get into this place.

But, Katie was in gluten free heaven.

So much to eat - chicken, corn on the cob, potatoes, pumpkin juice!

The food that we got was equally as yummy.

We were very impressed with the quality of the food at this quick service location.

After lunch, it became VERY crowded, but the lines for attractions and shows were not so bad.

I'm not sure where all the people were going.

I think maybe the walkways were extra narrow or something, because it felt like standing room only at some points.

Universal had a bunch of character meet and greets rolling.

All the Simpsons were out.

Scooby Doo AND a face character Shaggy (with goatee).

There were Minions, Transformers, a velociraptor.

...And I said "Hi" to Doc Brown, who was just walking down the street amongst everyone. I'm pretty sure no one even knew he was there. He returned my greeting and asked me if I had seen Marty as he was looking for him.

We watched three shows, all of which we really enjoyed.

WaterWorld Stunt Show - had surprise stunt craziness/special effects that added to the coolness of it.

Special Effects Show - edutainment on effects used in movies.

Animal Actors - a guaranteed hit with our kids.

In there somewhere we rode the world famous Universal Studio Tour.

We waited in our longest line to ride this one.

And surprisingly, the kids LOVED this.

Mixed in with the regular backlot tour, and some surprise special effects sections (earthquake and flood) there were two attractions that we rode during the tour without getting off the tram.

That's right.

A 3D King Kong and a 3D Fast And Furious section.

The Studio Tour rocked and was worth the price of admission, I would say.

The kids left the tour refreshed and excited.

I think it really opened their eyes to how movies are actually made.

It's one thing to say that movies are all fake and make believe full of actors and actresses, but quite another thing to see it in action.

After the tour, we headed back up (another escalator) and hopped on the Minion Mayhem ride.

It's just as fun and happy as the Orlando version.

Mikey wondered if he took off his "Minion Goggles" (3D glasses) if he would actually look like a Minion....I guess they need a tram tour to explain the workings of theme park rides too.

It was dinner time.

We had to find a place to eat that was gf friendly and sated all our cravings.

The kids were okay with greasy burgers and fries.  Huzbend and I were not.

We spent a chunk of time arguing about where to eat and then decided to go allllllll the way back down the four sets of escalators to eat at the Jurassic Café.

After dinner, we got distracted by Megatron.

He's hilariously evil.

Then stopped in a store for some souvenirs, while Huzbend and Katie went off to find a pressed penny machine.

Funny story....while in the store, they had TV's playing The Grinch.

The show ended while I was checking out and a woman popped her head out from backstage to ask the cashier if he had a preference as to what she should put on.

There were two choices - The Minion Movie or The Grinch.

He looked at her and said gravely, "Grinch. Every time, Grinch. If I have to listen to the Minions one more time......" and he trailed off, giving me a tortured look.  Then we laughed and he whispered to me conspiratorially, "The Minions are the WORST."

So, in case you were ever wondering if theme park cast members ever hated hearing that atmospheric music playing over and over and over and over........you have your answer.

It's just that at Universal the employees aren't afraid to say it.

BELO!

(We don't know if this is Dave or Kevin or Bob....definitely not Stuart)

Because we dawdled to long to get dinner and then got distracted by stores and a certain large Decepticon, by the time we reached The Walking Dead attraction, it had closed for the night.

Huzbend was disappointed.

Note: He was going to walk through it alone.

So, we decided to call it a day.

Katie cannot resist a cute snowman.

On the way out, I saw Beetlejuice wandering the street.

I yelled an enthusiastic "Hi, Beetlejuice!" at him and put up my hand for a high five.

He replied, "Heeeeeeyyyyy!" all cool like and then licked his hand before giving me the high five.

Yep.  Good show, Beetlejuice.

One last picture before we said goodbye to Universal Studios Hollywood.

I would recommend USH to anyone.

It was a perfect day trip.

The kids loved it, especially the thrill rides and the chance to see behind the scenes.

The left wanting to write, direct and film their own movie.

We walked back down the hill (a lot easier than up) to the subway station.

It was time to catch the train back to Seattle.

Bye, Stuart!

I'm pretty confident that's Stuart.

It was very quite at the Metro station at 8am on Black Friday.

We found our way back to Union Station on time and were there to watch our train pull up.

The Coast Starlight.

We pulled out of the station at 10:30am.

We had a sleeper car.

The chairs folded down into beds.

We had to share a bathroom though.

There were three down the hall that were the size of airline bathrooms.

There was a shower room too, but we didn't use that.

The fare for the sleeper included meals.

So, we would go up to the meal car to eat after reserving a time with the dining car attendant who visited our sleeper car before each meal.

They did a pretty good job accommodating Katie and our allergies.

At least, she didn't have any problems after eating.

There was a fancy parlor car with big windows that you could visit if you wanted, but we had two windows on either side of our sleeper to look out of.

So, we didn't spend any time there.

The first part of the journey we hugged the coast, but by late afternoon/dinner time we were heading inland.

Sometimes, we could see the front of the train.

Katie spent most of her time playing her DS or reading.

Mikey watched movies, lots of them.

Mostly Star Wars movies - 1, 2 or 3.

Those are his favorites.

When it was time to sleep, the kids took the bunks and watched a movie to fall asleep.

The train is quite noisy, but it seemed like they slept fine.

The rest of that day was spent eating, reading, and DS'ing.

We arrived in Seattle on Saturday evening around 8pm.

The kids said that they preferred riding the train to traveling by plane.

Even though it took waaaay longer, they liked that they could wander around, that they had their own space and that they pace was not rushed or stressful.

I think by the end though, we were all happy to be home.

Well, almost home.

After disembarking at King Street Station we then had to find our way to the Link Lightrail station to get back to the airport where our car was parked.

That took a bit longer than we thought it would....and it was raining...and it was cold.

And Mikey was grumpy.  And Katie was whiny.

And we were just plain tired.

But, we eventually made it and collapsed in the car.

It was nice to have that Sunday to recuperate before returning to school, work, life.