The last stop on our theme park tour, we have scheduled one day at Seaworld figuring there are some attractions to see but not too many rides so something we should be able to handle without coming more than once. The boys remember it pretty well from our last trip here so a are pretty excited to see the animals, particularly Shamu (of course).  We do have one more surprise up our sleeves, as we decide last minute to sign Nick up to swim with the Beluga whales.  The minimum age is 10, so we fudge his age a little, but the other boys are definitely too young so will have to wait for another trip.

We spend the hour waiting for Nick’s adventure on a ride called Journey to Atlantis, which is a combination log ride and roller coaster. It quick becomes Joey’s new favorite (this trip has turned him into quite the daredevil), so he stays with Mom and Sam to ride it one more time while Nick and I head over to get him signed in.  The Beluga Interaction is about 90 miniutes, split half between close up visits with the Walruses and Polar Bears (not too close for that one), and half slipping into a full body wetsuit (Belugas like the water around 52 degrees) and getting in the pool.  Since Nick went on his own, we don’t have any pictures of the first part, there are probably a hundred or more of the second, where he got to feed the whales, rub their bellies, and learn about how they are trained.

The swim lasted a bit longer than we were told when we bought the ticket, so with about 10 minutes left, the rest of our gang had to leave to make our check in for Lunch with Shamu. The kids all rememer this from our first trip so it was the one thing we knew we had to do again.  Once he was dressed, Nick and I ran across the park to join them, getting there at almost the perfect time – after the line up to get the food was gone, but before the trainers started the show.  Our table was right next to the edge of the tank so we have a lot of great pictures of the whale (it’s not Shamu anymore) sliding up out of the water about six feet away.

After lunch, we worked our way through the rest of the park, doing a few rides like the Observation Tower and the gondola ride over the bay, as well as the scheduled attractions like the regular Shamu show, the dolphin show, and the pet show. We foolishly also go on the tube ride (which is new since our last visit), and get thoroughly soaked, especially Granny.  As this happens fairly late in the day, we spend the rest of the time frantically seeking sunshine to try and dry off, unfortunately with limited success.

The park closes at 7:30, but by 6:30 we are more or less beat and start making out way to the gate.  The boys want to get in their last opportunity to spend the money they have left, so spend a half hour in the souveneir shops picking up a few things and then we’re off for the hotel.

Tomorrow we’re headed back home. The flight is late, so we will have some free time to spend by the pool and get all of our things together without a rush.  It has been a whirlwind 7 days, but everyone seemed to have a great trip. We are definitely coming home with a ton of new memories and stories to share with friends and family.

Today was another fairly early morning as we are leaving Anaheim and headed for Carlsbad, which is about an hour south.  After debating the different options, we settled on Amtrak, figuring the kids will enjoy the chance to ride the train and the station is just a few miles from our hotel (the cab driver seemed a little crushed as with all the luggage I’m sure he figured he had a lock on $50 trip to the airport). The trains depart pretty much every hour, but Ang says the absolute earliest she is willing to go is the 8am, so I settle for that as it should still get us there in time to check into the hotel and make it to the park around 10am when it opens.

At this point, the kids still don’t know where we are going, so all the way to the hotel they keep asking questions and making guesses. There is a golf course across the road from where we are staying so we tell them this is my part of the vacation and that they get to carry my clubs and hunt down golf balls for the next few days which gets a less than enthusiastic reaction.  The desk clerk at the hotel finally spills the beans when she asks the kids if they are going to Legoland, and immediately the horde is worked up into a frenzy.

This time the hotel is right next to the park, so for the next two days we are able to just walk down a short path and right through the gate. We enter about 15 minutes after it opens and are surprised (pleasantly) by how empty it seems. As we make our way through the park, there isn’t a ride or attraction that we have to wait more than a couple of minutes for.  In just one day we are able to hit everything at least once and still have time for Nick to take a Mindstorm class while the other kids build and race Lego derby cars.  Joey finds a new roller coaster that take over top spot from the one at Disneyland and is already talking about going back tomorrow.

Overall, the kids have a blast as it is the perfect place for their age group. It closes earlier than the Disney parks, so by the time we get something to eat there is still plenty of opportunity to play at the pool before turning in for the night.

Day 2 at Legoland is much of the same.  Besides the rides, we play some mini golf, get tattoos for the kids and wander through the Lego cityscapes. There is an aquarium attrtaction that is new since we were here last and we spend a couple of hours going through it.  With the last few hours, we let the boys choose where they want to finish up and I am soon on my way with Joey to ride his favorite coaster 6 times in a row.  Nick and Sam go back to the derby cars and get into a battle royale with an older kid I dubbed "King of the Dojo".  Nick finally got his car tuned up enough to beat him which made him pretty proud.  They raced over and over until Nick lost, at which point the other kid decided he needed to leave (before he lost again I presume).

We’re back on the move again in the morning. The boys have overheard Mom arranging transportation so know that we are going to Seaworld, so there won’t be much surprise this time. They are very excited nonetheless as Seaworld was one of their favorites from our last trip.

We started off the first of our two days at Disneyland bright and early, as our ticket package included one day of "early admission" and hour before the regular opening.  It was a bit of a rush to get everyone up and on the shuttle by 8:30, but we managed and at 9:00 were streaming with hundreds of other people into the Happiest Place on Earth.

Trying to take full advantage of the extra hour, we headed directly for Tomorrowland, figuring Space Mountain would be the hardest of the rides to get on during regular hours.  We made a quick pitstop at the Buzz Lightyear ride on the way as that was one all the kids could enjoy, before heading off with Nick for the roller coaster.  We followed that up with a few rides on the Matterhorn, eventually canvincing Sam to give it a try as well, and by the time 10am rolled around, we had already been on 5 rides (which under nornal circumstances would be considered a pretty successful afternoon).  While in Tommorowland we also rode the Submarine Adventure (Nick’s favorite surprisingly enough) and the Autopia.

The weekend before we arrived Disney put up all their Christmas decorations, so the Small World ride was all decked out for the holidays (which made Granny all excited) so we made a stop there on the way to Toontown.  Joey hit his stride in Toontown and after one ride of the Go Gadget coaster was hooked.  We left him there with Ang, Sam and Granny, going over and over again, laughing like a madman and waving his arms in the air.

With just Nick, we knocked off a few more of the older rides like Thunder Mountain and Indiana Jones before meeting back up (apparently 5 passes through Go Gadget later).  Sam wanted to try Indiana Jones, and while we though it might be a little scary for him, he loved it and had to take Mom on it with him. Standing in line, it was funny to hear him tell her all the tips he had for riding it.

We finished the day watching the parade and with dinner at one of the restaurants on site. The plan was to stay for the fireworks, but by then Joey had reached his limit, so Ang and Grandpa took him back to the hotel, while the rest of us took a quick walk over the Small World to see it all lit up, and then back to Main Street to watch the fireworks show.  We had seen them the previous night from the hotel, but it was nothing like being there with music playing and light flashing on the castle.  When they finished, they also have fake snow that comes down (its actually little bubbles, but they clump together and look like snow). Nick and Sam lit up when they saw it and ran around laughing, trying to catch it in their hands.

The second day at the park we were a bit short handed as Sammy came down with the flu and Grandpa was quick to volunteer to stay back at the hotel with him.  Otherwise it was a lot like the first. We spent a bunch of time with the boys on Tom Sawyer Island and then let the kids go back and do all the rides they wanted to do over. Joey of course headed back to Toontown for the Go Gadget coaster and Nick wanted to spend more time in Tomorrowland on the submarine ride and Buzz Lightyear.  We took things a bit slower which was nice for a change, but had a great day nonetheless.  Since Joey missed the fireworks the night before, we staked out a place early right in front of the castle where we would have the best view. With the music, the lights and the snow, it was a again a great show and a magical finish to our time here.

Tomorrow we leave early for our next stop, which is also a surprise.

It’s definitely been an action packed few days here, and as I sit down to write this, there are two rooms of people, young and old, still sleeping hard.  We started our first full day (after changing rooms for a second time, but I’ll skip that story) with a trip to Universal Studios.  We weren’t too sure what the kids would think since there really aren’t too many rides there, but with the City Pass tickets we bought a day at Universal was included, so we figured we’d give it a try.

Overall, the kids seemed to have a pretty good time.  They all loved the SImpson’s ride, which was a virtual roller coaster that let them feel like they were in the cartoon.  Nick tried the Jurassic Park water ride and thought it was fun, but even with his encouragement (and the offer of a cash bribe) we couldn’t get Sam or Joey to go (which is too bad, as I think Sam would have really liked it).  Nick also went on the Mummy ride, and while he liked the roller coaster part of it, he wasn’t quite sure about the special effects, so I didn’t have much luck getting him to go a second time with Mom (it was both Ang’s and my favorite though).

As it was Universal Studios, we also took in a few of the show-type attractions including the studio tour, which had a little something for everyone.  We finished up close to closing time and hit the road back to the hotel, where the kids opened up the door to their room to find Granny and Grandpa all moved in.  They arrived today from a few weeks in New York and are staying with us for the rest of the trip.

On Monday, we headed over to Disney, and decided to visit the California Adventure park first.  The last time we were here, Nick was just a little too short to ride the big roller coaster, and he has talked about coming back to ride it ever since.  Our first stop though is Soaring Over California followed by the river rafting.  The kids liked them both, but the latter was such a hit that we had to ride it three times straight.  It was good we did it early though as we all got pretty wet (Mom got soaked all three times) and needed some time in the sun to dry out.

For most of the rest of the day we split up as the smaller kids weren’t that interested in some of things that Nick wanted to do.  They went with Mom and Granny to ride the small roller coaster and the jellyfish while Grandpa and I finally took Nick to California Screamin’.  He absolutely loved it, and using all 7 tickets that we had to get Fast Passes, we were able to ride it five times before we moved on to the rest of the park.  We finished up with some time in Bug’s Life, with a small detour over to the Tower or Terror for Nick, and then watched to parade.  California Adventure closes a couple of hours before Disneyland does, so by 6pm we were on our way out the door.

The shuttle back to the hotel runs every 30 minutes, and as we got close to the pick up spot, were could see it driving away, leaving us with a bit of a wait for the next one.  We dedcided to use the time to find some dinner across the street from the park.  The nearest places we saw weren’t that appealing (Denny’s and IHOP), and we opted to try out Captain Kidd’s buffet where the kids could just pick whatever they wanted.  Sammy said it smelled weird when we walked in, which should have been a giant red flag to turn around a walk back out, but we pressed on to experience what may be the worst restaurant meal ever.  Everything aout it was bad, even the soft serve machine (which is hard for me to say given how much I like ice cream). Back on the shuttle, Sam was sure to clarify that we weren’t going to have to eat at the "place with the terrible ketchup" tomorrow.

Tomorrow we are going to Disneyland, and with our tickets we get in one hour early so have a full day planned.  The kids have a bit of pool time and then head to bead where it surprisingly doesn’t take long for them to fall asleep.

After months of keeping it on the down low, we finally left Redmond today for Southern California. To be honest, I’m not sure who was more surprised – the kids that we were getting on a plane to go somewhere, or the grown ups that we managed to keep it a secret for so long. Getting ready to leave, all we would say was that we needed to get ready for a trip, so for the next few hours there was a whole lot of guessing where we were headed. The cabin was an obvious guess since we spend so many weekends there, but some of the creative ideas included the Great Wolf Lodge, Grandma’s, and even Egypt.

By the time we got to the airport, the of course knew we were going on a plane so the end destination was somewhere far away, but they still weren’t sure where. We flew into Orange County this time (instead of Long Beach like we did the last time hear), so even when they found out where we were landing, it didn’t really mean anything to them.  We told them the surprise was that we were coming to see where oranges come from.  Sam and Joey bought it for a little while, but Nick wasn’t convinced. Finally, when we drove up Harbor Drive looking for the hotel (which turns out to not be where we thought it was), they saw the Welcome to Disneyland signs and the lights suddenly went on.

Tomorrow we are headed off to Universal Studios for the day.  When we get back to the hotel, Granny and Grandpa will be here, which the boys also don’t know about, so that is going to be another big surprise.