Trip Report Golden State of Mind: Our August 2017 California Adventure

11 Days
10 Nights
9 Miles walked on our busiest day
8 Months of planning
7 Days with a rental car
6 Hotels
5 Boat rides
4 Flight segments
3 Disney park days
2 East coasters
1 Unforgettable vacation

Hello and welcome to my trip report! For those who don't know, here is the essential information:

Me (Bee): 28, opera singer/voice teacher
DW (M): 28, writer/academic administrator
We: grew up in Florida, have visited WDW many times, have been together 10+ years, have been married almost 3 years, now live in NJ just outside of NYC

Dates: August 4-14, 2017
Flights: Southwest, EWR-MDW-SMF and LAX-MDW-EWR
Transportation: Rental car, Lyft, local public transportation
Major locations: Sacramento, Napa Valley, San Francisco, Muir Woods, Sequoia National Forest, Los Angeles, Anaheim
Lodging: 6 different hotels varying from 1-3 nights in each

And here is a link to my PTR: Not our typical Disney trip

I will add the usual disclaimer about us having only smartphone cameras. I am working on uploading all my photos to a third party site which is free and allows me to easily embed them here; however, they only allow 150 uploads per day so it will take some time. All my photos are uploaded and ready to post!

The first six days (August 4-9) we toured various parts of northern and southern California. From August 10-13 we visited Disneyland, including both parks and Downtown Disney. On August 14 we flew home to New Jersey. If you'd like to skip ahead to the Disneyland part of this trip, click here. Otherwise, continue reading for the entire trip report!
 
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bee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2, cont.

As we got closer to Oakland we went over bridges and through tunnels.

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I was amazed that during this entire drive we hardly ran into any traffic. Until...

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A sudden and complete stop! There was nothing unusual on the other side and there was no indication of an accident or construction on Google maps. Then we saw it: a single police car blocking traffic for (apparently) no reason. The police car left and we kept moving. Weird.

We exited the freeway and got closer to our hotel in downtown Oakland.

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We can see our hotel! Which will it be?

We pulled into the guest drop off area of the Oakland Marriott City Center. In the photo above it's the beige building with red letters above and to the right of the silver car.

M dropped me off to check in (the reservation was under my name). While I waited in line at the front desk I searched for vegetarian restaurants nearby.

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Look at all those choices!

After a few minutes of waiting an employee named Anne greeted me and began the checkin process. I assume she was a manager or supervisor as she was dressed more formally than the others working at the desk. Anne was extremely friendly; it was almost startling! She was thorough in her explanations of the amenities at the hotel and was happy to answer all of my questions. When I mentioned my wife had dropped me off Anne offered to add M's name to the reservation in case she needed to get a spare key, etc. She thanked me for being a Marriott Rewards member (you're welcome!) and soon I was on my way back to the car.

We parked in the garage, unloaded all our luggage, and took the elevators to the first floor of the convention center, which was attached to the hotel lobby, which lead to the elevators up to the guest rooms. We were assigned a room on the fifth floor so up we went.

As soon as we got off the elevator there was an overwhelming smell of...let's say "college." It's something I never did in college (smoking anything isn't exactly good for singers) but I'm guessing most people at least tried it in college. Despite the fact that SOMEBODY on our floor was having a REALLY good time (or maybe not?) we enjoyed the obviously newly renovated hallways!

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Up next: Will our room also smell like "college?"
 

bee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2, cont.

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The moment of truth...

I am happy to report that our room did NOT smell like "college!"

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The room was huge! I liked the unique layout and use of the space. It was evident that both hard goods and soft goods had been replaced recently. The only part of the room that didn't seem new was the tub half of the bathroom. It wasn't dirty or anything; it just looked a little older than everything else in the room.

Pulling back the curtains revealed:
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As M noticed (and as I posted in my PTR while we were there) we even had a view of the Golden Gate Bridge!

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By this point we were HUNGRY! We picked the closest of the vegetarian restaurants and headed that way.

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Nature Vegetarian Restaurant menu

Our server brought us a complimentary pot of tea:
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M ordered the General Tso's "chicken."

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I had yellow curry with eggplant, pumpkin, taro, and tofu.

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M enjoyed her "chicken" (and I tried a bite too and agreed it was good). My curry was AMAZING. It was spicy and sweet and savory and the tofu and vegetables were cooked to the perfect texture. Both meals were served with rice and were so large neither of us could finish!

On the way back we stopped by the BART station, which was located just a block from our hotel, to purchase fare cards. The machines were not easy to figure out but somehow we made it out of there with two cards!

As we were planning the next morning I looked up transit directions to the meeting spot for our tour the next morning. I had looked at the system map before and knew there was a BART stop right it, but for some reason neither Google Maps nor the official BART site showed me directions. With some deeper digging I realized that BART didn't start running our line early enough on Sunday mornings! :banghead:

We knew we didn't want to drive into the city and worry about parking, so we decided to take an early Lyft ride from the hotel in the morning. We'd considered going into the city that night but it had been a long day and we had an early morning ahead of us. So we walked back to our hotel, took showers, and crashed in the VERY comfortable bed.

Up next: Day TREE!
 
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becca_

Well-Known Member
Oh the smell of "college" :hilarious: (I'm gonna start calling it that now, if you don't mind ;))

I hate that smell so much, living in the dorms last year half of my floor was boys and half was girls. The boys side was right off the elevator, and so every time I'd go off and down the hall to my room, everything smelled like "college" :cautious: Half the time we had fire drills it was because of people smoking in their rooms... :facepalm:
 

MinnieM123

Premium Member
Loving the winery photos. I have only been to one once, and was too young to drink at the time.. :-/ Part of the Biltmore Estate tour in NC. Maybe the same place Minnie spoke about?

The Biltmore Estate is gorgeous, from photos that I've seen. However, I didn't go there, One of my brothers lives in Lexington, North Carolina, and we went to the vineyard there--Childress Vineyards. The grounds were absolutely lovely, and the main building was very attractive. They also had a restaurant inside, and we had lunch--very good food, and I picked the "suggested" wine on the menu, for the meal I ordered. Yummy! (By the way, the winery is owned by Richard Childress of NASCAR fame.)
 

bee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Oh the smell of "college" :hilarious: (I'm gonna start calling it that now, if you don't mind ;))

I hate that smell so much, living in the dorms last year half of my floor was boys and half was girls. The boys side was right off the elevator, and so every time I'd go off and down the hall to my room, everything smelled like "college" :cautious: Half the time we had fire drills it was because of people smoking in their rooms... :facepalm:
I hate the smell too! When we first moved into our current apartment some neighbors nearby smoked EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. We figured they must have been growing the stuff. About a year later the smell suddenly stopped making its nightly appearance.

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Interesting street name . . . ;)
:D

Hi Bee
Enjoying your report so far and glad that you have been happy with your hotels
Winery tour are great - we have been on a view here in the Niagara Region.

Max
Thanks and glad you're enjoying, Max!
 

bee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 3: Sunday, August 6
San Francisco, Muir Woods, and Bay Cruise

We got up around 6:30 to get dressed and have some coffee before calling a Lyft.

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The morning was rather foggy. Would it clear up enough for us to see the bridge?

We headed downstairs to wait for our ride.

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Our driver, Chichong, dropped us off at the tour pickup location, the Gray Line office near Union Square. Since it was Sunday morning at 7:30 there was hardly any traffic. We decided to stop for breakfast at a 24-hour diner near the office.

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Vegetable omelette with hash browns and sourdough toast. It was all delicious and I ate as much as I could since we had a long day ahead of us but I couldn't finish all of this!

Funny story: Shortly after we ordered our food, the table next to us was vacated and an Italian family (two parents and two kids) was seated at that table. When our food came out all four of them couldn't stop staring at our food! I guess there were hungry but it was super awkward to eat with an audience.

As we exited the diner there was a huge line out of the door (all fellow tourists, I'm sure) waiting to get a table. We had arrived just in time!

We still had some time until our 8:30 pickup so we walked around the Union Square area.

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Here's the DRAMMA of the day: I had called the tour operator the day before to confirm the meeting location and the representative I spoke with said to arrive at 8:30. At 8:15 we turned onto the street where the office is located and there was already a line out the door. There were no signs to indicate if there were different lines for purchasing a tour package vs. checking in for a tour vs. information...and it was chaos! We stood in line because there didn't seem to be a better option. Only two people were working at the desk and one had been with the same clients for a very long time working out some complicated situation, so essentially only one person was working. When we were finally next in line, another tourist rushed to the front of the line (in front of us!) and tried to skip the entire line, which was out the door and at least 30 people long at this point. She kept saying she already had tickets and was just checking in and shouldn't have to wait in this long line. Luckily the employee at the desk quickly sent her away to wait at the back of the line like everyone else. And luckily this confirmed we had been waiting in the correct line!

The employee scanned our vouchers and gave us our tickets, then told us to wait outside for the driver. Again there were no signs or people telling us where to go and by this time the line just to check in in the office snaked around the block. I don't know if they were shortstaffed or just had a lot of bookings that day, or if it's chaos like that every morning, but we barely figured out where to go and we arrived early and speak English. I can't imagine being an international traveller trying to figure out that mess with no signage.

Anyway, we somehow found our driver (or he found us?) and made it onto the bus. We left at 9:05 and figured that five minutes late was pretty darn good considering the mess.

Up next: Mostly just a bunch of photos of cool buildings in San Francisco!
 

bee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 3, cont.

Our tour was scheduled to visit the Muir Woods National Monument and the town of Sausalito. But first we had to get out of San Francisco! Our driver, Antonio, gave us lots of tidbits about the history of the neighborhoods we drove through on our way. Here are a bunch of photos from the bus; we were moving (obviously) so sorry some of them are blurry!

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What's wrong with this picture??

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Side note: Later in the trip I was thinking about the time when people showed their friends slides of their vacation photos...and how much my friends would hate me if I tried to show them slides of all of these! Luckily I have you, my WDWMagic friends, to look at them with me! :p:p

Up next: Driving over the Golden Gate Bridge!
 

MinnieM123

Premium Member
Side note: Later in the trip I was thinking about the time when people showed their friends slides of their vacation photos...and how much my friends would hate me if I tried to show them slides of all of these! Luckily I have you, my WDWMagic friends, to look at them with me!

More photos! We want more and more and more photos! (We're all crazy here . .. ) :joyfull:

Really enjoying your pictures. I just like seeing things I've never seen before, so I'm really soaking up your TR! Thanks! :)
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
Day 2, cont.

As we got closer to Oakland we went over bridges and through tunnels.

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I was amazed that during this entire drive we hardly ran into any traffic. Until...

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A sudden and complete stop! There was nothing unusual on the other side and there was no indication of an accident or construction on Google maps. Then we saw it: a single police car blocking traffic for (apparently) no reason. The police car left and we kept moving. Weird.

We exited the freeway and got closer to our hotel in downtown Oakland.

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We can see our hotel! Which will it be?

We pulled into the guest drop off area of the Oakland Marriott City Center. In the photo above it's the beige building with red letters above and to the right of the silver car.

M dropped me off to check in (the reservation was under my name). While I waited in line at the front desk I searched for vegetarian restaurants nearby.

tumblr_oupc96I6Bk1un92rjo8_1280.png

Look at all those choices!

After a few minutes of waiting an employee named Anne greeted me and began the checkin process. I assume she was a manager or supervisor as she was dressed more formally than the others working at the desk. Anne was extremely friendly; it was almost startling! She was thorough in her explanations of the amenities at the hotel and was happy to answer all of my questions. When I mentioned my wife had dropped me off Anne offered to add M's name to the reservation in case she needed to get a spare key, etc. She thanked me for being a Marriott Rewards member (you're welcome!) and soon I was on my way back to the car.

We parked in the garage, unloaded all our luggage, and took the elevators to the first floor of the convention center, which was attached to the hotel lobby, which lead to the elevators up to the guest rooms. We were assigned a room on the fifth floor so up we went.

As soon as we got off the elevator there was an overwhelming smell of...let's say "college." It's something I never did in college (smoking anything isn't exactly good for singers) but I'm guessing most people at least tried it in college. Despite the fact that SOMEBODY on our floor was having a REALLY good time (or maybe not?) we enjoyed the obviously newly renovated hallways!

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Up next: Will our room also smell like "college?"
Wow...I'm not sure I would even know what it smelled like. And aren't most hotel rooms nowadays non-smoking? I would think that would encompass ALL types of cigarettes.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
So sad that the Chinese AND Mexican place closed! Yeah, New York and New Jersey have great Italian food and lots of other great food, too...Indian, Thai, Sushi, Vietnamese, German...but Mexican, not so much!


I thought the bee stuff was really cute, but I am a little bit of a collect-ophobe. I am afraid I'll start collecting something and then one day find myself with a bunch of stuff I don't really care about. I have a few bee things that M has given me, but they're all things I use regularly, like my water bottle and a pair of earrings.


The next post will explain...I hope I haven't overhyped this!


Thank you! Is this the same friend you were considering visiting San Francisco with? If so, they're quite close to each other and would make a great trip combo! (If not, then do both with the two separate friends! :D)

Yes it is the same friend. We thought about a combo trip too.
 

bee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I am enjoying looking at all your pictures and reading about your trip, thanks for taking the time to share.:inlove:
Glad you are enjoying the report, @RedNoseMickey! I'm certainly enjoying writing it :D

More photos! We want more and more and more photos! (We're all crazy here . .. ) :joyfull:

Really enjoying your pictures. I just like seeing things I've never seen before, so I'm really soaking up your TR! Thanks! :)
You will get SO MANY MORE! :joyfull:

Loving the photos @bee . Most of my trip was in San Diego, but my Grandmother grew up all over California. I wish I could have explored as much as you guys did! :)
I hope you get the chance to go back! And (spoiler alert) I hope we get the chance to go back!

Wow...I'm not sure I would even know what it smelled like. And aren't most hotel rooms nowadays non-smoking? I would think that would encompass ALL types of cigarettes.
You would think...

Yes it is the same friend. We thought about a combo trip too.
I hope it works out!! We so enjoyed visiting both!
 

bee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 3, cont.

Antonio drove the bus closer and closer to the Golden Gate Bridge past some more beautiful houses.

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Before we knew it, we were on the bridge! (Again, sorry for picture quality as I was taking them out a window with a phone!)

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The bridge leads to the Robin Williams Tunnel.

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We continued our drive toward the Muir Woods up long and winding roads (and yes the Beatles song was playing in my head over and over) and at some point I had to close my eyes because the views down into the valleys, plus the feel of riding up narrow roads in a giant bus, were freaking me out!

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Eucalyptus trees

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Beautiful...but terrifying!

Up next: Was all that scary mountain driving worth it??
 

bee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I was looking through your pictures and did a double take. When hubs and I went to San Francisco a couple years ago this was where we stayed. Our room was on the second floor on the left hand side above the second tree. Strange that it happened to show up in some of your random pictures, it made me smile. Thanks!
How funny!! I'm glad it made you smile!! :D

That's a valid point--all kinds of smoking should be banned from the guest rooms. I'm sure many (other) hotels have that policy in place.
I'm just glad the smell didn't reach our room! I didn't even think to report them, but I'm sure they enjoyed getting a huge smoking fee with their final bill! :eek:

I had an audition today-my first of the opera audition season. I'm on my way home and hoping to post more tonight. I'm almost finished uploading my photos for the whole report :D

ETA: one of my students had her first ever professional audition (she's done auditions for school and arts camps and community theatre but never pro) and she got a callback! #voiceteacherbrag :D :D :D
 
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