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!

 

[susan lees]

I interrupt this Trip Report to tell you that we just found out we have to move. Our building was sold and the new owner wants us out. Our current place is very cheap and not fancy in the least but it's very convenient to our jobs and to my auditions and we've liked being able to save a significant amount of money each month by living here.

We saw two reeeeeeeeally nice apartments yesterday a few blocks away from our current place. We were immediately in love. The building is brand new and the apartments are almost double the size of what we are in now. They have 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a dishwasher, lots of closet space, and obviously everything is new and in perfect condition. Move-in would be easy since we'd only be moving down the street, and we love the convenience of our neighborhood so we'd be keeping that. The downside...it's at our absolute maximum budget and we'd have almost no wiggle room.

Back to square one...we have an appointment with a realtor to see a bunch of apartments in other neighborhoods today. These are not new and fancy but they are much more affordable, and still convenient to transportation.

We considered canceling our upcoming WDW trips (Labor Day, Thanksgiving, February Princess 5K), but almost everything is paid for already. We're definitely going to need this upcoming trip, and we'd go to Florida for Thanksgiving anyway to see M's parents, so we decided to keep them all.

Send us all your pixie dust! We know the next couple of months will be stressful but we also know that in the end we'll be in a much nicer place than what we have now!

Pixie dust sent

 

[bee]

@bee I may have mentioned it before I want to come back as a Disney duck

Great plan!

Hey, wait a minue - have you been talking to my family, friends or coworkers?

They all think I am full of it too

Max

Count me in on the bottomless mimosas! That brunch looks so good that I would consider a trip to Disneyland just to eat at Tortilla Joe's lol!!
Thoroughly enjoyed your report. Definitely makes me want to head west!

Thank you! I hope you get the chance soon!

@bee . that was such a fun TR!!! Thank you and glad you had such a great time!!

The TRs in this (WDWMagic) forum remind me a little bit of "travelogues" from years ago on TV. Since I know so little about CA, your picture lens and your interesting commentary took me right THERE in the middle of the action. What a nice little educational escape for all of us, who followed along. I looked forward to every update you posted.

P.S.: Sending pixie dust in your direction so that you can find a good and affordable apartment soon.

Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed!

I did! The songs I remember the alto part the most are "Joy to the World" and something that my brain remembers as "Il est ne." Of course, there was the Hallelujah chorus at the end, and I totally forget what songs we sung in between. From what I know, I think the WDW version has more international holiday songs.

Our narrators were John Tesh for the first night and Barry Bostwick for the second. One of my favorite moments during our dress rehearsal with Tesh was when we finished one of the songs. Rehearsal was in one of the maintenance/repair buildings because it had auditorium-like acoustics and it was a large enough space for all of the performers, including the guest choirs, etc. The last chord rang out beautifully (you know what that sounds like and I can't describe it well) and then there was a silence. And then Tesh broke from the script to give us a huge compliment. It was so awesome.

Now "Il est ne" is stuck in my head! Great story about the narrators! I have been to Candlelight as a performer/director of performers six years: as a singer all four years of high school with my high school choirs, as an alumni singer my freshman year of college with my old high school, and as a director with a church choir I was interning with my sophomore year of college. The last year I got priority seating with the other directors, but other than that I've never watched the show!

I really enjoyed your TR! My first and last visit to Disneyland was when I was 17 and my sister and I travelled in CA for 6 weeks. A day ticket cost $37 and I thought that was so expensive.

Oh, to be able to pay $37! I'm glad you enjoyed!

Thanks for the trip report. I enjoyed following along. It helped me get over my own post-Disneyland withdrawal. We got back on the 27th and I just reset my watch to Eastern Standard Time! You took some fantastic pictures. I can't wait to read your Disney World report. It will inspire me to begin planning our next trip there! Good luck with the apartment hunt!

Thank you! Thanks for following!

Pixie dust sent

Thank you!

 

[bee]

I've started my WDW TR!

 

[coachwnh]

I've started my WDW TR!

Oh my, I have so much to read!

 

[Figgy1]

I've started my WDW TR!

YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Speaking of brunch... I did the California Grill brunch in January. It was amazing and we had bottomless mimosas... AND we paid $160 for two of us. Granted, there was sushi and you could go back to the buffet as often as you liked and you could order any or ALL of the items on the menu and there were beautiful pastries and cookies and chocolates and the views are gorgeous!

If you break it down... let's see - each mimosa is what? $12.00? and an entrée for... $16.00 each? So - $36 for drinks each plus $32 for entrees each PLUS the buffet... I guess it might make sense.

It was lovely. AND delicious. AND we're doing it again in November...

We almost did the brunch a few trips ago but decided against it. We were under the impression that they only gave you one drink each. Glad to hear that's not the case and CG brunch may be back on our radar!

I am so stealing this for our next trip, which is likely to be a non-park trip with the exception of a Christmas party. Summoning all my willpower LOL.

And yes, we love the BK veggie.

 

[*Flynnderella*]

Thank you for sharing!! I will get to the California one day!!

But in the mean time I should finish my own wdw trip report instead of binge reading everyone else's

 

[DonnaOnTheRocks]

I FINALLY finished this one! I loved your report and great tip about the Earplanes!!! As soon as I read that part of your report I ordered some for my trip to my mom's in Jersey last weekend and they helped SO much! I usually have terrible ear pain for days after I fly and with these I had only minimal discomfort.

Those mimosas look Amazing! I want to try the pineapple-orange

I guess I'll start your new report now.. hopefully it won't take me a month to read it