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

Figgy1 · Aug 23, 2017

bee said:
Day 3, cont.

We ended up back by the piers, so we began the not-short walk back to the nearest BART station so we could back to Oakland. We we walked we noticed the old school trolley cars going the direction we needed to go, so we found the nearest station and hopped on!

This was actually a super awkward experience. These trolleys are clearly just used by tourists and no one really knew how to pay and the driver was clearly annoyed with all of us. I can understand why! We sort of figured it out but because we paid by machine inside the vehicle and then the driver handed us tickets I think we may have underpaid. The cool thing was that each vehicle was themed to a specific city; ours was Milan, Italy! Since my DW is 1/4 Italian (her grandpa is 100% but born in the US) and since I'm an opera singer we both have a special appreciation for the language and culture. Our first international trip together was also to Italy back in college.

Uscita=exit

Uscita

Bye bye, awkward trolley!

Then we took the BART for the first time. This was also awkward as we didn't realize you were supposed to line up by the yellow rectangles. No matter, we got on and got to our stop in Oakland!

It may look light out in these photos, but to us it felt very late. We were hungry but didn't really feel like going out so we decided to order in. But first, we needed wine!

And no, we didn't drink both of these in one night! This night we had the Ravenswood Old Vine Zinfandel. We saved the Pinot for the next night.

Soon our dinner arrived, and as I hinted at in the previous post, we went with pizza.

Pizza funghi. It wasn't bad but after living in NJ it's hard not to be a pizza snob. This crust was a little too thick and chewy for my taste.

This night we also watched Game of Thrones. Since I'd been away in upstate NY for three weeks this was the first episode of the season we watched together. We also realized that we didn't have to wait until 9:00pm local time to watch!

We got ready for bed and had a very comfortable night's sleep!

Up next: Day 4! More cool buildings, Walt Disney Family Museum, Yoda, and lots of driving!

North Jersey Pizza snobs are the best.

bee · Aug 23, 2017

Day 4: Monday, August 7
San Francisco, Walt Disney Family Museum, lots of driving

If you've read my previous reports you may know that M and I have a habit of using the in-room hairdryer to reheat leftovers for breakfast the next morning.

We checked out of the Marriott (

) and loaded our luggage in the Jeep. We still didn't want to drive in the city and worry about parking so we left it in the garage and headed to the BART station. We tried to plan to ride the train after rush hour, because we hate when it's rush hour in New York and there is a HOARD of tourists in the way of our commutes. We didn't want to be THOSE PEOPLE and we avoided the rush and got on a not-too-crowded train around 9:00am.

From there we took a Lyft to the Presidio, where the Walt Disney Family Museum is located. And of course I took a million photos on the way!

Remember the Palace of Fine Arts?

We arrived at the museum about ten minutes after the 10:00 opening.

Up next: Inside the museum

bee · Aug 23, 2017

Day 4, cont.

There was no line to purchase/pick up tickets and a friendly staff member assisted us in exchanging our Groupon vouchers for tickets.

Though we'd had our pizza for breakfast, we hadn't yet had coffee!

We fixed that quickly in the museum's cafe.

The view outside to other buildings in the Presidio

Two large mochas. No sharing today!

We didn't take many photos inside the museum. We wanted to stay in the moment and enjoy absorbing everything, The first few rooms were about the Disney family in the generations before Walt. There were lots of portraits of his family members and captions about his early life. I already knew some of the things in the captions from reading Jim Korkis' The Vault of Walt (which I haven't read in its entirety but I'll read a chapter once in awhile when I need a Disney fix!).

After the family stuff the museum followed Walt's journey as an artist and visionary from his first work to his death. Here are a few photos I took, mostly music-related or otherwise interesting to me personally or M or our family members.

As we moved throughout the museum there were some fantastic views out the window!

In this model of the DLR castle you can see even more clearly the inspiration from Neuschwanstein!

(Not my photo, obviously)

Below is a sort of fluid model of Disneyland containing various elements from Walt's time. You may notice a prototype of Space Mountain, which didn't open until the 1970s. There was a cast member (is that what they're called at the museum? That's what I'm going with!) stationed by the model to answer questions from guests. I asked her about the SM model and she told me about an early prototype that Walt was involved with before it became the coaster(s) we know today.

I really enjoyed talking with the CM and told her I grew up in Florida so had been to WDW plenty of times but would be experiencing Disneyland for the first time in a few days. We had a great conversation about some of the differences, and she recommended some must-do activities for me and M. Somehow talking with her (I wished I'd remembered her name!) got me even more excited to visit Walt's park for the first time!

Up next: More museum photos, plus the special exhibit!

bee · Aug 23, 2017

Day 4, cont.

Some more photos of the museum:

What kind of opera singer would I be if I didn't take a photo of a Viking helmet??

Mary Poppins was one of my absolute favorite movies as a child and definitely played a role in my interest in singing. There was lots of cool info on the movie and Julie Andrews' involvement in it. I won't spoil it but if you go to the museum definitely take the time to read the letters between the studio and her!

Who knows the significance of this floor tile design??

After walking through the entire museum and gift shop it was time to see the special exhibit on Eyvind Earle, the lead stylist of Sleeping Beauty. The exhibit was in a separate building from the museum.

Going outside meant more great views!

The exhibit was beautiful and I'm really glad we got to add it on to our museum experience. Again, just a few photos:

(Please ignore the lamp reflection lol)

Up next: Walking around...and YODA!

amjt660 · Aug 23, 2017

We loved the museum but I thought that at the time we were told no picture taking
Perhaps this was a rule back in 2010

You did not comment on the last few items in the museum

I know reading about Walts final days really really choked me up

Max

bee · Aug 23, 2017

amjt660 said:
We loved the museum but I thought that at the time we were told no picture taking
Perhaps this was a rule back in 2010

You did not comment on the last few items in the museum

I know reading about Walts final days really really choked me up

Max

Yes, there were signs everywhere that said no photos but the CM at the entrance told every party we could take photos as long as there was no flash.

We were both moved by the ending. I have watched several documentaries about Walt's life (and death) so most of the information was not surprising to me, but it was impactful nonetheless. M commented that it was a bit of a downer and she wished they had put SOMETHING else after it so it didn't end on such a sad note. I agree it would have been nice to have seen a bit more of his legacy, but I also understand why it ended the way it did.

DisneyGigi · Aug 23, 2017

bee said:
Day 4, cont.

Some more photos of the museum:

What kind of opera singer would I be if I didn't take a photo of a Viking helmet??

Mary Poppins was one of my absolute favorite movies as a child and definitely played a role in my interest in singing. There was lots of cool info on the movie and Julie Andrews' involvement in it. I won't spoil it but if you go to the museum definitely take the time to read the letters between the studio and her!

Who knows the significance of this floor tile design??

After walking through the entire museum and gift shop it was time to see the special exhibit on Eyvind Earle, the lead stylist of Sleeping Beauty. The exhibit was in a separate building from the museum.

Going outside meant more great views!

The exhibit was beautiful and I'm really glad we got to add it on to our museum experience. Again, just a few photos:

(Please ignore the lamp reflection lol)

Up next: Walking around...and YODA!

So awesome you guys did this!

bee · Aug 23, 2017

DisneyShe said:
So awesome you guys did this!

It was such a great learning experience and it made going to Walt's park later in the week that much more meaningful! I highly recommend the museum to any Disney fan!

fractal · Aug 23, 2017

Love the hairdryer idea!

Thanks for sharing the photos of the Disney Family Museum!

littleroo · Aug 24, 2017

Loving all the pictures especially of Muir Woods!! You are a fabulous story teller!

MinnieM123 · Aug 24, 2017

First time I've seen photos of the Walt Disney Family Museum. Oh, I would love to see that!! What an exciting day you had!!! :happy:

Thanks for posting those interesting pics!!!

bee · Aug 24, 2017

fractal said:
Love the hairdryer idea!

Thanks for sharing the photos of the Disney Family Museum!

Thanks! We've been doing the hairdryer thing for years now

littleroo said:
Loving all the pictures especially of Muir Woods!! You are a fabulous story teller!

Thank you! The Muir Woods were really unbelievably gorgeous.

MinnieM123 said:
First time I've seen photos of the Walt Disney Family Museum. Oh, I would love to see that!! What an exciting day you had!!! Thanks for posting those interesting pics!!!

I hope you can make a trip to San Fran to see the museum (and other stuff, of course)!

bee · Aug 24, 2017

Day 4, cont.

Our next must-do was to find the Yoda fountain outside of Lucasfilm as suggested by @amjt660! We weren't far from Lucasfilm so off we went! On the way we caught yet another view of the Palace of Fine Arts.

Soon we were here:

Thanks for the tip, Max!

After visiting Master Yoda it was time for a snack and some more coffee. Luckily there's a Starbucks right around the corner from Lucasfilm and it wasn't crowded at all.

We shared both the drink and the box o' food.

Outside the Starbucks:

Soon we left the Presidio and took a leisurely walk toward our eventual lunch destination.

Up next: Lunch, and more cool buildings!

bee · Aug 24, 2017

Day 4, cont.

We arrived at our lunch destination:

Viva Goa Indian Cuisine

Like many Indian restaurants they offered a lunch buffet. Some salads and appetizers:

The only thing that wasn't great was the vegetable pakora (fried things at the top of the photo). They weren't bad but they didn't taste fresh and fried things don't fare well when they've been sitting out for awhile.

Next, some curries:

My favorite was the bottom right. It had paneer, peas, and mushrooms in a curry that was savoury, sweet, spicy, and creamy all at once. Everything was good, though!

Our waiter brought us a basket of fresh naan. :hungry:

Some chutneys and accompaniments:

And dessert:

The Gulab Jamun weren't actually that good and I wish I'd only gotten one to try so I didn't have to waste the rest. I hate wasting but I just couldn't finish these.

All in all despite a couple of weak spots we enjoyed Viva Goa. The curries alone made it worth it...I may or may not still be fantasizing about that paneer curry

Next we walked to the bank to withdraw some more cash.

We were really enjoying the vibe of the city. We saw so many different architectural styles and each building seemed to have some unique feature. I wished that we had at least half a day more in the city for just exploring and observing. Guess we have to go back some day!

Throughout the trip I had been sending highlight photos to my little brother. It was on this day that he texted back that he needed my itinerary so he could make this exact trip himself! :hilarious:

Up next: More cool buildings, of course!

ajrwdwgirl · Aug 24, 2017

Did you go inside the Lucas building? It was on hub's must do list when we went and went into the lobby too. There were a couple Star Wars props around the lobby and little displays. Hub spent some time examining everything closely and I probably spent more time on the couch.

He kept telling me that people at that moment were working on the new Star Wars movie, I think he kept thinking that if he hung out long enough he would get invited to go upstairs. I was just hoping he wouldn't make a break for the elevator and end up being escorted out by security!

bee · Aug 24, 2017

ajrwdwgirl said:
Did you go inside the Lucas building? It was on hub's must do list when we went and went into the lobby too. There were a couple Star Wars props around the lobby and little displays. Hub spent some time examining everything closely and I probably spent more time on the couch. He kept telling me that people at that moment were working on the new Star Wars movie, I think he kept thinking that if he hung out long enough he would get invited to go upstairs. I was just hoping he wouldn't make a break for the elevator and end up being escorted out by security!

No, we thought about it but ultimately chickened out. Too funny about your husband! :hilarious:

bee · Aug 24, 2017

Day 4, cont.

After the bank (no "interesting" bank stories today!) we called a Lyft to get back to the BART station. Some photos along the way:

Up next: BART, and beginning the drive south

bee · Aug 24, 2017

Day 4, cont.

Like the transit systems of some other US cities, BART is partially underground and partially at or above grade.

Hi, other train!

We got off at our usual station in Oakland and walked back to the Marriott. On the way:

Our assessment of Oakland was that it was eerily quiet and empty. We kind of thought the Oakland-San Fran relationship would be more analogous the North Jersey-NYC relationship. But M remarked that if a shopping/restaurant/office area as nice as the one above were in NJ near where we live it would be constantly jam packed with people. I suppose it's fair to note that New York City has over 8 million residents (and millions more commuters from NJ, Westchester, LI, etc.) while San Fran has less than 900,000 residents. We also remembered that Antonio, our bus driver from the day before, had told us that most people who (can afford to) live in San Francisco work outside of San Francisco, i.e., work fancy jobs in Silicon Valley. At the same time, most people who work in San Francisco cannot afford to live in the city and even Oakland is becoming unlivably expensive.

Back to the story! We arrived at the hotel and found the Jeep and headed out.

Up next: Driving

bee · Aug 24, 2017

Day 4, cont.

We began the drive south toward Los Angeles a little before the evening rush hour began.

We didn't realize BART came out this far!

At some point we needed a potty stop, and we decided to make it a Starbucks stop as well.

At some point Google maps gave me the choice between the unusually congested I-580 and the traffic-free Patterson Pass Road. As the Navigator I selected Patterson Pass. It seemed innocuous at first, but it became very narrow and windy and hilly and freaked me out! Luckily it didn't bother M so much (that's why she's the Pilot

) but I got so nervous I was in tears. I took a few photos near the beginning but after that I could only stare at the road right ahead of us.

This was supposed to be a two-way road! Someone people tell me where there is room for two vehicles going opposite directions! It only got more narrow and windy from here!

I'm sure to anyone who grew up with mountain driving this seems like nothing but to this ex-Floridian it was very scary!

Back to the freeway!

At some point I had calmed down enough to resume my Engineer duties.

Up next: More driving!

bee · Aug 24, 2017

Day 4, cont.

As we neared our destination for the night, it was time for a change in music:

HAY!

We loved seeing all the wildflowers :inlove:

Does this lead to Hogwarts??

M is into The Killers. Only two songs from their newest album had been released but that's what she requested next.

How...fun?

When we were about half an hour away from our hotel for the night we stopped for dinner at Robertito's Mexican.

The burrito was surprisingly good but the enchiladas were overly salty and didn't have much flavor otherwise.

Up next: More driving! We finally make it to the hotel! Wine! Sleep!

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

Figgy1

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bee

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bee

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bee

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amjt660

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bee

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DisneyGigi

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bee

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fractal

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littleroo

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MinnieM123

bee

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bee

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ajrwdwgirl

bee

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