Trip Report Let’s Hit It Outta The Park!!!

It’s been about 3.5 years since my last Disney trip report and I’m really rusty. While not truly live, I want to try and do sort of a day by day as we go. Of course, I’m already behind as today is day 3!

So, where are we? At a Holiday Inn about .5 miles from here…

This isn’t exactly a Disney trip. In fact, it’s going to be nearly a week and a half until we set foot in a Disney park. Sam…the kid who had just turned 2 in my very first trip report, is now almost 16 and playing travel softball. We’re in town for PGF nationals to cap off our summer season. Between our crazy summer tournament schedule, college stuff for Kendall, and recent hurricane related lodging, I feel like we’ve been living in hotels for nearly 2 months. Most of the team opted for beach adjacent/front rentals when we bought out of the stay to play requirement, but Disneyland was our priority. Imagine that!?!

Speaking of Kendall…she stayed home to organize things for dorm move in next month and give the dog a break from boarding after her storm experience. So, this is how she’s getting to experience much of this trip…

(Yeah, that’s me up there too)
It’s too bad because the fun stuff planned towards the end was supposed to be for her. I was going to head to Yosemite, but she insisted on Disney. She gave me this whole heartfelt speech about it being her childhood. Kids!

So, we decided to drive to California. It’s been drama trying to get my vehicle back for this (damaged in the May derecho that went through Houston) and it’s probably going to have to go back in. We were hoping we’d have it before Sam’s two tournaments in Colorado, but they ordered some incorrect parts. Oh well…I have it now even though it’s still got issues. We set out around 4:45am CT on the 17th with a goal of Tucson by dinner time. I was driving, so not much in the way of photos aside from this Texas Spiny Lizard at a gas station west of San Antonio.

The most surprising drama of the day was just west of El Paso. All traffic was being individually inspected by Border Patrol. So that was fun. We also had to keep an eye out for dust storms and dodge the dust devils in NM and AZ.

We got to Tucson around dinner. We checked into the hotel, but I was so road weary that we just opted for a nearby Denny’s and hoped the severe storm over the mountains didn’t hit us.

Thankfully, the storm lost its steam and we were all able to get some sleep. Well, sort of. I was up around 4:30am, which is probably good because I noticed an alert for one of Kendall’s prime day packages being delivered and saw this on the local Houston radar.

I have some serious PTSD from the derecho and Hurricane Beryl, so I woke Kendall up and had her move to a safer spot downstairs. Oh, and said a few prayers for the power to stay on. Thankfully all was good, but she’s going to Oklahoma, so I need her to be more weather aware.

I used sunrise to try and keep myself from freaking out.

It’s a really boring video, but I got tired of peaking, so I just put my phone in the window.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

After the victory, the girls wanted some kind of team bonding dinner. It’s tough to accommodate a group our size. We must have called at least 10 places. We ended up at Dave & Busters since the kids could have fun playing games. David ordered some kind of quesadillas, I ordered pot stickers… and I was brought a lot to drink because they were supposedly crazy hot!

The dinner took forever! One of the dads actually hopped in to help coordinate because the waitstaff was having such a hard time. In their defense, there were over 40 of us and our server was new.

Oh, and the pot stickers weren’t as hot after I blotted away a lot of the chili oil they were swimming in.

On the way out, I saw that the shopping center had a neat looking Ferris wheel and some cool light features…blurry, but still recognizable.

We then drove back to Anaheim to dodge the various mouse ear wearing people running across Harbor and Ball in the dark. Time to get to sleep so we can make it to Granny’s bright and early. Can you tell that we’re a bit superstitious?

 

[erstwo]

Congrats on the win! Hope it all goes well today!

 

[cgersic]

Loved the German find! That looks like it would be a fun place with a crowd. Good luck today!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Congrats on the win! Hope it all goes well today!

Loved the German find! That looks like it would be a fun place with a crowd. Good luck today!

Thanks!!! They won their first game today. It was an awesome game! I’ll post more about it later, but here’s a before and after of my kiddo! Fingers crossed they can keep it going in their next game…scheduled to start in about 2 hours.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Whew!!! It was a long day! I’m running behind…partially because video took forever to upload (one is still processing) and I have yet to even touch game highlights from the team’s recordings. At least it was a good day and hopefully the dirt shows how hard this kid plays. While it’s normal for Sam to get extra dirty because she prefers a head first sliding approach, she also made a number of diving catches and stops. Just call her pigpen! They won that second one yesterday, so we’re still undefeated in bracket play and get to play in the stadium again this morning. It would be amazing if they could pull off a win with this next one. I have some dining ADRs for tomorrow as a possible park day, but I don’t want to jinx anything at this point.

So, yesterday started with me observing traffic coming into the garage.



Then it was on to Granny’s. I was able to see into DCA along the way.

Once at Granny’s, we started to get the impression that they realized something was going on, but they didn’t ask. So we got our food and it was on to Irvine.

The stadium (like the other fields) doesn’t really get much shade, but it’s a nice facility.

Everyone was warmed up and we had officials, but we had to wait for the grounds crew to finish up.

The temps aren’t really bad but the sun is intense, so that bit of spray from the irrigation was pretty nice. I had a couple of parents offer me an umbrella for shade, but we’re all trying to keep the good juju, so the superstitions are strong and everyone is sort of trying to repeat the silly little things. So, no umbrellas.

We got a scare in the first game as well. Sam was hit by a pitch during her first at bat. I know people hear softball and some think that it’s actually soft or not moving as fast. It’s a bigger and heavier ball, but don’t let the speeds fool you. At this age, most of these pitchers have a fastball that’s at least mid to upper 60s. I won’t get into all of the conversion models, but being hit with a 65mph pitch in fastpitch softball is on par with getting hit by a 94mph pitch in baseball. So, when we heard that ugly thud and she dropped to the ground, I started getting ready to look for hospitals. I thought she took it to the ribs, someone else said thumb, but it turned out it was her wrist. She was able to get up and walked to first to take her base. I thought she was going to get pulled but she insisted she was good to stay in. She prefers short cuff batting gloves, so I’m guessing they gave a little bit of protection. She made a diving slide to steal second during the next batter, so that was my “she’s ok” moment. Whew!

I didn’t want to break the juju for a pic right at the net, but this was her in the next inning and she looked like her happy normal self.

On a side note, this is growing in all of the boxes around the field. No idea what it is, but it kinda smells like basil.

After the game, we waited a bit for them to cheer on a sister team that was mid-game. Their tiebreaker was dragging on and we all needed food and rest, so most everyone ended up at the same shopping area we were in the previous night for Dave & Busters.

We decided on The Melt for lunch. My macaroni was tasty but a bit watery. The sandwiches David and Sam got were good.

The bird over David’s shoulder wanted us to share.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

The design of this shopping center reminded us a bit of being in Epcot’s Morocco.

Well…until you get to the Ferris wheel…

I had wandered a bit to shop, but we all wound up back at Dave & Busters because the kids were trying to finish off their game cards from the night before.

Then it was back to the fields for another game…and another win!

We ended up at the hotel for dinner again…

Same table, Mickey art and movie as our first visit.

I’m also off my game because I just noticed all of the Mickeys in the cement around the splash pad.

I got to see fireworks, but my video is still processing. We’ll see if it cooperates a little later.

Almost time for softball!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Good news and bad news…

Bad news is the girls got knocked out today. They lost their first game 1-0 and the second 3-2. Both games were really hard fought battles, but it just wasn’t meant to be. It’s too bad because I think tomorrow’s game that they were fighting for is going to be televised. Still, it was a really respectable showing. They finished 5th out of 94 teams. What makes it even sweeter…they were a 14U team playing in a 16U division. Our girls just finished freshmen year and 8th grade in a few cases, while the vast majority of the girls we played are going into their junior and senior years. Quite a few among the competition have already committed for college ball. So, they really made a statement.

The good news…we’re going to Disneyland!!! I’ll get to the details after the recap of the day.

So, I started with the customary observation of the parking garage as well as the moon.

Then it was off again to Granny’s. I took pictures of the Disney hotels along the way.

Today, the Granny’s owners finally decided to ask what was up with the daily visits. I wonder if they’ll miss us? Lol

The girls were trying to work all of the good juju, but the opposing team’s coach got there several hours early to grab the preferred dugout and the crew gave them purple Gatorade instead of yellow. So, the wrong flavor “hype juice.” It’s the little things.

 

[Swissmiss]

Sorry to hear they lost, but it sounds like in the next year or two the other teams will need to watch out!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

It was our first loss in bracket play, but we were already so deep in the tournament that there was only one loser’s bracket game remaining to decide our side of the championship.

We had a decent break before the next game, and everyone that stuck around retreated to the shade. We got some food and I took a mini nap at a picnic table.

We also learned a bit about the park. Apparently that orange balloon is free to ride. The park site was also the military base (El Toro?) depicted in the original Independence Day film.

Before the second game started, we saw a Tigger themed rally hat from another team.

During the next game, music from the pavilion started up. Apparently, there was a Nirvana cover band playing later and our game coincided with sound check. I took video of it, but the sounds of the game dominate the video.

So, you know how it ended, but Sam had some good plays in the game and came up with a clutch hit in the 7th to get a rally going. She did her job.

On the way back, after fighting traffic, navigation took us down Katella…meaning we got some great views of DCA. Most of it was while I was driving, but I was able to get a little.

After this, the missions were laundry and Disneyland. David and Sam took a couple of suitcases of dirty laundry to a local laundry place while I worked on Disney stuff. I booked our tickets, linked everything up on the app, made park reservations, and power walked to the Disneyland Hotel because we decided we wanted Magic Bands.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

While I was at the hotel, I also checked out all of the pictures…

The Kareem Abdul Jabbar one was an odd coincidence because a commercial with him has come on Spotify for us no less than 4x a day for each day of this trip.

I’ve been able to pair, update and charge the bands. So I think we’re ready.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

David and Sam got back from laundry in the middle of my update efforts. We wanted a change of pace for dinner, so we headed to Mimi’s over on Harbor…which gave us a view of Space Mountain.

Dinner was decent.

Parking was also plentiful and there was no crowd.

We waved to Space again on the way out and then it was back to the hotel.

Fireworks literally started the moment David opened the car door in the hotel lot. He thought we were under attack! Lol

Well, I’m about to go to bed and things are about to get crazy… but I will share as I can.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Current situation…

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Inside the park…waiting on rope drop. First Lightning Lane booked.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Nearly right in front of the physical rope…

 

[HouCuseChickie]

We just got back to our room…a little after 9pm PT. I originally wanted to stay until after fireworks, but we’re utterly exhausted after softball on top of this and I’m not doing so well with my footwear limitations. I’m making it work but we’re changing up plans a bit for tomorrow.

I’ll post some updates tomorrow, but I think all of the step by step details are going to have to wait until we’re done. A couple of little tidbits…

1. We had two TS meals today.
2. I believe we counted that we experienced 18 attractions, with a couple of duplicates.

A parting shot before leaving the park.

 

[Swissmiss]

We just got back to our room…a little after 9pm PT. I originally wanted to stay until after fireworks, but we’re utterly exhausted after softball on top of this and I’m not doing so well with my footwear limitations. I’m making it work but we’re changing up plans a bit for tomorrow.

I’ll post some updates tomorrow, but I think all of the step by step details are going to have to wait until we’re done. A couple of little tidbits…

1. We had two TS meals today.
2. I believe we counted that we experienced 18 attractions, with a couple of duplicates.

A parting shot before leaving the park.

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This photo is amazing

 

[Bullseye1967]

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Then it was time to explore the village a bit and get some silly pics.
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We headed back to our hotel to rest up for a bit, but we did wave hi to the Disneyland Hotel along the way.
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That shopping center looks really cute. The meats and dark ryes in that deli look heavenly !!

 

[Bullseye1967]

They finished 5th out of 94 teams. What makes it even sweeter…they were a 14U team playing in a 16U division. Our girls just finished freshmen year and 8th grade in a few cases, while the vast majority of the girls we played are going into their junior and senior years. Quite a few among the competition have already committed for college ball. So, they really made a statement.

Big congrats on that accomplishment!! Also thank you for taking the time and effort to be travel team parents. I know it is a lot. Many years ago I played high school and college ball, but the years I played for travel leagues were by far the best sports experiences I had, including winning a state championship in football. Keep the TR's coming. We love them!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Big congrats on that accomplishment!! Also thank you for taking the time and effort to be travel team parents. I know it is a lot. Many years ago I played high school and college ball, but the years I played for travel leagues were by far the best sports experiences I had, including winning a state championship in football. Keep the TR's coming. We love them!

Thanks!!! Travel ball is exhausting, but there’s going to come a time in the not too distant future when it’s gone and we miss it. We’re already kind of missing it. I had been staring down this crazy summer schedule for months and it’s hard to believe it’s over. Fall travel is a different beast and fall school ball isn’t like the actual spring season. Still, it’s a lot. Whew!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

We’re taking a more relaxed approach to today. I originally had plans to be at the gate of DCA by now, but everyone is exhausted and my feet are kind of a train wreck.

While I wait on the alarm to go off, I’ll start to share yesterday’s details.

We left the hotel around 7 and headed to the Disney parking garage to grab the tram. I’m mixed on all of this. There’s an Anaheim bus that comes to our hotel, but there’s a certain extra magic on the Disney transportation. I wasn’t even sure if we could use it at first, but Disney’s panelist site gave a very magical write up on this approach. So, it’s what we did.



David doesn’t think it saved us any time, but I think it saved about 10-15 minutes and it definitely spared our feet a bit.

You have already seen the bulk of what I took as we were waiting to get in and then again at the rope. Rope drop was interesting because at least 3/4 of the people were waiting to sprint to Rise of the Resistance. The woman next to us started a conversation during the time since I was in a RunDisney shirt…comparing it to corral releases. She did give me some intel on Haunted Mansion opening early and that we might see a soft opening Sunday…but that it will be in holiday mode. We shall see.

The CMs gave very explicit instructions not to move when they took down the physical rope, to wait on their hands to come down, and no running. We were ready…and I’d already booked our first Lightning Lane, so I was a bit relieved. It would be after what we chose to rope drop.

Yeah…never got pics of them, but the trees with the orange flowers were full of hummingbirds.