Cosmic Commando
Well-Known Member
Your pictures had me googling the distance from Torrance to Yosemite. 
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
Mr. 5 Minutes and the Great Trip Out West
- Thread starter popsicletrees
- Start date
Californian Elitist
Well-Known Member
Your pictures had me googling the distance from Torrance to Yosemite.
And how far is it?
Cosmic Commando
Well-Known Member
Without bathroom breaks: about 6 hours.
With bathroom breaks for a 6YO, a 4YO and a 1MO: 7 days.
With bathroom breaks for a 6YO, a 4YO and a 1MO: 7 days.
ajrwdwgirl
Premium Member
Wow your trip around California is somewhat like mine was in June! So it is fun looking at your pictures! We did Alcatraz & Yosemite as well. I thought the prison was a bit creepy especially in those solitary cells! And we came into Yosemite where you exited. Those sequioas are pretty cool! We didn't see any bear either, but did see a coyote!
Californian Elitist
Well-Known Member
Basically, ain't gonna happen.
Cosmic Commando
Well-Known Member
5% chance of giant trees.
Pooh'sBuddy
Well-Known Member
Oh, my goodness! Breathtaking is the right word. How unbelievably gorgeous landscapes!
Thanks! I really enjoyed northern California. There's so much there that I still want to see!
Thank you! Yes, Yosemite is so gorgeous. We were guilty of plenty of jaywalking this trip but that's all!
Thank you! I'm looking forward to going back some day.
Your pictures had me googling the distance from Torrance to Yosemite.
Well, once the little ones can figure out how to hold it or go at the same time go to Yosemite! It was so beautiful and peaceful out there.
Where else did you go during your trip? Driving out of Yosemite that way was an absolutely gorgeous drive. I couldn't take my eyes away from the window. I would have loved to have seen a coyote, too! We saw some beautiful birds but not much else in the way of wildlife. Yes, the solitary cells were the creepiest part of it.
It really, really was. We have some nice areas around here, but they have nothing on Yosemite!
So if you are leaving out of Bishop, CA heading towards Anaheim it might be a good idea to do a little bit of research about your drive. In that research you might find that basically it is a drive through a desolate wasteland. Then, you would think twice about taking 3 laxatives the night before that long (4 hours) drive, so your drive might be a little more pleasant. Also, you wouldn't have to settle on stopping to go to the bathroom at the first gas station you find only to find that the only bathroom they have are two port-a-potties out back. Sure it's 90 degrees out in the blaring sun, but you'll take it. That's just a warning for you in case that happens to you or a loved one.
Well, after the longest drive of my life we finally made it to Anaheim. We were staying at the Candy Cane Inn in a premium room. The room was spacious enough with a mini fridge and microwave. The best part was that it had a long bathroom counter with lots of cabinet space underneath. Since we stayed in a premium room we were able to have breakfast delivered to us every morning. All we had to do was fill out a sheet of what we wanted, and it was delivered to us promptly within the time frame that we asked for it. The downside to the resort was the pool. The pool was small and could only hold a few people comfortably. Although I had no intention of ever seeing the pool when Disneyland is just down the street, it did disappoint my husband.
After we checked in we headed immediately to Disneyland. Our first stop was the ride that I really wish Disney World would add: Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye.
Afterwards we headed to the Haunted Mansion. Although this is my second visit to Disneyland this is my first ride on the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland in all of its original glory. My first visit was just after Christmas several years ago and Haunted Mansion Holiday was up and running. I will preface this by saying I despise The Nightmare Before Christmas. So much so that I've never been able to sit through the movie, and I've tried so many times. However, Haunted Mansion Holiday is an incredible ride. Seriously, I think we rode it the most during our first visit. It is a complete overhaul of the Haunted Mansion and worth a holiday trip alone.
Well, after the longest drive of my life we finally made it to Anaheim. We were staying at the Candy Cane Inn in a premium room. The room was spacious enough with a mini fridge and microwave. The best part was that it had a long bathroom counter with lots of cabinet space underneath. Since we stayed in a premium room we were able to have breakfast delivered to us every morning. All we had to do was fill out a sheet of what we wanted, and it was delivered to us promptly within the time frame that we asked for it. The downside to the resort was the pool. The pool was small and could only hold a few people comfortably. Although I had no intention of ever seeing the pool when Disneyland is just down the street, it did disappoint my husband.
After we checked in we headed immediately to Disneyland. Our first stop was the ride that I really wish Disney World would add: Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye.
Afterwards we headed to the Haunted Mansion. Although this is my second visit to Disneyland this is my first ride on the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland in all of its original glory. My first visit was just after Christmas several years ago and Haunted Mansion Holiday was up and running. I will preface this by saying I despise The Nightmare Before Christmas. So much so that I've never been able to sit through the movie, and I've tried so many times. However, Haunted Mansion Holiday is an incredible ride. Seriously, I think we rode it the most during our first visit. It is a complete overhaul of the Haunted Mansion and worth a holiday trip alone.
The versions of this ride are a bit different, but they are still very very similar. You do end up walking through some parts in the version at DL that you ride through at WDW and the load areas look different, but other than those they are very similar rides. Oh, the hitchhiking ghosts are the originals in your doombuggy at the end - no crazy effects here.
Our next ride was Pirates. The version at DL is much longer than WDW's version, which I like. You travel through the bayou here too. While we were in line there were some rowdy teenagers behind us and one guy kept bumping into my husband. It was an accident that became intentional. My husband turned around at one point and asked him if he could stop. Well, it got worse after that to the point where he was running into both of us. So, I turned around and said something. I teach teenagers for a living; I don't want to vacation with them. Needless to say it stopped, and fortunately they were not loaded into our boat.
After surviving teenagers and pirates we went over to the Matterhorn. I really like how the seats changed since my last visit. No more squeezing two adults into a tiny little seat.
I think the Matterhorn ended up being one of Jordan's favorites throughout the trip. We did it several times over the next few days. The best was at night though. We couldn't see anything!
For dinner we stopped at Rancho del Zocalo. I ordered the Burrito Sonora, and Jordan had the Citrus Fire-Grilled Chicken.
Soooo yummy!
After dinner we were pretty beat. We had had several long days the past few days and we needed a rest. So, we decided since it was still too early to completely justify just going immediately back to the room we would take the monorail to DTD and head back.
Wait? What's this? Are we actually allowed to ride in the front of the monorail here?
Outside of the Lego store at DTD there was a huge Beauty & the Beast display. I took a picture and sent it to my sister to show my niece. My niece is two and loves Belle. My sister said that she looked at it asked, "Is that my Belle?" My sister said, "Well, it's Belle, but she is made out of Legos." "Is that my Legos?" She's a stinker.
They did have a WiiU area set up for people to come and play WiiU games. It was a genius marketing tool. My husband is a huge Nintendo fan. We often talk about how there will be a constant rivalry between Mario and Mickey for our future children's attention in our house. So, we've had the WiiU since launch day. He was hoping some not yet released titles would be featured since E3 and the Nintendo Direct conference had just taken place a week before. No such luck. They only had previously released titles available to play, but it was a good way for them to showcase their games and the social atmosphere they promote.
They did have this area set up though.
We walked around DTD for another half hour before calling it a night ourselves.
LoTR another one of his great loves
They did have a WiiU area set up for people to come and play WiiU games. It was a genius marketing tool. My husband is a huge Nintendo fan. We often talk about how there will be a constant rivalry between Mario and Mickey for our future children's attention in our house. So, we've had the WiiU since launch day. He was hoping some not yet released titles would be featured since E3 and the Nintendo Direct conference had just taken place a week before. No such luck. They only had previously released titles available to play, but it was a good way for them to showcase their games and the social atmosphere they promote.
They did have this area set up though.
We walked around DTD for another half hour before calling it a night ourselves.
LoTR another one of his great loves
ajrwdwgirl
Premium Member
"Where else did you go during your trip? Driving out of Yosemite that way was an absolutely gorgeous drive. I couldn't take my eyes away from the window. I would have loved to have seen a coyote, too! We saw some beautiful birds but not much else in the way of wildlife. Yes, the solitary cells were the creepiest part of it."
We actually drove to California from Wisconsin. We stopped at the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Devil's Tower, and spent 2 days at Yellowstone (could have spent so much more time!). Then hightailed it to Yosemite and spent the night in Lee Vining before entering Yosemite via Tioga Pass and then stayed at Yosemite Lodge at the Falls. Then 2 days in San Francisco before spending 5 days at Disneyland, and then we stopped at the Grand Canyon for the night before heading home to Wisconsin. It was definately a trip of a lifetime!
We just happened to see the coyote by chance we were driving down the road and it was standing in one of the turnouts. So we slowed down and it came towards our car and my side. I rolled up my window fairly quick I didn't want it jumping in! And we saw lots of birds too. I kind of wanted to see a bear but we did see a grizzly bear and black bears when we were at Yellowstone.
We actually drove to California from Wisconsin. We stopped at the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Devil's Tower, and spent 2 days at Yellowstone (could have spent so much more time!). Then hightailed it to Yosemite and spent the night in Lee Vining before entering Yosemite via Tioga Pass and then stayed at Yosemite Lodge at the Falls. Then 2 days in San Francisco before spending 5 days at Disneyland, and then we stopped at the Grand Canyon for the night before heading home to Wisconsin. It was definately a trip of a lifetime!
We just happened to see the coyote by chance we were driving down the road and it was standing in one of the turnouts. So we slowed down and it came towards our car and my side. I rolled up my window fairly quick I didn't want it jumping in! And we saw lots of birds too. I kind of wanted to see a bear but we did see a grizzly bear and black bears when we were at Yellowstone.
teacherlady19
Active Member
I've been to Yosemite three or four times, but have never been there when Tioga Pass Road was open. Your pictures inspire me to try to do that some summer. Beautiful!!!!
Donna
Donna
That sounds like quite a trip! I would love to go to Yellowstone some day. Seeing a grizzly in the wild would be phenomenal and terrifying! We considered spending the night in Yosemite but camping never ever works out for our family. We were also going to take a trip to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon during this trip, but it just didn't pan out in our time frame.
Tioga Pass - that's the name of it! It had opened the week before we arrived. We did see some snow in the higher elevations.
Alright so on to our first full day at Disneyland. We woke up super early to use our early entry ticket. Even though we weren't staying on property it was nice to be able to still get in the park early one day. Our first stop was Space Mountain.
There's a hidden mickey in the speakers.
Well, just as I was about to get started on this for the afternoon photobucket has decided that it is not going to respond.
I will say this before I leave and check back later: Space Mountain is my husband's favorite ride at WDW. It is probably mine too but asking me to choose a favorite is going to be impossible because I love so many of them for so many different reasons. Still, Space Mountain is probably the ride that we ride the most on our trips. Now if you have never been to Disneyland before Space Mountain is considerably different here. In the positive it is longer, but that's all that I can say is better at DL's version. First off, the cheesy action movie music takes away from the ambiance of being in space. Secondly, it doesn't feel like you are in space, just flying down a gumball machine. It was a lot of right turns (or was it left?). Regardless, you are turning in the same direction nearly each time on the ride. Third, there aren't nearly as many of the surprise dips in this one as there are in WDW's version. Finally, just for my own sake, I couldn't get the timing down with the on-ride camera, so no funny ride pictures for us. Plus, the camera is taking a picture looking down rather than off to the side so they wouldn't be as good anyways. Okay that's my rant. I'm sure many of you will disagree with my assessment of the ride, but to me DL's version just isn't as fun.
There's a hidden mickey in the speakers.
Well, just as I was about to get started on this for the afternoon photobucket has decided that it is not going to respond.
I will say this before I leave and check back later: Space Mountain is my husband's favorite ride at WDW. It is probably mine too but asking me to choose a favorite is going to be impossible because I love so many of them for so many different reasons. Still, Space Mountain is probably the ride that we ride the most on our trips. Now if you have never been to Disneyland before Space Mountain is considerably different here. In the positive it is longer, but that's all that I can say is better at DL's version. First off, the cheesy action movie music takes away from the ambiance of being in space. Secondly, it doesn't feel like you are in space, just flying down a gumball machine. It was a lot of right turns (or was it left?). Regardless, you are turning in the same direction nearly each time on the ride. Third, there aren't nearly as many of the surprise dips in this one as there are in WDW's version. Finally, just for my own sake, I couldn't get the timing down with the on-ride camera, so no funny ride pictures for us. Plus, the camera is taking a picture looking down rather than off to the side so they wouldn't be as good anyways. Okay that's my rant. I'm sure many of you will disagree with my assessment of the ride, but to me DL's version just isn't as fun.
TuffyCatt
Active Member
Oh my goodness, I'm so glad someone else feels this way! I had heard from so many places that DL's Space Mountain was far superior, so I thought I was crazy when I got off it the very first time and thought "Well, that was fun, but WDW's is more fun..." Why are there so many right turns!?! When the car finally makes a left turn, I got excited just because it was something different. It's definitely a lot smoother ride than WDW's but I think the bumpiness and the unexpected little dips and such are what make WDW's so darn fun. I do disagree about the soundtrack, though - I really liked the soundtrack and thought it worked well with the ride and scenery. To me it seems to work better than WDW's "Starry-o-phonic" sound, anyway, which I've never really been able to appreciate as our cars go by. Anyway, just thought I would share my excitement that someone else likes WDW's more too!
I'm still loving your trip report! I love, love, love all the pictures! You capture such cool little details with them and your photography is beautiful!
Oh my goodness, I'm so glad someone else feels this way! I had heard from so many places that DL's Space Mountain was far superior, so I thought I was crazy when I got off it the very first time and thought "Well, that was fun, but WDW's is more fun..." Why are there so many right turns!?! When the car finally makes a left turn, I got excited just because it was something different. It's definitely a lot smoother ride than WDW's but I think the bumpiness and the unexpected little dips and such are what make WDW's so darn fun. I do disagree about the soundtrack, though - I really liked the soundtrack and thought it worked well with the ride and scenery. To me it seems to work better than WDW's "Starry-o-phonic" sound, anyway, which I've never really been able to appreciate as our cars go by. Anyway, just thought I would share my excitement that someone else likes WDW's more too!
I'm still loving your trip report! I love, love, love all the pictures! You capture such cool little details with them and your photography is beautiful!
I'm glad you agree with me on the ride...for the most part.
And thank you for the kind words!
So I want to apologize for the lack of posts. School started back up last week, and I walked into my classroom that was a disaster zone! That meant 12 hour days to get everything ready for my students. Now that I'm back into a routine I'm ready to continue.
I left off after my rant about Space Mountain. Well, not really a rant, just my feelings. When we exited the ride Jordan and I went through the arcade. That's where we saw it:
We love Wreck-It Ralph! Jordan is a gamer through and through, so this movie was right up his alley. He was able to play the game for free. Although when he tried later it asked for a quarter. Several times he was able to play a few games in the arcade without paying anything. We couldn't figure out why they allowed free play at times.
Since it was early and we were still in Tomorrowland we hit up Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage before heading off to Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.
I enjoy this version so much more than WDW's only because you can maneuver the guns so much easier! It still doesn't mean that I'm any good at it though.
Our battle with the evil Emperor Zurg was followed up with transporting the Rebel Spy.
I left off after my rant about Space Mountain. Well, not really a rant, just my feelings. When we exited the ride Jordan and I went through the arcade. That's where we saw it:
We love Wreck-It Ralph! Jordan is a gamer through and through, so this movie was right up his alley. He was able to play the game for free. Although when he tried later it asked for a quarter. Several times he was able to play a few games in the arcade without paying anything. We couldn't figure out why they allowed free play at times.
Since it was early and we were still in Tomorrowland we hit up Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage before heading off to Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.
I enjoy this version so much more than WDW's only because you can maneuver the guns so much easier! It still doesn't mean that I'm any good at it though.
Our battle with the evil Emperor Zurg was followed up with transporting the Rebel Spy.