Disneyland in October

We have a family tradition (started in the last 3 years) of going to Disneyland every October with my parents and whichever of my siblings decide to show up. Last year it was almost everyone. This year it was practically no one. But that's okay. The important people were there.

The ShepAlders

And Pumpkin Donald

We've noticed that we take significantly fewer pictures each time we go to Disneyland. We tried to remedy that, but still only took a few.

While driving through LA, we stopped off at the LA temple. We've been there before, but weren't able to take pictures of ourselves out in front. During my August break, I was trying to put together a picture album from all of the temples we've visited, but we didn't have any good pictures from LA!

So we took these:

Our primary reason for going to CA was to attend the wedding of Josh's high school friend Audrey: 

She married the guy on the left:

You may remember them from when we went to the Hearst Castle together.

So that was the excitement of our October. Right now we don't have any more plans to travel for awhile. Hopefully in January I'll be all over the map for internship interviews! 

Josh Demanded This Be Included

After reading my last post, Josh said, "But you forgot about 'The Tonight Show'!" It's true. When we were in Southern California in October, we got to see "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien." We've both been Conan fans since he started hosting "Late Night" back in 1993, but neither of us had ever seen a taping of either of his shows in person.

The ticket

We didn't realize at the time that Conan was going to host for such a short period of time, but now we're really glad that we went. We even had VIP tickets, which meant that we didn't have to stand in line and got to sit toward the front, because Josh is randomly an acquaintance of Mark "The Love Man" Pender, who was the trumpet man in the Tonight Show band. Seriously.

On the set with Mark Pender

Josh says this about the experience:

"I met Mark Pender when I interviewed him back in 2005 at the Pleasant Hill Jazz Festival. We'd stayed in touch since then, exchanging emails here and there. He'd always told me to give him a holler if I was ever in NYC, but sadly, that never happened. When Conan took over The Tonight Show in June 2009, I was determined that we'd see him live the next time we were in L.A. Mark was nice enough to get us VIP tickets for the Oct. 13 show. The guests were Ice-T, Eddie Izzard and The Flaming Lips. It was a really cool experience, and as evidenced by this photo above, Mark waited around to greet us after the show. Later, Mark and I met up at The Baked Potato, a little club in Studio City where we watched Ronnie Guiterrez (who played bongos in The Tonight Show Band when Max Weinberg was on tour with Bruce Springsteen) and his father play some lively salsa music. It was an awesome evening!"

I also found these pictures of the Hotel Del, taken with Josh's phone (I wanted to share them because our other pictures were so foggy and made it look like the weather was bad the entire time, when it was really only overcast on our checkout day):

At twilight, from our balcony

The beach, also from our balcony

Me on the beach, possibly in the spot where Some Like it Hot was filmed

We loved the Hotel Del so much, we're planning to have our 20th anniversary party there (in 17 years).

Disneyland, Hearst Castle, WB Studios, and the Hotel Del (October 2009)

It's true that Josh and I went to southern California recently, but we also went there a few times in 2009 as well: in March with Josh's dad and sister, in October with some of my family, and in December/January 2010 for the Rose Bowl. This post is about October because Josh posted a picture on Facebook the other day and I was reminded that we had gone.

First, we spent a few days at Disneyland, which was dressed for Halloween.

Duck fans

Haunted Mansion was dressed for "Nightmare Before Christmas" and is was super busy! We discovered why they have a Fast Pass option.

It was even Halloween at DCA, and I wanted to point it out

Main Street, USA

We don't get to ride the tea cups very often

I love this picture of Josh. We were spinning so fast!

Later, we met up with Josh's high school friend Audrey and her boyfriend RJ at Hearst Castle. Josh and I went there as part of our honeymoon (we drove to San Francisco, to Hearst Castle, and then through Fresno). Our first time there, Josh and I took Tour #1 which takes you through the guest houses and the main floor of Casa Grande. This time, we took Tour #2, which takes you through the upper stories, Hearst's own living quarters, a bunch of guest rooms, and the kitchen. 

Josh, me, RJ, and Audrey in the bus

Still pointing at things

A big smile and a guest room

The library I covet

The indoor pool

Slightly blurry, but the prep area of the kitchen. The ovens and the fridge are in the back somewhere

The side entrance

If you like old houses, the Hearst Castle is a great one to visit. Josh and I want to come back for the night tour, when the tour guides dress up in vintage costumes. 

We also went on the Warner Bros. Backlot Tour. 

The water tower, home of the Warner Brothers, and their sister Dot

Being on this tour was kind of like deja vu since it all looked really familiar but I couldn't quite place it. It probably means we watch too many movies.

This el train track is from ER

Employees get to watch pre-screened movies

We also got to see prop cars, like the Mystery Machine

The Batmobile

And the sportscar from "Get Smart"

(we are saying, "Missed it by THAT much!")

Oh, and we happened to see this little set:

I think I touched absolutely everything in here, in addition to sitting on the entire couch

Josh on the couch

We also decided to go to the Hotel Del Coronado in Coronado, CA because it's beautiful and we had never been there. We had an awesome room overlooking both the pool and the beach. I loved it. 

Sadly, it was foggy on our last day, but this is the rotunda from our balcony

Luxuriating

From the driveway

Just a little bit more of past adventures. We've been having fun. I wish we could just travel forever.

April in SoCal

I know I mentioned we went to Disneyland, but I never posted about our entire trip to Southern California that we took in April when I had a week break between school terms. My brother lives in Dana Point, right near the beach, so we went to visit him. My brother has some health problems, so when we got there he was actually in the hospital. But my sister and her family were there at the end of their visit, so we were able to go to the beach with them.

Us at the beach

Josh with our niece Alice

Josh played with Laura's kids-- he would pull up Alice when the waves came in while Brad and Carl would run back and forth-- while I got to sit and talk with my sister. It was the only day with good weather the entire time we were there.

The next day we had planned to go to Disneyland with my brother, but he was still not feeling well, so we went alone for the day. Disneyland in April is awesome. Our main goal was to see "Captain Eo," which Josh had never seen. 

In front of Sleeping Beauty's castle

Notice how uncrowded it is in the background? It was beautiful. The only times we ever actually had to wait was for Peter Pan (where, I kid you not, some dude was feeling up his pregnant wife/girlfriend) and Space Mountain (only for our last ride).

When he heard they were bringing Captain Eo back as a tribute to Michael Jackson, he was excited because he had never seen it, but sad because we had just been to Disneyland with my family in October and his family last March, and we had no plans to go back again. But then my brother had surgery and we wanted to go see him, so we figured we could also go see "Captain Eo." Aren't I the greatest wife ever?

It was a great time to go because only a few of the attractions were closed, including the Rivers of America. It was cool to see the tracks and things that are normally underwater. Interestingly, though Josh and I have been to Disneyland several times, we've never been to Tom Sawyer's Island or on the ships. We have also never been on Dumbo, Autopia, or the carousel. 

Josh loves taking pictures of "behind the scenes"

This was completely random, but Scott MacIntyre from American Idol was sitting across from us on the Jungle Cruise. I didn't even notice him until Josh pointed him out. All through his season on American Idol, I referred to him as my tv boyfriend because he was so fun to watch. You could tell that he was really excited to be there. Because he is mostly blind, his girlfriend pointed his hand at the animals and described what was going on. It was very sweet.

My absolute favorite ride is Indiana Jones. It's full of excitement, intrigue, and an introductory film strip that Josh and I have memorized. 

Josh and the snake statues outside the ride

Josh watching out for spikes inside the ride

One of my favorite things about Disneyland is that there aren't just rides, but an entire experience. I know that's silly to say, but being at Disneyland is like being on a different planet. Here is Josh in front of the Star Wars "travel destination" posters: 

Of course, we rode Space Mountain a zillion times:

Oh, and there was also this thing that happened.

We also got to hang out with my brother and watch some movies. On our last day, Austin and Josh went to an Adam Carolla live podcast. Josh said it was hilarious, but I'm glad I didn't have to go.

I have tons of pictures from other trips we have taken over this past year, and I'm going to try to post about them. In the future we're planning trips to Vancouver, BC (to visit the new temple), Medford and Reno (to visit the Westons and also visit those temples), and Hawaii (for a wedding, but also to visit the temples). We have gotten to a point now where we plan trips based solely on which temples we want to see, which is pretty nerdy.