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.

Drum Roll Please....

Our new closet!

My side of the closet

A closer look

When we first moved into our house, I ended up with the left hand side of the closet where there were the only shelves. Josh took up most of the hanging space because he had so much stuff to hang (I don't think he had gotten rid of any clothing since before his mission). 

But NOW, I get the "long hang" and Josh has tons of "short hang" space. We have probably three times as much shelf space, four times as much hanging space, and a guarantee that this closet will be up until we die (or move, whichever one comes first).

From the doorway. That shoe rack to the left is full of all my beautiful shoes that previously had to sit on the floor or hide in the spare bedroom closet.

Josh's side

They even installed tie racks, which I love so much I thought I might cry when I saw all of Josh's ties hung up, when they had previously lived on the floor or somewhere that Josh could never find them. We have most of our stuff out of the cloud room now, but I figured that an empty closet is much more fun to look at then all of our boring clothes. Also, in these pictures the closet looks a strange shade of Tiffany Blue when it really is more of a sky blue. We mixed up a bunch of the paint we have leftover, and it turned out pretty well.

In short, if you ever want to re-do your closet, Portland Closet Company is efficient and friendly. We had a guy come and give an estimate, then two weeks later the closet was being installed, and it only took a few hours until it was done. It was possibly the best ending to an otherwise stressful situation.

P.S.

This our 100th post! Woot.

The Sixth Floor Museum (December 2009)

I really wish I had posted about this back in December when we had just gone, because it was such a cool experience, and then I could have referred back to it when I blogged about the JFK library, but I didn't.

The Sixth Floor Museum is in Dallas, TX in the building where Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK as he passed in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza. You can't take pictures inside the museum, but it's totally worth seeing if you ever find yourself in Dallas.

Here are some things we could take pictures of:

The Texas School Book Depository building

The right corner window on the sixth floor is where LHO took his shot

Dealey Plaza monument

The Grassy Knoll

Josh took this picture standing in the spot where Zapruder shot his infamous film footage of the assassination

The spot where JFK was shot

Dealey Plaza

Okay, so we snuck the last picture from the corner window of the seventh floor, where they had an exhibit devoted to the photography of Robert H. Jackson, who took this award-winning picture. It was pretty intense to stand in that spot and realize that this was basically the same view of an assassin. 

I highly recommend watching the Oliver Stone film "JFK" before visiting Dealey Plaza. Whether or not the "second shooter" theory is accurate, the film details the activities of that day. It was cool to see the movie and then be at the area.

We didn't just hang out at assassination sights, we also went to the Dallas temple, which reminds me of the Boise temple. I'm not sure that we'll ever be back to Dallas, but it was an amazing one-time experience.

Houston and Austin in December 2009

Remember when we went to BNAT 11? Well, we also did some sight-seeing around Houston and Dallas. We've been to Houston before, but just to see the temple.

Houston temple in 2007

This time we went to Houston with my sister Abby and her oldest daughter Jordan (who is almost 13-- I can't believe it!) First we went to the Battleship Texas. I have never been on a real battleship, but my dad used to be in the navy (before he was a hippie), so it was cool to see the kind of conditions he lived in.

Unfortunately, we did not get to camp overnight, but if we had we could have used these beds:

My dad said that it was in the navy where he got used to sleeping on his back because the bunks were too close together to turn over or sleep on your side. There were literally beds everywhere they could put them in the ship. Yikes!

Some other things on the ship:

Battleship Texas-- 1600s version

We also went to the Johnson Space Center, which was pretty much the coolest place I have been to possibly ever. Some things we saw:

Mandatory green screen picture

Mission Control! They have a little viewing room.

Saturn V Shuttle

The astronaut training room

Me, my niece, and my #2 sister (in birth order, not likability) Abby

We also finally (after three years of visiting Austin) went to the UT Austin tower. 

The Tower

George Washington statue

At the top

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.