Cali Vacation 2011: Day 3

Hello All,
On our third day of vacation we drove down to San Diego to go to the zoo. Here's the pictures from our day at the zoo.
This is the first picture of the day. This cute little otter and then his buddy in the next picture just kept doing laps.

After the otters and animals around them we went into the petting zoo. As we were walking out they had this bridge that water shoots over. It took me about 3 times before I was finally able to get a picture with the water.

Our tickets included unlimited rides of the SkyFari which takes you from one side of the zoo to the other. After the water bridge we got on the SkyFari and ended up over by the Polar Rim.

Here's a picture of our view as went across the park.

Here's a picture of Stacy and myself on the SkyFari. We had lots of fun seeing all the animals at the zoo.

Here's a view of the city from the SkyFari.

Here's Dad and Katie coming in on the SkyFari.

After our ride across the zoo we went to see the polar bears and reindeer.

After walking through the Polar Rim we walked passed the zebras and gazelles. Then we walked along Eagle Trail and onto Hippo Trail where we saw some hippos sunbathing. We continued from Hippo Trail to Tiger Trail where we could only see the ears of the Malayan Tigers in the exhibit. After seeing some monkeys we went to eat some lunch at the Safari Kitchen.

On the way to get lunch we passed these cool turtles. They have snake-like necks.

After lunch we decided to go on the guided tour through the zoo that was also included in our tickets. We passed all the flamingos that are right in the front of the zoo on our way to the tour bus.

On the tour bus we got to see the giraffes which included their newest giraffe which you can see right next to the water. The father of that giraffe is standing directly behind the baby.

After the giraffes we saw the rhinos. This one was getting his belly scratched by the zookeeper.

The next one down the road was getting fed some snacks from this zookeeper.

After getting off the tour bus we walked into the outback to see all the Koalas. This one was by far my favorite with his feet all the way up by his head. So Cute!!

Then there was this guy who was across the way getting something to eat.

As we were making our way to Panda Canyon we passed the Two-Humped Camels. This guy was funny to watch because he was foaming at the mouth and kept looking like he might do something exciting.

So this was by far the most exciting part of the day for me. All I kept talking about the whole day was going to see the pandas. They had a new baby that was on display but right before we got there they had taken mom and baby back inside. We did get to see the daddy panda who was in the exhibit next to where mom and baby were.

On our way to see the elephants up close we passed this lion and a cheetah. This is why I think my cat twix looks like a lion because he looks just like this lion when he's sleeping.

The last animals we went to see were the elephants who were part of the Elephant Odyssey exhibit. After seeing the elephants we went back towards the Polar Rim and took the SkyFari back to the front of the zoo. We of course hit up the gift shops before making our way back to Anaheim in the Friday traffic.

Cali Vacation 2011: Day 2

Hello All,
So on our second day of vacation we ventured into Hollywood to take a tour. We did a City Sightseeing Hop-on and Hop-off tour. We started off at Grauman's Chinese Theatre and drove down Sunset Strip to Rodeo Drive. We then transferred from the Red Line to the Yellow Line to go to Santa Monica Pier and back. Then we transferred again back to the Red Line to tour the rest of Hollywood. Here's some pictures from that day.

I took this picture in front of the Chinese Theatre prior to boarding the bus that morning.

Here's some stars as seen from the tour bus.

This is what Stacy does on vacation....talks on the phone.

Grauman's Chinese Theatre

Madame Tussaud's Hollywood Wax Museum

The Laugh Factory which happened to be having Tim Allen as a guest that night.

We saw the House of Blues as we walked the Sunset Strip.

One of the guitars as part of the Guitartown on Sunset Strip. The Gibson art guitars celebrate the music scene on the Sunset Strip.

The shop with the striped umbrella is Millions of Milkshakes which is home to the one and only Celebrity GPS. This tells you where Hollywood stars can be found right now in LA.

One of the five Beverly Hills shields that surround the city. By the end of the day we ended up seeing three of the five.

The world famous Rodeo Drive.

They were filming something there as we drove by it twice throughout the day.

This is the Beverly Wilshire that was a part of the movie, Pretty Woman.

When we made our transfer between the Red and Yellow Lines we had to go to Sprinkles Cupcakes. It is only about a block away from Rodeo Drive. It is world famous since it was the very first cupcake bakery. Since I have this thing for cupcakes we of course had to go there.

We each got a different kind of cupcake. From left to right: Stacy got a chocolate marshmallow cupcake, Katie got carrot cupcake, I got a black and white cupcake, and Dad got a red velvet cupcake. I have to say they were delicious. Definitely an experience I was glad to have.

On our way to Santa Monica Pier we passed Fox Studios and I little bit further down the road we saw them setting up for the Golden Globes that happen to be that Sunday.

This is one of the tour buses we rode on throughout the day.

Here's a picture of Santa Monica Pier. After leaving Santa Monica Pier we went through the rest of Santa Monica and headed back to Rodeo Drive through Brentwood and Westwood. We also passed by the cemetery that Marilyn Monroe is buried in.

After transferring back to the Red Line we drove past CBS studios after going around the La Brea Tar Pits.

A true LA experience includes a stop at Pink's Hot Dogs. We were lucky that we got there when we did because they guys ahead of us in line said that it would be crazy busy in an hour or so because everybody would be getting done with work. At Pink's they have one person take your whole party's order and they never write anything down. It was just cool watching them do what they do.

This is the picture of our Pink's hot dogs. Clockwise starting in the top left: Dad's Mullholland Drive Dog (grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, nacho cheese and bacon); Stacy's Mushroom Swiss Dog; Dad's Ozzy Spicy Dog (spicy polish dog topped with nacho cheese, American cheese, grilled onions, guacamole, and diced tomatoes); my Bacon Chili Cheese Dog; Stacy and I's Shrek and Fiona Dog (guacamole and diced tomatoes); and finally Katie's Mullholland Drive Dog. We also got fries and drinks. We all recommend that if you make a trip to Hollywood you should definitely go try Pink's.

After Pink's we got back on the tour bus to head back to Hollywood Blvd. On the way we passed Paramount Studios and the Hollywood Forever cemetery. We made it back to Hollywood Blvd. Stacy and I walked to the other side of the street to get some better pictures of the Kodak Theatre and Grauman's Chinese Theatre. When we made it back in front of Grauman's we found Judy Garland's hand and footprints along with the Harry Potter stars. We drove back to Anaheim and Stacy and I went to spend some time in the hot tub before we went to bed. Hope you enjoyed the pictures of our trip to Hollywood.

Cali Vacation 2011: Day 1

Hello All,
So this is the first blog of this new and exciting year. Dad and Katie took Stacy and I on a graduation trip to California since both of us will graduate this year. After our first flight out of Madison was cancelled we got on another flight to Cleveland 5 hours after our original flight was to leave. With our slight delay we made it to LA only 7 hours after we were scheduled to arrive. We were all dog tired but walked down the street from our hotel to the Gardenwalk where we had dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen. We slept in the next day since we had basically been up for about 24 hours. We had breakfast at the hotel and went to a discount tickets and tours place to get tickets for the things we planned to do that week. This first day we spent at Knott's Berry Farm. Enjoy these pictures from Knott's.

Completely replenished after a good night's sleep we were ready to go to Knott's Berry Farm and ride some roller coasters.

The beautiful view of the mountains fromt he parking lot.

Yay for Knott's Berry Farm. The best thing about the day was that there were barely any lines since it was a weekday.

Dad had to try on the fish hat before we walked in the door.

Walking into Ghost Town.

The first ride of the day.

Had to get a picture with the statues in Adventureland.

The coolest ride, I think, because you ride a horse in that ride.

The horses roller coaster.

We got stuck in jail...LOL.

We walked to Camp Snoopy to see what was there even though we could only ride one ride. We did get to have our picture with Snoopy because he was right inside the entrance.

From Camp Snoopy we entered Fiesta Village where we rode Montezuma's Revenge and the Jaguar.

Then we went on the tallest ride there, Supreme Scream. I was shocked that Stacy went on it with me especially since she does not like heights.

This was my favorite ride of the day.

I liked this ride but Stacy did not since it went backwards.

The beautiful sky and the mountains as we were leaving Knott's.

That night we had dinner at Bubba Gumps. It was a great first day of vacation. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Continue to read my other blogs about this vacation. Sending you warm wishes and aloha kisses.