To all who come to this happy place, Welcome!

I <3 Disneyland so very much! Yes, I am 26 and there are no small children in our family, yet it is still possible to have a fantastic time there. 

My Happy Family

First you ave to understand that Disneyland isn't all about the big rides, its about the overall experience.  You should go see shows and attractions that aren't rides to give you a full magical experience.  Some of my family's favorite non-ride attractions:

Animation (in California Adventure) - First, you walk into a big room with scenes of Disney animated movies playing and music from those movies. There are comfy benches and it is very relaxing.  There are two "shows" you can go to here, turtle talk with Crush and Animation Studio (or something).  Turtle Talk with Crush is so cool for kids and adults. Crush (the turtle from finding nemo) shows up on the screen as his computer animated self and interacts with the people in the audience.  My sister answered a question from him and he gave her the nick name Kickin' it Casey! The other show isn't quite as cool, but you do get to learn how to draw a Disney Character (and compare it to your family's interpretations :). The last part of the animation attraction is a walk through type of thing where you get to do cool things like see which Disney character you are most like (I was Jane from Tarzan) and put your voice to a Disney song or scene (we did Hakuna Matata).  I think we spent about 2 hours here and it was so fun, as always!

Blue Sky Cellar (In California Adventure) - This is a small room that talks about coming attractions to California Adventure and information from Disney Imagineers.  There are some really cool models and videos of plans for the new rides.  This time it was focused on the new Little Mermaid ride (opening in June) and the new Cars Land (already in construction and opening in 2012).  You learn some cool stuff!

Fireworks (Disneyland) - Nothing beats the fireworks in Disneyland, they are coordinated to music so well and always have a theme. We watched them from the middle of main street in good view of the castle.

Fantasmic (Disneyland) - A great 20 minute show with cool effects and lots of Disney characters, its shown on the rivers of America by New Orleans Square and you can sit down to watch the show.  Sadly, we didn't watch it this time but I usually recommend going to the late show.

Tiki Room (Disneyland) - A classic animatronic show.  The birds sing, the flowers sing, even the totem poles on the wall sing! And while you are waiting you can get a pineapple whip, yum-zo!

There are also some fun rides that aren't "thrill" rides, that contribute to the overall experience.  Here are some of my favs:

Toy Story Mania (California Adventure) - its a 3D video game on a ride!  So fun, and if your family is competitive (who us?) its even better.  Unfortunately, I got last in my family first time we went, but improved and got second to last the second (Ha, Dad, beat you!).

Astroblasters (Disneyland) - Same idea, but you don't wear 3-D glasses and you are shooting at moving targets, I do much better at this game, for some reason.

Peter Pan (Disneyland) - Yes, its a kid's ride, but it is such a good idea for a ride it still remains one of the best!

And then there are the thrill rides and ones everyone knows about like Space, Thunder, and Splash (closed while we were there) Mountains, Indiana Jones, California Screamin and Soarin, and the Tower of Terror.

One disappointment from this trip, World of Color.  Its a water, light, music, animation show on teh big pond in California Adventure.  It was so hyped up, and we got our fastpasses, like we were told to.  But we really couldn't see the animation projected on the water and we had to wait and stand an hour in our area before it started.  They really need to fix the viewing area...put in bleachers or risers that come out of the ground (you're Disney, you can do it).

The only other disappointment was that we really only spent 1.5 days there :(  Just one more night and half a day at the park would've made all the difference and we could've gone back to the hotel and napped without feeling like we were missing anything.

Ok, last disappointment was that we didn't stay at the Grand Californian.  If they are having a special, stay there, it's worth it!

Sonoma + Pupperz!

A couple weekends ago the BF and I went to Sonoma (yes, again).  He gives a pretty good rundown of our trip here.  One of the big differences in this trip was that we brought the dog with us! He is a great car dog but can be quite a handful when interacting with other people.  One downside was that we had to find a place to stay that allowed dogs and we were trying to stay on the cheaper side so we ended up at a Travelodge, which was pretty much as expected, bare bones but clean enough and only charged a $10 dog fee.

The main purpose of our trip was to pick up wine from our wine club, Hook and Ladder!  They had a pick-up party which included tasting any of their wine they had open, food, and a fun party atmosphere.  They had some good snacks and great wine (as always).  We walked away with 8 bottles and spent under $100, and even though we were pretty late for the party we still felt very welcome while we were there.

Since we had Angel with us there was a dog winery I had heard about and wanted to check out.  I couldn't remember the name and when I googled "dog wineries in sonoma" about 50 different wineries came up!  Apparently you can take your dog to many tasting rooms, but we just went to the one I had previously heard about, Mutt Lynch.  It was small but very dog friendly (they had a bed for Angel) and they support many dog organizations.  Their wine was better than expected, reasonably priced, and cutely named (Merlot Over and Play Dead).  They also shared their warehouse with another winery, Deux Amis, so we walked over two steps to try their wine, too.

Princess and his Daddy

The last dog friendly thing we did was check out a nice dog park near the city of Glen Ellen.  It was part of the Sonoma Valley Regional Park, called the Elizabeth Perrone dog park.  Sadly, there weren't many dogs there but it was a nice sized park with benches and grass for Angel to run and play.  It was also close to a few other wineries we tried, check out the bf's post for that info.

This is a picture of my breakfast in Healdsberg, I just forgot to mention it anywhere in this post, oops!

Waterfall? In Berkeley?

My work is doing a "build a better you" challenge and employees are encouraged to form teams of 5-10 members and compete in any of three categories: weight loss, pedometer steps, and minutes of exercise.  The team I joined is a very active team and set minimum requirements and if you don't meet them you have to buy the team pizza!  This has led to many weekend activities that involve being, well, active!  One weekend we hiked to the only waterfall in Berkeley.  It is very much an urban hike since its in a neighborhood.  One of our team members lives in the Berkeley Hills so we started at her house and walked from there. 


A little teaser

The waterfall is technically on private property, but the owners allow people to walk to the waterfall as long as they are courteous and responsible.  We went through a random unmarked gate, on the side of a trail, in the back of a park to get there.  We first saw little waterfalls/streams, and thought that was it, but luckily it wasn't.  When we reached the waterfall we were pleasantly surprised, it was a pretty little waterfall and so cool to just be naturally occurring in some one's backyard.  It's now on my list of things I want in my dream home/yard!

The BF being a fool