Late March

On Monday Bryan and I continued north through the middle of Nevada. My plan was to stop for the night in Winnemucca, but the only Marriott between Las Vegas and Bend had no rooms available, so we drove late into the night and arrived in Bend after midnight, completing my 22nd drive across the country. 

 

Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning we took care of a few things in Bend, then took an Uber to the Redmond airport for our flight home. We flew United down to LA, where we caught a redeye to Orlando.

Thursday night Susan, Jenn, and I drove to Tampa to watch the Lightning play the Utah Hockey Club. Jenn got us seats pretty close to the ice. The Lightning won, 8 to 0. This weekend Susan and Jennifer flew to Dallas Texas for a book signing event.

Across the South

Earlier in the month, Bryan accepted a job in Bend. We debated renting a U-Haul truck and hauling all his stuff out before deciding to just drive his car out for now. Thursday morning we headed north and turned west on I-10. We stopped at the Buc-ee’s in Gulf Shores Alabama then turned northwest. We stayed in Hattiesburg Mississippi that night.

Friday morning we continued west across Louisiana and entered Texas. East of Dallas, we stopped at a Buc-ee’s where Buc-ee Beaver was making an appearance. We continued on to Fort Worth, where we stayed the night.

Yesterday morning, while Bryan and I drove northwest out of Texas, Jenn and Susan attended a book convention in Orlando. Jenn’s table was next to one of her favorite authors.

Last night Bryan and I stopped in Albuquerque New Mexico. We stayed at the Marriott. We don’t have as much status as we did last year, but we still got a room on the top floor, with a nice view of the city. 

Today we continued west into Arizona. I made Bryan get off the interstate in Winslow so I could stand on the corner. We drove another few hours west on I-40, then turned northwest and reached Las Vegas, where we stopped for the night.

Islands of Adventure

Yesterday afternoon Jenn, Susan, and I went to Universal’s Islands of Adventure. We made a lap around the park, having some snacks and riding some rides. I rode Spider-Man and Jenn and I rode VelociCoaster. This was only the second time I have ridden VelociCoaster. 

After browsing the shops in the Harry Potter area, Jenn and I rode Hagrid’s Magical Motorbike. While I have been on Hagrid’s a few times, in the past I’ve always sat on the bike and Jenn in the sidecar; this time we switched. 

Both VelociCoaster and Hagrid's are fun coasters, fast and with nice theming. As the sun went down, we wandered out of the park and through CitiWalk, then headed home.

Early March

For the first two weeks of March, I spent my days off working on the yards or doing projects at the houses. We also went to IKEA and bought some cabinets so Jenn could store the books she sells at conventions and book signings.

On the second Saturday of the month, Jennifer did a book signing at her Barnes & Noble, and Susan got Bryan and a friend into Epcot so they could check out the Flower & Garden Festival and ride the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster. This year the topiaries at the front of the park were characters from Moana.

This week I took a cruiser from Magic Kingdom to the campgrounds. Work continues to progress on the future Lakeshore Lodge.

California Adventure

In California Adventure, we rode several rides, including a couple on the new Spider-Man attraction. Grizzly River Run was being refurbished. We also checked out the new DVC area in the old Blue Sky Cellar. 

Since our last visit they had completed retheming the Pacific Wharf area to San Fransokyo. We went into DCA this morning and Jenn and I rode Incredicoaster, then we wandered through Downtown Disney.

There were several buildings being revamped, especially on the west end. The monorail was also closed for refurbishment. A couple of new buildings have gone up where the AMC theaters used to be, including a Din Tai Fung restaurant, where we ate lunch. 

It would have been nice to spend a few hours at the pool in the afternoon, but half the pool area was closed for refurbishment. We rested in our room a bit, then went back into DCA in the evening. Tomorrow morning we fly home.

Disneyland

This morning we went into Disneyland Park right after opening and rode a few rides. The train was being refurbished so all the stations were walled off. Small World was also down. 

Since we visited last they had changed Tarzan’s Treehouse into the Adventureland Treehouse inspired by Walt Disney’s Swiss Family Robinson. They also changed French Market into Tiana’s Palace, and added a gift shop near Haunted Mansion.

With the change of Splash Mountain into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Critter Country has now become Bayou Country. Tiana’s works a bit better here than in Magic Kingdom, although Pooh fits even less well into Bayou Country than he did in Critter Country. 

We spent the afternoon and evening hopping back and forth between parks. We also spent time at the DVC lounge above the Star Wars Launch Bay in the old Innovention building. Like the one at Epcot, there are free sodas and snacks.

USS Iowa

 

Yesterday while Jenn and Susan signed and sold books at the convention in downtown Los Angeles, I drove down to San Pedro to see the USS Iowa. The Iowa is one of four battleships that were built during WWII and is bigger than the USS Alabama, the other battleship I have toured. It’s also more modern, as it was updated for use in the Cold War. 

I spent about two hours going through the ship, so it wasn’t as good of value as the Reagan museum, since they both cost $30. It did have several videos the told about different aspects of the ship, although I believe more of the Alabama was available to tour and had better descriptions about the areas of the ship. 

After lunch at the hot dog stand on the ship, I walked down to the Los Angeles Maritime Museum. This building used to be where ferries to Terminal Island loaded. Now it kind of tells the history of the Port of Los Angeles. It’s a fairly small museum, but admission is only $5. It’s not well organized, and there are lots of models of ships.

This morning we checked out of the Biltmore and drove down to the Grand Californian for a couple of days at the Disneyland resort. Since we started staying here twenty years ago, the trees in front have gotten so big they block out the hotel. We had a one-bedroom villa on the first floor.

We met Bryan and his friends and spent a couple of hours in the parks. It was fairly busy so we didn’t ride much, mostly looked around and snacked.  For dinner we all went to a BBQ place in downtown Anaheim. It was pretty good.