California Dreamin'

For our summer vacation this year, we figured it would be good to take out kids out to California. Why not? We were already halfway through the country which made the trip a little shorter, and with Carissa turning three earlier this year, this seemed like as good as time as any to finally give our three kids their first exposure to a Disney park.

Vacation came at a good time for all of us. Sarah and I could use the emotional rest after a hectic half a year. Between moving out of New Jersey and moving to Texas, house sales and purchases and transitioning our lives, it was a good time to step away from it all and clear our heads.

Like any vacation with children, finding rest and relaxation in the midst of vacation tends to be matter of how one interprets those things. Physically, the trip was exhausting, but I have to say that it was immensely enjoyable. The weather was beautiful, we had very gracious hosts (Sarah has an old friend from the music circuit with whom we stayed with) and we were able to provide the kids and ourselves with some nice memories of LEGOLAND (I'm just capitalizing it to respect the trademark), Disneyland and Disneyland's California Adventure.

Some random musings:

• I can see why so many people love the SoCal lifestyle. The weather was terrific, the suburbs were pretty and the town centers were neat and tidy. Beaches are a short drive away and the restaurants are excellent. Sure, the cost of living is sky-high, but such is the law of supply and demand.
• LEGOLAND was disappointing, at least to our family. If one thinks about it, there isn't really a "LEGO" theme or narrative per se, it simply hijacks various other themes and creates the backdrop out of LEGO blocks. So for example, you'll see safari, automobile, boat and fairy tale-related rides which have nothing to do with LEGO except that the vehicles and props look like they've been constructed by LEGO blocks, which would have been find except that the rides and attractions were underwhelming.
• Both Disney parks were predictably excellent. With the advent of the FASTPASS system, the ability to minimize your time waiting on line (and by extension, go on as many rides as possible) has come down to how well you can plan your sequence of rides, knowing the proximity of rides, when to wait in line versus using FASTPASS while timing your "no more FASTPASS" expiration times with the securing of another FASTPASS at a nearby ride. There's seriously an application on the Apple App Store which provides wait times. At the end of the day, it comes down to how anal-retentive a parent wants to be in order to hit lots of rides without waiting in line (I'm raising my hand) as opposed to being laid-back and missing out on some of the more popular (and thus longest wait time) rides.
• Disneyland's California Adventure Park, from what I could tell, is built upon the former parking lot. I haven't been to this place in almost 20 years, but I did remember that the parking lot previously was in front of Disneyland's Town Hall, facing Cinderella's castle. Instead, the two parks face each other. Apparently, some genius at Disney realized that they could make a heck of a lot more money with two parks instead of one, and they could instead build a multi-level parking structure off to the side with tram service.
• Back to the parks: California Adventure is sort of a hodge-podge of rides and attractions you'd find in Disneyworld (e.g. Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, It's Tough to be a Bug) plus some original rides (e.g. California Screamin'). Daniel and I spent Sunday afternoon together here and we had a nice time together. I love my daughters, but there's something about fathers and sons spending time doing "guy stuff". Riding rolling coasters might not necessarily be a manly art, but there's a certain machismo that exists when fathers and sons get to bond over things that females tend to find little interest in. We did do Disneyland together as a family, but split ourselves in the morning so Daniel and I coule partake in the more intense rides such as Space Mountain, Star Tours, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion while the girls took their time taking photographs and getting autographs from various Disney princesses. In the afternoon, we hit the age-appropriate for everyone It's a Small World and the didn't-realize-it-was-too-scary-for-the-girls Peter Pan's Flight.

We had a great time, but analogous to Disneyland, vacations provide a finite idealized escape which when done right, can inspire one to push forward with just a little more hop in one's step. With our house move just a few weeks away and a busy 45 days upcoming at work, I'm hoping that this vacation can provide that for us.