As we drive along, I am enjoying thinking of all the great things we have seen and done.
I asked the kids what their favorite parts of the trip were.
Justin--#1--Anaheim-Disneyland--Cars Land and Incredicoaster--He loved all of Cars Land and that was what got this trip started. "Mommy, can we go to Cars Land?"
#2--Cubs/Dodgers game.
#3--Grand Canyon National Park
Favorite food--Dodger Dogs
Jackson--#1--Disneyland--Splash Mountain and Radiator Springs Racers
#2-Cubs/Dodgers
#3-Palo Duro Canyon Jeep Ride/Pacific Ocean
No favorite food. He liked it all.
Sarah--#1-Disneyland--Splash Mountain and Incredicoaster and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
#2--Cubs/Dodgers Game
#3--Carlsbad Caverns National Park--Bats and Cave
Favorite Food--Big Texan Steak Quesadilla (She also ate a jalapeno pepper but it was NOT her favorite)
Jon--#1--Big Texan Restaurant
#2--Cubs/Dodgers Game
#3--Carlsbad Caverns National Park-Bat Flight
Favorite Food--He loved his Ribeye Steak at the Big Texan.
Rachel--#1--Disneyland--Snow White's Scary Adventures, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Cars Land, Pixar Pier--Loved all of Disney!! Loved especially how easy it was to get in and out and park hop!
#2--Cubs/Dodgers Game
#3--Carlsbad Caverns and Petrified National Forest and Train ride to Grand Canyon
Favorite Food--Steak at Big Texan
We saw so much! It is hard to find a favorite.
National Parks--
Alibates Flint Quarries-Texas
Petrified National Forest-Arizona
Grand Canyon National Park-Arizona
Organ Mountain National Monument-Las Cruces, New Mexico
White Sands National Monument-New Mexico
Carlsbad Caverns National Park-New Mexico
Excursions--Palo Duro Canyon Jeep Tour--Texas
The Blue Hole Natural Spring--Santa Rosa, New Mexico
Train Ride to the Grand Canyon--Arizona
Disneyland Park--Anaheim, California
Disneyland California Adventures, Anaheim, California
The Pacific Ocean--Sunset Beach, California and Huntington Beach, California
Cubs/Dodgers Game--Los Angeles, California
Disney--I kind of wish we had done 3 days. But that really wasn't necessary. We saw and did almost everything we wanted to do in those 2 days. If anyone does Disneyland, I highly recommend paying for the Max Pass and the Park Hopper. Yes it is a price increase but it was well worth it! We were very lucky that when we went, Star Wars Land didn't actually impact our trip. I thought for sure it would because I figured the crowds would be crazy. But because you actually had to have a separate reservation for Star Wars or you had to be staying on Disney property (which is out of this world expensive becaus because they only have 3 hotels), people just decided not to come until they open it up to the public. So that actually worked in our favor. Also we bought our tickets the night before on my phone which helped with our finances because it happened to be the first day of my new credit card cycle (yeah!). But I might recommend buying them at least 24 hours ahead of time maybe not just 18 hours ahead. When we got them it said it would take 24 hours to see the tickets. This worried me for a minute. Then they were there. Right on the app. So no worries about that.
We also paid to park daily in the Disneyland parking garage. This was very convenient and not terribly expensive. It was $25/day but the convenience was worth it. We could have taken the shuttle from our park for $3/day but it didn't run exactly on Disney hours. We could have also Lyfted, probably for cheaper or for just as much, but it really was fine. I stopped drinking Starbucks and shopping for months to help save for this trip. So I was able to pay for Disney and Dodgers/Cubs out of that savings!
Restaurants--Big Texan Restaurant--Amarillo, Texas
50's Diner-Canyon, Texas
In-N-Out Burger-Arizona
Disneyland Restaurants--The Golden Horseshoe and Galactic Grill--I did not do my restaurant research for Disneyland. I was somewhat disappointed in myself for not being more prepared for this part of the trip. But it was nice to just go with the flow, and I had Disney Rewards Dollars to pay for the food inside the park. That was fantastic.
Hooters--Anaheim, California--Yes we ate at Hooters.
All You Can Eat Tickets at Dodger Game--Dodger Dogs were delicious!
Donuts Plus--Orange, California
Blakes-What-a-Burger--New Mexico
Pizza Inn-Carlsbad, New Mexico
We ate at McDonald's once (so far) in Oklahoma on the way.
We made several Walmart stops and ate a lot of food "at home." Many of the RV parks we stayed at had community grills we took advantage of instead of grilling at our sites. So we would grill there and take it back, or like in Needles, we grilled and ate right by the pool. We ate chicken, pork, steak, hot dogs, hamburgers, tacos, lots and lots of ham and turkey and salami sandwiches. We are kind of sick of sandwiches.
We figured out how to use the oven so now we can even bake cookies or make pizza. We used the air fryer a lot and made tater tots, fries and wings at several spots.
Jon and I used Lyft by ourselves for the first time. Kids stayed at the RV park while we took back the rental car in Anaheim.
We rented 3 cars (for a total of 9 days) and we managed the other 11-12 days either walking or taking the motorhome, or driving in a limo to the Big Texan. Most of those days were driving days anyway.
Jon drove over 4,000 miles. I drove, maybe 5 in the motorhome and maybe 100 in Carlsbad in the rental car.
This was definitely more than a vacation. It was an epic adventure. And it continues as we motor through Texas to get to Wichita Falls tonight. Hoping we don't have to deal with storms tonight as they are in the forecast.
We are about 60 miles from Wichita Falls and the wind is definitely picking up!! Radar shows a few small storms on the radar. We should make it to Wichita Falls before anything too heavy hits. It was showing more in Oklahoma on the radar.
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