Scottsdale to El Paso!

On Sunday, January 27th we left Las Vegas and and made our way to Phoenix, Arizona.  The campground  there wasn't that great, but it provided a place to park the car so we could go up to Scottsdale on Friday.  My cousin Ron and his family live in Scottsdale, and own a bowling alley there (the only one in town!), and we had a wonderful time visiting with Ron, Karen, and Izzy.  

 They have a beautiful home, and the kids really enjoyed the bowling. unfortunately we only had Friday and Saturday, as we had to leave Phoenix on Sunday to move on to Tucson.









On Sunday, while we were driving down to Tucson, we saw a wonderful site!  About a dozen hot air balloons taking off and sailing through the air not far from where we were driving!

In Tucson we stayed at the Lazydays campground, which also just happens to be a very large RV dealership!  No, don't worry, we didn't buy anything -- yet!  :-)  We stayed there a few days, and then moved on to another town called Benson.  In Benson we stayed at a very nice campground with a lot going for it -- it even had a small observatory, with nightly shows!  Unfortunately, after one night we knew we couldn't stay.  The campground was just one block from a major railroad track, and the trains came all night long, about 30 minutes apart, and blew their whistles all the way through town!  We were supposed to stay 4 nights, but left after 2!  We continued on to El Paso, to a nice campground that had a tennis court for the kids to play on.  They had a great time, and we enjoyed the quiet at night!!

We stayed a week in El Paso, and enjoyed the are we stayed in.  They even had a pool that the kids had a chance to swim in! Mario and I had a lovely dinner out for Valentine's Day not far from the campground. We left El Paso on Friday, the 15th, and headed to New Mexico and Carlsbad Caverns.  More on that next time!

It's Vegas, baby!

We went to Las Vegas on January 23rd, for a couple of nights to spread out in a hotel.  We got a great rate at the NYNY Hotel, and really enjoyed the place.  Blackjack wasn't very kind to me, but I wasn't there to gamble, and I didn't lose much.  One of the kids' favorite things was the large Lady Liberty made entirely of JellyBelly jellybeans!

 The hotel looked kind of like the Manhattan Skyline from the outside, and the inside was a series of different  "buildings", differentiated by each one's bank of elevators.  It was very hard to tell which building you were in from the outside.  Our rooms were around the back.  The kids discussed going on the roller coaster - which weaves in and out of all the buildings and outside as well, with a few loops worked in, but they decided against it.  Maybe it was the way Mario and I said, "Not a Chance!!" to us going with them!!

On Thursday afternoon the kids and I went across the street to the Coca-Cola store and the M&M store.  Genny, as always, was up for a pose! 



We stayed two more days at the KOA in Las Vegas, which is at Circus Circus, and on Saturday we went over to the Bellagio.  The fountains were really amazing, I think I could have stayed there all day watching them!  The kids had other ideas, they wanted to see the inside...

The chocolate fountain was another favorite, I think the kids liked it even more than the water fountain!

Genny and I loved the Crystal horse, it was beautiful!  They had a garden inside too, that was inspired by the Chinese New Year.  This year is the year of the Snake, which is the same as the year I was born.

 

 That's all for now, next up is Arizona, and a stop in Flagstaff to spend the day with my cousin Ron!

Disneyland and San Diego Zoo

So, okay, it's been longer than I thought it would be.  We moved faster from the last place, so I didn't have the time I thought I would.  Anyway...

On Sunday, January 6th, Mario drove down to Mexico to talk with a hotel about Skyware.  Ryan, the teenager that he is chose to stay back in the RV while the rest of us (me, Michael, Genny, and Jason) spent the entire day in Disneyland.  We had a really great time and it wasn't very busy, so by lunchtime we had gone on everything we had wanted to, and then we split up to do repeats. 

 Having been to Disney World so many times, I really loved the Matterhorn and Star Tours, which I've found out they now have at Hollywood Studios too.  Look closely here on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and you can see Genny, Jason, and Michael in the first row of the second car.

 It was the last day that the holiday decorations were out, and I really liked what they did with It's a Small World.  Particularly because they played Jingle Bells in addition to the Small World song, so it wasn't quite so repetitious.

Later in the week we went to a taping of Wheel of Fortune, we were sitting in the center for most of the taping.  They got some really nice footage of the kids (Mario and I are on the far end).  They have it air on three different dates, the first is tomorrow, Thursday February 14th, then Friday, February 15th, and the third day is Monday, April 29th (go figure that one out!)
   
    So be sure to watch for us tomorrow!!


On Saturday, January 12th, the six of us went to the other Disneyland park, California Adventure, which is kind of a combination between Epcot and Hollywood Studios.  So here's the New York City street scene, where we had to get  a photo of the kids.

 They had just opened Cars Land, it featured a ride called Radiator Springs Racers, which was awesome!  Unfortunately by the time we realized how popular it was, the earliest FastPass was for 8:30PM (we got it at 10am) !!  so we only got to go on it once.  Genny, Michael, and I had a great time.

On the following Monday (the 14th) we left Anaheim and moved on to Chula Vista, just south of San Diego.  We stayed at a great park, that we would really like to go back to.  Another of the things I really wanted to see on this trip was the San Diego Zoo.  We lucked out, because they had a new panda born just six months ago, and they had it out for view.  You had to be in line by 11:30am, though, and we found out about it at 11:20, thankfully we were right around the corner, and just made it in line (I think there may have been 10 people behind us)!

 After seeing the Pandas (he was playing with Mom), we stopped to get some lunch.  Then we got on a tour bus that took us around the zoo.  After walking around all morning, we really enjoyed the ride.  We got to see quite a bit of the park, and many of the animals.

We had a really good time, and it was well worth the time.  On January 20th we left Chula Vista for the Palm Springs area, where I did training at a new hotel of ours, the Horizon Hotel.  It's a really nice property built in the fifties.


 After a few days there we went to Las Vegas, for a few nights spread out in a hotel - the NYNY hotel right on the strip.  More about that next time!

New Year's and LA

Okay, so I know this is LONG overdue, so I'm going to do my best to get us caught up over the next week or so. 

 We had an early evening on New Year's Eve, to get up early for the Rose Parade.  It was a beautiful day and we bought tickets in the stands. 

 The floats were really awesome, and we had a great view.  There was a B2 bomber fly over that was so cool!  Ryan even got a picture of it, but it was too fast for me! I personally loved watching all the marching bands.

While we were in the LA area I couldn't resist taking Genny to the American Girl doll store for tea.  It was so nice, they did a wonderful job, and we got some quality girl time together.  At the tea they had conversation starters so we had lots of fun answering questions like, "What was one of you favorite childhood memories?" and "What food would you never give up eating?"  It gave us lots to talk about, and we even found out a few things about each other.

The trip to LA wouldn't be complete without a trip to Hollywood and the Walk of Fame. We saw lots of stars...on the sidewalk!  Michael liked the enormous macaroni from Kraft.  We also had the opportunity to go see a taping of Wheel of Fortune.  We were in the center of the audience, and the filmed us for audience pictures.  You can look for us on February 14th, 15th, and April 29th (they split up the filming so it doesn't look like the same audience).  Please don't worry about the absence of Ryan from these photos, he's been a bit camera shy lately, but I'll have him in some for next time.  So, next up is Disneyland, I promise!  Maybe I'll also get to Chula Vista and the San Diego zoo.  We got to see the new baby panda - just six months old!

Big Bear for Christmas

We dropped the RV off at an RV Service Center, and drove the CR-V up to Big Bear.  There is no way we would have been able to get the RV up there!  maybe during the summer, but the snow showed up at about 5,000 ft, and we were staying at about 7,500 ft!  By the time we drove up the street where the house was, the road was covered.  The kids had  a great time sledding, thankfully the house had a good selection of sleds.

 

 On the day after Christmas we got 4" of fresh powder, that made everything look so peaceful!

The house was really great, it had a very cozy living room.  We were able to find a tree, and I brought some ornaments with us, so we were all set as far as that goes.

 

Genny gets a fresh baked Ginger Cookie - yummy! Mario is convinced we need to get a wood stove like the one here.  It kept the entire house comfy cozy warm.

 

 Christmas morning before the opening of presents, don't they look so excited - not like they're tired at all, getting me up before 7am!!










Michael with his new train, this was before he set it up under the tree! 

The trip back down the mountain, beautiful snow in the trees.

From here we went to Anaheim, where we spent nearly three weeks.  We had a great time there, and the kids really got comfortable riding around.  I'll have more about the Rose Parade and Disneyland next time!

Pismo Beach

In Pismo Beach we stayed at an RV park that was right on the beach.  It was a really nice campground, and the sunsets were amazing!  

The kids once again found all the good places to bike to.  They've all been biking a lot, and are getting more comfortable finding their own way around.  Of course, they always wear helmets, go in groups and have a cell phone with them.

For Hanukkah, on two of the nights, they got gift cards to Starbucks and Subway, and they really enjoyed the opportunity to go out for lunch on their own!

Thanks so much to the Phillips family for our RV menorah, a little bit more secure with the flames contained!

From Pismo Beach we moved on to Bakersfield, to a campground that we had stayed at on our 2008 trip.  It has a restaurant that is well known in the Bakersfield community, and one of very few where there are regulars that come to it from outside the campground.  Mario and I had a great dinner out there, and spent a few cocktail hours chatting with the locals.  Mario also really enjoyed the hot tub they had there after his run! 

We moved to Malibu Beach after Bakersfield, and had a site overlooking the ocean,

...which led to some more beautiful sunsets.

While we were there we also got to see a group of dolphins swimming by. 

Malibu had some great shopping, which was good since Christmas was fast approaching.  We left Malibu on  Sunday, the 23rd to go up to Big Bear, more on that soon...