Travels with haRVy

I know I said that I wasn’t going to blog about my SoCal adventure, but I had so much fun with my friend Janet that I decided that I must! All of these photos were taken with my new LG phone since I didn’t want to carry my camera.

We had a mountain view from our hotel room! That’s the Matterhorn Anaheim above the Golden Arches! The Camelot Inn is directly across the street from Disneyland’s main entrance, so we were able to take a break each afternoon before returning to the park for the evening festivities.

We spent our first day at Disney’s California Adventure. This is the Paradise Pier area in daylight.

We headed right to Cars Land, the newest part of the park to ride Radiator Springs Racers, which we did twice because it was so much fun. The mountain ridge in the left background is Cadillac Ridge. Can you make out the fins? Very creative!

Santa flew across Hollywood Boulevard while the full moon rose above the roller coaster. Janet and I enjoyed a more traditional ride on the merry go round.

Here’s the pier area after dark where we waited for the spectacular World of Color water light show to begin.

The next two days were spent in Disneyland’s Magic Kingdom, a place near and dear to our hearts. As Southern California kids we both went there nearly every year growing up. Lots of great memories for us both.

Thunder Mountain Railroad is one of our personal favorites. Just fast and scary enough! Many of the rides get special decorations for the holiday season. Upper right is It’s A Small World and lower right is the Jungle Cruise.

Here we are in Toontown, an area designed especially for Disney’s youngest guests. That didn’t stop us seniors from having some silly fun in this whimsical village.

Most everything in Toontown is designed to be pushed, pulled, poked and prodded. The result is a land filled with surprises and smiles. We had never visited this area before and were happy to finally have time to visit. It was so much fun, we even went on a couple of the kiddie rides.

After we totally wore ourselves out at Disneyland, we drove down the coast to Crystal Cove State Park for some relaxation. Here is our vintage bluff side room and my bed with a wraparound ocean view! We have visited Crystal Cove often, but this was our first chance to stay there for a couple of nights.

The view from our patio. Long distance view of the historic village and holiday decor.

Between Laguna Beach and Corona Del Mar, on one of Orange County’s most desirable stretches of oceanfront property, sit 46 rustic handmade cottages dating back to the 1920’s and 30’s.

Listed on the National Registry of Historic Places as “the last intact example of early California beach vernacular architecture.” Crystal Cove captures a romantic era of California recreation. To learn more about Crystal Cove’s fascinating history click here.

Janet has a cousin who owns a house on Balboa Island. One of a select few circa 1940 cottages that has not yet been torn down and replaced by a 3 1/2 story monster. We have been meeting up there for a week together in December for nearly 20 years now. The photo above shows the ferry dock. There is a bridge to the other side of the island so this is not the only way to get there.

I always find time to ride a bicycle on the oceanfront bikeway on the Balboa Peninsula, a short ferry ride from the island. I lived in this neighborhood back in the 1970s so it always feels a bit nostalgic to do so.

The illuminated boat parade is always fun too. For more photos of my annual pilgrimage to Balboa island, visit my post from last year here.

I’m back in Florida with Al and haRVy now, so you can expect my Travels with haRVy posts to resume within a week or so.

Happy New Year to all my followers. Thanks for coming along for the ride!