Before we start with today’s adventure, I have to show this from last night… This is what happens when you have light-up light sabers and a cool mirror…

Oh my word! These 2 get funnier every day!!

Okay on to today:

WOW – Today was a great day! We got to sleep in a bit, which was wonderful 😀. After breakfast (again with a pancake maker), we headed out to Alcatraz. But before we got out the door, we were hit in the face… by the weather! Brrrr! It was 52 degrees this morning and it was so windy! ❄️💨❄️💨  Thankfully we had packed some pants and we got Harry Potter sweatshirts at Universal (we intentionally didn’t bring sweatshirts so we could use that as a useful souvenir) 
I think they like their sweatshirt! (Love them to dress alike on vacation so I can keep up with them ❤️ ). They got lots of comments on their shirts so they were tickled.

Alcatraz was so cool. 

Boys loved the boat ride to get there and then Leo informed me that “Alcatraz was cool because you can ninja warrior all over it!” And Lawd knows he did (or at least tried to)!   The audio tour was awesome and as soon as the boys put on their headsets, they were obsessed with Alcatraz history!

They loved the stories of the escape attempts and how the prisoners lived. 

And of course they hammed it up a bit!! But we found a place for them to run…

The Rec Yard! 

It was so much fun – obviously since we stayed for almost 4 hours!!  But we can say we saw every part of Alcatraz 😜

Now on to Pier 39 and by now, we were starving! San Francisco is a great city to be hungry in because there are some awesome restaurants at every turn!

The food was so good! We got the small and half portions so we could share lots of different things: dungeoness crab, fried fish, burger, pasta, garlic fries and clam chowder in sourdough bread bowl. Everything was outstanding!!! (We ate so much at lunch that Mike and I had a piece of banana bread for dinner because we were still full!)

Before we could leave Pier 39, we had 2 other stops to make… The famous double decker merry-go-round:

And the sea lions

Check and check!

After lunch, we headed to Moss Beach, California. Michael watched a show, Animals Across America, that told about the tide pools in Moss Beach.  Then he did some more research and found that there are octopus, starfish, anemones and sea urchins special to Moss Beach.  Once we decided San Francisco was a stop on the trip, we discovered that Moss Beach is only 35 miles away (“or perhaps you don’t want to see the world’s largest ball of twine which is only four short hours away.” Sorry, Griswolds reference 😜) So anyway, off we went 🚗🚗🚗

I am so glad we did! This ended up being one of the coolest things we have done. We got to travel along the Pacific Coast Highway, which was gorgeous! I’ve never seen green mountains on one side of road and oceans and cliffs on the other! You take roads that lead you through a residental area, and then suddenly, at the end of a road, there is brown State Park sign.  We walked down a really steep path

The views were really beautiful…But the best thing was this face right here:

😍Michael was just in his element! He told us which animals to look for, what they were, and then made sure we did not remove any shells, rocks or marine life from Moss Beach – because it was a rule!  

We really had a great time exploring the tide pools and seeing the animals

We also got to see sea lions up close, well 300 feet away-close, because they come ashore at Moss Beach to have pups and raise them in these tide pools for a while because predators can’t get past the rocky bars just beyond the beach.

This will be one of those days we will always remember – mental picture, click 📸📷

We had an early night tonight and were back in room before 9pm! Hallelujer!  

Tomorrow we are headed to Eureka, California with stops at the Golden Gate Bridge, Muir Woods, Humboldt State Park and anywhere else that looks interesting along the way. But we have no timetable tomorrow, so NO Alarm clock will be set!!! WooHoo! Goodnight All!

We finished our time in Los Angeles today but it took a little bit to get Michael and Leo up and going this morning…

But once they learned we were headed to Warner Bros – who had a part in the Harry Potter movies and Batman vs Superman movie. On a side note, we felt quite sophisticated taking our first Uber ride 😀 🚗

The Warner Bros Studio Tour was so cool! 

We saw “New York” brownstones in California

We got to go onto Ellen’s set (but no photos inside 😬)

Then we stopped at one of the movie museums which should have been called the Michael and Leo building! First floor: DC Comics featuring actual props from Superman vs Batman; and Second floor: actual props from all the Harry Potter movies 😊😉😍

The real clothes worn by Harry, Hermironie, and Ron in Chamber of Secrets!

The Troll they fought in the Sorcerer’s Stone

We were all “sorted” into our house by the Sorting Hat. Leo is Griffindor!

Michael was sorted into Slytherin 😬. He was not happy about this!

I’ll be heading to HufflePuff

Mike is headed to Griffindor with Leo

One of Harry’s REAL wands!!!

Then we went downstairs…

Think he’s happy? 😀

I always wanted to be Wonder Woman🌟

Uh oh! Looks like the Suicide Squad captured some bad guys 😜

Touching REAL LIVE Kryptonite 😳

Then we headed to Studio 48 to see exhibits from big WB Shows and see how the movie process takes place.  The boys designed their own cars for Batman 

We also got to see the Mobile Museum with all the batman cars, motorcycles and planes

Then we wandered into a little coffee shop… Maybe you’ve heard of it? I just hung out with my Friends 😄
And after a few tries, coming soon to a Christmas card near you…

We also got to learn a little “movie magic” like positional sizing.  By making some chairs smaller, and other bigger, closer/further away from camera, and larger smaller props you can completely change the sizing on screen

So this is with plain eye, and Leo looks a little bigger, but then on camera…

It was so cool to see.

 We also got to see what we all look like as computer images. How’s this for a Christmas card?

And then we turned around to see the Green Screen! And guess what you could do:

They then took the pictures and added the computer images and movement! Oh. My. Word! It cannot get any better!!!

Or can it?

What the what?!?! Best day ever! Just let us know if you want to see our video debuts 😀

We then headed out to one of 2 really long drives -5 hours to San Francisco… We decided to try a California landmark for lunch, In-n-Out Burger.  It was delicious!! And just to complete our full-on tourist persona… We made pictures inside and outside the restaurant! Wish I could have gotten a picture of the people laughing at us 😂😜😂😜😂

We cruised on up Interstate 5.  We decided to use the time to try our Chocolate Frogs.

They tasted pretty good – just regular chocolate shaped like a frog… And we got our collector card: Helga Hufflepuff

We tried our “Bert’s Any Flavor Beans” – oh my goodness! Some of the flavors: ear wax; boogies; black pepper; earthworm; and sausage 😝

Michael tried vomit flavored first

It obviously was disgusting but we had the best time laughing! Then Leo tried earthworm:

 Hahahaha! Apparently earthworm isn’t good – ya think?!?! 😂😂😂

We had a beautiful drive through the Central Valley of California. Boys could not get over how flat it was!

 Also saw some wind farms which we all thought were really cool. I never realized how big the wind turbines are!

Boys also like going across the Bay Bridge – we went across the new bridge since the  old one was damaged in an earthquake a few years ago.

Once we got checked into the hotel (which is a brand new Holiday Inn Express at Union square – great!- built over a bar- umm, not a great idea😬… But the cover band is pretty good 😛 right now we are rocking out to “I love Rock-n-Roll”), we headed out to dinner at a local Italian place, Cafe Mason, recommended by the front desk clerk.  It was wonderful! We have had the best food! 

Think these 2 are having a pretty good time ❤️❤️❤️We are shutting it down tonight 😆😴💤 think this crowd is sleepy enough that even a rocking cover of Jesse’s Girl can’t  keep us awake! 🎶💤🎶💤

Good night everybody 💤💤💤

If yesterday was Leo’s day because of Captain America, then today was Michael’s day because we entered the Wizarding World of Harry Potter – and it was awesome!!! 

We started our day going straight to Hogwarts! We explored all the shops of Hogsmead and bought some Chocolate Frogs and a package of Berts Any Flavored Beans! Michael is hoping we get at least a couple of gross flavored ones like ear wax or vomit – Ewww!  But it happened to Harry Potter so good enough for us 😉

We saw Hagrid’s house, his friend Buckbeak, saw a moving paper about Sirius Black and then Daddy surprised us with real live wands!!! And they WORK (at least in Hogwarts)!!! 

Michael chose Professor Lupin’s (he’s part Wizard and part Werewolf) wand and Leo chose Harry Potter’s.  Michael was hilarious telling Leo “you can’t just chose the wand because of the person you like, you have to let the wand chose you!”  😂😂😂

We even had lunch at the Three Broomsticks!

We finally left Hogwarts and did the Studio Tour.  It was too cool! We saw Jaws, the set of The Grinch, a Fast & Furious car chase and a fight between King Kong and a T-Rex! 

We continued our trend of meeting famous folks:

Frankenstein(Michael said thanks but no thanks 😍)

Kevin (from Minions):

A Mummy

And Optimus Prime (from Transformers)

We rode EVERY ride in Universal! We had to circle back for some Harry Potter items with money from Nana BooBoo, Maw Maw and Nana & Pop, and a butter beer…

And we squeezed in one more ride

Another photo from the top of the roller coaster 😳 and a picture of Hogwarts at night

We are wiped out! But the mad day dash of theme parks is now done! Thank you God for coffee! ☕️☕️☕️☕️☕️

Tomorrow Michael and Leo think we are headed out to sightsee…but really we have passes for a Warner Bros Studio Lot Tour!!! Then it’s on the San Francisco!

Okay, we finally cried Uncle and had to sleep in this morning! We still got up and made it to California Adventure by 10. (Oh my word – How tired were we!) so far the only thing I would change about this trip would be to add in a down day between San Diego, Anaheim and Los Angeles. Our bodies (read “feet”) need some rest. But today was an easy day… Only 15,193 steps 😜

California Adventure was really too cool! They had a lifesize version of town of Radiator Springs!! 
We loved riding the Tractors at Mater’s petting zoo and got drinks at Flo’s!  We had our picture made with Stanley at the Radiator Springs Town Hall.  

We had to skip the Lightning McQueen Race Track/Roller coaster- because the Fast passes were already gone (at 11am!!) and we just couldn’t wait 120 minutes!  Instead, we found Luigi’s garage and rode (were bounced around) in cars while the cars did a dance routine! It was too fun and I thoroughly enjoyed embarrassing my boys by keeping my hands up and “dancing” the entire time!

We road the biggest-longest-fasted roller coaster in my life at Paradise Park! (Look beside Mickey’s Ferris Wheel 😳 below) And learned about “single rider” tickets. Basically, they use you to fill in when there are empty seats.  We didn’t  care if we didn’t ride together -because not like you can talk on a roller coaster- so whenever possible, I went with boys as single riders, and Mike posted up at Exit… And we sailed by the lines! 

Paradise Park also had a great Ferris wheel 

And an old fashioned merry-go-round

(How many Browns can you get in a selfie?)

We loved the Toy Story Shooting Gallery and Goofy’s flying school 

The boys indulged me and went on The Little Mermaid ride – it was a sit down ride and air conditioned – so guessing it wasn’t undying love for their mama that got them in the car! 😍😝. It was so cool though – like a modernized version of Snow White ride – again it was SO fun to embarrass boys (and Mike) loudly singing “Under the Sea, under the sea, darling it’s better down where it’s wetter…” (You’re singing that song now aren’t you? 😜)

Keeping with the undersea them, we practiced being fishes while waiting for the Jellyfish ride…

Loved loved loved the Wilderness Explorer area for those of us like Russell trying to earn our wilderness badge to become a Senior Wilderness Explorer badge – remember Russell from Up? 

We had to find out what our “Spirit Animal” and complete a ropes course and other challenges…​

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Let me introduce the newest Senior Wilderness Explorers – we have the booklet and sticker to prove it!

We got soaked on the Rocky River Rapids… 

And then ran to check out Tower of Terror.  We just didn’t have another 90 minute wait in us, so we headed over to a Bugs Life for bumper cars…

Just then 2 amazing things happened…

This sweet picture without any prompting (or punishment from us)

And then we rounded a corner and saw THIS:

OH MY WORD!!!

So we completed our time in Anaheim with Captain America and Spider-Man, and 2 very Happy boys!!!

Look at Leo coveting that shield!!!

On to Los Angeles and Universal Studios! Look out City of Angels – Here come the Brown Brothers!

I don’t know when my feet have ever been this tired.  My faker-fit bit is on overload, and still today was GREAT!!! We are in Anaheim visiting Disneyland today and tomorrow, and LOVING our matching shirts 😍 So far, my observation of Disneyland vs. Disney world is that they are slight variations of the same park, with Disney World being larger. Even rides and locations are same (Tomorrow is to your right, Frontierland is on your left and the Castle (again smaller) is the center point.)

Since Disney bought the rights to Star Wars, Tomorrowland is basically all things Star Wars!  We arrived about 8:45, and spent the entire morning on Star Wars rides! 

After today, Mike and I are now a little nervous about Michael and Leo ever getting their drivers license after seeing them drive!!!

It makes me even more nervous because Leo drove like this most of the tune

We loved loved loved the Star Wars rides and exhibit. One walk-through had the scale models used in the movies! We know all this because Michael read EVERY plaque in the entire exhibit!

But the highlight of Star Wars area …

Plus what we all knew as “Space Mountain” has now been starwars’d into Hyperspace Mountain!

We had to do the old faithful rides – Peter Pan’s Flight, the Tea Cups , and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

And we did some serious American Ninja Warrior training on Tarzan’s Tree House:

After an awesome dinner at Blue Bayou, we rode a couple rides, and then headed back to Tomorrowland for what we’ve been waiting on… Build Your Own Lightsaber!!!! 😍😳😄😍😳😄

We were about to leave when we ran right into The Electric Light parade! The boys were loving it until the last 4 floats were all princesses 😝😬😝 but the parade was really good! Always fun to see the parade but they have done a lot of updating and upgrading!

So that’s it – 14+ hours, 18,400 steps, a wiped out mama and daddy, and 2 little boys who still said “can we go swimming when we get back to hotel?” Seriously???

We are checking out California Adventure tomorrow and then headed to Los Angeles tomorrow after dinner. Starting  to feel like the little engine that could “I think I can! I think I can! I think I can!” 

Nothing a good night’s sleep can cure! 

California adventure, here we come!

Day Three is in the books and It. Was. Awesome! We spent today at the USS Midway in San Diego, decommissioned in 1992 after the Gulf War. 

Honestly, I had no idea we would be there all day but this thing is HUGE! Since we are still getting used to West Coast Time, we are some early morning people ☀️ (at least until we get adjusted). We were second in line this morning when they opened and spent the next 7 hours touring every spot on that carrier that was open to the public!

This place was a boys’ paradise and by boys, I mean ALL boys! Mike was in Heaven! War ships, war planes, and war veterans all talking about war ships, war planes and war veterans – Heaven!  I swear, there had to be a millions buttons to push  and switches to switch! And we pushed and switched every single one!

We went up and down, and up and down, and up and down! We spent some time in the Brig, and checked out the sailors’ bunks. 

We had lunch on board, and boys were just amazed that we had lunch off the back of aircraft carrier! 

But our absolute favorite parts of the ship was sitting in the cockpits and the flight simulators! WOW!  I think I can now mark “pilot” off my possible career path 😬😳  I especially got tickled hearing Leo say to his brother “Michael, I promise I won’t throw up on you.” Now is that love or what? ❤️ It was a valid promise because these simulators went up, down, upside down, sideways – it was crazy!

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Mike and I both went to the Battleship in Wilmington growing up, but the Midway is at least 2, if not 3, times the size of our Battleship.  I know the boys had a great time today but the grown-ups had just as much fun – It really was an incredible day!

After the Midway, we left San Diego, with a promise to come back with Michael and Leo’s kids one day 😍.

So after a full day of touring (all 11,237 steps of it), we were careful to leave San Diego at a good time to avoid all the California traffic that we’d been warned about… (See photo of clock in car 😬)

That’s when we pulled out of the garage 😂😜😂😜 but honestly traffic wasn’t too bad – better than Charlotte at 5!!!

So now we are headed toward Anaheim and Disneyland for their Diamond Celebration of 60 years. We had a good drive seeing all the landscapes that were so different from home

The Holiday Roooooaaaddd continues… 😀

This will go down as one of the best days ever! Day started off a little rocky with some time-zone-adjustment-overly-excited-about-vacation grumpiness BUT the mood changed once we found…

the automatic pancake maker at breakfast!!!! Seriously, we were like country mouse done come to the city!  Hahaha! But we weren’t the only ones – it was the talk of all the breakfast tables😀

While we waited for the (free 😍) Zoo Shuttle, we worked in a little Ninja Warrior Training 

And then in true Jimmy Maske style, we arrived at the Zoo just when they turned the key to open, and we started our day! 

I know we have a fantastic Zoo in NC, but this zoo is absolutely amazing! We saw some of the coolest creatures! Even my little zookeepers were impressed –

We saw a snake necked turtle. It literally is a turtle with a snake’s head on it. We saw blue lizards, giant anacondas, Tapirs, capybaras and a real panda bear! I have always wanted to see a panda! Bucket list item – check!

Boys made us loop back around because somehow we missed the leopard area. We found it – was like a giant cat house all areas connecting to gather in overhead bridges for the cats.  Apparently Michael and Leo look like lunch to snow leopards (look above their heads)

I have to say one of the highlights from the day (and life) was hand feeding the giraffes! 

Their tongues look like black snakes and these things are HUGE!! Who just hand feed giraffes? This crowd right here! 

If  we leave tomorrow, their faces made it totally worth it! 

We saw tigers taking a bath, and met a yellow lab named Honey who’s best friend is a cheetah named Bakka.

We finally got to see the full sized hippos (because the Pygmy Hippos didn’t count) 

And enjoyed a water fall with Daddy

We road a double decker bus, got small (suitcases won’t hold much more), and made our picture on EVERYTHING! It was such a great day and it only took 10 hours and 16,646 steps! 😬😳👣👣👣👣👣

So just when we think the adventure is  over… So we leave the Zoo planning to just have Domino’s deliver to Hotel. Our shuttle driver suggested a local pizzeria nearby. I love an adventure (clearly) so off we go to Luigi’s on 25th… OH MY WORD! I have had pizza in Little Italy in New York and in Chicago, but this was THE BEST pizza I have ever had and it was cheap – 2 HUGE slices and a drink for $6! And delicious kinds too – artichoke tomato and pesto, potato skins pizza (called the Sportsbar), sausage and pepperoni, and the ol’ standby: cheese.  If you are ever anywhere in San Diego, this pizza is worth a drive!🍕🍕🍕

After all that, Michael and Leo made it about 10 minutes after a shower… Looks like it was a good day 

Tomorrow we are off to the USS Midway and a few other stops from recommendations from folks we met today – shocking, right that we struck up conversations with strangers 😜  Hope my vacationers aren’t too pooped for Day 3!

Picture says it all! After 5 hours on the plane, we landed in San Diego – 75 degrees and ZERO humidity 😳  Mike and I laughed at the Hertz lady who asked if we could believe how hot it was here?!?! Um yeah, I think we can handle this.

Made it to the hotel (Holiday Inn Express San Diego Downtown).  Just like I read online – it’s dated but clean.  And the staff is great especially with loud boys!! After bouncing off the walls while Mike parked the car, we went straight to the pool. The boys swam…

And Mike and I found what may be the funniest sign I have ever read:

Now I wouldn’t think people need this pointed out to them, but it’s a good reminder for us all! We may need to get this for our house too 😂😄😂😄. As an added bonus, Michael and Leo laughed for  at least an hour because “the sign at the pool says diarrhea!”  Oh, life with boys!

After the pool, we headed out for dinner and stumbled on this local place called the Taco Stand 🌮 – it was delicious! Boys were amazed watching them make their tortilla shells fresh (and that we got to eat at the bar and watch the guys cook. I told them they were welcome to watch me cook any night of the week, and all I heard was crickets)  After dinner, the boys went to their first bar – The Donut Bar 🍩.  According to USA Today, it is one of the Top 10 Donuts Shops in the United States . Instead of alcohol, they had HUGE donuts and coffee drinks!! Perfect for the Browns! Now if they could just mix in some ice cream…

It’s perfect start to vacation! 

Tomorrow we are so excited to go to the San Diego Zoo.  Hope the zookeepers are ready for these two!

Packed and in the car for the airport (on time I might add!) – no worries for safety since Captain American is traveling with us – shocking, right?  Thanks Brian for being airport shuttle for us  😀

The escalator was big hit for boys so we wasted 10 minutes going down and up, and down and up, and down and up.

So now enjoying the Hot-Lanta airport and waiting for the plane to San Diego ✈️

Oh. My. Word! After years of talking about this trip, and months of planning, tomorrow is the day! I’ve spent most of today packing, and packing, and packing…

I am taking the advice of a friend (thanks Sally) and packed each day of the boy’s clothes in gallon ziploc  bags. Each bag has their shorts, shirt, socks and underwear for the day.  I’m hoping this will avoid the “mom! Where are my clothes?” routine (that usually leads to me screaming) and then the suitcase explosion that develops as the trip unfolds. 

If it works, I am going to end up owing an apology to my future daughter-in-laws because my boys will have no idea how to pack for themselves.  But seriously, who am I kidding? I’ll probably end up with a suitcase full of clothes and empty ziplocs. But I tried. 

One last swim (to try to wear them out), and we are off to bed! Hope we can sleep- Because I am SO EXCITED!!!!