We have 2 full days in Seattle, but for some reason we tried to do everything today! Our day started early with a tasting tour of Pike Place Market.  

It was a great tour and the food was great! The tour was through Savor Seattle food tours. All different kinds of tours depending on food tastes, etc.We started at the famous gum wall! They recently scraped all the gum off to make sure sugar wasn’t damaging the bricks. It wasn’t, but they scraped off over 2,300 lbs of gum! Roughly the equivalent of a polar bear!!  Yuck 😝

We met the baker/owner at Honest Biscuits – he’s from Raleigh, NC (Go Pack!). These cheese biscuits were delicious and they gave us coffee 🎉

Mike said this was somebody’s grandma’s recipe –  and it sure was!After this we left and found Big Foot!- 

Our next stop was to a donut shop, where their specialty was Maple Bacon Donut! It was like a whole breakfast in one donut – Delicious! I’m sure it was low calorie too 😊Leo liked it but Michael wouldn’t try it.
We visited a spice shop that I swear had every spice you can imagine!We tried smoked salmon and salmon jerky – all the boys loved both! And then… It was on to the fish throwing!

Michael found a huge salmon and Leo liked the Monk Fish

(There is a chain hooked to the Monk fish and he would “jump” every now and then. It was too funny!)

We loved watching them making cheese… But we liked eating the cheese even better!

We stopped by the Original Starbucks! So very glad they made more than one!

We had some amazing Chinese chicken pita sandwich – woo! Spicy!

And we finished the tour at Rachel’s Ginger Beer – it’s non-alcoholic, like root beer. It was a little spicy with all the ginger but when they made it into a ginger beer float – Yum!!!

When the tour ended, we toured the market on our own and saw the coolest cauliflower…
And just toured around a bit…

Then we headed over to the Space Needle for lunch at the top. The Sky City restaurant is located right below the observation deck, and it rotates!!! 

The lunch is pricey but it included your ticket up the space needle. Plus some of the wait staff (like ours) will let you split the (overpriced) brunch, so it wasn’t too terrible. This is a half portion and it’s plenty of food!

But the funniest and most memorable part of the lunch with the girl from the table beside us. Her parents would just let her wander around the restaurant, and she would just come stand at our table and just stare 😳. Seriously, it was like Mike Meyers from Halloween.  I thought well maybe something was wrong with her? Nope, she talked and behaved like normal with her parents and wait staff but we got this – and she would just stand there for about five minutes at a time…

It finally got to the point that I just started laughing uncontrollably every time she came to the table😂😂😂

The views at the Space Needle are really awesome… Even if you have to eat lunch with Baby Mike Myers. 

After the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, Gum Wall… We decided to just walk around. I’m so glad we did because we found the International Fountain

The fountain was originally built for the Worlds Fair here in Seattle back in 60’s, and was redone – now it is a place for families to just spend a day cooling off – so we did!

Okay but now the problem is how do we get dry? Sunshine and a playground should do it… And look what we found…

This is the Artists at Play Playground. The playground was created by some artists for the city of Seattle to engage all the senses – there are noise pieces, large rope for touch, bright colors for the eyes, etc. But to the Brown Brothers, it was a giant ninja warrior course!

 It really was a cool place and we sat in the shade watching them play for almost 2 hours! On the way home, all that playing caught up with Leo

But have no fear! A 20 minute recharge in the Uber and he was ready to go! We headed to the activity room at the hotel – this was a huge selling point for this hotel! They are so family friendly! Boys loved having an activity room to get rid of any remaining energy 

And to get rid of those activity room germs… Chlorine!

After swimming, we showered and, you guessed it, time to eat again! Tonight we rode to another local restaurant recommended by one of our Uber driver: Lunchbox Laboratory 

Pretty good food – burgers and fries but things weren’t greasy and Mike said the tater tots were best he’s ever had – and he loves tater tots! 😍. The shakes were delicious!

I do think I have the most handsome dates – including the mountain man! 
 But as of 10pm PST, the mountain man is no more! 

So tomorrow we have our very full day of vacation 😳😬😩 I can’t believe it’s almost over! But there is still of Seattle to explore and of course, more food to eat!!! 😜

Well, here we are – Washington – the last state of our trip – we made it! Whew! And we still like each other 😜

The plan was to leave Portland and travel the 60 to 90 minute trip to Johnson Observatory, and then travel to Mount Ranier (2 hours away) and then on to Seattle. But… The Washington DOT had other plans… They were doing the strangest most inefficient road work on the ONE road that leads to the top of Mount St. Helens. So that 90 minute trip took 3 hours… So, one a positive note we had lots of opportunities to take great pictures

We stopped at the original Visitor’s Center to look around but I had read reviews that this was really dated and there is a charge for admission.  So we took a great picture, and headed to the Forrest Learning Center.

The Forrest Learning Center is sponsored by Weyerhaeuser, and is FREE.  It was really interesting and hands-on for kids. Boys loved the “Discovery Lab” where they could touch everything.

We loved that they focused on animals and how the eruption effected them

Leo liked the wearable Eagle Talon and showing daddy the difference in people vision vs eagle vision (their vision is so much more powerful like a zoom lens)

Michael and I liked the brown bear 😮 (we learned almost 600 brown bears were killed in the blast!🐻🐻🐻)

And everyone liked he helicopter model so you could pretend to be a helicopter pilot rescuing people during the ash fallout!

And then… We found the playground! Thank goodness because we hadn’t practiced our ninja warrior skills in about 5 minutes so…

We headed further up the mountain to the Johnson Observatory – named after a geologist who was camped here near the top at the time of the eruption. His last words were “Vancover, Vancover, this is it!” They never found anything from him or his camp.

Hard to imagine that an entire side of the mountain just blew off!

As we headed down the mountain to Mount Ranier, we had to deal with same traffic issues.  We finally headed toward Mt Ranier and got on highway 505 at 4! I got a little worried that since it’s a National Park , they may close at 5. The website said they didn’t BUT they did note that they were doing construction on the road to Mount Ranier… So basically we would be in the same boat just 4 hours from now. So we decided to skip Mount Ranier for now.

Instead, we decided to eat – what a surprise! Since lunch was a few peanut butter crackers, we had an “early bird dinner” at Ribeye Ramblin’ Jacks in Chehalis, Washinton 😀.  Think local restaurant meets Western Sizzler meets Shoneys with really good food. And the BIGGEST desserts ever! Here is their 1 pound cinnamon roll:

It was hokey and delicious! Perfect for us:

(Plus who doesn’t secretly want to eat in a restaurant with a giant cow on top?!?!)

We arrived in Seattle and watched a little of the Olympics and movies while having milk and our sweet desserts

Boys finished off the night with some swimming and hot tub time

Tomorrow we have a “Savory Seattle Tour” of Pikes Market and lunch inside the Space Needle (the restaurant rotates!) cannot believe we only have 2 more days!!!

Wednesday is in the books – and we took Portland by storm! Or as much storm as you can create in 19 hours 😜

After breakfast at hotel in Eugene, Michael wanted to walk out to the patio area. When we did, we saw ducks, lots and lots of ducks. 

We couldn’t figure out why they were just looking at us, and more and more ducks kept coming to us?  Then Leo looked in the stand-up cooler – duck food! They were surrounding us because we were supposed to be serving breakfast 🍳. So we got busy serving duck-breakfast! 

Before we left Eugene, we stopped by Voodoo Donuts for some sweets! (We had planned to go to the original Voodoo Donut in Portland, but our fishing guide told us to plan for a 2-hour wait if we went to the Portland store. Now, we like donuts, but I can’t think of any donut worth waiting in line for for 2 hours!!!)  They opened the Eugene Voodoo donuts last year…. So, we cruised right into the Eugene Voodoo Donuts – no wait at all 🍩🍩🍩

After getting our box-o-sugar, we hit Interstate 5 and headed north. It only took about 10 miles down the road for the donut-monster to strike…

We knew our time in Portland was going to be short and according to every “mom-blog” I researched, we just had to go to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry…

So, we did 😀

It was really a neat place, kind of a cross between Greensboro Science Center and Discovery Place in Charlotte – and add in a submarine.  Yes, I said submarine – the USS Blueback was docked in the Willamette river behind the Museum!

It was an interesting tour, and I am very thankful that I’m not stationed in a sub! 

Boys loved the sub – although the engine was a little loud

And Mike enjoyed talking to our tour guide – a former sailor on this sub! It was a really neat experience especially compared to the massive size of the USS Midway in San Diego.

Inside the boys got to become astronauts and learned all about the science used in space

Cutest astronauts EVER!
Michael loved the how to become an astronaut videos

Leo liked the gravitational pull experiments – because it was like centrifugal force that he studied at camp!!

The boys (in true boy-style) really liked the  “how do they go” in space exhibit… Especially the water part… 

Leo wanted to know if astronauts got privacy 😂

They liked the giant building blocks

(pay no attention to the woman behind the tower)

Michael liked the experiments about eating and exercise

Leo refused any help on the maze – and was quite pleased with himself when he solved the puzzle 🎉

After we shut the OMSI down, we wanted to experience a Portland original – Killer Burger

We all got in the Rock-n-Roll state of mind (Michael said we were being too silly for him 😝)

(Pretty sure I lost all rock-n-roll cool points by doing the sign for I love you instead of rock-n-roll sign 😜)

But the burgers were awesome!

And we had a great time together

And we are back in the room and relaxing watching the Olympics – well, relaxing, tackling daddy, whatever! 

Tomorrow we leave Oregon and head to Washington for a really full day – starting with Mount St. Helens to Mt. Rainer and then to Seattle.  One more state to go!

The morning we left the Chateau in Cave Junction, Oregon and headed to Eugene, Oregon to try our hand at fly fishing. But before we left, we had breakfast at the Chateau’s Cafe – an original 1930’s soda counter.  

The food was great – and the coffee was better ☕️

Then we were off… Back down that twisty turny mountain 😳😬  It wasn’t as bad going down the mountain as up.  It was fun to see all our phones and iPads come back online once we reached the bottom with 100+ emails!!!

Once we got to Eugene, home of University of Oregon – Go Ducks! – we checked in and headed out to meet Jason at Home Waters Fly Fishing 

Since the steel bottom boats only hold 3 people, we met his friend Josh at Hendricks Park, and left our car.  Josh had 2 sons,ages 7 and 9, so he was perfect for our crew. Jason didn’t have any kids, and may never want them after Leo talked to him for FIVE HOURS during our float 😂😝

This was such a cool experience! We floated down the McKenzie River fishing for Rainbow Trout (salmons run in May and June).

It is absolutely gorgeous here! We could see Osprey and Woodpeckers in surrounding trees, and see the trout jumping as we went downstream. 

Everyone caught fish! 

Leo caught 4 (but threw the last one back because he was as too small); 

Michael caught 2 (but he threw his first one back because he looked sad 😊);

Mike caught 2 fish; and

I got one – but had to throw it back because it was a wild trout. They try to throw these back to help with spawning. But it still counts! 😛

Just such a cool experience! 

But it wasn’t over yet… We landed back in Hendricks Park, and started preparing our fresh caught dinner!

What about dessert? How about some fresh blackberries?

I think we liked our dinner 😊

We tried to do like Sylvester the cat when he pulls the bones out of his mouth 

It was such a great day and so relaxing to just float and fish! Absolutely a dream day!

Thanks to Jason and Josh! 

And then a beautiful Oregon sunset for our drive back to the hotel 

Tomorrow we head to Portland for a day of sightseeing. Good night everybody!

*this is last night’s post because we had no phone, wifi, TV or AC ❤️

We woke up for the last time in California this morning. Before we started a 3-hour drive into Oregon, we had breakfast and let the boys swim for about an hour. Apparently every parent in the hotel had that same idea because the pool was overflowing with kids 😀

Anyway, we loaded up about 11am and headed north up Highway 101, the Pacific Coast Highway. It was a beautiful view and took us through Redwood State Park in northwest California. I think Mike and I said “I cannot get over how big these trees are” at least 3 times each! I just cannot explain how monumental these things are!!

Along the way, we saw beautiful roadsides… 

And some little towns that were a little scary (think deliverance in a tall forest). We just kept on rolling 😜…

We did stop to see a big herd of mother elk and their babies 

Seriously, how cool is it that along a major highway, a herd of elk are just chilling out?!?!?

We kept going and came to beautiful beach entry so we stopped. Because when are we ever going to have this chance again? Boys did a little wading into the Pacific Ocean. Two major differences with Atlantic Ocean: the sand is dark, like pepper; and Brrrrrr! This ocean is cold!

Your mom says turn around for a picture📸

And boom! Your shorts are wet 😜🌊

And of course, had to make it a family photo op 📸😀

And finally – we made it to Oregon! 🎉

We are staying at the Chateau at the Oregon Caves. We couldn’t figure out why our directions (and extremely spotty cell coverage) kept saying we were only 18 miles away but it would take up about 45 minutes to arrive… And then we started driving up the mountain to the caves… It started as a regular 2-lane road, and it got narrower and narrower and narrower! 

They don’t even try to make it look like a curve because the turns are that sharp!

By the time we arrived, the only way 2 cars could be on this alleged “2-lane road” would be 2 mini-coopers! And we are not driving mini-coopers! Yikes! 😬⛰😬⛰😬⛰

But the Chateau is amazing! It is an 82-year old building. No TV, no Wifi, no AC, and no telephones (other than old school pay phone in a phone booth) But it is just gorgeous! 

 They do close from November to May, and the halls do look a little like the Shining…

Wish I had tricycles for the boys to sit on at end of the hall 😜

But how cute are these rooms 😍

After we got checked in, we met Katie, our Park Ranger, for our tour of the Oregon Caves. WOW!

These are the longest continuous caves in the United States, and we climbed it all – including the 500 stairs! And it is always 43 degrees in the caves no matter what the temperature outside. When you get near the opening, it’s like standing in front of your fridge.

The whole thing was breathtaking, but when you think of the original explorers who climbed into these caves with flashlights and proper gear! 

The boys really liked the scavenger hunt, and learning a whole new vocabulary of stalagmite (katie said to remember you might trip on these) stalactites (Katie said to remember these are holding on tight), a cave kiss (Michael got 9 and Leo got 8 during our tour!), columns, drapery, Flowstone, Igneous, Sedentary, and metamorphic rocks, as well as the history of the caves. 

They are now officially Jr. Park Rangers!

When we finished the cave tour, we had about 90 minutes to kill before dinner and 2 boys – remember I said no wifi or tv – so we decided to hike to the top of Big Tree Trail on Mount Elijah – almost 5000 feet up. I am so so glad we did! First, we saw a doe who clearly had no fear of people! 

And then, we saw the view! 

Oh. My. Word! 

There is no way you can see this and not know that there is a God. Wow! 

Look at these 2 heartbreakers!

And of course, family pictures!!!

This was a really awesome day! The no phone, wifi and television thing really made us all slow down and take a breath! Even the boys said “I like this old timey place!” Me too boys❤️

Now we are off to Eugene, Oregon, home of the Oregon Ducks, to do a little trout fishing! 🎣

Today was our second “long” drive day from San Francisco to Eureka, California but we had some amazing stops along the way.  

We started our day on Lombard Street in San Francisco – the most crooked street in the US! I am so glad I didn’t have to learn to drive a stick shift on this street! Yikes!!

(And yes, I was hanging out of the car to make these pictures)

After Lombard Street, we headed out of San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge. We ooh’d and ah’d all the way across that Bridge! 

We headed north up Highway 101 to Muir Woods. If you ever need to feel insignificant, come see these trees – WOW! 

The boys could not get over how big these Sequoias were! But they were not happy that they couldn’t climb on the fallen ones – the park asked that you stay on the path to help with lower growth. 

But the sheer size of these giants made up for their disappointment. See if you can spot Mike and boys in this picture:

Here’s a close up:

So yea, we’re pretty much just a speck compared to these mega-trees! We spent so much time in Muir Woods (and getting another In-N-Out burger – seriously, these things are awesome), that we were thinking of skipping the next redwood forest.  However, with a little help on google, we discovered that there was a redwood forest that you can drive through – and it was “a scenic alternative” to Highway 101. Perfect!

So here we go on another detour (ball of twine 4 short hours away…)

I am so thankful that we didn’t miss this! When they call it The Avenue of the Giants, they are not kidding! The redwoods of Muir Woods were babies compared to these -AND we could climb in and on everything! 

Let the climbing begin…

This is the root of that same tree

Seriously, we couldn’t even make it halftway around this thing with all four of us!

It was just an amazing drive and so glad we didn’t take the fastest route and miss this free 😍 adventure! 

Then we tried to do one of the drive-thru trees (and I loved their entrance – depending on good ol’fashioned honesty)

But the drive through tree was only 7 feet 7 inches wide and 7 fee tall… And we were in a rental mini-SUV… So, here’s the picture

And that’s as far as we went 😜 We did drive across a redwood and see a redwood playhouse… Okay, it was hokey, but I paid $6, and at least it was Storyland! 😝
We really enjoyed the drive – stretched a quick 4+ hour drive into 9+ hours, but it was so worth it!

We arrived at the Holiday Inn Express in Eureka (if you’re ever here stay at this one on Wabash St. It’s brand new, indoor pool and great staff). In talking with the staff at check-in, I mentioned that we would love some fresh seafood. Keep in mind it was 8:30 at this point. The lady at check-in said Jack’s Seafood is open until 9pm and food is great (her boyfriend was the cook). So off we go… On the way, I started checking Trip Advisor to make sure I wasn’t taking my children to a Deliverance-restaurant. 4.5 stars on trip advisor about food and service… With a special note that Danielle was the best server.  We arrive at Jack’s, which closes at 9, at 8:55 – whew! And guess who our server was… Danielle! And yes, she was fantastic! Boys told her all about our trip so far, even showing her pictures of the Redwoods. And the food – Oh My Goodness!  This may be the best meal we have had in this trip, and as you know, we have eaten well!

We finished off the evening with some swimming and hot tub time, and then watched the Olympics.  

Tomorrow we leave California and head to Cave Junction, Oregon. I have to admit that Mike and I are leaving California with a whole different attitude about the state and its people. We have had a blast and can’t wait to see what we can get into in Oregon!!!

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!