Los Angeles. Day 1. California, Here We Come.
“Pedal to the floor,
Thinking of the roar,
Gotta get us to the show.
California here we come.
Right back where we started from.”
We got up Sunday morning. Our flight was at 930 so we booked two Ubers (because we have too much stuff for one) for 745 am, which is too early for my liking but it is what it is. Already in the morning Tzvi was all stressed out.
It used to be cute like “oh, lets get to the airport, I really need to make sure we have overheard space and aren’t the last ones on the plane” but now it’s like “we need to be the first ones on the plane so I can put my little backpack up in the overhead bin because God forbid there is something at my feet and I can’t stretch out my size 13 feet under the seat in front of me without obstruction, so you all must heave ho.”
Anyway, the airport was extremely crowded and there was a huge line for curbside. Thankfully we saw the sign that said Mosaic check-in and walked right into a special check-in counter for Mint and Mosaic members! Who knew? Probably everyone but us. We checked in right away – no line. It was amazing. We must’ve saved I don’t even know how long and it would’ve been really difficult to even schlep our bags and check in at the regular counter. Now we know for the future, and it’s worth all that credit card spending to be a Mosaic member.
We went through security pretty quickly. The airport was so packed the Dunkin line was insane, the Starbucks line was crazy, but I mobile ordered Starbucks and picked up my drink all within 10 minutes. It was fantastic. I’m doing great today with lines. Of course Tzvi doubted my mobile order abilities and was like “are you REALLY going to get there in time.”
We got the girls some snacks and cereals and Tzvi was rushing to get to the gate because he wanted to board first and take advantage of that Mosaic status (read: stretch feet out). Seems to me that a real benefit would be you get to board last and you’re guaranteed overhead space right above your seat. After we got the snacks I went to get my coffee and by the time he called me to yell at me asking where I was I had already picked up my coffee, so ha.
We boarded and settled into our Even More Space seats (another perk of Mosaic – upgraded seats are free). We saw two people on the flight that we knew – Avi Buchman, who we went to college with and who lives in LA, and Morah Miriam, who was Madeleine’s teacher at the JCC last year. That was fun.
The flight was long. It was five hours and 14 minutes but we took off 40 minutes late, and then once we got to LA we taxied for a long time and spent a while looking for parking (welcome to LA). The kids did pretty well, though it wasn’t super easy. Madeleine only slept for about an hour and Hallie has probably lost too many brain cells to count from watching five straight hours of Bluey episodes. Toward the end of the flight the woman sitting behind us told us that we seemed like really good parents and our children seemed really grounded. Thank you ma’am.
We got off the plane and found the Coffee Bean right next to our gate. It must’ve been fate, so we each got an ice blended before walking to baggage claim.
We got our bags pretty quickly and then waited for the van that we had pre-booked through Disney, except they didn’t tell us that we should've called earlier, so we had to wait about a half hour. Thankfully everyone and everything fit and we were off. The ride wasn’t too bad – about 40 minutes and the girls watched their tablets… again. At some point during the drive I realized that I had left my shoulder bag on the plane. Thankfully it only had my airpods in it, but unfortunately it had my airpods in it. Also, it was the perfect bag and now I had nothing to carry on this trip.
We finally pulled up to the Grand Californian Hotel at Disneyland. Yay! The hotel was super crowded. We checked in around 2:55, but our room wasn’t ready. I asked, ‘isn’t check in at 3?’ The woman checking-us in said ‘yes, but that means the rooms are ready between 3 and 4.’ That makes no sense – you don’t have check in at 3 if the rooms aren’t ready at 3. Immediately I knew we were at Disneyland and not Disney World.
We had some time so we walked around to see what the hotel had to offer. Everyone was getting cranky, Tzvi especially, so we sat down at the lobby restaurant to order pizza number 1 of the trip. At this point it was around 315. It took about 8 years to get a waiter to come over, and then an eternity for the food to arrive. In the meantime, Sherry and Mark arrived and joined us. They had driven from LA to meet us for the evening, so they sat and ate some pizza. The girls were very happy to see them.
After that we still hadn’t gotten a text about our room but it was already 415 so we just got on line at “Key Pickup” and by the time we got to the front of the line the room was ready. Actually, only one was ready, but they gave us all of the keys anyway. There was only one person manning the key line and it moved very slowly, so Tzvi went up to another person at Registration who was doing nothing and asked if she would give us the keys. She said no and that we had to go to the key line. Tzvi said, ‘but there’s only one person manning the key line.’ She said “yes” and smiled. Again, Disneyland not World.
The rooms are nice and spacious. A little dated, but still very nice. Only problem is that Tzvi and I don’t have a king bed – both rooms have two queens (at check in they said that even though we’d booked a king connecting to two queens they had no availability, to which Tzvi said ‘but we booked a king several months ago’ and the woman just said “yes” and smiled). At least we’ve got a bathtub for the girls and connecting rooms, and an [obstructed] view of the ferris wheel.
We showered and changed quickly and headed downstairs to Downtown Disney, which is much smaller than Disney World’s Disney Springs, but still very nice. I had to carry my stuff in a plastic bag because I didn’t have my shoulder bag. At least the bag check at security appreciated that. Anyway, we walked around a bit and saw the Lego store where they have a massive Lego Aladdin magic carpet with Aladdin and Genie and Jasmine, and Madeleine was freaking out because she loves Aladdin so much.
Then we headed to dinner at Catal. I’m not really sure what kind of restaurant it was – they had kind of an eclectic menu. I’m always underwhelmed by the restaurants in Downtown Disney, especially when Disney Springs has some really good ones. Dinner was good though. We started with a Caesar salad, which came as three large pieces of romaine, and pan con tomate, which I didn’t like but Tzvi said was ok. Tzvi and I shared the grilled salmon and the vegan jambalaya, which was actually delicious and was made with fideo noodles (basically cut up spaghetti) instead of rice. Hallie actually ate some of my salmon. For dessert we had cornbread Madeleines, which we felt obliged to order and were actually very good. The girls did very well and we didn’t need their tablets until the end. At one point Tzvi made some joke about something Sherry said and Hallie whispered to Tzvi, ‘Dad, you should be nicer to grandma.’
After dinner we walked over to Black Tap for milkshakes. (Black Tap is a restaurant that started in NYC and is known for over-the-top milkshakes.). I got a cookie shake, which was massive and crazy. Tzvi got a simple coffee milkshake, Mark got vanilla and sherry got vegan. All were delicious.
As we were waiting for the milkshakes Hallie asked if we could take a walk alone because she needed to talk to me about something. She said, ‘Daddy is acting very hard and it doesn’t make me feel good. Why is daddy so stressed?’ I told her that sometimes Tzvi gets stressed; at first, we were flying so he was stressed about that, and then all of the travel, and then his parents. Hallie’s so intuitive and smart.
From there we said goodbye to Sherry and Mark and walked to World of Disney to do some shopping. On the way we passed a floral display that said “Shalom” and it said it was part of the Disney company celebrating the Jewish community. Thanks Disneyland.
At World of Disney Madeleine wanted to buy an adult Ursula sweatshirt, which didn’t work out for her because she’s not an adult. Somehow, we managed to buy a ton of stuff even though we haven’t stepped foot in a park yet. I also bought a Disney fanny pack, because you’re not a Disney mom until you have a fanny pack. Actually, I bought it so I’d have something to carry in the park, since I don’t have my shoulder bag that I lost on the plane.
After that we headed upstairs and got the girls to bed. Everyone was so so tired they went to sleep pretty quickly.
It was about 10pm, which was really 1am New York time, and we had a full park day scheduled for tomorrow, so it was obviously time for us all to go to sleep. So, Tzvi and I headed out of the hotel and walked through Downtown Disney over to the Disneyland Hotel to Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar. The bar is decorated like a traditional tiki bar, but filled with memorabilia from Disney rides and movies. Also, ordering certain drinks triggered certain things to happen in the bar. Tzvi ordered a gin drink called the Tangaroa Cooler, and I had the Shipwreck on the Rocks, which caused lightening sounds to play and the ship in the bottle behind the bar to sink. The drinks were good and came in souvenir mugs. It was kind of like being on a ride that serves alcohol. It was fun, but the lack of sleep is not going to be.
Good day.
