Return of the Fishman: Disneyland Tue/Wed

Fishman

So for a variety of circumstantial and entirely selective reasons I have an opportunity to grab my wife and kid and take a break to get away from the real world.

So I'm going to the most made-up imaginary place I can think of: California.

I'm going to admit I've been to Anahiem theme parks a few times, but this time I'm actually planning on maybe getting out further afield into the Mohave and Joshua Tree and seeing more of the state, where you know, things might actually be a little more real.

But fuck it, I'm still going to Disneyland. And Legoland. And a bunch of other places that I'm not even aware of yet (seriously, what else is there to do in and around the greater SoCal area? I'm totally taking on ideas here, people).

In any case, it looks like we'll be around in roughly the first couple weeks of May.


So given that I'm going to be in the area, going to the Happiest Place on Earth™, and this is not a thing that happens very often, I thought maybe people might like to join in on the fun and merriment. Or at the very least, turn up to watch over my kid so Jen and I can ride Thunder Mountain Railroad together without being charged with child abandonment (No, look, Honey, we can just leave Casimir in the care of these strangers from the internet I've never met before. What could possibly go wrong?).

At the moment we're lining up possibly going to Disneyland for May the Fourth (Star Wars Day), but we're still nailing down our plans and dates. But would anyone be interested in getting together for theme parks in or around that time?

miscellaneousinsanity

Universal studios is pretty rad, your child might get more out of it if they were a few years older though

Muir Woods/Redwood National Park are worth seeing if you get up that far north

Burbank has good Chinese food and also the oldest remaining Bob's Big Boy in the country

The Betgirl

I'd totally hang if you decided to go up Muir Woods/Redwoods way. I'm around 8 hours away from the disneyland side of things though.

Barcardi

There is a wonderful Vietnamese culture in Santa Ana, the suburb just south of Disneyland, if you want good Vietnamese food. If you are interested i can send you some further info on where to go. Same applies further south with food in general in San Diego.

Also, go to to Redondo Beach if you want some good seafood.

If you do make it to Legoland take the full plunge and go to the San Diego Zoo or Wild Animal park, great for kids, best zoo i have ever been too. If you end up in San Diego for any amount of time go to Coronado Beach. For a more adult fun time, try Stone Brewery, but there are a ton of great Breweries in San Diego. Takes about 2 hours to get to San Diego from the Disneyland area.

I would also add that if you are just going for getting all over the place, just bite the bullet and go to Vegas for a day.

Houk the Namebringer

@bogey @nads @lord dave @sarukun @fiz are all folks i imagine would be very interested in some disneyland/socal action (i'm sure i'm forgetting some folks). i'm not big on the Happiest Place on Earth, but anything else going on in the area i'm down!

Fishman

Honestly, we have been debating whether NorCal or SoCal would be better, but between theme parks and the fact that we haven't been in SoCal for almost a decade (but I was in San Jose in 2009), SoCal kinda has the lead.

That's not to say I wouldn't go back to NorCal, especially on account of having some great relatives and a buncha great forumers and the science museum and Monterey Aquarium and a whole horde of other great stuff, but I'm probably limited to picking north or south, and so the one I haven't been to in a decade or so seems like the more likely option. Plus Disneyland!

Moriveth

You should come to NorCal.

I'm not completely biased or anything!

sarukun

I promise to take you to eat good foods if you come here.

I would like to go to Disneyland, but gawldamn it is expensive these days.

@Houk thanks for the heads up, a chance to high five Fishman is definitely worth going to Disneyland for.

sarukun

May I also humbly suggest the Channel Islands over Joshua Tree or any of the desert parks.

The deserts are fine but it is balls-hot in Cali these days, and I feel like you'll get more out of the ocean than the desert.

Bendery It Like Beckham

San Diego Zoo is great... and if you like planes.. http://www.balboapark.org/in-the-park/san-diego-air-space-museum. The museums in Balboa Park are awesome, and really not too far from the zoo!

the cheat

I have been meaning to do a couple of things, which are to visit the space shuttle that was recently parked at the science center. and then, I just found out that you can look through the griffith observatory's big, rad telescope for free. my personal favorite socal attraction is the long beach aquarium. they have a lot of hands-on interactive stuff, such as stingrays and shark petting, as well as you can feed lorikeets cups of nectar.

Blake T

When I was in America, someone (I can't remember who, I think it was a former though) asked me if I knew how to eat a buritto.

I did.

Moriveth

Blake T wrote: »

When I was in America, someone (I can't remember who, I think it was a former though) asked me if I knew how to eat a buritto.

I did.

Yeah but are you suuuuure

Fishman

Ooh, yes the Shuttle. Must go check that out.

And Jen was saying something about Santa Monica Pier.

user

Moriveth wrote: »

Blake T wrote: »

When I was in America, someone (I can't remember who, I think it was a former though) asked me if I knew how to eat a buritto.

I did.

Yeah but are you suuuuure

One really surreal moment for me, as a Mexican born somewhat life-long inhabitant of San Diego, California was happening across a Burrito-themed restaurant in Buenos Aires, in Argentina, and seeing posters bearing full Spanish-language instructions on how to eat a burrito.

I mean in context it made sense, but it was still very salient.

tynic

You start with the legs, right?

Poorochondriac

Disneyland in May is gonna be a lil' outside my budget (Coachella's gonna eat up a lot of my fun money), but I'm certainly down for any other SoCal shenanigans

Kakodaimonos

tynic wrote: »

You start with the legs, right?

That's burros.

tynic

More like missingthejokodaimonos

user

The copy was actually pretty compelling, it sold the idea of a burrito as some amazing innovation in food presentation.

Loosely translated it was, "maintain the burrito in your hands, rich meats, veggies, and salsa, completely enveloped in delicious and warm tortilla." Which I guess if you followed the instructions verbatim, would leave you holding the burrito.

Fiz

If you come to SoCal, you should totally take your kid to Sea World. It's pretty great.

How old is your kid? If they're still relatively young, they'd probably lose their shit at the giant Sesame Street play area with live shows by Elmo and the other characters

Hacksaw

Universal Studios has Beetlejuice. That should be all the motivation you need.

Fishman

He's only a year and a half, so it's a bit of a toss-up as to how much stuff will register and how much will go right over his head. He'll have fun, but the holiday is much more for Jen and I and just all going somewhere we can all enjoy together as a family.

He'll pretty much just be cute and happy (hopefully) most of the time anyway, so whatever we put in front of him will make for smiling fun times anyway, with a bit of luck.

Fishman

So, we have some flights and hotels and tentative plans and stuff now.

We fly in mid-week on the 30th April, spend a couple days in Anahiem mostly just recovering from the jet lag and taking it easy in time for the weekend. We might try and hit a theme park or do some sightseeing, but it will depend on how we've recovered.

On Saturday 3rd May we're thinking of heading out to Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach with an open invitation for any who want to join us. We figure it sounded like something to do where people could just join and hang out that seemed at least a little entertaining and not necessarily that expensive?

On Sunday 4th May we'll hit Disneyland with anyone interested in coming along to the Magic Kingdom, for those who love Disneylandish stuff and need little excuse to be there or just want to come along for the fun of it.

Seriously, these are open invite come-join-us weekendly things. So you know, come to one, come to both, whatever sounds interesting or works for you.


After that Jen and I'll be renting a car and heading south for Cinco de Mayo before swinging out around Joshua Tree/Palm Springs for a week or so before coming back and spending a couple weekdays in Anaheim again before flying out once more. So, the 3rd-4th May is the only weekend that we'll probably be in LA and able to do anything/meet anyone.

Anyway, that's the tentative plan. Flights and hotels are booked, so those are definitely our dates and if anyone wants to just get together and hang out some, you've got about a month to get it together to join in, suggest alternatives, make modifications, etc. before we get there.

Poorochondriac

Santa Monica is totally doable, and I'm typically free Saturdays, so I can potentially pencil myself in for some May 3rd shenanigans

Rankenphile

Fuck.

Rankenphile

You can take that either as a mournful curse that I won't be able to join you and meet your lovely wife and child and hang out with you, or as a helpful and fun vacation activity suggestion.

Either/or.

Rankenphile

Hacksaw wrote: »

Universal Studios has Beetlejuice. That should be all the motivation you need.

Universal Studios also has the single greatest food cart you could ask for -- Snack to the Future.

You know what it doesn't have, though? The motherfuckin Jaws ride. Some grade-A bullshit right there.

chromdom

They got rid of Jaws?

Fishman

I'm just bumping this because holy shit is this really only like 3 weeks from now?

I have so much shit to get done before then and I really need a holiday.

Also, who's around and interest in hanging out the weekend outlined? I just kinda assumed weekend would probably be better for most people.

Houk the Namebringer

I should be around! I'll pester some others about it too, just in case.

Fishman

Oh hey, I'm packing like a madman and this is this weekend.

I fly out in a little over 24 hours whereupon I get maniacally thrust across an ocean (twice) in an airborne metal tube with a hyperactive toddler in my lap, before getting an all-to-brief number of days to recover before daring to attempt impressing a group of internet strangers with displays of sterling wit and witty banter.


I should be able to get Wi-Fi at the hotel once I arrive, but just in case, does anyone want, say, my cell phone number before I disappear up into rarefied atmosphere?

sarukun

Fishman wrote: »

Oh hey, I'm packing like a madman and this is this weekend.

I fly out in a little over 24 hours whereupon I get maniacally thrust across an ocean (twice) in an airborne metal tube with a hyperactive toddler in my lap, before getting an all-to-brief number of days to recover before daring to attempt impressing a group of internet strangers with displays of sterling wit and witty banter.


I should be able to get Wi-Fi at the hotel once I arrive, but just in case, does anyone want, say, my cell phone number before I disappear up into rarefied atmosphere?

I would like it. Although I do not think I will be able to make it to Disneyland, Anaheim is close to a great many things, including places where dinner is usually eaten, and hopefully we can do something related to foods.

Moriveth

I just wanna say I am suuuuper jealous of this.

TrippyJing

I am not jealous of this.

I am airsickness personified, you see.

Fishman

sarukun wrote: »

Fishman wrote: »

Oh hey, I'm packing like a madman and this is this weekend.

I fly out in a little over 24 hours whereupon I get maniacally thrust across an ocean (twice) in an airborne metal tube with a hyperactive toddler in my lap, before getting an all-to-brief number of days to recover before daring to attempt impressing a group of internet strangers with displays of sterling wit and witty banter.


I should be able to get Wi-Fi at the hotel once I arrive, but just in case, does anyone want, say, my cell phone number before I disappear up into rarefied atmosphere?

I would like it. Although I do not think I will be able to make it to Disneyland, Anaheim is close to a great many things, including places where dinner is usually eaten, and hopefully we can do something related to foods.

I'll flick you a PM.

Houk the Namebringer

Feel free to include me if you like, I'm pretty much in the same boat as him. I'm not much for the Disneyworld thing, but I'm totally down for area fooding.

Fishman

That was a long day in between two very short nights. But hey, I'm now in a hotel and people wearing mouse ears keep strolling past my window.

Houk the Namebringer

Fishman wrote: »

That was a long day in between two very short nights. But hey, I'm now in a hotel and people wearing mouse ears keep strolling past my window.

Just wait till you get to Disneyworld! Hyuk hyuk hyuk

Fishman

Holy shit your city is big. BRB, trying to work out best way of getting family from Anaheim to Santa Monica with car or infant carseat.

Fishman

Like, I've been big places before, but, you know, size usually also comes with ways to get around.