P05
PartyofFive Joined: June 25th 2007
Logged in: February 19th 2011
Logged in: February 19th 2011
I also blog about my other interests (writing and reading) at at www.edgyinspirational.blogspot.com. Come by and check me out!
Travel Blog Posts
August 27th 2009
Griffith Observatory
It hit me on my last day of vacation; I'm officially star struck. I met one of my favorite actors this evening and squealed like a 15 year old girl. But the experience turned out to be the perfect Hollywood send-off. It was the cherry on top of this California trip. Our last day started innocently enough. My son really wanted to go back to Disney's Soda Fountain on Hollywood Blvd. for ice cream, and we had a $5/off coupon a stranger handed us on the street, so we splurged and went there for lunch. After eating, we headed across the street to look around near Grauman's Chinese Theatre for sidewalk stars and hand prints we might have missed the first time. Some people were promoting the new Final Destination 3 movie by handing out free ... read more
Santa Monica Pier
Last night, one of my boys was so excited to be at the beach he wet his pants. I'm not going to say which one, in case he ever gets a look at this blog, but let's just say he's old enough to know better. We only had a few minutes until the sun went down, and when he started playing in the sand he didn't want to take time out for a bathroom break. With that kind of enthusiasm from the kids, how could we not take them back to Santa Monica Pier today? We arrived mid morning and they had two good hours in the sun to play in the sand and frolic in the waves. As far as swimming goes, I don't believe the beach at the Santa Monica Pier is the prettiest ... read more
So we did this trip for around $1800 total. I lost track of how much we spent flying home in the airport. We bought snacks during our layover. Staying with my sister in law and driving her car were big money savers. For those of you following along, here are our final spending totals by category: Attractions/Parking: Disney's El Capitan Theater (1 adult/1 child) $33 Disneyland tickets (2 adults/1 child, twins free) $206 Disneyland parking (2 days) $24 Aquarium of the Pacific (2 adults/3 kids using the Entertainment book coupon) $47.85 Parking at Aquarium of the Pacific $7 Santa Monica Pier parking: $16 (two days) Griffith Observatory parking/admission: Free Wheel of Fortune taping: Free Two and a Half Men taping: Free New Adventures of Old Christine taping: Free Window shopping at the Grove/Farmer's Market: Free Hollywood ... read more
The view from Mulholland Drive
After staying at Disneyland all day yesterday, we too exhausted to do much of anything today. So we spent a lazy Sunday sight seeing. My husband took his Ipod and his sister's bike and rode around the city, while my sister-in-law drove the kids and I up and down Mullholland Drive. Then we spent some time in Beverly Hills. We parked and walked Rodeo Drive. I felt underdressed just walking down the sidewalks in front of some of those stores...Harry Winston, Versace, Jimmy Choo. We drove around looking at houses in the Hancock neighborhood, Mulholland area and a few in Beverly Hills. My blogs are coming slowly (and out of order) because I've had some electronic glitches this trip. I'll try to get things worked out and get more entries up.... read more
Disneyland
Since it's their birthday, my twins got in free at Disneyland today. We planned to spend the whole day there so we woke up early to get ready to go. I wanted to pack a lunch in our cooler to take with us, but I ran into a snafu at the house. The food we were going to take with us was unavailable on the morning of our trip, so we had to leave without a lunch. That meant our Disney budget was blown right from the beginning. Food is incredibly expensive in the parks. Although the official word is you're not allowed to bring your own into the parks, I've taken a soft sided cooler many times. Security pokes around in it and waves you on. We left the house at 6:00am and by 7:00am ... read more
Grauman's Chinese Theater
The first sign I'd lost my mind in Los Angeles was choosing to stand in a 50 minute line at Pink's Hot Dogs (www.pinkshollywood.com) at 1:00am in the morning. We'd just gotten off the plane and my sister in law was driving us home when we passed the hot dog stand of the stars. We were too excited to go to sleep so we pulled over and got in line. Sheer craziness. I don't even stand in 50 minute lines at Disneyworld! The hot dogs were expensive and I didn't think they tasted any different than other chili dogs I've had in my life, but apparently Pink's comes highly recommended in these parts. We went to bed with full stomachs and somehow got to sleep without any heartburn. We slept in that first morning and when ... read more
Hollywood Boulevard
I have to apologize to Los Angelians everywhere. I was the driver of the teeny tiny toy car doing 35mph on the freeway this afternoon. Despite being directionally challenged, I ventured out on the LA roads by myself to take my sons to a taping of Wheel of Fortune. We left West Hollywood at 10am. Even though my GPS said it would only be a 20 minute drive, I didn't make it to Sony Studios until almost 11:15. You might be thinking I got stuck in the infamous LA traffic, but you would be wrong. I'm just slow. I signed up for several tv show tapings, and Wheel of Fortune was the first. TV tapings make excellent budget activities because the tickets are free and so is parking. Most shows don't take children under 16, but ... read more
Look out Hollywood, here we come! Our family vacation this year is super cheap. Who am I kidding? All our vacations are super cheap...but this one is more so. We are flying cross country, spending eight days in Los Angeles and I won't spend more than $1750. As always, I'll blog about what I spend, and where I spend it, to give readers ideas for their own budget vacations. Our first budget decision was airfare. We didn't decide to go to LA until after we saw how low we could get the plane tickets. We thought we'd possibly be driving to Orlando. So, keeping that decision flexible helped us to do this vacation cheaply. Starting in January, I began following plane prices daily (or every other day) at www.airfarewatchdog.com. I watched prices out of my home ... read more
The White House Blues
This year's White House Easter Egg Roll wasn't all that it was cracked up to be (forgive the shameless pun). I'm about to walk a delicate line here and attempt to give an honest review of the event without coming off whiny or ungrateful. But since I'm not that good of a writer, please read this review in the context of my travel blog; it's a planning resource for families who want to try what we do in the future. I'm not writing with a spirit of negativity, just trying to inform. Let's talk about the basics: 1. Tickets- I wrote a lot about the ticket distribution in a previous entry. Tickets were distributed two weeks before the event online. To get tickets, camp out in front of your computer, log onto the White House website, ... read more
Great Wolf Lodge
I decided at the last minute to take the kids somewhere fun during the Christmas vacation. Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls, Canada is an indoor water park about 30 minutes from our house but we've never been there before. Lots of kids from my area talk about visiting Splash Lagoon with their families, which is also a waterpark a little further away in Erie, PA. Ever the budget traveler, I decided we'd go to the cheaper of the two and I'm so happy that it turned out to be Great Wolf Lodge. I'm on the mailing list for Splash Lagoon and even though they sent me a flyer with special rates, I didn't find them to be cheaper than Great Wolf Lodge. The first thing GWL had going in its favor was the exchange rate. ... read more
