OK… time for an update 🙂 I’ve been getting lazy on the updates and need to catch you up since we’re now back in Phoenix again. Where does the time go? Here’s what we’ve been up to…
As mentioned in my last posting, we stayed at the Newport Dunes Resort & Marina in Newport Beach, CA a few more days after the Alpine Coach Rally was officially over on Monday the 25th. We ended up staying there until Friday the 29th.
On the last official rally day (Monday), while most of our rally friends headed out of the park… we decided to visit Disneyland’s California Adventure Park® (DCA). DCA is the newest Disney park located right next to the original Disneyland®. We also visited Disneyland® a couple days later on Wednesday but I’ll save all the Disney pictures for the end of today’s blog.
When we got back from DCA late in the evening on Monday we found (as expected) that about half of our Alpine friends had left the park 🙁 On Tuesday, we spent the day hanging around at the RV park and packed our stuff away in preparation for moving. We deflated and cleaned the inflatable raft, loaded the Harley onto the back of the Silverado, cleaned and put away all our chairs, mats, etc.,
There were still 8 to 10 Alpines (out of 20) in our row with most of the remaining folks planning to leave on Wednesday, so we still got the chance to mingle throughout the day on Tuesday.
We said goodbye to a couple folks that left on Tuesday.
And then the remaining Alpiners’ had an impromptu evening get-together at Frank Krauland’s Coach. Frank fired up his grill and barbecued some awesome chicken while other’s pitched in with a few side dishes. Thanks for the food and ambiance Frank!
It was another fun and successful Alpine SoCal rally… can’t wait for the next one! We said our ‘see-ya-laters’ to the remaining Alpine SoCal members before we went to bed because we planned another trip to the Disney parks on Wednesday and wanted to get an early start. This time we visited the original Disneyland®.
Now here’s some pictures of our visit(s) to the Disney theme parks from both of our trips. Some of my Facebook™ friends may have seen a few of these pics already when I posted online. The first ones’ (below) are from Disneyland’s California Adventure® park (DCA) that we went to on Monday:
Long lines were the norm…
One of the first rides we went on at DCA was the California Screamin’ roller coaster. It was the first time Kaan had been on a roller coaster. After the first ride, his initial shock and fear wore off and he couldn’t wait to get back on. We (Jenny, Kaan & I) rode the roller coaster a total of four times throughout the day. Stilla (as usual) waited out the scarier rides.
On Wednesday, (after taking a break on Tuesday as I mentioned earlier), we got an early start and went to the original Disneyland® theme park (pics below):
Almost all the water rides were closed for some reason 🙁 There were no boat rides at “Rivers of America”. No “Jungle Cruise”, etc., Even “Autopia” was closed along with the “Disneyland Railroad” and “Matterhorn Bobsleds”.
Hope you enjoyed the pictures from our Disneyland theme park visit(s). Remember, this blog is primarily intended for friends & family and doubles as our photo album to look back on in future years. So if you think there’s too many pictures… you’re just going to have to deal with it 🙂
On Thursday, since we already packed most of our stuff for the trip back to Phoenix, we just relaxed for the day and hit the local island here in Newport Beach (Balboa Island) and then spent some time on Huntington Beach.
We had a nice lunch on Balboa Island and then walked around to do some sightseeing. Stilla and Kaan spotted some seals or maybe they were dolphins(?). Too far away to tell for sure.
We didn’t have to take the little ferry onto Balboa Island… but we did anyway just for the fun of it. There’s also a road that connects the island to the mainland.
We walked one of the piers along Newport Beach.
And then we drove up to Huntington Beach where the parking fee was metered by the hour and was a little more reasonable than the $15 dollar fee they want at most of the other nearby state park beaches.
Kaan and I had a good time playing on the beach and in the water. Stilla and Jenny just got some sun.
My sand castle got washed away 🙁 Kaan was smarter and built his farther up the beach 🙂
On Friday morning, we left the park by noon. After braving the LA traffic which rolled along at a snails pace at times, we finally rolled into Quartzsite to look for a free boondocking site for the night.
We found a nice spot just off the highway (I-10) called Dome Rock Rd. It’s on the west-side of Quartzsite, only a few miles from town.
We unhooked the Silverado and drove into town for dinner. We went to Silly Al’s (←link) for some awesome pizza and had enough to take home some leftovers. After dinner, we found a souvenir shop that was still open and did some browsing. Here’s Kaan (below) posing in front of the World’s (reportedly) largest belt buckle.
On Saturday, we made good time with light traffic and arrived back at the Triple T RV & Mobile Home Park by early afternoon, which is where we’re now parked again. Hopefully, not for too long.. it’s starting to get too hot here in Phoenix. We got the same spot we had before we left for CA and Jenny’s travel trailer is still parked just behind us. I’ll post again soon. Stay tuned…