Day #4: Snoopy!

Em ready for Vid Con!

I have always wanted to go to Knotts Berry Farm as I love Snoopy and he is the mascot of this theme park.  It was originally a farm started by the Knotts Family.  Mrs. Knotts was known for her friend chicken, and many people came from far and wide to enjoy it.  Mr. Knotts set up some games and rides to keep people happy while they waited for their friend chicken dinners, and so Knotts Berry Farm was begun (he also made berries and jams which are still sold today via the Smuckers brand)

Anyway, from its humble beginnings, it has become a theme park which huge roller coaster rides, shops and arcade games.  Our first stop was a roller coaster called the Ghost Rider.  It’s an old fashioned wooden rollercoaster, which shook us so hard, I ended up renaming it the Bone Shaker.  I don’t ever need to go on that ride again!

After that was a roller coaster where the seats rotated on the track.  Steve tackled that one with Pete while I went shopping.  Smart mom!

As it was a Saturday, we noticed that the park was getting more and more crowded as the day wore on.  We decided to pick and choose our rides so that we could get back to the hotel and cool off.  I should mention that Steve had seen his fair share of sun yesterday, and he was really feeling the sunburn on his head by today.  He kept trying to find shade as we went along, but Knotts Berry Farm doesn’t really believe in shade.  That was another reason we knew we weren’t going to last long.

We made it to the back of the park where we found corn dogs and chicken nuggets for lunch (not the healthiest vacation so far!).  While the corn dog was cooling, Pete and I went on a cute mine ride and then we started heading towards the front of the park.  We stumbled upon an old blacksmith building, which is one of the oldest buildings in the park.  Mr. Knotts had it moved to its current location in the 50s (the building is from the late 1800s!), and the blacksmith there makes all the horseshoes and forged metal found in the park.  It was really fascinating to see him work, and I was encouraged that some of the original spirit of Knotts Berry Farm is still there.

After another quick peek at a snoopy shop outside the park, we headed back to the car to get back to the hotel and the POOL!  The days here have been a bit hotter than we expected (mid-80s) and a LOT of sun, so the pool was quite refreshing.

The kids decided to join us for dinner again and not do the evening activities at the conference, so we got dressed up and met up with the kids along the sidewalk in front of the conference center.  We headed for Downtown Disney to a restaurant located right in the center called Catal.  It was a lovely evening to be eating outside.

A bit of window shopping after dinner, and then we walked back to the room to sleep and prepare for our big day tomorrow: Disneyland with the big kids!

(From Emily about her day: I met Tom Milsom and gave him a hug.  Andy went off with the Rooster Teeth guys and did stuff, and I hung out, bought some things, went back to the hotel and took a nap, and then went to the Secret Panel.  After that, I met a lot of people and it was awesome.)

To see what Andy had to say (which is WAY more than Emily did), click on this link:

http://roosterteeth.com/members/journal/entry.php?id=2899673

Day #3: VidCon/Disneyland

This morning started early as the kids wanted to get a jump on their conference.  As I can only share our experiences at Disneyland, I can only highlight what Emily did at the end.

We said goodbye to the kids around 8am, and they headed to the conference center, and we headed to Disneyland.  The hotel is located such that the kids have to walk one block west, and we have to walk two blocks north to get to our destinations.  It’s perfect!

Disneyland is divided up into two parks:  Disneyland and California Adventures.  Our tickets are good for going between both parks.  So, our first stop was to a café for coffee and pastries in California Adventures primarily because it is the home to the new CarsLand. As you may know, Pete is a HUGE Cars fan still, and since it only opened about 10 days ago, it is the most popular spot at Disney right now.  There was a long line for getting fast pass tickets for the Radiator Springs ride which seemed counter-productive, so we ended up just standing in line for about an hour for the ride. If you know Test Track from Epcot, it’s very similar to that…starts with a ride past the characters from the Cars movie and ends with a ‘race’ through the Radiator Springs track. 

The other two rides in Cars Land are a Luigi Tires ride where you ride airboats and bump into each other with beach balls flying around (Pete took a pass…it was also an hour wait) and a Tow Mater ride where you’re pulled by a tractor around in circles.  It was cute and the wait wasn’t as long, so we did that ride as well.

We also shopped at the Radiator Springs Curios Shop and Sarge’s Surplus Store where Pete ended up buying a lanyard with his name on it.  Pin Trading is huge at Disney, and Pete decided that’d be fun to do, so later in the day he bought some sets of pins that we pinned to the lanyard for trading with others.  The way it works at Disney, you can walk up to any cast member who has pins on their lanyard or pouch and ask to trade one of your pins with theirs.  Pete had a blast doing it on and off all day.

After Cars Land, we got fast passes for, what we decided later was probably the best coaster at Disneyland called California Screamin’.  While we waited for our fastpass time (you get passes that say you can go to the front of the line within a certain timeframe), we waited in the Toy Story Mania line.  It’s a 3D ride combined with arcade games where you stop and play each arcade game (usually shooting at targets), racking up points.  It’s really fun!

At first Peter didn’t want to do the California Screamin’ ride as it goes upside down and looks really fast, but by the time our Fastpass time came up, we had convinced him that it would be a good idea, and so he went.  His response when it was done?  “I WANT TO DO IT AGAIN!”  Guess I’m glad he tried it!

We tried the ferris wheel with gondolas that move within a loop on the wheel (not just swinging, but actual moving in a circle).  It can be quite stomach churning when the ferris wheel gets turning (I even saw air sickness bags in the gondola!)

My boys!

 After a few more rides, we headed back over to Cars Land so that Pete could eat lunch at Flo’s V8 Café.  After lunch we headed over to Disneyland and straight to Tomorrowland.  The Toy Story ride there isn’t as fun as the one we had ridden earlier (same concept: ride meets arcade game).  We then headed over to the other awesome rollercoaster in the park:  Space Mountain.  Once again, Pete LOVED it!  But who wouldn’t love a roller coaster in the dark with stars all around.  And I must say, for those of you who know the Disney World version, this one is quite different, and, I think, a lot better!  For one thing, you sit two side by side, instead of three in a line, so there ends up being four in a car.  The ride seemed smoother, too.  At the end we heard “I WANT TO DO IT AGAIN!”…another Pete-approved ride.

We rode the Matterhorn (not what we expected) and then headed over to Frontierland.  Unfortunately, the Tom Sawyer Island was closed, so we’ll need to do that on Sunday with the big kids.  Peter enjoyed Thunder Mountain Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion.  There wasn’t much of a wait for any of these rides…everyone must be at Cars Land!

After a brief discussion, we ended up having dinner at an outdoor café with a live New Orleans-style jazz band playing right in front of us!  At that time, we heard from Emily who had just had a wonderful day and was wondering if we wanted to do dinner with her.  Oops!  We finished our dinner and ended up meeting her outside the park and walking over to Downtown Disney.  It was getting late and I knew Pete wanted to see the Disneyland Fireworks, so we left Em and Dad with appetizers and Pete and I headed back into the park.

We found a bench and were able to sit, relax and enjoy the firework display.  Pete was even able to trade a few pins in the process!  We all ended up back at the hotel room where Andy was waiting for his spaghetti to be delivered to the room (he had stayed at VidCon longer than Em and so missed out on dinner)

Tomorrow, more VidCon for the kids, and Knotts Berry Farm for us!

(From Emily about her day:  We went to the opening session. I met Charlie and Liam, I made some friends, I played in the Arcade, Andy met Tobuscus and the Rooster Teeth guys)

Day #1-2: Reminiscing Down Route 66

With a goal of getting out of the house by 8am, I was able to kick everyone into action and be on the road by 8:30am.  Not too bad!  We didn’t even find ourselves circling back because someone forgot something.

As we were pulling out of the driveway, I said to Steve…so…which way?  Google Maps said I-80 was more direct, but the southern route which follows the old Route 66 may be more fun.  After a brief moment of contemplation, we both decided Route 66 would be more fun.  So, we ended up heading down alongside the old Route, with me reading from my old vacation blog and all of us recalling fun stories from that amazing trip.

We hit Springfield, IL at around noon, so I suggested lunch be at an old Route 66 institution:  the Cozy Dog Inn, home of the original Corn Dog.  Not too far off of our path, we soon found ourselves in the midst of Route 66 memorabilia enjoying corn dogs, hamburgers and really yummy fries!

It was decided that dinner be in Joplin, MO not only because we would be there around dinnertime, but because we would be supporting their economy after they were devastated by a huge tornado nary a year ago.  Dinner was at the Red Hot & Blue, which is located just south of the devastated area.  My kids thought that it didn’t look too bad, but I reminded them that it has been a year, and where you see empty lots…those are probably buildings that fell victim to the tornado.

Back on the road again, we watched the sun set, and the kids settled in for a nighttime of sleep…well, except Andy.  He had slept all day!  He did take one of the late shifts, but it was through a lot of construction, so I kept waking up as I would hear him go onto the shoulder.

Sadly, a lot of my favorite places along Route 66 were passed in the night including Cadillac Ranch, Mid-Point Café (I’m still waiting to get an ugly crust pie from there some day) and Tucumcari, NM.

The sunrise was equally beautiful, and I was able to get a few photos at dawn once into New Mexico.  A quick stop at McDonalds for breakfast and a ‘pit stop’ and we were back on our way.  When we got to Holbrook, AZ, we needed gas, so we took the opportunity to drive through it and show Pete Joe and Aggie’s Café and the Wigwam Motel where we had stayed in a Tee Pee on our Route 66 trip!  Sadly, Pete remembers none of it as he was only three.

Lunchtime found us in one of our favorite stops along the route, Williams, AZ, just south of the Grand Canyon.  I recalled that we had enjoyed pie at the Pine Country Restaurant on our Route 66 trip (there’s a theme here!), so we stopped there again, had lunch, and finished with the largest piece of blueberry cream pie you’ve ever seen!

One fun game that we played in the car was Mad Libs.  If you’ve never played it, you ask people for nouns, verbs and adjectives, and then plug them into a prewritten story.  Some pretty funny things can come out of the story like “Disco Squatting” and ‘The planet closest to the sun is called Kathy.”

As the afternoon pressed on, we were nearing the 32 hour mark of having been in the car when we decided that 36 hours may have been a bit too much.  Those last few hours were TOUGH!  We were both done driving, but we were in California traffic and didn’t feel confident turning the reigns over to Andy or Emily.  So, we pressed on, arriving at our hotel around 7:30pm local time (9:30pm home time…so just a little over 36 hours)  We freshened up, headed out and found ourselves at a California Pizza Kitchen.  So it’s a chain…it’s got California in the title!  After a very yummy dinner, we headed back and that was the last thing I heard for a long, long time.  I haven’t been that tired in a long time.  Tomorrow…VidCon/Disneyland!

Anaheim, Austin, Am I Crazy??

This was going to be the year we didn't travel. This was going to be the year we SAVED money. I have NEVER desired to see Texas in July. But what can you say when the kids in the family BEG to go to VidCon or RoosterTeeth conventions? You grow weak, you justify the trip, and the next thing you know, you're putting a deposit on a condo, in Austin, in JULY!!!

While this year won't be filled with Scottish castles, pristine lakes or even the world's largest totem pole, it will be a fun vacation.  The trip includes:

* Driving straight to Anaheim from Chicago (that's 34 hours folks...we're getting pretty good at it)
* Four days in Anaheim with the teens going to VidCon (defined as the largest conference, convention and celebration for those who love online video) and Steve, Pete and I headed to Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm (anyone who knows me, knows Snoopy has been an integral part of my life since I was very little...and Snoopy is the official mascot of Knotts Berry Farm!)
* A quintessential California day at Huntington Beach, surfing capital of the world (probably just the surfing capital of the US...but Americans like to exaggerate)
* A long drive across Route 1 in Texas (where the word exaggerate was BORN)

* Five days in Austin where Steve and the teens will head to the RoosterTeeth convention (don't ask...just look it up) and Pete and I will kick about Austin finding ways to beat the heat
* A day or so up in Dallas with Steve's sister
* A stop at Doe's Eat Place in Greenville, MS where Steve experienced the BEST STEAK EVER in 1985 (there's that exaggerating again)...we'll see if we agree.

So there you go.  More stopping than going on this trip, but a fun trip nevertheless.

At least I hope it's fun.  The Bumbas have never done heat well...

Day #24 – Alnwick Castle and Heathrow

Getting ready to leave – sorta

Wow, Day #24.  Not sure any of us were going to make it this far, but the trip has been fun and different at every turn.  We are ready to go home, though, I think.

One last jump

This morning was a combination of finishing packing, getting dressed, and tidying up.  Breakfast was as simple as it gets, cereal, toast, coffee, juice.  We had hoped to be gone by 10, but we were actually gone by 10:40.  Oh well, we tried!  The caretaker showed up and we turned over the keys. She wished us well and we were on our way.

Our castle is on the left of this photo – Bye castle!

It was a 3 hour drive from Darsie down to Alnwick (pronounced Annick).  I must take a moment to mention that two days ago, the plan had been to say goodbye in the morning, turn in the car at the Edinburgh airport, fly to Manchester, hire a car to take us to Heathrow and spend the night in Heathrow.  Two days ago I realized that the Jagi were going to Alnwick Castle, which is a place I had tried to work into our trip 6 months ago, but dropped it as it was too far south and east from where we ultimately were headed. 

Our view for about 3 hours - the back of the Jagi-mobile!

I realized that if we gave up our flight from Edinburgh to Manchester and just drove to heathrow (keeping our car for one more day) we could make Alnwick work for us!  I just only wished I had this thought 6 months ago as it would have saved us loads of money in that stupid flybe flight (no refunds, no returns).  The extra day on the car is pennies compared to what I lost on that flight.

Harry Potter?  No, Andy!

Oh well, we were excited to fit Alnwick in as it is the castle that Hogwarts is based on.  This has been quite the Harry Potter themed vacation this year!   After a quick stop at Morrisons to pick up some sandwiches, we made it to Alnwick around 2pm.  This place is much bigger and more of an operation than any other castle we’ve been to on this trip.  Choices for tickets were Castle, Garden or Castle and Garden.  Since we were on limited time we chose just the castle option.

Flying lessons

Had we had time, however, the gardens looked like a child’s playground.  There was a splash pad, a huge cascading waterfall, and a treehouse to end all treehouses!  If we ever find ourselves back in this part of the world, it will be worth it to explore the gardens.

Heading to the inner courtyard

The castle was impressive, however information on getting around was horrible.  First we wandered into the courtyard and found a guide giving “broom flying” lessons to a group of kids close to where the first broom flying lesson was filmed in Harry Potter #1.  We watched for a bit, and then headed further into the center of the castle where the actual living quarters and state rooms are located.  They did have something fun for the kids as we walked through the state rooms.  They told kids as they entered that there was a hidden owl (actually a tiny Hedwig stuffed animal) located in every room.

That’s who owns it now!

So, while we toured the castle, the kids had a good time looking for the owl in each room.  What was amazing with touring the state rooms is that this castle is still owned by the same family that has owned it since the 1200’s (the Percy family)!  Ralph, the 12^th Duke of Northumberland now owns Alnwick, and his family actually lives in this castle, amongst all that amazing regal décor, from fall to spring.  The family leaves in the summer, and Alnwick becomes open to the public.  However, when we were there the Dutchess was actually there, as we saw her car in the courtyard.  I just can’t imagine that being my home!

Pointing out the forbidden forest

Hagrid's Hut! (really a shed)

Anyway, after we walked out of the castle, a Harry Potter tour of the grounds was just beginning, so we joined up.  He pointed out how the forbidden forest was filmed, how they made Robbie Coltrane look like a giant and where different scenes were filmed and how.   It was really fun and informative (and the guide was really silly so he held the kid’s attention)

See that metal in the arrow slit window? They put that there to put torches while creating Hogwarts, and now they can’t get them out!

Our last group photo snif!

After a quick trip to the gift shop, we said our tearful goodbyes to our friends, the Jagi.  They were staying on to do a few more things, and we needed to get going.  It was already 5 and we had a 6 hour drive ahead of us!

We managed well on our own on the highway, however we did miss one turn which added about 30 minutes to our drive.  Around 6:30 the kids started talking about being hungry, and Steve said he really wanted one more proper pub dinner.  We got off the highway at Scotch Corners, and passed the Burger King truck stop and headed into the tiny town about ¼ mile in.  <80024>We stumbled upon a gastro pub called the The Shoulder of Mutton and boy was it good!  It was a really great last meal in England, but it added 2 hours to our trip.

Bed at LAST!

We finally made it to the hotel at 1:30am.  We went around in circles a bit around Heathrow, and I was glad the roads were pretty empty then.  But we did finally make it and were happy to fall into our beds and be asleep by 2.  But I decided technically it was 7pm at home, so I chalked it up to getting on Chicago time.

Tomorrow we have a leisurely morning, we’ll return the car (as we got in too late to return it tonight) and be on our way home.  It’s been fun.  It’s been wonderful.  It’s been expensive!  But most of all, it’s created memories we’ll never forget.  And if you’ve read all of this trip’s blog, then thank you for making the trip of a lifetime with us.

Day #23 – Hangin’ at the Castle

Two pretty things (Waterfall and Emily!)

Today started of wet and never stopped.  Really, for this to be the only rainy day in Scotland is quite remarkable!  Steve and I started the day with a run while everyone slept (I think I’ve gained at least 50 pounds on this trip!)  We ran through a light rain, along the creek that runs past the castle.  It was a beautiful run.

Once back home, we saw that Chris was up.  He headed up to Dairsie (in the car this time) to get some milk while we hopped into the shower.  Once clean and ready, we had some coffee and just took it slow.

A castle photo

As everyone else began to rise, we started thinking about a nice big breakfast.  We ended up making eggs in the Aga stove, bacon, baked beans, and toast.  Another proper English breakfast!  As it was noon, everyone was up for “breakfast.”   We finished, cleaned up and then just hung at the castle.  At one point, Steve, Andy, Emily and I headed into St. Andrews for a  bit to get a map of England for our drive home, as well as a few things at the Tesco for dinner, and some wi-fi for Andy.  He sat at a café enjoying their wi-fi while the rest of us ran around in the rain getting things.

Another Castle photo!

When we were done, we headed back to the castle.  When we got there, Isobel was babysitting Peter, Anya and Isaac while Chris and Nicola had gone to see the air force base nearby as well as a local old church.   We all met back home to relax some more, and start organizing/packing for the trip home tomorrow.  We started a fire in the fireplace, and then the kids (and some parents) started to participate in a massive game of hide and seek.  Do you know how awesome hide-and-seek is in a castle?  There were some hiding places where people actually gave up and came out of as they would never have been found!

A silly girl!

At some point a few of us started working on dinner while others continued to play.  It was a great game, and I must tell you that when you hide across the chairs under the medieval dining table, NO ONE can find you without help!

One of 6 bathrooms!  I didn't discover this one for days!

Dinner was mostly leftovers as we are leaving tomorrow.  We did our best to eat up as much as we could.  We sent the kids to bed, and Chris, Nicola, Steve and I played cards until 1am.  Not sure we should have stayed up so late, but it’s our last night together, so it was worth it.  Tomorrow we have quite a drive!

Day #22 – Doune Castle and a Whiskey Tour

Finally got a group photo in our jumpers!

Today, wile we didn’t get out super early, we did try to get going around 10:00 so that we had plenty of time to make it to Doune.   It started off cloudy, but turned into a beautifully sunny day as we headed west towards Sterling.  It was about an hours drive before we entered the small village of Doune.

Swamp Castle/Castle Anthrax (for Holy Grail fans)

Just outside of the town was Doune Castle.  Not only is this a medieval castle which is still partially intact, but it is also the location for a majority of the scenes filmed for Monty Python’s Holy Grail movie!  We paid for tickets, and were given personal audio tour guides for everyone, narrated by former Monty Pythoner Terry Gilliam.

"Are you sure he's got one? Oh yes, it's vereh naace"

Moooo!

Writing a letter to the Queen

The tour guide took us through the courtyard, into the kitchens, bedrooms and up to the top along the castle wall.  We would enter an area, hear the background on the castle and the room, and then press an additional button to hear Monty Python info.  The courtyard Monty Python info talked about the scenes where the cow was hurled over the wall and the Frenchmen were standing on the top of the east wall as well as the Trojan horse gift that went so horribly wrong (they used audio clips as well, so we just stood there laughing!) This was also the place where Sir Lancelot was killing people while he was coming down the stairs as he was attempting to stop a wedding.

“Some day this will all be yours”

The kitchen Monty Python info talked about how they used the huge kitchen fireplace as the scene where the girls were holding one of the Python crew captive.  Upstairs in the great hall above the dining hall was the scene where the father said “Someday this will all be yours” and his son says “What, the curtains?”  The view out that window was beautiful.  Too bad it isn’t all mine!

Kinda done

Apart from movie history, we did hear about the Mary Queen of Scots bedroom as well as King James and the usual stories of plundering, backstabbing and triumph.

After a very successful trip to the gift store, we were on our way to lunch.  There was a wonderful walking path through a field to get to the center of Doune (it was only ¼ mile walk)  Once in the town, we found a cute little café called the Butterfly Café.  We sat and had a lovely lunch outside as it was still a gorgeous day. My sandwich had bacon, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce and pesto mayonnaise on “arctic bread” which was really a flatbread.  It was so good!

At the Butterfly Cafe

<70851>After lunch, we headed back to our cars and started back towards home.  We stopped in Tullibardine to check out their whiskey distillery.  It was about 4pm, and everyone was interested in the tour except Emily and Isobel.  They toured the shops nearby and hung out in the nice weather until we were done.

The tour was very interesting.  This distillery has been in operation since 1488, but started as a brewery.  In 1993 it was closed entirely, but was purchased and reopened in 2004.  It’s a small distillery, so the tour wasn’t very long, but it was very informative.  They keep the spirits in wooden casks.  Different casks give different flavors.  The oldest cask they have with whiskey in it right now is from 1958.  They created a cask in April as a gift to the new Royal couple, William and Kate, but they haven’t heard what William and Kate will want to do with it.

After the tour, there was some tasting and the kids got chocolate for being patient.  In their gift shop they also had a Starbucks, which was kind of funny, and sad.  Starbucks is everywhere!

Always needing more food!

We left Tullibardine and headed towards home.  A little less than an hour later we were in Cupar.  Steve and Chris went to the local Tesco to get items for our Italian feast, and the kids went to the park to play.  Andy and I went to a café to find wi-fi so that he could answer some email from DePauw.  We all met back in the park around 7 and headed for home.

Park fun!

Two different sauces were made, as well as an antipasti tray and a tomato salad.  The meal was very good, and we were all very full by the time we were done.  We aren’t sure what we’re doing tomorrow, but everyone seems to be interested in just hanging close to home.