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Even though she might not seem to speak highly about the trip now, I know she will when she get's older and has had time to reflect on all the cool things that her parents did for her! Thanks! Sorry to hear that. That's also why we bought an RV instead of putting everything into retirement preparation. We're preparing for retirement but also trying to enjoy traveling while the kids are still home and we are still youngerish. Sounds like it. We stayed at Anaheim RV Resort. It is located here: The sites are paved, level, and there is nice grass between the sites. Still somewhat crowded but not bad. I can't believe I didn't take a picture of our site for reference like I usually do.

Part 5 - Disneyland Resort Day 2 Let's continue on with our second day at the Disneyland Resort. It was my daughter's birthday so she had most of the say on what we would do that day. While we usually plan our days so that we are able to eat most meals in the RV, stretching the travel budget further, we did plan to eat out lunch in celebration of her birthday. While I got some recommendations from TPR members, my wife ended up picking House of Blues in Downtown Disney since it had a new menu created by Aaron Sanchez. Anybody who watches Food Network should know who Aaron is. [Happy wife = happy life] Unfortunately Disney doesn't consider that part of it's resort per se when it comes to Disney cakes so we were unable to do that this time. Here are some photos from day 2: We were there early so we somehow managed to snag a spot at Pumbaa, a lot close to the entrance. This is from our 'take a shot of a sign somewhat near our parking so we can find our car later' shot. Day 2 began at Disneyland. You're welcome in advance for another uniquely framed shot. You're sure to never see this shot ever again. ...but what if I like today? Yeah, it's Christmastime. Off to Adventureland. Indiana Jones, specifically. At Disney, even the elevators are themed. While I sometimes make fun of the time they take to build things, in the end I always forgive them for their attention to detail. Thank you for the warning. I was also clued into it from the outline of a door in the wall of the elevator. My daughter got to 'drive' on her birthday...well not really More nice theming in the queue and exits. Indiana Jones is WAAAAYY better than the awful Dinosaur at DAK. I was worried when I saw the same ride vehicle but ended up loving it. Well I'll be a monkey's uncle...or is that Buddah? Rising photographers, this is why it's important to look at your background and compose the entire picture. Yahooo-oooo! "Dad, we're supposed to be here. Can't you read??" Next up, Matterhorn Bobsleds. Fun but nothing spectacular. By now the lines were also picking up so we only rode one side. I would love to have one of these... ...or these. I love the different forms of transportation they use in Disneyland resort. Yeah, we did the Jingle Cruise. I usually eat up (and egg on) the bad jokes but our guide wasn't so good. She spoke so you couldn't understand her well so I didn't get to groan at as may puns... If only they started charging for stroller parking, they could make a mint... Fun. ... I guess this ride didn't have a policy on on-ride photos. Missed this. Originally I was thrilled! After reading Chuck's report, I wish we had made the time to check it out. Already I have the annoying 'it's a small world' song going through my head... A dungeon! What else to you expect under... oh I guess it's a castle. For some reason these colors don't look right to me. An interior decorator I am not, though... It's time to head to Downtown Disney for our lunch reservations. Thankfully we had reservations or the wait would have been 1 1/2 hours. My bacon-wrapped meatloaf was really good. After lunch my daughter asked to do her favorite thing, some shopping and she even let us know that The Outlets at Orange were just a few miles away. Here I found a Vans store with a skate park. This might be nothing to those from around the area, but to me it was fascinating. At first I couldn't figure out why they were bringing their bikes into the store... It really was a skate park with lots of seating on an observation deck so you could watch. If only I had something like this as a kid, we wouldn't have made ramps and then tried to jump over things much less safe than this... Back at DCA, we passed by some weiners. Looks like they are famous or something. Oooh... Light... We crashed Mad T Party. Well not really but it sounds cooler saying that we did. As much as I didn't like the band jamming at DL the night before, nothing about Mad T Party seemed out of place to me, as weird as that sounds. I so want this outfit although he tried to attack us with his pecker, beak, or whatever it's called. Honestly the only reason we came over here was we realized we forgot to do Monster's Inc, M&S to the rescue, since we all loved Monster's Inc. It was a nice compact version covering some of the highlights of the first movie. Nice job. The band was good and there were a lot of people out here enjoying them. We stopped and listed for a few minutes. Wow, now those are some big balls! Or I guess they're called bulbs. One or the other. Guess were we were headed again? Yep, the only ride we did twice during our trip and once again our clear favorite at either Disney resort we have been to. Look, a spinny, twisty, whirly thingy. Where's my Dramamine? I tried to be artsy with some bright pretty lights. We missed Worlds of Color but we missed numerous other things this trip to Disneyland Resort. That's to be expected as it's hard to do both parks in just two days when it's one of the peak times of the year. We didn't care because we had a blast! We will be back. Stay tuned for Part 6 - Knotts Berry Farm.

Normal Carolina winter weather right now. HIghs in the 50s, lows around freezing.

You're welcome. If you don't mind driving, there's nothing quite like an RV road trip especially if you are self contained. Thanks, everyone, for the great comments.

Great shots, as always. I have not yet been fortunate enough to visit any of the Legoland parks but I hope to rectify that in the next few years.

I'll jump in. Expedition Everest - Disney's Animal Kingdom

Part 4 - Disneyland Resort Day 1 We are in sunny Anaheim for the next few days. Our campground is less than a block from Disneyland as the crow flies. We have two day park hopper passes so this update will have the pictures from Day 1 and the next update will have the pictures from Day 2. Before I share my photos and commentary, I'd like to give my overall impression of DL/DCA. The parks were packed as we expected with long lines. No surprise there. The crowds were similar to what we experienced at WDW in 2009 during spring break, which we also expected, as we were contributing to the crowd issue. Also, I am not a Disney fan boy although I still respect them as the leader in theme parks regarding operations, customer service, etc. Few parks can even come close to the level of 'Disney Magic,' as I call it, in regards to the overall experience, and their attendance numbers reflect that in my opinion. With that being said, I do prefer WDW to DL although we received the same level of Disney Magic at both parks. While their prices limit our trips to one of their parks only once every 4-5 years, their execution and operations of the two theme park complexes I have been to is indicative of the high bar they have set. If they continue to live up to this high standard, we will always enjoy the few days we spend at one of their resort complexes and this trip was no exception. Geez, almost makes me sound like a fan boy, eh? Here we go... We started out at DCA where the crowds were heavy, as expected. Our first ride of the day was in Cars Land, Radiator Springs Racers. I didn't think I'd like it going into it but was surprised at the quality of this fun family ride. The great execution of Cars Land in general greatly surprised me as it's hard to realize the extent of it without personally visiting it. Which car is going to win, the green one or the green one? Look! A cactus!! ...so that's where my hubcap went. After reading Chuck's report, I wish I had eaten here. What a big nose you have... A great combination, Starbucks and Disney although I think both are slightly overpriced. Yet I keep spending money on both, go figure. My, what big bulbs you have. Peeking thorough the over-sized clover fields (at least they weren't poppy fields) is our next destination, a ride that is consistently in the top 3 rides for everyone in my family, Tower of Terror. I really loved the trolley and wish we had ridden it. While we liked the execution at DHS better, we still loved Tower of Terror at DCA. Since I'm responsible for dusting my office, it highly resembles this. I take it at least a few of the people on the ride have been here before. While my picture didn't do it justice, I loved the color of this tree and the way it stood out in the California sunlight. Moving on, we hit my second favorite ride at the park, Midway Mania. We are all huge fans of the Toy Story movies and also love shooting dark rides so this is a big win. Of course I had the highest score not that I was keeping track. Yay! I get my medal back. New coaster credit at this park, California Cruisin' The obligatory shot of the looping train. I was entirely surprised of how much I liked this coaster. While the air time and forces don't compare to other coasters, I really didn't expect something like the experience I had on this. Unfortunately with monster lines I only got to ride this once during our trip but I'm sure I would have enjoyed future rides. Nice theming. I was hoping they were selling one of those papers. Paradise Gardens is transformed into Viva Navidad. I will have to say that I have never seen anything quite like this. I wish I had brought along my cardboard Corona Mariachi outfit and I could have joined in. Of course I'm not nearly as good as these guitar players. They were good although I'm certainly no expert in this style of music. Next up we hit the only other coaster credit in the park. Seriously, though, I didn't come here just for the credits. I am the only person who has ever composed a photo like this. Next up, another dark ride that is a real people eater. Hi Ariel. I hope the fish are doing the conga line or something similar. The finale complete with simulated fireworks. Is that water I see? We didn't ride this as we seldom ride rapids. We did find a good way to get dry, though, if you do happen to get wet on the rapids. Next up, Soarin' Over California. I liked it but do which they video flowed from scene to scene a bit more smoothly. Did I mention that we were here with about 1/4 of the U.S. population We left to eat 'linner' and came back early evening. This time we chose to check out Disneyland. D'oh, we forgot about Disney parades and their popularity. Had we known, we would have gotten here before the parade started so we could be at the back of the park. We're not parade people although I know that many people are. The glowing futuristic balls can only mean we're in Tomorrowland. Of course that means Space Mountain. I prefer Space Mountain here over the one in MK. Here was my first real surprise of our visit. This 'heavy metal' (according to me) band struck me as being out of place although I'm not quite sure why. I personally enjoy some heavy metal music. The shape of the castle looks funny to me. Another Toy Story ride! Although not as good as it's presumably newer counterpart in DCA, it is still a lot of fun.

Once again, thanks for the TR. While I have a lot more parks I'd like to visit, there are only two left on my bucket list for the US: IB and SDC. Your report reminded me why IB is one of those two parks.

Drunk Again - Reel Big Fish

^^That's good to know.

This report was great! I really enjoyed reading it. We'll have to plan this into some future Florida trip.

I like the green a lot better.

That is great news that it is staying. It sounds like I couldn't have ridden it even if I tried. Oh well.

Thanks, guys! Thank you for the encouragement. I sometimes wonder if my daughter appreciates all the effort that it takes for these trips as it doesn't seem so. Knowing that she probably will in the long run makes it work the effort to plan future trips. Part 3 - To Anaheim and SFMM This will be a shorter update because I already posted a TR in the SFMM discussion thread. I won't repost it here but will cover it quickly to make this whole report cohesive. Is that even possible? Let's move on and see! After a great four days with family over Christmas, it's time to head further west. Going through the mountains of Eastern California, you can tell we're getting closer as traffic picks up. And here we are in Anaheim, CA, and are greeted with beautiful weather. I could really handle the weather here year round. After getting settled in, my daughter and I took the hour trip north to SFMM. We got platinum passes which was a mistake. Based on the way the flash passes merge into the line you can usually save money and go with the gold. The were running both stations for Tatsu. Apocalypse - one of my favorite coasters at the park based on the 10 we were able to do in a 4 hour window. It had a nice mix of elements giving what I considered to be a balanced ride. Colossus - not so much. After riding on it, I think it could benefit from some RMC love. Green Lantern is a thumbs up in my book for the insane ejector air time although I can imagine it could be painful. Full Throttle was good although it seemed short to me. When we hit the final brake I wondered where the second half was. Hopefully I can make it back soon to ride it again to see if my opinion changes. SFMM was decked out for the holidays. Well at least the entry plaza was; I didn't notice any other decorations. Bye SFMM. Until next time.

I voted. I love the reports! Thanks for putting them together.

Part 2 - Tucson, AZ After leaving San Antonio, our GPS greeted us with '856 miles until the next turn.' That gives you a good idea of what is on I-10 West of San Antonio. This update is a very quick and high level overview of our 4 days visiting family in Tucson, AZ. Most of the remaining updates will have more interesting theme park/coaster stuff. Texas has picnic areas and all the ones that I saw all had different themes. One we stopped at had a bunch of teepees over the picnic tables. They were awesome to look at and they look even better at sunrise. On the road again with the sun at our back. Here's a neat shot if you look closely at it. Going on I-10 in west Texas comes very close to the Mexican border. Expect to go through at least one Border Patrol checkpoint. We spent a lot of time looking at this view. Finally in Tucson, family took us to Hungry Fox. If you're hungry, they will feed you a LOT of food. Lots of food for breakfast. Our meal fed us breakfast for nearly 3 days. I found this donkey in a shop near the Mexican border. It would be mine if the price wasn't so steep. Christmas eve and the stockings are hung by the miniature tree with care... Our home for 4 days in Tucson. I couldn't believe it, those are citrus trees - in the desert. Specifically lemon trees. Pretty cool. Easterners are fascinated with cacti similar to how Australians are fascinated by squirrels. Expect more cactus pictures. More cacti. I'd hate to run into this. I'd hate even more to run into this. Beautiful view from the desert musuem. Hey look, a saguaro cactus up close. Wave hi back. We were told this was a 'nasty' cactus if you ran into it with all the tiny spikes. While I was there I joined the Corona Mariachi Band. Give me enough Corona and I can sing and dance on stage and might even wear this outfit... Hey! What are you doing with that camera??

I don't know if this is a new 'tweak' or if I overlooked it because I was focusing on each page overall, but I absolutely LOVE the announcements ticker (for lack of a better word) that is at the top of both pages. I think that will be very helpful down the road providing lots of little tidbits if info without taking up a lot of screen space.

We had been planning a trip to Tucson, AZ for over a year to visit my wife's family. During the planning process I told my wife that if we were spending 4 days in Arizona that I also wanted to spend 4 days in Southern California and she agreed to it without any concessions on my part. Woo hoo! The trip was scheduled for 15 days over the 2013 Christmas and New Year's holidays. Unfortunately that's also when 1/2 of the country also goes to SoCal. Thanks to some input from Elissa we knew this in advance so were mentally prepared for it. That really made the trip a lot better knowing up front what to expect. So here goes. I have a lot of pictures to share so I hope you enjoy them as well as my commentary. Part 1 - Heading West and Texas Stops (Kemah, SFFT) If I had planned it better we could have made this a true coast to coast trip. The great thing about road trips is that you get to see cool things along the way like the General W.K. Wilson Jr. Bridge outside Mobile, AL. The whole bridge is just over 6 miles long. By the time we hit Texas we had rain, severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado watches. Just 60 mile north of us it was ice so we were fortunate. The weather finally broke by the time we got to the Fred Hartman Suspension Bridge outside of Baytown, TX. Unfortunately the storms were enough to close Pleasure Pier, my first planned stop. Oh well. That's twice in the past year we have been by here and the park was closed. Hopefully the third time will be the charm! Kemah Boardwalk was open, though, so stop two was a go! Anybody game for a glowing carriage ride? I love double decker carousels. Credit #1 of the trip, Boardwalk Bullet. It had too many laterals and not enough air time for me. It wasn't unbearably rough overall although there were a few spots. Merry Christmas Kemah Boardwalk! We ate dinner at Cadillac Bar. The food (Mexican) was decent but we thought it was overpriced. The next morning we had to stop here. We can't go through Texas without stopping at Whataburger. Their spicy ketchup is great! The next stop on the way was Six Flags San Antonio primary for Iron Rattler. When we were here in the spring it was still under construction. There wasn't much of a line this Sunday afternoon. The park is decorated for Holiday in the Park. We'll be back on the road before dark so we won't get to enjoy them. I though the queue line was interesting and unique. This was credit #200 for my daughter. We forgot the 200 sign so she had to make a small one on the fly. The rattle at the rear of the train is a nice touch. Our seats. I was greatly impressed by this ride and think I like it slightly more than Texas Giant although I wouldn't mind either one being closer to me. Thankfully we already have this credit so it can remain a fixture on the skyline. Cookies and Cocoa anyone? It was very windy during our visit. I left a few hours in the schedule for the park so we had time to ride SkyScreamer. We skipped it last trip because it had just opened and the line was insane. This beats Windseeker hands down. I kind of wish we had done this now but we had to move on. It was very windy and chilly so I was surprised to see someone in shorts. He was probably a northerner thinking we were crazy for wearing jeans. I always love the look of this. Every park should have a Ferris Wheel. My what a big tree you have. My son's favorite ride, the Scooby Doo version of a Sally Corp shooting dark ride. For the first time my wife beat me. The Corps will have to take away my expert shooting badge. Wow, Santa has a castle! The train was being used for decoration. I wish it were running but it's time for us to go, anyway.

Yeah, I think this model is 6 of my total credits. We were rejected on it once (can't remember where) because they said it was a kiddie coaster only.

Yeah, I need to check that out since he's my favorite person on Project Runway. I'm running out of space on my hard drive DVR, though, so I haven't been able to setup any new recordings.

Great pictures! I enjoyed reading this.

Completely agree, I don't really like all the drama, but I really love the incredible amount of creativity in that show though. Have been a massive fan of the show since season 1. So I'm in the same seat as you on this matter. Funny you say that. We watched an episode last night and I watched the first 5 minutes, got up did some stuff around the house and caught part of the middle of the show, then stopped to sit and watch the runway portion at the end. There is certainly a massive amount of creativity.

Batman: The Ride - at a Six Flags park near you

Wow, I can't believe we skipped Timberline Twister when we were there about two weeks ago. The line was too long so I figured I'd pick it up next time I was there. Never look a gift kiddie credit in the mouth - whatever that means

Thanks for the photos! I enjoyed the commentary.