Daddy's Summer Vacation-former Photo TR, current epic fail

[fatdaddy]

Ok, so i was just going to write a trip report about Blue Horizons, but my daughter just graduated kindergarten and is on her first summer vacation. So the plan is to do a lot of fun things we were unable to do since she started school. We used to do a couple parks or attractions a week and school ruined my good time.

 

I figure that I'm probably going to be doing something maybe once a week here in SoCal over the summer, not all theme parks, but a lot of off beat places my daughter likes, along with some of the major theme parks. So, ill just update instead of making separate TR's.

 

[edit] Kind of a failed attempt at a summer long trip report, not too much interest, so i cut it short. Still doing the stuff, just not posting anymore updates. Please note that since killing this i have removed the pictures, so there was a whole lot more crappy stuff to look at before. I kinda waited for it to fall to the third page and then just figured nobody was gonna look anyways, so why waste the space. Somebody should delete this all together.

 

May 28, 2010

 

Ok with that said lets start, fist off i went to Temecula Berry Company in, you guessed it Temecula,CA. The blueberry picking season started on the 14th, but of course i kept that a secret, because daddy was on the party bus headed to Bay Area Bash. It's fun for the kids and the blueberries are awesome. They had movie night in the evening, with personal blueberry cobbler, but we were headed to Sea World for the member preview of Blue Horizons.

 

Here for the member preview or Blue Horizons. At first it seemed light, but when we got over to Blue Horizons for the 3pm show there were lines all the way around the stadium. We barely got in before it was full, and were told that it was still being worked out, and that they may have to stop the show, or adjust things on the fly. The show was pretty awesome, i would put it on the level of the first time i saw Shamu Rocks, but a little more fruity. All in all, after the regular people left and the member night started it wasn't that bad crowd wise and we didn't leave til almost 11.

 

Heres some pictures.

(Ok, as you can see i removed the pictures, but pretty much was pictures of a U-Pick blueberry farm.)

 

Ok thats it for blueberries, i ate them all and have to go back when we do Belmont next month.

 

Ok, Sea World Blue Horizons member preview.

 

(Ok, there were pictures of Blue Horizons here, along with some general Sea World pictures.)

 

Well thats it for crappy pictures from a 2 mega camera and bad captions, for now at least. Today it's The National Orange Show in San Berdoo.

Edited July 25, 2010 by fatdaddy

[the ghost]

Nice TR! I am going to Seaworld this summer for the first time in like ten years(last time I went shipwreck rapids wasnt even there) so I am really looking forward to it, especially riding Journey for the first time. I am really looking forward to taking over San Diego this summer even though my family isnt whorish enough to go to legoland, so I still have some credits to hit in the future. Anyway, keep this up as it is cool to know all the stuff thats happeniong in so cal besides theme park!

[fatdaddy]

^San Diego has so much crap to do, check out Tiolis Crazy Burgers, it was featured on Diners Drive-ins and Dives. They have all kinds of exotic burgers including ostrich and alligator.

 

Ok, so i went to edit and ended up deleting the last post i did, but anyways thanks for looking, I'm gonna get the Orange Show up tonight and maybe some other stuff. Orange show had three credits including the Hi-Miler. I was unable, ok i forgot about the strawberry festival, so i missed that. Gonna try to get "somewhere" today and then Knott's on the weekend with Santa Ana Zoo. I'm also planning Belmont with maybe, Seaport Village or the the Midway, maybe both. How can i afford it, i can't, but my credit card don't know that.

[fatdaddy]

May 30.2010

 

Ok, so here's The National Orange Show in San Bernardino, this is the 95th year, it's gotten pretty small, except for the ride area, which take up most of the festval. No races or monster trucks and very limited vendors. Nightly free concerts and some small shows.

 

There were three coasters the Hi-Miler, Crazy Coaster, and Dragon Wagon. They also had pretty much any carnival ride you could think of, ferris wheels, tilt-a-whirl, zipper, etc., sorry no kick boodie for jesus, but if jesus accepts coaster credits then a lot of you are going to heaven. So, heres some pictures, thanks for looking.

 

[edit] Please excuse the quality of some of the pictures, used my wifes camera and it didn't turn out well, not sure what happened.

 

(There were pictures of the famous, or infamous HI-Miler and the fair)

Still a few more to come.

Edited July 25, 2010 by fatdaddy

[fatdaddy]

OK second half of this, after i got everything resized and edited down from the crappy pictures my wifes camera took, i realized that she had taken pictures on her phone, but of course it's too late now, im not doing all this work over again. Please forgive the extra super crappy captions, i was kinda tired.

 

ok pictures

 

(Here there were pictures of the Crazy Coaster and the carnival rides)

OK, thats it for the orange show, not a theme park, but a few coasters at least.

Edited July 25, 2010 by fatdaddy

[ILoveRides]

I love your TRs! You always have unique photos and the captions are hilarious! Keep it up!

[fatdaddy]

Ok, if you insist, i got more coming, went to the Orange County Zoo/Irvine Park Railroad. Just gotta edit down the Pictures and get them up. I have to organize what i'm doing, i have so many places to go and not a lot of time. Temecula balloon festival this weekend i think, maybe the cherry festival, all on the fly so no promises.

 

I'm really thinking of doing the Midway in San Diego, its an Aircraft carrier/museum later in the month when i do belmont. No, its not a theme park but inside of the ship they have a lot of different flight simulators you can ride for an upcharge, so many of you may be interested.

[fatdaddy]

June 2,2010

 

Here's the Orange County Zoo, located inside Irvine Regional Park, which also houses Irvine Park Railroad. There's a charge per car to get into the park, which keeps the riff raff out. Oh, and pony rides and a snack bar.

 

The zoo is mainly native animals; bears, coyotes, eagles, etc.. Very small, could do it in less than an hour, but you could spend a good part of the day enjoying the entire park. Ok here's the pictures.

 

(Pictures of the kids zoo, pretty much farm animals)

 

Ok, thats it for the childrens zoo, ill get the rest of the zoo up in a little bit.

Edited July 25, 2010 by fatdaddy

[fatdaddy]

Ok here's the rest of the zoo, thanks for looking.

 

(Pictures of the other zoo animals, even a donkey.)

 

Ok, thats it for the zoo, but i have more shots of the park comming. By the way, if any of this gets too racey or beyond what's acceptable, lemme know.

Edited July 25, 2010 by fatdaddy

[fatdaddy]

Here's some shots of the rest of Irvine park.

(Pictures of Irvine Park, the train and pony rides.)

 

Ok, that's it for this report, im working on the cherry festival so keep looking for an update.

Edited July 25, 2010 by fatdaddy

[fatdaddy]

Ok heres a short trip to the cherry festival in Beaumont, Ca. Anyway, theres a carnival, some booths, vendors and live music(Eddie Money was the headliner this year). For being "The Cherry" festival theres not a lot of cherries, but then i just went to the Orange Show and didn't see any oranges. By the way i'd like to thank the Lion's Club for putting on a great game of bingo, three cards for a buck, and all the bad jokes are free. Heres the pictures.

 

(Pictures of the Cherry Festival, even an exciting shot of people playing bingo.)

Edited July 25, 2010 by fatdaddy

[dino]

Cool TRs. I like seeing reports on local events like these. They always seem to have such character.

[fatdaddy]

^Oh hell, you just reminded me i forgot about the balloon festival in Temecula yesterday, my daughters are gonna kill me. I couldn't care less about the wine, but the balloons are awesome.

 

(There was a picture of the Smokey the Bear hot air balloon.)

Edited July 25, 2010 by fatdaddy

[triggernel]

Seems like all we get up here is the same County Fair that travels from County to county, with the same rides and vendors. Looks like a lot of fun.

[Robbie]

Keep posting, I find these TRs throughly entertaining!

[fatdaddy]

^Great here's some more bad captions, and the pictures have gotten worse, the lights played havoc with my camera.

 

Snoopy's Starlight Spectacular at Knott's, it's like Christmas in the summer time, without the presents. Ok, so it starts at "dusk", which i guess is like around 7:20 or something, and then theres a lighting ceremony at the entrance to Camp Snoopy. Charlie Brown and Snoopy come out and do a little skit and then plug in a giant power cord.

 

There's a few different themes going on. Theres space aliens, Snoopy camping, peace and love, and some other stuff i can't remember, but you get the idea. They also sell glasses that turned the lights into shapes for a buck. Other than that, there was music, which did make it kinda festive. Overall it was pretty cool, maybe not worth running out to see by itself, but if you happen to be a Knott's I would check it out.

 

(This was pictures of the lights at Knott's Snoopy Starlight thing, theme park yes, interest no.)

 

Ok, thats it, sorry for some of the blurry pictures, but the light comming from everywhere confused my camera.

Edited July 25, 2010 by fatdaddy

[Calicoasters]

The Ferris Wheel in my opinion is the scariest ride ever.

 

You are not alone! You will never see me ride the wheel of scaffolding anytime soon! Awesome trip reports so far, love the captions.

[fatdaddy]

^So, you do think Linus was farting on that dinosaur.

 

Just a side trip, I've been promising to take my daughters to see Ironman 2 at the drive-in. Theres actually two drive-in movies here in town, Van Buren and Rubidoux. Rubidoux had a miniature railroad under the screen back in the day. Both places now have swapmeets during the week, theres a pony ride at Van Buren. Movies are 7 bucks per person and kids over 5 are a buck, always a double feature, usually they pair something new with something thats been out for a couple weeks. Heres a few pictures.

 

(Shots of the local drive-in movie.)

 

Gonna do some trains this weekend, some rides next week, maybe Universal studios. Might even look for a donkey or two. Just keep checking back and again if this starts to suck worse than it already does, lemme know.

Edited July 25, 2010 by fatdaddy

[the ghost]

Awesome, I like these TRs... I like knowing everything going on so cal... keep it up!

[Lenaapple1974]

Love the PTR's! There is so much more to do than the big parks! Keep 'em coming!

[fatdaddy]

Got more comming, i just got a little shutter happy and took way to many pictures. Ill have something up by tomorrow and maybe some more in the evening. Trains for you rail fans, theme park tie in, "coasters", and a donkey. Pictures came out pretty good, got some good background story, which ill be as acrurate as possible, maybe even break it up into mini reports. Universal studios probably Tuesday with a side trip, maybe two. Thanks for looking.

[fatdaddy]

Just a side trip on the way from Orange Empire Railway Museum, always pass by here on the train and now that its an open museum and theres plans for the trains to stop here, i thought i should check it out.

 

Perris Sante Fe Depot museum, or whatever it's called. This was given to Orange Empire Railway Museum for preservation, but eventually was given to the city in exchange for a 99 year lease. The city along with OERM did a total restoration of the building and there are plans for OERM trains to eventually make stops at the historic depot. The depot also houses a small museum displaying the history of Perris, Ca. You used to have to go through this station to get to San Diego, but the track washed out several times and the route was pretty much abandoned. The line you currently see between OERM and the station was placed by the train museum in order to have a place to run their trains and red cars.

 

There is also the Perris Multimodal Transit Center, that was name in honor of Ward Kimball, Disney animator and major contributor to OERM. This Perris station is one of the few places Disney allowed its artwork to be used outside of a Disney project. Panels of Wards work, including Jiminy Cricket and the Cheshire Cat can be seen there, as well as two plaques in his honor.

 

Eventually Metrolink will stop here and there is already a separate platform for OERM trains. Apparently there are equipment issues that won't yet allow OERM trains to run on that track and they are working toward a solution. There would also be a need to run more cable if they intend to run Red Cars further down.

 

Ok, pictures, forgive the generic captions, but i had a hell of a time remembering what the museum guy and the train guy and whoever else i talked to said. So, needless to say i had to do a little research and hope i got this stuff right.

 

(Pictures of a train station and a bus station, really a little more to it than that, but again I don't think anybody was looking.)

 

Ok there's the start to this stuff, i actually did these pictures after visiting OERM, because the depot wasn't open when we arrived. Also did the station pictures seperate because i forgot to take them. Anyways, next should be OERM and the Rod and Rails car show they host every year, which for some reason also includes the Potato Festival.

Edited July 25, 2010 by fatdaddy

[brilinjo]

Hi Caesar,

 

post as many photos and "dad joke" captions as you like, I'm enjoying it.

 

Brian

[bgwfreak777]

Simon says: Great trip reports!

 

Love the drive in. Looks much nicer that ours in the Charlotte area. Ours are old and look like they never have been updated since 1950. Still fun though. Well they have updated the audio to let you listen through your car radio, but not much else.

[fatdaddy]

^ and ^^ Thanks for the support, i like to know at least a couple people are interested, mainly cause this is so time consuming.

 

I actually have A trip report ready to upload, but I'm heading out to Universal Studios, so hopefully later tonight. Also, i have a trip report i need to edit, plus whateve im doing today. So, look for some updates in the next few days. Again, thanks for looking.