Day Out with Thomas the Train

On the last day of our Father’s Day Pennsylvania trip we went to the Strasburg Railroad to ride Thomas the Train, and then we went back to our hotel to have brunch at the famous “Champagne Sunday Brunch”. Since Caleb really likes trains, Mike and I were excited to take him to the Strasburg Railroad. When you buy a ticket to ride Thomas the Train it tells you on the ticket that you should arrive 1 hour before your ride. Arriving 1 hour ahead of time is a good idea if you want to park and see some of the other things the Strasburg Railroad has to offer before your ride (food tents, other fun railroad rides, pictures with Thomas the Train, etc…) But if you prefer to ride first then sightsee after, like we did, you could arrive half an hour before your ride time and still make it. We arrived at the Strasburg Railroad in the late morning and I was surprised and thrilled to see a long line-up of food tents there. I love trying out food from food tents! We quickly got our pictures with Thomas the Train and then headed over to the Mini Fried Donuts tent. There was nothing better that morning than fresh, hot cinnamon & sugar mini donuts with hazelnut coffee. Yummmm! We then got in line to ride on Thomas the Train. The kids really enjoyed riding the train. However, if we were to visit again, I would not buy the overpriced tickets for riding Thomas the train and purchase instead a regular train ticket. Our boys enjoyed waving to Thomas pass by on the railroad track more than riding him. Once they were on the train, they couldn’t see Thomas anymore and thus it just became a regular train ride. When our train ride was over we headed over to another food tent to buy some smoothies and an Italian Sausage. It was so good that I stopped sharing with Mike and bought one of my own. Next we did a few rides and then visited the gift shop to buy some souvenirs. It was a fun morning, and we would have stayed longer (definitely to try out some more food tents) but we needed to make our brunch reservation at the Champagne Buffet and save some room in our stomachs.

Dutch Wonderland

In June, we decided celebrate Father’s Day by taking Mike on a quick weekend trip to Pennsylvania. We planned on going to Dutch Wonderland on the first day and then the Strasburg Rail Road to ride Thomas the Train on the last day. So many of our friends having been telling us for years that we needed to take the kids to Dutch Wonderland because it was a perfect amusement park for kids their age. They were right! The kids were able to go on so many rides! One ride to be forewarned about though is the “Sky Ride”. Although this ride is fun, it is also a little deceiving because it looks like you go across the park and come back, but it actually only goes one way. That means that you end up standing in line to go across, but then you need to get off and stand in line again to go back. Mike and I wished we had known that, because when we reached the end of the ride, Mike needed to stand in line to go back and get our stroller, and then walk it halfway across the park to us. Luckily, the kids just rode rides and ate New York Gourmet Italian Ice while we waited for their dad and the stroller (the Gourmet Italian Ice was yummy!).

Dutch Wonderland also has a water park too! So as soon as we started feeling a little hot, we headed over to Duke’s Lagoon. Our boys love water parks, so they had a blast in Duke’s Lagoon. If you ever happen to go to Dutch Wonderland on a hot day though, I would recommend heading over there before lunch time to get a good spot to sit down because it can get crazy crowded heading into the afternoon. After spending a few hours at Duke’s Lagoon, we did a few more rides before heading out of the park. Of course no one can enter Dutch Wonderland without going through the gift shop (it is built into the entry and exit point of the park…very sneaky), so on the way out we stopped in the gift shop so the kids could pick out a souvenir. It was during this souvenir shopping that this scene took place:

Me: Aidan you can pick out 2 things to get from this gift shop

Aidan: I want this (a sour fruit roll-up) and this (hand-cuffs).

Me: I don’t think hand-cuffs are a good idea. While Mommy is standing in line to buy, why don’t you quickly go around the store with Daddy and see if there is something else that maybe you like better.

Aidan: Awww…I want the hand-cuffs.

Me: But you haven’t looked through that side of the gift shop, and maybe over there you might find something even better. Go quickly with Daddy and look, because I really don’t think we should buy hand-cuffs.

….a few minutes later Mike walks up to me standing in line

Mike: So Aidan found something that he liked better.

Me: Great! What is it?

Mike and Aidan: A cap gun!

Me: Give me the handcuffs.

Raging Waters

On the last day of our California vacation we went to Raging Waters. Unfortunately, the weather that day ended up being cooler than we expected. Cooler weather meant that the water at Raging Waters wasn’t exactly on the warmer side. But apparently, when it came to playing in a water park, the water temperature didn’t seem to dampen the amount of the fun the kids had. Mike was very heroic and volunteered to accompany the kids into the cold water so that I wouldn’t have to freeze. Therefore, my job was to warm the kids when they were feeling cold (definitely one of my favorite jobs) and feed them snacks. We spent the morning ‘till early afternoon at Raging Waters before heading back to Santa Monica for dinner. We ate our last dinner at “The Lobster” (I’m sure it is not too hard to guess what we ate for dinner there :P) then walked to “Angelato Café” for some gelatos for dessert. It was a wonderful end to one of the best vacations we’ve had.

Umami Burger

We went to “Umami Burger” for dinner on the 6^th day of our California vacation. This restaurant was mentioned on the Food Network for having one of the best hamburgers. Mike loves to eat hamburgers. In fact, out of the all the restaurants we had eaten at during our vacation, this was the one that he expressed that he was the most excited to eat at (my man loves to eat his meat). We ordered thin fries, sweet potato fries, tempura onion rings, and 3 Umami Burgers - high quality beef with shitake mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, carmelized onions, house-made umami ketchup, and a parmesan crisp on a truffle-oil brioche bun.

Everything was awesome! I honestly wished we had more stomach room so that we could have tried some of the other burgers on the menu that sounded good, but alas, God only put one stomach in each of our bodies…. The kids enjoyed eating the side dishes the most and obviously Mike enjoyed his burger with a cold bottle of coke (a glass coke bottle, which added a little “class” to the meal). If I had to pick one thing not to pass up on the menu it would be the sweet potato fries; they are definitely a yummy side that you will want to have with whatever burger you order.

The Griddle Cafe

On the morning of the 6th day of our California vacation, we made the extra effort to wake up early and drive into LA to eat breakfast at “The Griddle Café”. I had seen this restaurant mentioned on the Food Network for having delicious Red Velvet Pancakes (I love anything Red Velvet). We arrived at the restaurant around 9:00 and only had to wait 5 min. for a table (What a relief when you are waiting with kids). Once seated, we ordered breakfast like it would be our only meal of the day. We ordered:

• Strawberries and Cream Waffle
• Red Velvet pancake
• Bagel with Cream Cheese
• Bacon
• Cottage Cheese
• Brown Sugar baked Bananas

I remember when looking at the menu thinking that the prices for the pancakes looked a little on the expensive side. It was not until they brought out my Red Velvet pancake that I realized why….The pancakes are HUGE! My pancakes were the size of my entire plate! No matter how I tried to convince myself that I was eating “breakfast” while enjoying each sinful bite of my Red Velvet pancake, Mike was there to “bring me down to earth” and keep reminding me that I was basically eating dessert for breakfast (probably why “The Griddle Café” writes it on the menu as the “Red Velvet panCake”). Even Aidan said, “Can I have another bite of Mommy’s cake?” Breakfast, dessert, whatever it was, it was yummy along with a cup of black coffee that morning :) On a side note, everything else we ordered was good too. Thanks Food Network another successful restaurant!

Santa Monica Beach

On the 6th day of our vacation in California, we made the effort to wake up early and drive to The Griddle Café for breakfast. I had seen this restaurant mentioned on the Food Network for having delicious Red Velvet Pancakes. We must have looked like a family that never ate breakfast before because we pigged-out! After enjoying a big breakfast at The Griddle Café we headed back to our hotel to get ready to spend the rest of the day at the beach. At the beach, the kids had fun playing in the hot sand, chasing seagulls, and splashing around in the cold water. We even got the added joy of teaching Aidan that when he’s shoveling sand and tossing it behind him that it is a good idea to make sure that people are not behind him getting that sand in their face….people like Mommy and Daddy. As the kids played in the water, my job was to warm the them up every time they came out of the water with their teeth chattering (I can’t think of anything better than sitting at the beach and giving my kids long hugs ‘till they’re warm……). After spending a few hours at the beach, we “de-sanded”, changed our clothes, and headed to the Santa Monica Pier to enjoy some of the rides. Next came a late naptime followed by dinner at Umami Burger (another Food Network restaurant recommendation). We ended the evening by picking up some smoothies from Robeks and walking to Whole Foods to pick up some snacks for our trip to Raging Waters the next day.

Luna Park

On the 5th day of our California vacation we drove from San Dimas to Santa Monica and checked into our hotel there. When we checked into our hotel, I was so excited to find out that our hotel had a Starbucks in it…SCORE! We spent the rest of the morning unpacking, walking to Whole Foods to buy some drinks and healthy snacks, and then napping. Later that evening we drove into LA to eat dinner at another restaurant that I had seen on the Food Network called “Luna Park”. Food Network mentioned that “Luna Park” had a wonderful “S’mores” dessert. Aidan had been nagging us for a couple weeks about making s’mores again at home, so we were excited to surprise him with this restaurant on our vacation. Luna Park was a nice casual restaurant that even had paper mats and crayons for the kids to color with, Yay! Honestly, I can’t remember what we ate for dinner there because all I can remember is how GOOD that “S’mores” dessert was! It was a lot of fun to assemble our s’mores using Luna Park’s house-made crisp graham crackers, toasted mini marshmallows, and dark chocolate sauce…YUMMM! In fact, we all enjoyed it so much that we ordered it twice! I’m seriously considering baking my own graham crackers and using dark chocolate sauce if we make s’mores at home again someday….

Scandia

On the 4th day of our California vacation, we originally had planned to go to Universal Studios. Our plan was to relax in the amusement park and just let the kids play in “The Adventures of Curious George” water playground. However,the weather forecast for that day ended up being more on the cool side which made going to a water playground not the best idea. With the water playground out and the rides/attractions at Universal Studios being geared towards older kids, we decided we were better off saving $250 and coming up with a new plan for that day.
The first thing we did that morning was head to “Kickback Jack’s” for a big breakfast. Mike LOVED eating breakfast at “Kickback Jack’s”. We both had the Country Breakfast which Mike claimed was one of the best breakfasts he ever ate ( by the way, the breakfast portions are HUGE! ). We spent the rest of the morning swimming in our hotel’s heated pool, ate fruit for lunch, and then we all napped. After we all woke up from a much-needed nap (a day in Disney will exhaust anyone, so recharging from that trip the day before felt great) we decided to check out this small amusement park/miniature golf place called “Scandia” that I had happen to notice when driving by.
The rides at Scandia basically had no lines at all (probably because we went on a weekday in the early afternoon). Whenever our kids wanted to go on a ride in the park, they just needed to ask one of the park staff to go over to the ride and start it up. With no lines and the park staff basically at their beck-and-call, our boys had the time of our lives at this little amusement park! So instead of $250 to go to Universal Studios that day, we ended up getting a nap and going to Scandia for $81.80. Smiles all around that day!

Disney's California Adventure Park

On day #3 of our California vacation, we choose to spend the entire day at Disney’s California Adventure Park. We choose this park over the Disneyland Park because there were so many attractions in California Adventure Park that we hadn’t seen or done when we went to Disneyworld two years ago. We arrived pretty much when the park opened and made a beeline for “Paradise Pier” to stand in line for the “Toy Story Mania!” ride (I researched this park for a couple of weeks, and learned that this was one of the most popular rides where the line can really become long). Even though we were in line early that morning, we still had to wait 35-45 minutes to get on. Luckily though, we had our iPads with us for the kids, so waiting in line was not torturous. It was such a bummer though that this ride did not have Fast Pass because it was SO MUCH FUN! Caleb definitely enjoyed this ride the most. During the whole ride we could hear him laughing and squealing with joy. In fact, we all liked this ride so much that we stood in line to ride it a second time (that’s right, another 45 min.) In case you all are wondering, Mike beat my score both times (it was a hard reality to swallow. If we didn’t have the kids I would have begged Mike to stand in line so I could have challenge him a third time….I’m so darn competitive!).

I’d have to say that the ride Aidan enjoyed the most was “Mickey’s Fun Wheel”. Aidan had a blast every time our gondola lunged, swinging back and forth on the tracks inside of the Ferris Wheel as it went around. He rode this ride twice too :)

Another attraction that we took the boys to was “Disney Junior – Live on Stage”. Both our boys are currently HUGE fans of the Disney show “Jake and the Neverland Pirates”. Here’s proof:

So when we found out that Disney had incorporated the show into the attraction this year (along with the “Little Einsteins”, which is Caleb’s favorite Disney show) we knew the kids were going to be absolutely tickled. We conquered about 12 rides/attractions that day, with some noteworthy ones being: “It’s Tough to be a Bug!”, “Princess Dot Puddle Park”, and “Tuck and Roll’s Drive ‘Em Buggies”.



For food that day, I packed sandwiches and snacks for lunch. For dinner, we forked over some extra cash to eat at Ariel’s Grotto so that we could get “Preferred Viewing Section” seat tickets for the “World of Color” show.

We were very excited to watch this show, because again, this show is not offered in Disneyworld. The show started at 10:00pm, but people were lining up to get good seats even an hour before the gates opened. It was an AMAZING show! The film clips projected onto the fountains, along with the music and fire, are choreographed really well. I encourage you not to miss it if you find yourself visiting Disney California Adventure Park. Even though our boys were pretty tired by the time the show started, they watched the whole thing in amazement (along with a dozen yawns too).

All in all, it was a fun-filled day that ended with our kids crashing to sleep on the car ride back to our hotel (Aidan actually began falling asleep on the shuttle ride back to our car. Everyone on our shuttle kept laughing at how hard he was fighting trying to stay awake on that ride back to our car lot) :)

The Foundry on Melrose

On the second day of our California vacation, we spent the day at the California Science Center, followed by dinner at the “Foundry on Melrose”. For a while now, I have been making a list of restaurants that I have seen on the Food Network that I would like to eat at. The “Foundry on Melrose” was mentioned on the Food Network as having the best grilled cheese sandwich. I was excited to try this sandwich with Mike because it sounded so unique.

Normally Mike and I prefer not to go to nice restaurants with our boys (I would say casual elegance looked like the appropriate attire for this restaurant), but since we were on vacation with no one to babysit them, this could not be helped. I really wanted to try this restaurant, and was determined that if they wanted us to leave because we brought our kids, then they would need to say it to my face! Luckily, we brought our iPads with us to keep the boys still and silent (hey, whatever works….), so even though the staff looked a little surprised that we brought our kids with us, they did not ask us to leave. In fact, they were super nice and friendly to the kids during dinner and offered us a table outside on the deck.

Mike ordered his grilled cheese sandwich with the short ribs and I ordered mine without. Both sandwiches were delicious! In addition to the grilled cheese sandwiches, the two other dishes that we ordered that did not fail to disappoint our taste buds were: the “Potato Soup” and the “Pan-seared Scallops”.