Finishing up Disney / Oceano Beach House / Teacher Sonia

Another week and the The 2nd part of our Disneytrip..

So, we watched some youtube videos and asked the kids which rides they wanted to go on and Jad was really excited about the Radiator Springs Cars ride.. but he was too short! Unfortunately, Disney is pretty strict about their policies so I took Kai and Sora on the ride while Amy walked around with Jad and got him on the Tractor ride in Cars Land.

He got to meet Lighting McQueen at least..

The ride was fun and the racing portion was exciting..
the kids got to go twice because of rider share :)

Disney California Adventure doesn't have as many rides but we wandered to the Little Mermaid ride and then to Pixar Pier. The kids enjoyed the smaller rides, like the Golder Zypher and the Jellyfish Jump, but real highlight was the Ferris Wheel (really!)

The Golden Zypher, pretty tame but being far off the ground
made it a lot of fun for Jad

Sora did want to go on the Goofy Sky School coaster
while Kai did not so the girls went on their own

So the Ferris Wheel at DCA is cool because there are two types of gondolas. Some are stationary on the circumference like a regular Ferris wheel but there are ones on the inside that swing back and forth. And actually, depending on where you are in the wheel, it can swing quite a lot! We were all surprised as we rocked back and forth to almost 90 degrees.

Just going gently up.. Later, we took some video of everyone screaming
during the swinging which was amusing :)

The memorable part came when we got on the ride the 2nd time. Halfway up, the Ferris wheel stopped and the announcement came on that there was a delay. It was nice to be up there and look all around until Jad said, "I have to poop!" We asked him to hold it but when we didn't move for several more minutes, we knew we had to come up with a different solution. Luckily, they had emesis bags inside the Ferris wheel for those people got nauseous. I took out several bags, and laid them on the floor, then told Jad to poop right on them. He did his deed and we picked up everything, stuffed it into another clean bag and cleaned the floor with alcohol spray. All the while, Sora and Kai were making faces and yelling out the sides, "my brother is pooping in the Ferris wheel!" Then we started moving again. Overall, I think we did an excellent job cleaning up and no one was the wiser.

This is a story for the future fiancee

It was hard to top that excitement, so we wandered over to the Monsters Inc ride and then headed out of the park to meet up with Matt and Nicole for dinner.

Monsters Inc was a good ride. Glad I had
the kids watch the movie beforehand

Matt and Nicole are living in an apartment in Costa Mesa and settling in well. Matt cooked up a good stew for us and it was fun to catch up. We also played a game of Apples to Apples with the kids but it was very hard for Sora. When it comes to decisions where you have to make a judgement call (as opposed to a type of decision where she can get points or something concrete) then she freezes up and can't choose. I wonder when that will get better. Kai on the other hand either choose what's most ridiculous or what will antagonize his opponents. I'm not sure which is better..

Thanks for dinner, Matt and Nicole!

Kids also had fun feeding Nicole's cute rabbit

After that we returned to the hotel for rest and Wednesday woke up for one more day of Disneyland. What was great was that Sue and Ophelia decided to come to Disneyland on that day so we got to hang out together for part of the day. They were excited about Rise of the Resistance and Star Wars Land as well so we headed there early and hit the rides before the crowds came in.

Ophelia with the fam.. and the Millennium Falcon!

The Millennium Falcon ride was a lot of fun as you could take on
various roles. We rode it 3 times!

After that we walked leisurely around Toontown, had a giant turkey leg for lunch (one plus sides was enough for all of us) and then went back to Rise of the Resistance. The ride actually broke down so we were stopped in the "hangar" of the Star Destroyer. It was kind of fun to stop and look in detail at the set and they also let us come back later when the ride was fixed. Ophelia said it was her new favorite ride. We took it easy and had some dinner then finished off the day with a ride on the Disneyland Railroad.

The dinosaur tunnel was pretty cool but we
didn't get any good pics

Thanks, Disney! Til next time (but not for a few years, cause who can afford that..) We slept well that night and the next morning, checked out and headed to Oceano to meet our neighbors. We drove along the 101 and actually passed by Newbury Park (my hometown) so we made a quick stop.

Our old restaurant space is now .. a gun shop?! Domino's
is still there though..

Also dropped by 7 Sandra Court

After more driving, we finally got to Oceano right before the Connicks. The kids were excited about seeing their friends again and quickly claimed the bunk room was off limits to adults.

Kids only club

The house was really nice (and expensive) with a great location. All three days we were there, I think we really only walked to the beach and back with quick drives to pick up groceries. The beach was just about 100 yards away and the weather was great. A perfect end to the week after walking miles each day at Disneyland.

Hard to beat the natural beauty

Kids loved playing in the sand

Charcuterie lunch in the front yard

Our second day there, we discovered that at low tide, you could just dig down six inches and there were clams. It was fun to dig them up though you needed a license to harvest them. Hypothetically, one could take some home and boil them up. Hypothetically, both clams with red wine, garlic sauce and plain taste excellent.

Only works at low tide near the water line..

Jad got some big ones

The kids (except Casey) all attempted to sleep in one room but Kazu had to come up to sleep with the Connicks and the 2nd night, Kai went to sleep in the living room by himself but overall, it was very successful.

Adult time with Cards Against Humanity

The house had a nice rooftop firepit lounging area
though we didn't use it much because of the cold

We left the next day and headed home.
Nice vacation, RCC!

After a week away, it was nice to be home. We still had a birthday party to attend on Sunday for Joanna's son, Austin. It was superhero themed and Spider-man showed up to play with the kids, make balloon animals and take pictures.

Spider-Man used his super strength to help the
smaller kids win the 2nd tug-o-war

The last week was just our usual shenanigans.. Lots of catching up on work for me (considering cutting down more), activities for the kids, art class on Friday and hanging out with friends. We did get a bit of sad news that Teacher Sonia from Agape passed away after getting sick. I think it was COVID (damn you, coronavirus) .. she was a very kind person and treated the kids like they were her own. She touched a lot of little lives.