2022 – March part 2
You really can’t visit LA without also going to the Griffith Observatory (below 2 side photos) or Randy’s Donuts.
Now we head Southwest! Back to our stomping grounds and the place where 2 of our kids were born – Arizona.
I’ll be honest. The homes were nice but not in an area where there was civilization. It was also close to Tucson and I would rather not live in Tucson if I could pick. I’d much rather live in the Phoenix area, however, the housing in the Phoenix Metro area has skyrocketed and experts say they will be cheaper than California, but not substantially (like they historically have been).
What else to do? We went to Oreganos (who got rid of our favorite pizza style) and that was super disappointing. The whole SW trip was, less the Cacti that we were able to go hike near.
Back in LA, we went to the Santa Monica Pier. We took the kids to the plaque we have on the stairs (not more than 10 feet from where was is at the end of the pier.
Before we left we wanted to try and do something fun for the kids. We normally don’t go to Southern California so let’s try to do something. We looked at Universal Studios, but that was pricey, Disneyland (more pricey) also sold out. We found Knotts Berry Farm to be the winner. What is even better we found tickets that we purchased (on eBay) for super cheap and got us in the park for the day.
If you see the picture with Snoopy, Luca is not facing forward. The whole time he was excited to see the puppy. Just wanted to feel his fur and his face – pretty cute if you ask me. The other two were excited to meet Snoopy and go to a theme park. We tried to surprise them – Elijah was the most excited one. Arabella mostly expected us to go somewhere and wasn’t as surprised. As a group, we didn’t take a bunch of photos together (we need to get better at that). We did however go on a horse-pulled wagon ride (the kids sat up front), train rides, and swing rides with the grandparents. We even took Elijah and Arabella on a ride that would rival Splash Mountain (at Disneyland). Elijah LOVED it and immediately wanted to ride again – had it not been so late in the day and things left to do, we would have done it again.
One of my favorite memories of this trip was when everyone, including my parents – decided to get the unlimited food pass (it’s not worth it, the lines are far too long to take advantage of it). At the end of the night, the kids were cooling down and watching a Jamboree with Snoopy and the gang. A nice ending to a good day… well there was a little old-fashioned popcorn and cotton candy cart nearby. We asked if they took the unlimited pass (and they did!). We were able to make this time just a little more special by sharing some food while the kids danced to their new favorite characters.
[End quote: “I don’t have time to worry about who doesn’t like me … I’m too busy loving the people who love me.” – Snoopy]just Pray