Downtown, Everything’s Waiting For You

This trip just seemed to sneak up on me. Probably because there was not as much planning required as with our Walt Disney World vacations. For Orlando, you have to be on the phone at the crack of dawn 180 days in advance just to get a decent dinner reservation. But this is SoCal dude,  it’s all chill.

We were leaving the children home (I know, terrible) so I needed to make sure that they had plenty of easily prepared  (junk) food at hand. I’m a bit of a whole-food, organic kind of shopper normally. I felt like I needed a sunglasses and hat disguise at the supemarket. There was not one green, leafy thing to be found in my cart.

 

This was a pretty short trip, so we tried to make the most of our days by leaving super early and then returning late on the red eye.

 

We had plans to drive right into Logan and park in the cheap lot, but it was raining like it was end times. Parking in the central parking would have been a huge chunk of change so we made a decision on the fly to park at the Braintree Logan Express and take the bus. It was a bit of a sweaty palms ride because we hadn’t allowed for the extra time.

 

We hustled up to our gate without a minute to spare. Whew! Our layover in Minneapolis gave us just enough time for a quick breakfast. Surprisingly, we found a pretty cute place. It was about 10:00am local time but people were already drinking at the bar.

 

 

 

The menu was full of organic offerings, but it was an airport so who knows? My granola and berries were just the ticket though.

 

I handed my phone over to Jeff for him to snap a picture of his breakfast, and he obliged. I almost did a spit take with my coffee when I saw the pic. It looked like a crime scene photo.

“The victim was eating a hearty portion of scrambled eggs and bacon when the incident occurred”

 

No more food photography for Mr. Jones. The rest of the leg to LAX was uneventful. We hopped into our perfectly acceptable, but unremarkable rental car and headed to our home for the next four days in Chino Hills, California.

 

It had been hours since our breakfast, honest. We set about finding something to eat when I spotted an In-N-Out Burger from the highway. Wanting to partake in all things local California, I thought this would be a good take.

 

The lunch was tasty, but I have to say that Five Guys has a slight leg up on the burgers. They were a bit thin. I found out later that there is something interesting on all the wrappers, bags and cups. I wish I had noticed it myself!

If you haven’t been following along at home, I’ll get you up to speed on how we ended up coming out here. Jeff and I attended  a friend’s wedding in Savannah Georgia last September. We were fortuitously seated with a couple from California, April and Chris.  As we chatted, I discovered that they live just thirty minutes from Disneyland. Of course, my eyes widened with excitement. Without missing a beat, they invited us to stay at their home anytime. We soon after accepted their offer. It might seem crazy to travel all the way across the country to visit practical strangers, but April and Chris are warm and genuine people who immediately make you feel welcome and at ease.

We found our way to our new friends’ home which is set in a lovely neighborhood.

 

On our way to the house we stopped and picked up some flowers for our hostess. Apparently this woman is loved and appreciated by everyone she meets because our flowers lined up next to FOUR other bouquets that she received that week, and it wasn’t even her birthday or anything!

 

April and Chris had a meeting at the house this night so Jeff and I decided to go on over to Downtown Disney to have a look around and get acquainted with the area.

You can’t know we were there unless you see our mugs in front of the sign.

 

 

When I snapped this picture of Rainforest Café I inadvertently captured a woman with the most pained look. Must have been a tough day at Disney. Let’s have a caption contest.

I’ll start:

 

We checked out some amazing displays outside the Lego Store.

 

Is it strange that it bothers me that the Beast is full sized and Belle is “Lego Belle”?

 

 

This dad and his toddler son were having a blast playing with an action figure in the fountain. The boy would stand the guy up and the dad would sweep the water over it and knock it down. Lots of giggles! I tried not to look too creepy taking this picture.

 

 

Downtown Disney is a great place to visit on the first day of your Disney trip. You certainly don’t want to blow a park ticket on less than half a day in the parks. Another thing that you can do is hang out in the hotels. These are not like regular boring hotels in the REAL world (yawn). They are highly themed and have excellent restaurants –and bars, which is what we were after.

 

The Disneyland Hotel had recently gone through a total refurbishment. This included the addition of a new bar called Trader Sam’s.

This tiny bar is an  amalgamation of the Jungle Cruise and the Enchanted Tiki Room plus booze.

There are tons of details and inside jokes everywhere. I tried not to be too much of a goof wandering around and taking pictures. I don’t want to embarrass Jeff so much that he won’t take me back (to Disneyland I mean, not the marriage).

 

 

 

 

This guy with his hat on backwards must have started early. His wife had to walk him out, not before he nearly fell onto me. So needless to say, the drinks are good here!

I don’t go in for fruity drinks, of which the hilariously scripted menu had plenty. But they did have a bourbon mint drink called a Shipwreck on the Rocks that hit the spot.

When you order this cocktail, you also get a show. The staff bellows, “Shipwreck!!!, the lights dim and flash and then you hear the rumbling of the volcano. I’m not sure what this has to do with a shipwreck, but the effect is pretty cool!

 

 

It was getting on time for some food. Trader Sam’s has just the kind of menu I like- all tasty appetizers.

We started with some wings. These were fantastic, nicely balanced with between and spicy. The papaya slaw was crunchy and delicious. I tried to experiment with the lighting for the photos. It was so dark, but flash makes food look unappetizing. Jeff held his camera flashlight behind these. The results were only so-so, but at least you can see the goods.

 

Fish Tacos!

 

Reasonable people would have shown some temperance, but noooo, we ordered the flat- bread too. All the dishes we got had a sprinkling of cilantro, which in my book makes everything better.

 

We finished our shipwrecks and walked (not stumbled) out of Trader Sam’s.

 

 

 

Surprisingly we weren’t that tired, so we decided to take a sneak peek at Disneyland’s flagship hotel, the Grand Californian. We would be going back here on our last evening for our splash out meal at the Napa Rose (Spoiler Alert: It was amazing!!!!!).

The huge lobby is reminiscent of the Animal Kingdom Lodge in Orlando.

 

We stepped up to the bar at the Napa Rose for a night cap.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The color palette for the restaurant is fashioned after the actual “Napa Rose” flower which is a soft pink and peach color. Everything has an orange glow.

It looks very flattering in person, makes for poor photographs though.

 

 

 

The mixologists and bar ingredients are top notch. No Rose’s Lime juice here (yuck!). This bartender was creating three custom cocktails for the patrons seated next to us. They were sort of know-it-all hipsters who had a lot of specific requests. I wouldn’t have been able to restrain myself from an eye roll but this guy was a true professional, unlike me who neglected to get a photo of the finished product!

 

It had been literally tens of minutes since we last ate so we asked to see the dessert menu. What’s great about the lounges at these high end hotels is that usually you can order right from the restaurant dinner menu. You don’t need reservations to do this, so you can be spontaneous. Also, because it’s a bar, you don’t feel bad about taking up a table to just have dessert or split an appetizer.

 

 

 

We went with the Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp.

 

 

 

It was looking like it would be  wise idea to go on back to Chino Hills and get some rest before our first full day at Disneyland, so this time we did the responsible thing and called it a night.

 

Next up: Disneyland- The Bizarro Magic Kingdom for Walt Disney World Fans.