Family Reunion -- CA 2013 Part Uno

Note: This post should be taken tongue in cheek where appropriate.  I will leave to you at what times to place tongue in cheek.  Remember, tongue planted firmly in cheek...most of the time.    

Here goes on the big-daddy vacation for the summer.  This vacation had been in the works for at least two years since the last Ludwig reunion in 2011.  Grandma and Grandpa wanted this to be a few steps above what has been the norm for past Ludwig reunions.  So, Grandma and Grandpa booked a week at the Marriott Newport Coast Villas.  This location would require some travel for everyone and with small kids it would take some planning to pull it off without the parents jumping out of the car somewhere on I-15.

We decided to travel to St. George the first day and then go the rest of the way to Newport Beach the second day.  My company kindly let us stay in its condo in St. George, which was great and perfect for our kids and allowed us to have a good rest before the fun really began.  When we arrived at the condo the kids thought is was like Christmas morning.  They were running and jumping all over the place despite the fact that is was around 11 o'clock at night.

The next day we woke up rested and went out to a playground on the property to let the kids burn off some energy before we headed to Newport.  It was a beautiful day and we packed the van, again, and headed for California.

The drive was largely uneventful until we stopped in Primm, Nevada for Lunch and ate at a Greek place that had food that tasted like wood chips--it was not good unless you are of the beaver variety.  Do yourself a big favor and just skip Primm altogether if you can help it.  If you think Las Vegas is a waste of space, I cannot imagine you would find Primm to be especially breathtaking. It is one of those border towns that specializes in cheap trappings and crappy food to get gamblers to show up and blow their wad.

Lovely Primm.

After Primm came the Los Angeles metro area, which basically starts right when you leave Primm--so you guessed it--LA traffic starts their too.  We managed decent time and really took off when we got on the toll road, but we paid for it later when we got off.

We finally made it to the condos late in the afternoon and they did not disappoint.  The Marriott Newport Coast Villas sit on a bluff overlooking Crystal Cove State Park and beach.  It is not right on the ocean like some of the Marriott resorts, but this is a minor difficultly considering most of our time was spent at other places than the beach.

Pool 

Laney eating on balcony. 

Grandma and some grand kids enjoying the view.

Mike and Terry, happy couple.  

Ludwigs seeing who can break something first.

Good looking crew. 

Eighties are back.

View to a chill.  

The kids had a great time seeing their cousins and this seems to be the best part for them.  As long as they have their cousins to pal around with, life is good.  Shauna made an expensive trip to the Albertson's in Corona Del Mar were the shopping carts are made by Maserati and Mclaren.  

Saw one or a dozen of these parked on the street.

The next day was Sunday and we went to the Newport beach ward that was swarming with visitors and probably three times its normal size.  The kids had a tough time paying attention while sitting so irresistibly close to their fun cousins.  Some guy behind us even piped up and told them to be quite.

That evening the parents prepped for Disneyland the next day getting everything ready to roll.  Now, I had not been to Disneyland since I was eight so I was largely unaware (the number of amateur Disneyland blogs out there should have been my first clue) of the massive number of Disney devotees there are in the world. Really, Disney essentially has a religious following of millions of people clad in mouse ears and paying ridiculous amounts of money to sit with a college girl dressed up as Snow White--not to mention the price just to get into the park.

I mean, one morning I found myself sprinting through California Adventure to someplace I had never been, like I was being chased by the devil himself, just to wait in line to get "Fastpass" tickets to the Cars ride, just so we could then wait in line to get on the ride (albeit a much shorter line).  Want something to eat?  Oh, let's take a look at our payment plans.  It was fun, but I am convinced that parents who claim they are going to Disney for their children are putting up a half-hearted effort to disguise the truth, which is they were really the ones who wanted to come to Dland and they are only using their kids as a weak disguise so they don't look dumb. There are some brave souls who, through self introspection or just because the don't care, have abandoned the parent facade and have come out of the Dland closet admitting to themselves, and the world, that they are in fact Dland freaks. But of course they get a pass because they are at Dland and everyone at Dland is a freak -- except me and my family of course.  It seems like our kids can have just as much fun with a stick and some poison berries so long as they are with their cousins.  It is the parents who have created the Dland mythos.

Okay, at Dland the kids did have fun (except Laney on Space Mountain) minor mistake taking her on this, she begged for us to stop the ride and curled up in a ball in Shauna's lap until the horror was over.  The Pirates of the Caribbean and Indian Jones were hits as were splash mountain and Star Tours.  We saw a lady lose her lunch when she slipped on a puddle of water near the cafeteria at Space Mountain throwing her newly purchased lunch into the air.  Dland folks came over to comfort and have her sign a lawsuit waiver after giving her free lunch and telling her that that lunch was in the same tax bracket as Mitt Romney.  After this we saw another lady lose her lunch shortly after exiting Space Mountain--only once you drive the lunch off the lot its value is severely diminished--so there were no Dland "Cast Members" hanging about comforting this poor profit center..I mean human being.

Happy, post Indiana Jones. 

Taking it all in.

I was also very proud of our kids because of their remarkable restraint and discernment.  Prior to entering the Park we told our kids that they could choose one souvenir so they had better choose wisely.  Well, time and again they would consider some item at a store and determine it was not what they wanted.  (Setting expectations ahead of time has proven to be one of the best parenting devises I have ever found.  It might be the only one I am good at.)  They finally each found something they really liked and have each treated it remarkably well.

I will post more parts as they become available.