The Brothers Juant To The West Coast

[NaCler]

Yep, it's only been about 5 months, so it's about time to start putting together the West Coast trip report.

Coming soon... Hopefully...

[cy1229]

HOLDING MY BREATH!!!

[wewantsdaredhead]

I have my report almost all written. . Just waiting on pics.
And your version of course. Lol

Good times brother!!!

[NaCler]

Alright... I'm not exactly sure whose idea it was to fly across the country and run a half marathon. All I know is that we had to commit early in the year as the registration opens in January and the event usually sells out within an hour. This was really tough as the antici....pation was terrible for 7 months. For me, this would be a return to DL after 10+ years and a first time for DCA. For my traveling buddy, it was a first on both counts. BUT, I'll let him go into all that.

The setup...

Parties involved with this trip:
Myself - NaCler
Cohort in crime and the best brother anyone could ever ask for: WWDRH
WWDRH's awesome wife

Now, I believe a conversation was had at some point after my first Half Marathon in WDW involving the possibility of a Coast to Coast medal. WWDRH had some friends that lived near DL, so it looked like he would be able to stay with them to help with the costs of the cross country trek. It turns out that they were going to have plenty of room for my wife and I to tag along. We were planning on leaving on August 28, which just happens to be my wife's B-day, so I figured it would be a good get away trip for her.

Well, that WAS the plan. My wife was in the second year of her first job as a teacher and she felt that she could not take the time off since that was to be the first week back from summer break. So, that means I am now traveling alone and leaving on my wife's birthday anyway.... yeah, I paid for it.

Day 1, August 28: Traveling Cross-Country

I flew out of Jacksonville at 6:30am on my way to Denver,CO. I found out a couple of days earlier that once I got to Denver, I was going to meet up with WWDRH and his wife and continue on to John Wayne airport in Orange County, CA, as they were booked on the same flight. Well, long story short (one that H may tell) it turns out that only WWDRH was able to make the same flight and his wife would be arriving later.

Here's the token flight picture:



We landed in OC and were pretty hungry so we went to some Anaheim Ducks Bar and Grill in the airport. I had a burger, fries and a local IPA that MmeLeota suggested. I believe that WWDRH has a pic from lunch of me relaxing with my beer.

We were picked up at the airport by our gracious host and he took us back to the house. I met the whole family and I want to tell you that they are awesome people. From the moment H introduced me, we were all like family. We picked up H's wife from the airport later and went out to a Japanese steakhouse for dinner. Again, it was like we were part of their family and we had a great time.

Coming soon... Day 2, Brothers on the loose in Cali and our first glimpse of DL.

[Amy]

Great start to the trip ~ well except the having to travel without your lovely wife, and leaving on her birthday, and H's lovely wife not being on the connecting flight...ok, it's a terrible start to your trip It is nice when you are so graciously welcomed into another's home though ~ I hope to have a home like that someday in Florida
Looking forward to more!

[NaCler]

Day 2, Brothers on the loose in Cali and our first glimpse of DL:

I don't know about WWDRH or his wife, but after 7+ months of waiting, I was ready to get to DL and go to the EXPO. We slept in that morning and I think I convinced them that we should go ahead and knock out the Expo to get our stuff. I think it's just because I was itching to get to DL, but I was glad we were heading there first.

We parked in the Downtown Disney parking lot and headed straight for Earl of Sandwich. It was really nice to have something familiar from Disney in the middle of things that weren't familiar to us. I had a holiday turkey (thanks Amy!) and a beer and we just sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine and NO HUMIDITY. We then headed towards the DL Hotel which was where the Expo was held.







I was very excited as we picked up our 2 day park hopper tickets to go with our running stuff. The plan was to enjoy the parks after our run on Sunday and all day on Monday.

The Expo was a little un-eventful and underwhelming.





Then we browsed Downtown Disney for a little while...









Here is my loot from the Expo... not much.



But, this is what we came for... kinda


We left there and got to try out this place...



It was very good, but not sure if it's worth all the hype it gets back on the East Coast. BUT, I was told that I did it wrong and needed to order my fries and burger, "Animal Style." Oh well... maybe next California trip...

Then we rested up for our evening festivities. That night in OC they were having an International festival close to where our host worked. There were streets lined with food and beer from different countries. It was almost like a mini Food and Wine Festival! WWDRH got a few photos from this and I will share a couple that he sent me.

The "crew"


Me choking down a dog and kraut


And probably my favorite pic from the entire trip...


I can't explain how much fun we had at this festival, or how much beer was consumed (which I will pay for later...) but all I know is that we had an AMAZING time and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Next up... Last free day before the run... Brothers enjoy beaches, horses and WalMart??? and maybe another beer.

[Amy]

Great photos of the three of you Love the shirts!
Isn't the weather out in southern Cali beautiful ~ if it weren't so darned expensive I would definitely be trying to move there instead of soggy Florida!

[wewantsdaredhead]

Great start Brother!!! I have my verison all hammered out but I need to add pics--the worst part.
Soon!

Fun times---and I love how you remember the details that I dont like the Holiday Turkey Earl of Sandwich--yummy indeed! Thanks Amy!

[Amy]

Great start Brother!!! I have my verison all hammered out but I need to add pics--the worst part.
Soon!

Fun times---and I love how you remember the details that I dont like the Holiday Turkey Earl of Sandwich--yummy indeed! Thanks Amy!

Ugh, yes, the pictures take forever, uploading, finding them, inserting them, removing all the http advertising nonsense from the link so it doesn't clutter up the pictures. All made more delightful by my computer shutting down whenever it feels like it Good luck to you!
Is this another Amy y'all are referring to? Or did you discover the Holiday Turkey EoS from when I went several years back?

[cy1229]

Great start Brother!!! I have my verison all hammered out but I need to add pics--the worst part.
Soon!

Fun times---and I love how you remember the details that I dont like the Holiday Turkey Earl of Sandwich--yummy indeed! Thanks Amy!

Ugh, yes, the pictures take forever, uploading, finding them, inserting them, removing all the http advertising nonsense from the link so it doesn't clutter up the pictures. All made more delightful by my computer shutting down whenever it feels like it Good luck to you!
Is this another Amy y'all are referring to? Or did you discover the Holiday Turkey EoS from when I went several years back?

You forgot the time spent tweaking them in Photoshop....

BUT, I was told that I did it wrong and needed to order my fries and burger, "Animal Style." Oh well... maybe next California trip...

Um, what? Hubby and I are HOPEFULLY most likely going to DLR this summer, and he's a major burger fiend.

Oh btw, way to sacrifice yourself for the good of everyone else in OC by eating that dog with kraut.

[Amy]

You forgot the time spent tweaking them in Photoshop....

What you see is what you get from me, I don't edit them in any fashion. I know a lot like to do lots of futzing, and some shots are truly beautiful but photoshopped to within an inch of their lives, but for myself I like a more real photo. Plus can you imagine if I did edit? I never would get a TR done!

BUT, I was told that I did it wrong and needed to order my fries and burger, "Animal Style." Oh well... maybe next California trip...

Um, what? Hubby and I are HOPEFULLY most likely going to DLR this summer, and he's a major burger fiend.

Oh btw, way to sacrifice yourself for the good of everyone else in OC by eating that dog with kraut.

Here is a good link to all the secret things at In-N-Out ~ if you click on any of the items it brings up a more detailed description.
http://hackthemenu.com/in-n-out/secret-menu/

[Polynesian Princess]

Great TR so far - can't wait to read more!

[cy1229]

Plus can you imagine if I did edit? I never would get a TR done!

And that's different how?

[Amy]

Plus can you imagine if I did edit? I never would get a TR done!

And that's different how?

I'm aging it ~ like H said!

[wewantsdaredhead]

OK so finally! I have added my pictures so here goes...

Well, it was inevitable….the Brothers going to Disneyland for a half marathon. This trip was long in the making and honestly it just sort of fell together. Coast to Coast medals were in the works!

Mary and I had talked with some friends that live exactly 6 miles from DL. They were more than pleased to host us, in fact afterwards they told us that there’s no way in heck that they would have let us stay at a hotel. Then after NaCler decided that he was in, they insisted that he stay there as well. The funniest part of all this was that our hosts weren’t even going to be home! They had prior plans (it was Labor Day weekend after all) out of town. So, we would see them Thursday when we arrived and part of Friday. They left us Friday night and came home Monday. We left to come home on Tuesday AM. They set us up with their house, plenty of food and beer and a vehicle to get around in. Man this was awesome!!

NaCler and I decided to hit the parks for two days, but Mary wasn’t interested---she spent all her free time poolside (oh did I mention that they had a pool?). Mary’s brother gave us two free standby airline tickets, which was awesome, but the flights were looking full, so I was nervous about that.

OK, so here was our itinerary:
Leave Thursday AM—meet up with NaCler in Denver (just dumb luck our flights both had layovers in Denver), then fly into Orange County.
Friday was chill out day.
Saturday was adventure day—we wanted to hit the beach.
Sunday was the race and afterwards NaCler and I were going to DCA.
Monday was DL! My first time!!
Fly home Tuesday.

Thursday August 28th 2014

***Some of the pics might look familiar as I posted some in my quick update in the SSR Running Club Area.
So the real drama started when we landed in Denver and they told us that they had one open seat for the two of us (NaCler did the right thing and bought a seat—no stress for him). It was hit or miss and at the last minute they told us that someone didn’t show up and we could both fly…and then they rescinded the offer. The person was onboard and their boarding pass was never scanned. Ugh!

Mary and I decided that if we got split up, I was to go with John. If it all worked out right Mary would be on the next flight and be only like 30 mins behind us anyway. She didn’t and she wasn’t…lol

Here is NaCler and I waiting for Mary to arrive:


We landed and poor Mary was stuck in Denver. She finally got a flight to Phoenix and then onto Orange County but she didn’t arrive until 8pm or something, which to our bodies was like 11pm.

We finally got her and went out to eat at a Hibachi place that our hosts frequent quite regularly apparently…the wait staff knew what their orders were, called them by name and came out to visit them often. It was great to see our friends---it had been about 12 years! Too long.
When we finally fell asleep it was like we were awake for 22 hours or something close to it.

Friday August 29th 2014

Today we slept in and chilled out. We went to the Expo for packet pickup once we were up and showered.
We ate an early lunch at Earl of Sandwich—our bodies were all messed up with the time. But it was nice to sit there and eat, this close to the DL Hotel



We hit In and Out Burger for later lunch. (My review: It was ok, yes just ok—I don’t get all the hype, it wasn’t bad mind you, just OK). Our hosts asked us to go to a street fair they were having in a neighboring town—it sounded like fun so we agreed. Here’s the kicker: One of our hosts works in the downtown area where the fair was being held. So she brought beer and food to her office and (of course) they had bathrooms, so we used it instead of the porta johns and went in there for beer runs instead of buying ones on the street. It was perfect!

Here is NaCler eating a brat with extra kraut!


Here we are on a beer break (one of many):



And here’s me in front of one of the stores—it was a quaint downtown area.


Saturday August 30th 2014

Our hosts left early this morning for their place at the lake—so we had the place to ourselves. We decided to do a little exploring. We went to the beach and walked around:



Then we drove all over southern CA, I swear. Mary wanted to look at a Wal-Mart for cheap Disney souvenirs—no dice. It wasn’t like FL where all the stores have that stuff. We did some grocery shopping and then it was pool time!

The pool was very nice, but very COLD. I think NaCler was the first to go in—he’s crazy. I just chilled out poolside and, yes, drank beer.

We ordered some pasta for dinner, so NaCler and I drove to get it and the place was like and old western town—and someone had even ridden their horse there! We mayyyy have had a beer here.




It was an early night—we had to get up crazy early for the race.

Sunday August 31st 2014

Early rise and some peanut butter toast and we were out the door. There was ZERO traffic at that hour—lol. Plus we stayed so close—it was nice.
We were way early, but it was OK, we sat in our corral and stretched and talked. It was still dark out. It was very cloudy and low humidity, something we were not used to.

The obligatory pre-race pic:


You start out running around the block and into DCA. It was my first time in a CA Disney park

After a short while, you end up in DL! Yayyyy! We took a few pics in front of the Castle of course.




Matterhorn Selfie:


After you leave DL it’s a lot of street running, up and down city blocks. So different from WDW where you are 100% on Disney property. Then you head over to and around the Honda Center and out onto the “Santa Ana Trail” which was really just one of those aqueduct looking things you always see in southern CA for flood control.

Then it’s up and into Angels Stadium! This was cool—lots of people in there cheering you on. This (and the Castle) was a “Wow” moment. NaCler got his second wind in there---I think this is about mile 9 or so. Not far to go!




We finished and got our two medals Coast to Coast and DL Half. It was a great run and we ran together, all three of us.


The plan was to hit the pool, take a nap and relax then go to DCA. Mary was going to stay poolside all day. She mentioned going to Target or something, but I don’t think she ever did.

NaCler and I eased into DCA a little stiff, but not too bad. Honestly I have no recollection of what we did and when except a few highlights. NaCler will have to fill in the blanks. I know we hit the Muppets with about three other people (empty!). We went on ToT, Monsters Inc, California Screamin’, Cars and we stopped for a beer at some point. That was a nice break from the sun—it was full on sun at this time of the day. I took a pic of the beer fridge lol






Then we ate and rode Soarin` single rider, which was a mistake! We should have just gone in the regular line. Then we left. I had enough—I was wore out and was feeling melancholy for some reason. I offered to leave NaCler the car or come back and get him, but he declined and left with me to prep for tomorrow’s assault of DL.



Here is NaCler with his new friend: