Our Own California Adventure - Leg 1 UPDATED 6/16 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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So let's get on with the players:
DH and DS (11). DFIL lives out in CA and the last time DS was out here he was 3.
Me.
We split this trip into 2 parts. Part one we went to Lompoc CA and stayed there visiting DFIL for a few days. Part 2 was the DL section, which was a total surprise to DS.
To start we have to go back to Friday the 25 even though we didn't leave until Sat morning. That's because it was Friday night where it became obvious DS was getting sick. We were out at dinner and DS wasn't eating much, being very quiet, coughing every once in a while. We got home, gave him some cold medication, and got him to bed early. The poor kid. We were leaving early Saturday. Of course we've all been healthy all winter. It figures the night before we leave is when someone gets sick. I felt horrible for anyone stuck on our plane with us. DH and I were hoping we weren't going to be 'those people' on the plane with their kid hacking and sneezing everywhere for 5 hours.
Sat March 26 It's departure day!! DH and I had really been looking forward to getting away. He's been working tons and we both needed a break. Luckily DS got up feeling much better. I had bought some of those little kleenex packs you can toss in a purse so I was all set for DS and the plane. And DH laughed that I bought those kleenex packs.....HA! Who's laughing now buddy?
We actually left for the airport on time around 7:00am. We had a 10:15 flight but it's a bit of a drive. Besides it was the beginning of spring break for our schools so you knew it was going to be crowded. Sure enough the airport was packed. Even the parking lot was more full than usual already before 8:00am. It was in the 30's that morning and the forecast was calling for snow later in the day. It just made us want to get out of here all the sooner.
While waiting for the bus in the parking lot, the boys discovered a button that turned on a heat lamp. Ahhhhhhh........
We made it through the security, grabbed some breakfast, and about 15 minutes later our flight started boarding. We were on United out to LAX. They showed True Grit which I'd been wanting to see so that was a nice little bonus. Once we landed at LAX, we had our luggage and were in the rental car in about 20-30 minutes. Unbelievable. DH kept saying he hadn't ever been out of an airport that fast in his life. Me either. Maybe we're just used to O'Hare where it takes 20 minutes before your luggage even begins to show up on the carousel.
We picked up our rental car and decided to get out of LA before traffic got really bad. We stopped for a quick bite then finished the drive to Lompoc where DFIL lives. It's about 45 minutes north of Santa Barbara. We stopped along the way to stretch our legs for a bit. It was gray and drizzling but at least it wasn't 30 some degrees and snowing.
We finished driving up to Lompoc and checked into the hotel.
We loved this hotel. I'd stay in a Holiday Inn Express again anytime. They had a great little breakfast every morning and cookies at night. Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and fruit are always available. The staff was so friendly and the room was nice too. Once at the hotel we called DFIL and he came over to see us. We hung out in the room for a bit catching up and then it was off to dinner. We went to this chinese buffet place. I remembered eating here before. DFIL loves it but to be honest the food kind of scares me. It's really not very good at all and pretty limited for my vegetarian self. There was this vegetable egg noodle thing that was tasty so I filled up on that. After dinner DFiL was ready to get home and get to bed. He's around 80 and was recently treated for bladder cancer. He's in remission now but he tires easily. Besides he's one of those early to bed early to rise kind of people.
DH only brought children's tylenol and nothing for DS's cough so we stopped by a grocery store before going back to the hotel. DS was starting to wilt during dinner so we figured going back and getting him to bed early was probably a good idea anyway. I picked up some vitamin c drops too. I wanted every bit of protection I could get for DH and myself so hopefully we wouldn't get sick too. After all we were going to be spending the next week sleeping in the same room.
We got DS in bed and turned on the tv. It didn't take long for his little eyelids to get heavy. He fell asleep eventually and DH and I spent some time just watching tv, reading the paper, and lounging around. DH went to bed next and I sat reading for a while. I'm a complete night owl so pretty much every night I'd break out my book light and read while they slept. I catch up on a lot of reading over vacation.
About This Page: 
So this is the story of our very own little California adventure. I have a pre-TR over in the DL section. 
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