A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM - Page 25 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sunday 30 August – part four: what do you mean the car won’t lock?
We ended up going via the Presidio, and actually found the Walt Disney Family Museum on the way that we’d be visiting later. Now remember this… The Presidio was a fascinating place, and very beautiful. It’s a former military barracks, and I love what they’ve done with it. They’ve kept a lot of the historic buildings, and it’s a beautiful park.
There’s the Walt Disney Family Museum The San Francisco national cemetery is home to the remains of around 30,000 American soldiers
We carried on, meeting lots of cyclists, although I don’t think any of them were taking part in the triathlon – we’d seen those earlier. I suspect some were going to “bike the bridge”, as I know that’s a tour you can take.
Looking out to Alcatraz
… and the city skyline
We saw a sign for the Golden Gate Visitor Centre, so decided to head in there. It was here we had triple heart attacks. Firstly, after a first sweep of the car park, Mark went to drive round again, but went the wrong way down the road to get back into the car park – not very popular with other drivers!
Then, when he finally snagged a parking space (no mean feat), I went to pay for the parking, and couldn’t find my change bag. The problem was it wasn’t just change in there, it was all my American and Canadian currency. I couldn’t work out what had happened to it – it definitely wasn’t in my handbag, and I knew I had it at Ghiradelli. I remembered putting it back in my bag, but maybe I hadn’t… panic really did set in. I went back to the car, only to discover I’d taken it out of my bag and put it in the car to pay the tolls, not realising there are no physical tolls.
Those two issues resolved, I went to get some photos of the bridge, while Mark went to put the ticket in the car. I didn’t know where he’d ended up, so after a while went to find him, and discovered he was back at the car. He told me that the car was automatically unlocking after being locked. He tried it again and again and the same thing kept happening. I tried the manual, and there was nothing in there to give me any idea as to what the problem was.
In the end, we figured we’d just have to risk it, and basically pray. It wasn’t ideal at all, but what else could we do? We tried to make the best of it, and first got some photos from one lookout area…
Thank you very much to the random stranger we persuaded to take this for us…
… then we headed into the shop, where I got a couple more stamps for my National Parks passport, and we both got T-shirts, saying “I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge” – well, now we’d better make sure we do and we also got a couple of fridge magnets.
Sorry for the issues with the car! Thank goodness you found your money! Great pictures of the bridge. We've only stopped at the viewing area on the Sausalito side, never the SF side!
Oh thank goodness you found your money! But how odd about the car.
Great photos so far! Isn't that cemetery amazing? I took some time to actually walk through it when I was there and it's just so peaceful and beautiful. You forget that you're in a big city.
And I'm curious why we're remembering where the museum is. I hope you don't get lost later.....
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Did you by any chance leave a key fob in the car? My car will not lock if it senses that the key fob is still in the car. Your pictures are wonderful. I really want to take a trip to San Francisco.
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I've done the same thing with my wallet. It is always a heart pounding moment until you realize where it is. Sorry about the issue with the car. Great pictures from the Golden Gate park!
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That is really weird. My car will unlock if something hits the key fob in my purse. San Francisco is so hilly and pretty. I live in a very flat area and those hills look amazing.
I'm glad you found your change purse.
Liz
I'm totally loving your pictures of San Francisco. We walked up Lombard Street with the kids when we were there. There is a Thomas Kincade of Lombard Street that I'm after for my Christmas.
We also loved Ghirardelli square in fact I'm sitting here thinking we have to go back to San Francisco, maybe for my 50th.
I am playing catch up again. I too love to see mountains as I fly as it's not on this side of the country so much either. It's amazing how different parts of the US are so different.
I would love to have a little bed while flying too. I can never sleep as my head flops all over and I drool.
Glad you got through customs and the car rental lines a bit faster than you thought.
Your hotel looks great and dinner looked perfect, though I agree a bit pricey.
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Such great pictures around the bridge's viewing areas. 
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