Here are our California plans:
We are flying into LA with my parents and then driving to Anaheim. We are staying at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel and Spa and since my parents have their Disney Vacation Club points we are very lucky to be able to stay for free. The Disney Vacation Club area of the hotel just opened in January so everything is brand new. It looks beautiful!
The lobby
They type of room Michael and I will be staying in
Outside view of the hotel
We will be spending 6 nights here in Anaheim. We will probably go to Disneyland 3 of our 7 days and then we plan to drive down for day trips to San Diego for 2 or 3 days. We want to check out the San Diego Zoo of course as well as Sea World and other areas in downtown San Diego.
After our stay in Anaheim my parents will be heading home. Michael and I will start heading north towards San Francisco. The drive from Anaheim to San Francisco is 8-9 hours. We didn't want to have to do the whole drive in one day so we are going to stop along the way. We are going to be stopping in Monterey. It is about 6 hours north of Anaheim so we will have most of the drive out of the way. We are going to be staying at a beautiful hotel right on the coast.
Monterey Bay Coastline, gorgeous!
Our hotel on the bay
The type of room we are staying in
We will only be spending one night in Monterey. We will get up the next day and head next door to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is the largest aquarium in the world and it looks amazing! They have some amazing exhibits and some animals that can't be found in captivity anywhere else in the world. We are really looking forward to this. It is the main reason we chose to stop in Monterey. We are going to tour the aquarium and have lunch at their restaurant which sounds really cool. It's right on the bay and they give you binoculars to spot sea lions, otters or even whales during your meal. After lunch we are going to get back on the road to finish our drive to San Francisco.
We will be spending three nights in San Francisco. We are staying in the Union Square neigborhood at the Intercontinental. We were going back and forth whether to stay on the bay by the fisherman's wharf or more centrally located and we decided centrally located was best. We are walking distance or a short trolley ride away from pretty much everything.
Outside entrance to hotel
Type of room we are staying in
We don't have all of our sightseeing planned for San Francisco yet. We know we want to see the wharf, the golden gate bridge, ride the cable cars, go to Chinatown, visit some museums, and you know I want to visit Ghiradelli! San Francisco is also home to the largest Old Navy store in the world! Those of you that know me well will understand how much that excites me! We also want to research and pick some fabulous restaurants to visit while we're there.
I'm so excited for this trip to California. I'm looking forward to going somewhere we've never been and exploring these cities. Please let us know if you have any suggestions for any of the cities we are visiting; we'd love to hear them!
Hi Sara! It's Anita's daughter and I live in SF. You definitely made the right choice staying in Union Square vs Fisherman's Wharf (the wharf is full of tourists and people trying to sell stuff to tourists). However, I do recommend the Crab House on Pier 39 - and make sure to go behind the shops on Pier 39 and look for the seals. They are hilarious to watch! They haven't been coming as often as they used to, but it is worth checking if they are around. The books or Internet will tell you all the sites, but I would also recommend crossing the Golden Gate and checking out Marin (the county north of SF). You can pull over right after you cross the bridge at the first vista point for some great views back toward SF. Also, if the day is nice you can catch brunch on the bay in Sausalito. Or even take a ferry to and from Sausalito from SF. If you have any questions while you plan your trip feel free to ask! Or you can ask my mom - she has been to visit many times! Love reading your blog...
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