Aneheim, CA

Huntington Hotel in Pasadena California

John, Dace, and Zenia


Katie and Linda at Disneyland
We stayed with Linda's parents,Dave and Zenia
in Anaheim California. Both have done extensive travling themselves, and we enjoyed the time sharing and listening to stories. Right down the street from Downtown Disney.
The night we arrived Zenia and Dave cooked dinner for us and Linda and Heather joined us as well. It's been a while since we had an actual home cooked meal in a house!
Yum :)

Zenia gave us a map of the United States and at breakfast Rocky and I marked out our route. It was amazing for us to see it on a whole map of the United States.

Linda was able to find complimentary tickets to Disneyland where Linda, Rocky, and I spent the morning there, and Rocky and I kept exploring Disneyland as well as Disney Adventure the rest of the day until it closed. (Thank you Janice and Linda for the tickets!)

Rocky who does not like roller coaster rides or heights-did pretty well. Though I forced him on a few rides....He always came off smiling so they couldn't have been that bad:)
His favorite was the James Bond ride, and mine was the submarine ride which was about finding Nemo....It is amazing how they create all these fantasy worlds.

Linda told us she enjoyed the Michael Jackson movie. So on our second day in Anaheim we cycled to Downtown Disney to watch it. When it began they played the wrong movie. They could not fix it so they told us to go to another movie until the next show time started. So we found ourselves watching The Step Father, then went back into Michael Jackson movie, and by the time we left the theater it was already dark outside!

We made it back to the house in time for a Spaghetti Dinner:)

The next day we had breakfast. We met John, their son. And Linda came over.
She drove us to the Huntington Beach California. We explored the beach, watched the surfers, wandered through the farmers market, bought some strawberries, went out for some sushi, and headed back towards our 'home' for the week. We met Linda and her whole family, Ralph, Scott, Heather, and John at McDonald's had some dinner, and headed to the movies where we saw Astro Boy, which was a great movie.
Before leaving the Theater Heather and Scott played some games in the Arcade. Heather was able to play her favorite, the Claw Machine. And she won:)

While in Anaheim we had to eventually find our way to Phoenix, AZ, since we were hoping to find a different mode of transportation other than biking. Amtrak seemed to be the way to go, though it was a bit pricey, and boxing up our bikes seems like something we really preferred not to do!!

So....we found a ride on Craigslist....A girl with a pickup truck going from Pasadena, CA to Phoenix Arizona! Perfect.

Linda took us to Pasadena, CA. She took us to Huntington Hotel
http://pasadena.langhamhotels.com/en/
We explored and sat outside for coffee and dessert. Chocolate Dessert:) Thank you Linda for this treat!
It was sad to say our goodbyes. Dave and Zenia have been such sweet generous people to us, and Linda as well. Everyone made us feel right at home and feel like part of the family. They are a truly amazing family helping eachother out being such great supporters and advocate for both of their children with Autism.

Once in Pasadena we find out our ride will not be leaving Pasadena, CA until 2am.....
We are homeless in Pasadena until 2 am....Our evening went like this....Art museum (excellent museum), movies (Amelia Earhart), dinner(Wings), movies (The Fourth Kind), Marriott hotel lobby, shell station, time for out car ride. We drove through the night....I slept a bit, Rocky stayed up almost the whole time....