Warning...

2 weeks of no internet and no blogging makes for lots of blogging now. You've been warned. I started with 2600 photos, I took pictures of every single thing. I've whittled that amount down do about 1500. I will not blog all of those pictures but I will put them in a smugmug gallery maybe later this week.

Where to start?  Let's start 3 years ago. We took our first family vacation and went for 1 week to Disneyland. We were bitten by the bug. We loved every minute of it, except the walking back to our hotel at the end of the day. When we got back, I somehow stumbled on to Amy's Disney blog. She loved Disneyland, and she scrapbooked. David has a Subaru, Kerry wants one. We began emailing and chatting on-line. One thing led to another and we decided we were going back to Disneyland and we were going to meet Amy, David and Trevor. They invited us to their wedding. We were going to fly, but then in my great wisdom, I said "why don't we just drive all the way there?" Kerry's always wanted to drive the Oregon coast so that's what we planned on doing.

Oh, but wait! We watch a disgusting amount of the Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, why not make a list of the ones on the way and hit them.  So the plans were made, the maps printed out, the tickets purchased, half the hotels booked (we decided to play it loose on the way home), and we headed out on Sunday, Oct. 24th, bright and early. Really, it was dark, pitch black and early.

 There was no line-up at the border, we did get a bit of a hassle about taking Emily out of school for 2 weeks. We drove to Portland. It's beautiful there. We ate at the first of 3 triple D recommendations. Podnah's, as in 'partner's'. We had brisket, it was good, but mine is better. T-shirts were purchased and some very full Williamses hit the road again.
We took the I-5 down, this is the fastest, most boringest road in the history of roads I have been on. 13 naps a day because I was dying of boredom. We took turns driving, I drove for about 1 hour when we entered California, I needed a nap about 45 min. after I started driving. Kerry drove for 99,999 km.

 We stayed in Eugene, and then again in Bakersfield.
We stopped in Sacramento at the Squeeze Inn for their famous 'cheese skirt burgers'.

I had a beef taco. This place was worth the drive! Deliciously clogged arteries!

No t-shirts were purchased, they only had Kerry's size in pink. 

We made it to our hotel in Anaheim, strategically chosen for it's close proximity to Disneyland. Definitely worth the extra cost. Amy, David, and Trevor met us there. It was so awesome to meet them in  person. We don't make a habit of meeting strangers from the internet, but we felt like we'd known them for years. Oh, did I mention Mickey's Halloween party was a costume party?  Kerry went as Waldo, from Where's Waldo and was a huge hit with other party goers. Emily and I made her Pikachu costume. Amy was Dorothy and David was the tin man, and Trevor was a SWAT guy. I was a witch.

Not only did we find Waldo but we saw Baby Elvis too!

The park had the best decorations, as always!

 The park is decorated especially for Halloween and for the party. Dry ice made it eery and trick or treating at the park was a special 'treat'.

 The parade was neat to see, but the best part...

The special Halloween fireworks!  I think that's Amy taping them with her phone.

That sums up our first few days of our trip.  Things to come...Universal Studios, Seaworld, brave people on scary rides, a wedding, a drive on the beach, and much more.