Vorst Family Trip to Disneyland + Julien-K at the Viper Room

This month my nine-month-old nephew got to experience his first trip to Disneyland with the entire Vorst clan. We also had some Vorst family cousins from Oregon join us on this trip. Their family has three kids aged nine to twelve and it was also their first Disneyland trip. Lots of firsts this time around. Because Kyle and I go so frequently, it's always fun to see new people experience it for the first time.

First night's dinner was at Rainforest Cafe with the whole clan. This is the menu sign displayed on both sides, but viewed from the side, the frog becomes a weird, conjoined thing. 

A cocktail from Trader Sam's called "The Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Rum." 

The first shop on Main Street is decked out to celebrate the 45th anniversary of The Haunted Mansion, which is my personal favorite ride at the park. :) You bet we  bought lots of merch this trip!

The castle is decked out to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the park, but sadly, we visited just a month early of all the 60th celebrations and festivities beginning. :( But Kyle and I will be back in October, so we're not too concerned. We'll see it all then!

This bird made me laugh. He's just chilling there in all those daisies.

One of the Oregonian cousins. We're on the tea cups ride. 

SOOOO much tasty stuff!

Jack Skellington and Olaf candied apples!

Cinderella carriage candied apples.

My little nephew sleeping on his first big day at the park.

The whole clan group photo in front of the castle. We all had matching "Disney Family Trip 2015" shirts on. At least me and Kyle got to make our black. 

Kyle and his younger sister Kacy on Autopia which broke down and trapped them on it for about a half hour. They're the ones in the second yellow car waving. Oregonian cousins are in the car in front of them. 

Kyle is not paying attention.

Siblings.

The first two rows are my sisters-in-law and the Oregonian cousins and me and Kyle are in the back.

At the end of the day waiting in line for one more ride. If you can't tell, my hair has been through the ringer.

Cousins and sisters-in-law about to get on the rocket ship ride for kids. Believe it or not, it was my first time on that ride and it actually goes pretty fast!

Kacy, Kyle, and me at Trader Sams.

This was our first day at the park at the very beginning of the day so we're full of energy. Notice Kacy photo bombing in the back. 

Side view of the castle's decorations for the 60th.

Tea cups! Kyle always skips this ride because the spinning makes him sick.

Behind Big Thunder there's a lake and a cave.

Kyle and Kacy on Autopia when they got stuck. 

Nephew Nathan and his grandma.

Me, my mother-in-law, sister-in-law holding nephew, and my father-in-law. We were all waiting for everyone to get off Autopia because the ride got stuck.

On the Rockets.

Second day of the trip at CA Adventure. Kyle almost got a shot of me with no one else in it. 

My sisters-in-law and nephew meeting Elsa and Anna.

My sister-in-law Korie and I on the Toy Story Midway Mania ride.

Haunted Mansion ride crispy treat. It was delicious.

All that Haunted Mansion merch! 

More Haunted Mansion stuff.

More Haunted Mansion merch. I could've bought the entire store! It was all so neat!

After all the family Disney stuff was over with, Kyle and I checked into a nice hotel in West Hollywood. It was fairly close to the Viper Room, which is where we went to the Julien-K album release party.

Kyle and I have been to a lot of concerts at lots of different venues, including The Roxy, The Nokia Theater, and The House of Blues in L.A. area, but surprisingly not the Viper Room. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it indeed is pretty much A ROOM with two bars and an amazing sound system. Great place to see small bands or even larger bands in an intimate setting. 

Before heading to Hollywood, we grabbed food at The Gypsy Den, which is one of several restaurants Ryan of Julien-K owns. Last time we saw Julien-K we also went to the same restaurant, but at a different location. This is what I ordered for lunch - pita and hummus. 

We walked by this cool cake place on our way to dinner before the Julien-K show.

The Viper Room bathroom. I'm a dork and I took a photo of it.

The El Capitan was all decked out for the release of "The Avengers" movie. We thought about seeing it there, but decided against it because we wanted to see it with friends back home.

My favorite, Tom Hanks. :)

We briefly met up with my sister-in-law and her fiancé Jordan for lunch a brief visit to the Chinese Theater with all the hand prints. Typical (but still fun) tourist things.

That's Kyle's hand in John Goodman's print. He has huge hands!

Interesting to walk by the Scientology building to be handed a movie screening leaflet and see all the books in the various languages. Interesting to note that most religions will GIVE you their printing of the Bible for free, but you have to buy L. Ron Hubbard's literature (at least, that's my assumption).

It was a fun week-long getaway, but we were very happy to get home to our kitties!

Birthday Celebrations in San Francisco…and a Sun Burn

Saturday morning Kyle and I got up early and headed to San Francisco to meet our friend Robin and his girlfriend Rachel for some birthday festivities. Kyle and Robin's birthdays are within a week of each other, so it was sort of a birthday celebration mash up day.

Our first stop was a car show at Pier 70, which is very unlike the touristy piers of the Embarcadero. It's basically a bunch of old warehouses in the industrial district and an area we had not really explored much before.

Clockwise from top left corner: view of the outdoor exhibition area; an Alien vs. Predator themed painted car; some sort of mini Scion thing that reminded us of a tiny Batmobile; a neat all-black car (sorry - I have no idea what make/model); a white Lamborghini 

Growing up with a step-father who built custom street rods and muscle cars for a living, I assumed the car show we were going to was either classic cars or muscle cars, being that those are the two types of car shows I always went to. Boy, was I surprised at the types of cars at the showcase! It was full of modified imports ranging from extremely lowered cars to cars with custom artwork/paint jobs and racing adaptations.

The venue from the interior of the warehouse - full of people, cars, and vendors

"Praise the Lowered" - this tickled me :)

There were several "girly" cars with themes like Tokidoki and Hello Kitty and I had to ask myself if those cars belonged to men or women. The car above has a Tokidoki trunk and interior.

My favorite part of the entire show was running into this little guy. It's a miniature pony about the size of a labrador retriever. Ugh - so adorable!

A lowered family van and Kyle looking at it trying to figure it out. We were equally puzzled by the van section.

It was surprisingly hot for a San Francisco day near the water, so we had to hydrate. I have never had "box water" before. Not surprisingly, it tastes exactly the same as water from a bottle, except they charge you twice as much because you are helping the environment and being "ecofriendly." Pshhhh….yeah right.

Honestly, I can't say I enjoyed the car show. I don't know anything about racing cars or modifying imported cars AT ALL, nor is it a topic I am interested in. When I see cars that are so low to the ground they are practically unable to drive, I have to shake my head and think to myself, "Wow, I just don't get it." But, I am glad that I had the experience of viewing that subculture from the outside. I just have to remind myself that it's not my thing and I don't have to get it. Just being at the show with the loud music, crowds of people, and interesting sights to see made it worthwhile, even if it ultimately made no sense to me.

The crappy part of the show was leaving with a sun burn all over my chest, even though we were only outside for an hour max. I even have outlines from where my necklace was sitting. Thankfully it's not bad enough to be painful, but it is itchy, which is equally annoying.

We were all starving after the car show and instead of doing the smart thing and eating in the immediate area, we wanted to eat at the Rainforest Cafe on the Pier. It took us an hour and half to travel approximately five miles and park. Saturday night traffic was awful!

Clockwise from top left corner: statue that looks like the "Atlas Shrugged" art-deco stuff reminiscent of "BioShock;" my fruity alcoholic blended beverage; Kyle and his penguin balloon; the penguin balloon and our devoured dinner and dessert

Everybody's dinner (except for mine!) was great. We enjoyed the loud ambience and animatronic critter decor. The boys got a happy birthday song and a dessert as well as some cheesy balloon animals. Kyle's penguin fell apart as soon as the balloon dude left our table, but Robin's "Shiraffe" or "Girark" held up well.

Robin and his shiraffe - the bottom half is a giraffe and the head is a shark. Kyle's deflated/broken penguin riding on top. 

Right next door to the restaurant is a new attraction called "The San Francisco Dungeons." It's an interactive walk-through historical experience with live actors who try to scare you while educating you about the history of San Francisco. Kyle and I had been to a similar attraction in London, so while it was fun (we are ALWAYS down for spooky horror-filled rides and attractions), it wasn't anything we hadn't experienced before. Still, it was a blast, especially having some friends along to enjoy it with. While they did take some pictures beforehand as souvenirs, they wanted an arm and a leg for them, so no fun photos to show - sorry!

The next post will be about what we did on Kyle's actual birthday - a drag show featuring Bianca Del Rio from RuPaul's Drag Race. Stay tuned!

Until next time!