What coast am I on? Day 1

Friday, November 8

My dad arrived at my house around 10 am. After quickly tossing my stuff into his trunk, we headed out. We arrived in Anaheim about 4:15 pm. DS1 and DDIL1 were already there. The hotel had our reservations all messed up, but we had dinner reservations at 5 pm. I figured we would deal with the problems after dinner.

Our dinner reservations were at the White House. There was only valet parking, but my dad didn't trust them to park his car with his dog in it. Eventually they let us just park the car. My dad wanted to leave Twinkie, his dog, in the car while we ate dinner. It was cool out, so we left her water bowl out and headed into the restaurant.

The White House is beautiful. There were two stories, with two balconies up on the second floor just off of the bar. You could probably see the Disney fireworks from one of them. There was a separate building that looked like it could be used for weddings, which would have made for some beautiful photos.

It is described as a "High-end restaurant located in a historic old home offers formal Italian dining in a regal setting." My oldest son loved it. He said it was the closest thing he's had to authentic Italian food since he was in Italy. I had the caprese salad as my main course, and ordered the Souffle El Nino as dessert. We all knew that I wouldn't be able to eat all of it, so we just ordered one. The waiter was very accommodating and brought enough spoons for everyone. DS1 still talked about it two days later. My dad spent his dinner time going out to check on his dog every 20 mins.

By the time we got back to the hotel, Dad was too tired to do anything, so I tucked him and Twinkie into a room to sleep. It wasn't the room he was supposed to have, but it all worked out in the end.

I had ordered our Disneyland tickets through work for the discount, so I had to go print them off on the hotel's computer station. I also started charging my cellphone there. Just as I was finishing up, my younger sister and her two kids arrived. DSa and DDIL1 also got back from dinner about that time. They had stayed at the restaurant to enjoy ambiance a little more.

My younger sister finished checking in, and I asked her where her room was in order to show her the way. They had booked them into the same room as my dad. He only had one bed in his room, so that wasn't going to work. The hotel grounds were beautiful, but I'll never stay there again. The staff was just too poorly trained.

You can't link accounts with the Disneyland app like you do with Disney World's MDE. We had to scan everyone's tickets individually. It was a big pain in the butt. My sister also took pictures of our plans on my phone, which turned out to be a blessing later on.

Finally, we all got settled into the right rooms. I couldn't figure out how to turn the ac off in my room. It was blowing right on me, and I was freezing. DS1 keeps his air mattress in his jeep while he is traveling. He got it out and put it over all the blankets on my bed. It kept me comfortably warm. A bit of an odd solution, but it worked perfectly. Also, the water wasn't draining very quickly out of the bathtub, so there was a lot of soap scum left in the bathtub. No bubble baths for me this trip. *sigh*