Continued from previous post:
So, on Monday, we packed-up early and headed to…
Universal Studios!
Well, not on that day. But, we were determined to make-good on our promise to the kids. We chose an RV park near our cousins in San Dimas – from which we could also commute to Universal Studios.
The trip from Buellton to San Dimas took us along the 101, right by our old neighborhood, Woodland Hills. Driving by was so hard – harder than the day we moved out, for some reason. I cried the entire day. As we passed the Mulholland Drive exit, it felt surreal that we weren’t pulling off & heading “home” after our vacation. It was the last time passing “our” Trader Joe’s. Sagebrush Cantina. The Calabasas Farmers’ Market. The library where I took the kids for storytime as babies. It sucked. I thought it would stop, but all along the 101/134 Freeway, memories popped up. Zoo days at Griffith Park. Driving to Burbank Airport to pick up family visiting us. Art classes at Art Center for Sofina in Pasadena. Man.
We pulled into Bonelli Bluffs Park, which is close to our cousins, Karl & Nancy, who live in Claremont. Like the Ankowskis, I feel like we also “grew up” with them. We spent the last 16 years with Karl & Nancy, watching OSU games, hiking, playing Euchre & Catan, & having kids together. TJ’s aunt & uncle, Nancy’s parents, were also here visiting from Ohio in their motorhome (Uncle Cameron’s company, Mills James, was where TJ & I met, working as interns).
We got together for a birthday dinner for our cousin’s daughter, Alex. That night the rain hit again, & there was even a tornado in LA! The next day we had lunch with our aunt & uncle at Coco Palms, & then we went to old town San Dimas to walk around.
Since we’d scrapped our northbound plans, TJ started planning spots for us in San Diego, Santee Lakes, & Joshua Tree. When he said he needed multiple screens to coordinate it all, I felt validated about all my plans heading north being canceled. Planning is a part-time job!
Planning takes many browser windows, multiple maps, and our RV Life GPS app.
We decided to get a 2-day pass to Universal Studios. We knew it would be busy, with the new Mario World exhibit, spring break, and the LAUSD strike. When we got there, the signs said “sold out,” & it felt like it. When the park opened, we rushed down the 4 escalators to the lower lot & got in line for the Mario World ride. The wait time said 120 minutes. They went all-out on the waiting areas for this ride.
That day, we got to ride the Jurassic Park ride & the Mummy ride, as well as watch the Waterworld stunt show and take the hour-long studio tour. Seeing the town from The Good Place made Sofina so happy.
Also, I paid $25 for possibly the best ride picture ever captured. When I went back to buy it 2 hours later, & mentioned what we were wearing for reference, the cashier laughed & said, “I know exactly what picture that is.” Make sure you click on it & get a good look at Chase. I asked him later, “When did you pull your shirt over your head?” He said he did it right before we dropped over the waterfall.
After 14 hours out, we stopped at a Vietnamese restaurant for take-out & then made it home. Stout was so happy to see us. We ate dinner in an exhausted silence. Sofina crawled into her bunk & yelled, “There’s POOP in my bed!”
While we were out that entire day, TJ’s aunt & uncle offered to come to our 5th wheel & let Stout out. We’d closed all the doors to the bedrooms that morning, anticipating a possible accident. Stout was not happy about the well-intentioned “intruders,” and in an attempt to wrangle him, they opened the kids’ bunkhouse door. Stout apparently hopped into Sofina’s bed & pooped his pants out of fear (this is normal for him – he’s a nervous pooper). He also peed all over the trailer, & our aunt & uncle cleaned it up. Thank you, Cam & Nancy!
Also, the kids’ bunks are their entire rooms. The whole thing is a mattress. Everything they have is piled along the walls of their bunks, on the mattresses. To change the sheets on the bed means taking every single thing out, crawling on your hands & knees, & wrestling with the mattress. Sofina was understandably angry about this snag in bedtime, but we all couldn’t help but laugh at the insanity of it. Finally, we hit the sack.
Our 2nd day at Universal, we had a plan. Bypass all those other poor suckers waiting 2 hours for the Mario ride & head straight to the Transformers ride. Since every other person in the park was in line for Mario, our wait time was ZERO minutes.
We then darted up the escalators to the upper lot to explore the Harry Potter world. The Flight of the Hippogriff coaster was cute, but the Forbidden Journey ride inside Hogwarts blew us away. So much so that, when we dizzily stumbled off the ride and veered the wrong way, workers asked us if we wanted to exit or ride again. RIDE AGAIN OF COURSE. And we did. In Simpsons land, we ate at Cletus’s Chicken Shack & had drinks at Moe’s. We rode the Secret Life of Pets ride and the Minions ride. We went back to Hogwarts for Butterbeer. And we did the studio tour – again. It’s that good! It was a wonderful 2 days full of laughter & smiles.
Go Big and Go Roam 
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