disneyland and beyond!
april 2005
we decided to head down to southern
california for a little spring break this
year.  dad flew in and met us in long
beach and we drove down, picked
him up, and started with the san diego
zoo.   marley is an animal lover, it
happens to be one of his favorite
subjects aside from fire trucks, and he
was VERY excited to explore the 'big
zoo' as he calls it.  he was not
disappointed as we toured through all
the exhibits, rode on the double
decker tour bus, and hitched a ride on
the sky tram.  what a great zoo, i
would highly recommend it if you are
ever in the area.  

after the zoo we drove to disneyland
for three days worth of the main
event.  we started with the california
adventure park and spent a lot of time
at the bugs life exhibit.  our time at
disneyland was tons of fun!  marley
loved the train that went around the
park and had the little dioramas
(under splash mountain and again
through the grand canyon and the era
of the dinosaurs).  we did as many of
the rides as we could...dad and joon
hitting the big ones as marley and i
watched (he was too small and i was
pregnant) and all of us going on the
smaller, milder rides.  we did end up
doing 'its a small world' and the pooh
bear ride two or three times.

it was a lot of fun to watch marley
interact with the characters walking
around.  he tends to be a bit on the
shy side in new situations so i didnt
think he would want to do the whole
taking a picture with mickey thing
(plus, he doesnt really know who the
characters are anyway) but boy, was i
wrong!  he really got excited when he
saw them and stood in line and
hugged them and smiled for a picture.
 
after two days in the park, dad had to
leave us and get back to work but
joon, marley, and i stayed for another
day before continuing on with our
vacation.
the next leg of our trip was an overnight in san diego.  
joon found a great hotel that had an aviary and a small
stream running through the grounds with fish in it.  the
fish and birds went over big with marley.  even better it
had a great pool and its own beach!  we did a little
sightseeing in old town san diego but marley was just
too worn out to stay awake for most of it. we really
enjoyed san diego and wished we had more time to
spend there, its so relaxing and the weather is just
gorgeous -- its a real vacation spot!  we didnt even
make it to any of the big attractions (except the zoo
which we did with grandpa) so at some point we will
head back for more!  we did spend a lot of our time at
the pool and marley had a blast splashing around.
the final segment of our trip was some much needed time with family in the la area.  we spent the night with ian, liz,
and noah who had invited a bunch of joons cousins and stepsister over to hang out for the evening.  what a great
time!  marley sure had a blast playing with his family and we all had fun hanging out.  noah is getting so big!  it was
really cute to watch marley and his cousin playing together.  we also made it to the la brea tar pits and went out to
dinner with joons parents in koreatown.  our final night was spent with some of joons friends, just hanging out and
catching up.  then it was time to get on the road and make our way back to oakland...