Californias Great America

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After a long day of driving up the coast, I took a day trip to California's Great America. Those of you from Chicago, or who follow theme parks, will know that this isn't the only Great America. Both Six Flags Great America and California's Great America, were opened as sister parks by the Marriott

CA Great America Map

Corporation (yes, the hotelier) in 1976. When built, the parks were designed with a nearly identical layout and attraction selection. Currently, both parks still feature The Demon, Loggers Run, Columbia Carousel with Fountain/reflection pool, and Pictorium.

After working at Six Flags Great America, it is very eerie to walk about a new park yet it feel completely familiar. But nonetheless, the park is beautiful and very well maintained and provides a very welcoming atmosphere.

The parks newest attraction (and reason that I arrived extra early!) is Gold Striker!, a Great Coaster International wooden coaster. The very compact wooden coaster features a 100' drop and lots of tight turns. The result is a fast and exciting coaster that was much needed for this park. However, recently the park was forced to add tunnels

Gold Striker in Motion

and sound deadening foam to the coaster because of increased noise complaints from a nearby company. While it initially looks as if it might detract from the ride experience, I think it added to it as it created a lot of close calls for riders and made it feel faster. After having an opportunity to ride in both the front and the back, I liked the back a lot better as it felt as if it was pulling you through the twists and turns faster.

Vortex

I then proceeded to ride Votex, a B&M stand up coaster. These always look to be good coasters, but unfortunately the restraint system design makes for a very uncomfortable ride.

Flight Deck

Before heading into the water park, I made my way to "Flight Deck", a B&M inverted coaster (think Batman for those of you who have been to a Six Flags). The best part of this ride is the lake flyover, where you are brought within feet of dipping into the lake on a tight turn before the end of the ride. I highly recommend riding in the front on this one.

It was then off to work at Boomerang Bay. While not a large water park, they manage to pack in the guests quite well and gives it a larger feel.

At the end of my day, the guards wanted to do a bit of yoga, so I decided to join in. All in all I had a great day at California's Great America, and can't wait to make it back someday soon!

Didn't get enough photos? check out more in the #LyfInFocus-CA Great America Album.

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Cruising the Coast on the 1

Be Sure to Check Out my Previous post: So Cal Waterpark's!

After a nice time home in Southern California, it was finally time to head up north. While the quickest way is to head through the center of the state, it is quite possibly the most boring drive. After passing through Los Angeles, it is mainly agriculture farms. So I decided to take the famous California 1 right up the coast. Living in the golden state all of my life, I had never taken the famous route before and was excited for the opportunity.

Portillos!

So I jumped on the road and started the 10 hour drive and was ready to take on the day. My first stop was at one of my favorite restaurants, which has only just recently spread to the west coast after getting its start in Chicago. That restaurant, is Portillos. Famous for their Chicago Style Hot Dogs (don't even think of asking for ketchup!) and Italian Beef, it was surely a spot I couldn't afford to miss. I get the Italian Beef sandwich dipped (they dip the sandwich in the gravy), and man was it good. The bread was the perfect amount of soggy and the meat had so much flavor.

After lunch I found myself in the heart of the never ending Los Angeles traffic jam. For those of you in disbelief, and don't think it could be that bad.... come give it a try. At most daylight hours you can be guaranteed to run into the traffic, which is usually at a dead stop. The only time you can potentially avoid it is after about 9PM.

Looking out over the Ocean

Once outside of downtown, I headed towards the coast and hit the beautiful Pacific Ocean. It was
very fortunate that it was a clear day, as you could see for miles out over the ocean. The road mostly follows the shoreline, and every now and again it slips slightly inland.

Andersen's Pea Soup

There are many unique places to stop along the way, one of the first being "Andersen's, home of the World Famous Split Pea Soup!". And its a big deal. The restaurant has a museum and gift shop inside all to support the towns pea soup craze. Some of my favorite parts of the place were multiple murals and signs talking about their history. Regrettably I didn't have any of the soup as I wanted to stay on time, but its definitely a place that I would like to return to.

About another hour up the road is a small beach town called Pismo Beach that I had vacationed to
many times before. It's beautiful beaches and quaint little town serves up a wonderful summer getaway for families from all around. If you ever have the chance to visit, be sure to visit the many restaurants serving up fresh caught Fish n Chips.

Pismo Beach

Entrance to Hearst Castle

Next up was the beautiful mansion grounds of Hearts Castle. Located in the beautiful sprawling hillsides of San Simeon, it is one of true gems of the California coast. Built in 1919 by media giant William Randolf Hearst, the combined 90,000sq. ft. Castle is quite a site to see. A extended history can be found on the Wikipedia page, but in short he left the estate in 1947, it was turned over as a national landmark and soon thereafter a museum. Tours are offered multiple times a day, and are worth taking if you have the time. If you are short on time, you can view the mansion at a distance from the visitors center and tour the free museum.

Elephant Seals

Just past the castle, before you head into picturesque cliff side part of the journey, you can stop off to
see giant elephant seals on the beach. These seemingly peaceful mammoths, can get quite loud when they start to bark at each other.

Sunset Over the Pacific

The final leg of the journey (which is about 2-3 hours in length) is up towards Big Sur, on the famous cliff side route on the 1. I was lucky enough to hit the mountainside just before sunset, which made for some absolutely incredible views. If you ever have the opportunity to pass through here, I would highly recommend sunset. It was a sight that I will

Me watching the Sunset

never forget.

My journey came to a close in Santa Cruz where I gathered some much needed sleep. The next day I would be heading just over the mountains into San Jose/Santa Clara where I would be getting back to work.

Didn't get enough Photos? Check out the #LyfInFocus-Cruisin' the Coast Album.

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So-Cal Waterpark's!

Be Sure to Check Out my Previous Post: Six Flags Magic Mountain

Beautiful Southern California. Palm trees, sandy beaches, and Hollywood is what normally comes to mind. However, we are graced with a wide array of water parks to keep your toes free of sand and thrill level at a maximum!


I had the opportunity to visit 4 of them:
-Six Flags Hurricane Harbor-Valencia
-Raging Waters-San Dimas
-Knott's Soak City- Palm Springs
-Knott's Soak City-Orange County

Approaching the Park

Raging Waters is part of a chain of 3 water parks in California

Water slide at the Park
You might recognize this from
the movie Norbit

(Sacramento, San Jose, and San Dimas). However the San Dimaslocation is the most well known, mostly because of its close proximity to Hollywood, it has been featured in numerous movies and TV shows and Music videos. Some of them include Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure, Norbit, and most recently Justin Beiber's "Beauty and the Beat" music video. While the park is not very large, it has more attractions than any other water park in California. There are many winding paths and high and low areas in the park that make for lots of walking throughout your day. Besides the attractions (which are some of the best around) some of the highlights of this park are its unique food outlets that include: Pinks Hot Dogs, Breyers Ice Cream, Dole Whips, and Carl's Jr.


For those of you who don't know where Palm Springs is located, it is about 1.5 hours east of Los

Wave Pool

Angeles, and is at the start of the California Desert. Meaning that once you hit the summer months, it is HOT. Daily temperatures

Tornado

are in the triple digits and clouds are rare. Soak City is located in the middle of the city and has been around since 201 when it operated as the Oasis Water park. Since the Soak City name change, most of the park remained the same with their large Wave Pool, 3 main slide complex's and a lazy river. The only major addition to the park was the Pro Slide Tornado which opened in 2006. The park has a great family atmosphere, and with lots of grass and misters it is easy to stay cool even out of the water.

Soak City OC Slides

The Orange County location is unique as it is a sister park to the Knott's Berry Farm theme park. This location had many of the same types of attractions, and a massive Lazy river. One thing this park benefited from was lots of wide open walkways and seating areas. A unique feature was their "no chairs allowed" grassy areas.  This was neat as it didn't allow guests to move chairs out of their designated areas and gave families nice picnic areas to eat at in the park. With the screams of roller coaster riders in the air, its a great atmosphere for a day in the pool.

Following my day at Soak City Orange County, I ventured into Knott's Berry Farm for some night coasters. One of the attractions I was most

Xcelerator

looking forward to experiencing was the Timber Mountain Log Ride, as they had just recently reopened after a major renovation. While it may seem to be a simple Log Flume ride, it is one of best themed attractions around and certainly the best flume ride that I have ever experienced. However once in the park I found out it went down for maintenance shortly before I had arrived. I planning on returning sometime in the near future. Since the park was closing so soon, I was only able to ride Pacific Spin and

Knott's at Night

Xcelerator (one of my favorite coasters).

 Overall Southern California has a great selection of theme parks and water parks to visit, and will certainly leave any thrill seeking tourist satisfied.

Be Sure to Check out my next post: Cruising the Coast on the 1!