Sunday was a relatively low-key day, which, for a Balderrama visit, means that we only did one significant activity for the day. We ventured to Port Crane, NY, to visit Beer Tree Farm, a massive brewery, tasting room, and restaurant.
Every Sunday, they offer brunch, but today they had a makers market, with various vendors. The girls enjoyed some shopping with their cousins (Mariana ended up going on a little shopping spree), while I enjoyed some live music on their patio.
After Mariana spent all of her money, we went down to the Chenango River and played on the banks, catching crawdads. It was an enjoyable, low-activity day, ending with some family time at home and Clara learning how to play chess.
After sleeping off our long hike from the previous day, we took it easy throughout the morning. Clara got to groom the mini horses here and enjoyed spending some time in the barn.
The kids and dads cooled off at the swimming pool in town. It’s an outdoor pool that is free over the summer and has Sandlot vibes, but we were lucky enough that it wasn’t very crowded while we were there.
We then ventured out to Owego Donut & Beer Co. to enjoy their beer wall, donuts, and bravarian pretzels.
Today’s primary destination was visiting Tioga Downs to watch harness horse racing and enjoy the buffet. Watching Harness racing was wild, as I saw all the horses and carts bunch together in a large group. I was excited to have brought my camera and take the opportunity to capture some shots of the action. The solo shots of the horses running right-to-left were during warmups and between races.
Mariana and Ella took part in a Wiffleball Toss competition, but sadly, Mari dropped the ball on the first toss and felt incredibly embarrassed. It didn’t help when we walked back into inside and she realized that the race activities were televised all over the casino.
We ended our evening at the buffet, where we enjoyed prime rib, “steakhouse” meatballs (that tasted like Salisbury steak), and an endless supply of shrimp. We stuffed ourselves and rolled back home.
Hello from Binghamton, New York! Clara, Mariana, and I ventured out here to visit my sister and get some much-needed cousin time. We flew in late Wednesday night (essentially Thursday morning), on a plane that seemed like a roller coaster for the first thirty minutes of our flight. We were grateful to Tony for picking us up from our delayed flight and for letting us sleep in the next morning.
The Balderrama-Durbin family adopted some miniature horses that arrived this week, and we got to meet Dandilion and Lollipop, and make sure my new camera bag took care of our gear while traveling.
We spent Thursday recovering from the flight and enjoying much-needed family time. The girls went swimming with their cousins, and we grilled burgers and hot dogs, eating dinner outside.
On Friday, we ventured out to Watkins Glen State Park, which is nestled in the middle of town and tucked away within a 2-mile hike that leads to these astonishing waterfalls. We fueled up with a slice of pizza from a Woodfire Pizza shack next to the Colonial Inn.
We started our hike by climbing hundreds of stairs (832 steps, according to ChatGPT). I began to feel the weight of my camera bag towards the end of the climb. Things finally leveled out, rewarding us with breathtaking views.
The trail broke out into an upper and lower sections, where a bridge allows you to look downward to the hikers below:
We doubled back and went downward, staying closer to the waterfalls and streams below. The entire trail is composed of these beautiful stone paths and stairways, lined with both rocks and lush greenery.
Despite the heat, humidity, and challenging climbs, everyone stayed in relatively good spirits. The streams and waterfalls near the trail kept things cool and held our attention.
We reached Rainbow Falls, which had a picturesque view where you could walk under and behind the falls. That seemed a good a spot as any to turn around.
I tried experimenting with a longer exposure, but without a tripod or monopod, I was too shaky to capture streaming portraits. I still managed to get some captivating shots.
After turning around, I took up the rear, capturing Tony and Adrian as they made their way back.
We ended our Watkins Glen adventure by enjoying ice cream from the Colonial Inn.
We were pretty tired, sweaty, and ready to be home after our daytime excursion. I was really glad I made it here, and highly recommend that if you get the opportunity to check out Watkins Glen, you take it!
We were burning the candle at both ends as we woke up early on Thursday after a late night on Wednesday. We aimed to be in the park by opening to catch shorter line waits. We bolted toward the Indiana Jones Adventure, which had incredible detail in its queue area:
There was a family directly behind us whose son was scared of the surroundings, but we happened to have a glowstick in our backpack that we could offer to help alleviate some of his fears. As for the ride itself, we loved it. At one point, a giant boulder was rolling towards us, and the girls were convinced it would hit us. With it being our first ride, we got through the line in less than 20 minutes, including a brief breakdown.
Next was the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, at the top of Clara’s “Disneyland bucket list” items. The ride did not disappoint and solidified the girls’ love of roller coasters. As soon as we got off, they both wanted to go again later today.
With the park relatively uncrowded, we hit Peter Pan’s Flight, which had the most extended wait thus far. We liked the ride, but the girls didn’t have much of an affinity towards the movie and didn’t appreciate the nostalgic factor of the ride. However, this ride is on the “must do” list for many, so now we can say we did it.
Having completed our “must do” list, the rest of the day was just bonus time – not bad for 10am. We started chasing short lines again, starting with another ride on Micky & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. The queue was much shorter than the other day and we picked up on some other details, including the girls reacting to my “ketchup vs. catsup” dad humor.
Having ridden the ride once before, I got to focus on taking videos of the girls reacting to elements of the ride.
We then went right next door to Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin, which had a longer line than advertised. Given that the girls have no affinity for Roger Rabbit (I haven’t seen the movie), the length of the ride, and the underwhelming of the ride, they were glad to be done.
We decided to take a snack break and bend the “lunch at the hotel” rule in favor of some turkey legs. We purchased three legs, found a shaded bench, and chowed down.
We followed that up with trying Blue and Green Milk at the Star Wars Edge of the Galaxy.
We had one last task before heading to the hotel for our afternoon break. While the girls weren’t too keen on meeting characters (although they’ve reluctantly posed for photos with some), Mariana had her heart set on meeting the Mandalorian (along with Baby Yoda). In her excitement, she colored a picture of Grogu, packed it in her backpack, and brought it all around the park to give to him. Unfortunately, her picture (along with the backpack) got wet during Wednesday’s Grizzly Run River ride, leaving the picture tearing at the creases.
To top it off, we couldn’t find Mando at the scheduled time and place in the app. In frustration, Mariana tore the picture into four pieces and immediately regretted it when she finally saw her favorite character. While emotional, Mariana and I went to the Mandalorian’s handler and asked if we could still give the picture. The cast member was sweet and offered to present the picture with Mariana. I captured it on video:
R2D2 even showed up at the end:
While I was rolling the video, I was simultaneously taking pictures, and I got this shot where it looks like Grogu is giving Mariana’s picture a side-eye. You’ll need to check it out below! At this point, we were more than ready for our afternoon naps.
After an early pasta dinner, we returned to the park at 5 p.m. and immediately ran into Goofy.
All throughout the trip, Clara wanted to ride The Matterhorn. Mariana was highly reluctant, but after doing Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain Railroad, she mustered off the courage and said she would ride with us. I had no choice but to go, but like Mariana, I’ve conquered my fear of roller coasters and enjoyed the ride. They would have wanted to go again if the line weren’t 50 minutes long. However, the line to Thunder Mountain Railroad was only 30 minutes long, so they opted to ride that again and get their coaster fix.
At that point, we were chasing short lines, which made the Mad Hatter Tea Party an appealing ride. We also took this opportunity to tease my girlfriend, Shannon, back home, who could never go on that ride due to motion sickness. However, karma did bite us, as Mariana didn’t feel great after the ride.
I asked the girls if they would be willing to ride my favorite childhood ride: Star Tours. They ended up loving the ride, and the queuing that featured R2D2 and “that gold guy”.
We ended our ride excursion with the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, which was a pleasant surprise, especially at night.
Our night was capped off with watching the fireworks and then picking up some souvenirs before closing our time at Disneyland. Both girls got sweatshirts, Mariana got earrings for her newly pierced ears, and Clara got a stuffed Olaf. I must admit that we were all running on fumes as we headed back to the hotel, but luckily, we could sleep in the next day.
More pictures from our last day at the OG Disneyland:
The girls and I visited California this week to soak in some sun, Disney magic, and family fun. This is the second time the girls and I have been to California, taking roughly the same trip seven years ago, back when Clara was 4, and Mariana was 18 months. Now that they can make memories, we set out to revisit these places and create some new ones.
We woke up at 3 a.m. on Monday, boarded an airport shuttle, and flew out of DIA at 6:45 a.m. The prices on early-morning flights always seem great until the morning you have to wake up and get to the airport. However, our excitement was a good substitute for our fatigue, and the girls were in good spirits.
We landed at LAX, piled into the rental car, and drove to San Clemente. Over twenty years ago, my good friend Pegge showed me this beautiful pier with this excellent Fisherman’s restaurant with an adjoining bar serving fantastic seafood. I’ve shown it to my friends, sister, and brother-in-law, and I showed it to my kids during our 2017 trip.
We are an amazing lunch of fisherman’s chowder, steamed mussels, calamari, oysters on the half shell, and sourdough bread. I love that the girls are so willing to try new things.
After our filling lunch, we walked up and down the pier, then spent the early afternoon playing in the ocean.
We left San Clemente and stopped at Trader Joe’s to get our breakfast and lunch foods, then rolled into Anaheim, checked into our hotel, returned the rental car, and laid low for the night. The silver lining of being beyond tired from the early morning was that it made an early bedtime easy. We set the alarm for 6:30 a.m. and were out before 8:30 p.m., ready to tackle Disneyland in the morning.
