National Park Road Trip: California or Bust (Part 10)

What do you do when your wife says, maybe we should go to California? You scramble to find cell phone service and rebook the whole back end of your trip in a hurry.

Our family typically visits California for Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm approximately every 2-3 years. Seeing as our last visit was in 2016, we were due to head back. So when my wife mentioned we were only approximately 14 hours drive away from Los Angeles from the Grand Tetons, while it seemed like a monumental task and cost, the incremental cost to do it now versus flying all of out there again in the future began to make sense. The tough part would not really be the 14 hours+ of driving to get there, but the backend where it meant 4 straight days of driving to get back to Ohio and my work obligations for Monday.

In order to make the drive from the Grand Tetons to California in one day, it meant an early start. So we got on the road around 4-4:30 am. While the surface that might sound crazy, considering it was really 7-7:30 am back home in Ohio, it was totally feasible.

Around 3:00 pm we approached Las Vegas, and I knew we had to at least show the kids a quick view of what the city was like. I had not been back to Las Vegas since my bachelor party in 2008. While I have never been much of a gambler, I had no real intense desire to return to the city of lights since having kids and adulting responsibilities.

However, as I found myself approaching Las Vegas, the lights, the glitz, the glamour, the FUN! I found myself caught up in wanting to see and do it all.

Knowing our journey was still hours ahead of us though, we had to make a decision and what to see, and I knew the right choice would be Circus Circus.

Growing up, my grandparents were frequent guests of the Circus Circus casino, and I knew they might be proud to see our kids in front of the marquee. Plus with the circus acts, games and rides, it was the perfect hotel for the boys to see.

Going into an amusement park or anything being surrounded with everyone trying to get into your wallet, I warned the kids ahead of time that we were going to show them something really cool, but only if they promised not to beg to do and see anything, and remind them we were extremely limited on time.

Upon getting into Circus Circus, their eyes were wide with excitement of all the sounds and smells of nightlife in Las Vegas. They walked around and saw the resort without asking any questions, taking it all in. So I did what any good dad would do…I walked over and bought them each a $10 game card to enjoy. They each played a couple games, won some prizes, and we were out of there after a quick walk through the Adventure Dome.

By the time we got into the Knott’s Berry Farm Hotel, it was approximately 8:30 pm, meaning we traveled a little over 16 hours in one day! Surprisingly, it was not too bad, as getting a really early start always helps tremendously with no one on the roads while the family sleeps.

Knott’s Berry Farm Hotel

We have stayed at the Knott’s Berry Farm Hotel on previous visits, so knew what to expect, thought this time would include a surprise for the boys on the last night of our stay as we switch from a standard 2 queen room to a Snoopy suite!

Our 2 queen room was your typical room, and we had a room on the 8th floor overlooking the pool.

Since us adults had not eaten, my wife took the kids to the pool as I dashed into the Mrs. Knott’s Chicken to Go in the Marketplace to grab some buckets of fried chicken and their amazing mashed potatoes and gravy for the win!

After an exhausting long day of driving, we needed to head to bed relatively early for a full day of Disneyland tomorrow!

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National Park Road Trip: California or Bust (Part 10)

Knott’s Berry Farm Hotel

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