A busy day full of errands and packing!  I finally decide on a new camera for our trip and go out and get it a half hour before we leave.  I ended up getting an Olympus SP-500uz.  It's a 10x optical 6MP camera that is leaps and bounds above my old one.  I was happy We left for Portland at around 630pm on Thursday the 28^th. Since our flight was early on Friday we decided to take advantage of a park and fly package at one of the Holiday Inn’s. We have stayed here before and for a few bucks more than long term parking we get a few more hours of sleep. We decide to give my daughter her early birthday gift before we leave. A teal Nintendo DS special Nintendogs edition. She has been wanting this for awhile and was very surprised to get the Teal one. They are not sold in stores anymore.

0530 AM Friday the 29^th. We catch the hotel shuttle at 0630 to PDX. Our flight is scheduled to leave at 0720 so we planned our times well. We only checked 1 bag so we breeze through security and check in and head towards the terminal. I grab some Java and sit down and eat my sack breakfast that the hotel prepared for us. Not too bad considering, a small fruit danish, juice cup and a banana. We decided to fly with Southwest Airlines since they offered the cheapest fare. Since there were 6 in our party we downloaded our boarding pass the day before so we could all get a seat next to each other. If you have not flown Southwest before, they do not have assigned seats. They board according to when you check in/print your boarding pass, Group A, B, C etc. So if you are in a group and have group C on your boarding pass, chances are you are not going to sit next to each other.

Anyway, the flight leaves on time and heads to Boise, Idaho. We exchange a few passenger’s and head for Salt Lake City, Utah. Since the flight was so cheap we had a couple stops along the way. After a brief stop we head out to LAX. The plane arrives on time and with out incident. We grab our bags and take the shuttle to the Budget rental car place. They have our minivan waiting, a Chrysler Town and Country. It was a standard 7 passenger van that fit the 6 of us and all our luggage nicely. We load up and head for our hotel. Traffic flowed nicely at this time of day, about 130pm. We arrive at the hotel about 40 minutes later.

My daughter and niece are on Cheer squads competing at Knots Berry Farms so we stayed at the team hotel our first 2 nights near the park. The Hampton Inn & Suites was a fairly nice hotel for the money. We received a special group rate since we had booked most of the rooms on two of the floors. Our room had 2 full beds and was equipped with a mini fridge and microwave. We settle in a bit, then head to the pool for awhile. Pool is rather small.  After that we decide to explore the area for someplace to eat.

After making a few trips up and down the avenue, we decide on a place called Po Folks restaurant. It was a homestyle family place that served a variety of food. It was decorated in a simple laid back style with a neat O scale train and track that traveled around the restaurant just at ceiling level. If I remember right I ordered some kind of meat combo dinner that came with a salad, pork ribs, chicken breast, chicken fried steak, mash potatoes, cornbread, and some vegetables. I ate a good portion of the food before pushing away from the table. All of our food was good and relatively inexpensive considering the hearty helpings they provided.

We call it a night fairly early considering we have a long day planned at Disneyland the next day.

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So at  this point, has the cheer competition started yet?  I am anxious to hear how the girls did!

Leanne

May All Your Days Be Filled With Magic!  And your nights full of Disney Dreams!

The Cheer competition is a one day event that we did on Sunday, day 3 of the trip.  Lots of fun!