The Schuerman Family: Trip to Cali to Ring in 2026

To wrap up our crazy year of traveling, we spent the glorious week between Christmas and New Years on the west coast. Dad drove us to the airport the morning after Christmas Day and we got to San Diego a little bit before midnight local time.

We started out the next morning with a stroll through Balboa Park.

They had such pretty flowers -- some had silly names!

We rented a quad bike and rode around Coronado for a bit!

Before dinner, we checked out the sunset at the Sunset Cliffs Natural Park -- fitting!

We also got a pic with the D&V carving Danny spotted when he went with Colin in July!

The photos we got were just too good!

There was a crazy guy out there surfing! It was chilly!

We hit up our favorite pizza spot for dinner, Pizza E Birra. Wish we could eat there every week!

Next up was a hike at the Mission Trails Regional Park

Cabrillo National Monument

We spoiled ourselves with dinner at Dukes in La Jolla. We can't get enough of the Hula Pie!

Before we left San Diego the next day, we made a pit stop to check out some beautiful cars. I can't even fathom how much money was in the showroom. Colin was in awe.

I think the Bugatti was the most expensive car in there - it was not for sale.

Next up, Waldorf Astoria in Monarch Beach. We got our stay mega comped because of all of Danny's travel and Hilton stays. We felt like royalty!

Beautiful sunset near the water amongst bonfires.

We walked to dinner one night and the entrance to the resort looked so pretty! We didn't do a whole lot there since we don't golf, but we played some cornhole, took some walks, relaxed, and hung out by the pool (mostly chilled in the hot tub).

The next day, we made our way to Disney to ring in the new year! Since we aren't Disneyland newbies anymore, we knew what we wanted to hit up, so we just did a day pass with park hopper capabilities!

We watched the guy draw this with water and a broom!

The crazy kids and their spinny rides!

It rained a LOT that day -- at least we got to ride most of what we wanted (I think I was the only one bummed that Goofy's Sky School was closed). This was us in line for Indiana Jones -- the ride had to "pause" a few times -- luckily we finally got to ride!

Space Mountain :)

Decorated so pretty for the holidays

We got to see fireworks twice that night -- once at 9pm for the east coast folks and midnight for the locals!

The next day, VCA sent us this adorable pic of our pup

While Danny and Colin checked out the Universal Studios shops, Cadence and I went on the Warner Brothers tour (Colin went with Vince back in July). It was pretty cool! Here's a "street" that's been featured many times -- one of those was on Friends!

This was featured in Gremlins

The famous water tower!

Tom Cruise's reserved parking spot

Photo op! Pic taken by our tour guide :)

Friends lot

Abbott Elementary trailer!

The Friends store had some cool stuff -- including yummy food!

The end of our tour - the couch & fountain from the opening of Friends

Abbott Elementary

I thought Dad would like to see these

And Colin would be impressed by these from Minecraft

"Central Perk!"

From the Lego Movies

That night we enjoyed ramen for dinner in Culver City. Culver Studios was lit up nicely for the holidays.

On our last full day on the west coast, we checked out the spot where they parked all of the Rose Bowl parade floats after the parade. The parade was too early to get to after being at Disney until 1am, so this was the next best thing. It was a shame the rain put a damper on things, but it was still neat to see the floats up close!