Day 8 - Rain, Bridge, Sun, Snow, Waterfall, Whistler

Sarah is writing today's blog because we did so much, if Alan was to write it, it would be 3am before it got posted.  He will of course add his cold comments in red.

This morning we got up around 8.30am and started our packing to leave Vancouver.  We planned on attending the 10am Anzac Day ceremony and when we left the hotel it was teeming with rain.  We thought we'd be the only ones there and were surprised at the 100+ other people who were happy to stand out in the rain. There must be a lot of Australians and New Zealanders in Vancouver.

After the brief service we returned to our room via the cupcake place just around the corner from our accommodation. It doesn't open until 11am but the lady in the shop took pity on us and let us in early.  We bought two lemon cupcakes with vanilla icing and some chocolate milk. Just what you want for breakfast.

We returned to our room to eat them and packed up the rest of our gear.  When we checked out at 11am, the sun had actually come out and it looked like the cloud was lifting. We still had a few hours to kill before driving to Whistler so we went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge.  It is much bigger than the one we visited the day we arrived in Vancouver. There are also lots of other walks you can do around the site, including a treetop adventure.  We had a lovely hour or so there, with the sun out most of the time. The suspension bridge is 137 metres long, 70 metres above the river below and can hold the weight of 1300 people all at once. Back in 2006, a 17 ton tree fell onto the bridge under the weight of heavy snowfall but the bridge survived. This bridge sways quite a bit more than the one at Lynn Canyon. Sarah was very scared. The treetop walk was good. At times you're quite high off the ground. There is also a trout pond and we did see a few swimming around.

We had hoped to get to the top of Grouse Mountain while we were in Vancouver but there had been no visibility. However, with the cloud lifting we were hopeful we might get there but when we drove up to the entrance of the skyride, you could still only see it going half way up.  As it is expensive with no guarantee of seeing anything, we decided to give it a miss.  However, when I just checked the website a little while ago, it said at 5.30 the visibility was unlimited.  Oh well, it just wasn't meant to be.

So we started heading out to Whistler.  On the way I said to Alan let's go and visit Cypress Mountain where the moguls, aerials and snowboarding half pipe events had been held at the Vancouver Winter Olympics.  It is only about 40 minutes outside of Vancouver and on the way to Whistler.  As we started driving up the road, we saw a sign saying the season was over and the area was closed. We were therefore not confident we would be able to get close.  On the way up, we stopped at a lookout which looked back over Vancouver.

Then, back in the car we started driving.  Alan remarked that we weren't very high up and then about 3 minutes later, we turned a corner and there before us was snow, lots and lots of snow.

We were able to drive all the way up to the main gate and park the car. There were very few people around since the place is officially closed for the season. We then got out and had a frolic in the snow. It's probably around 25 years or so since I last saw snow. Alan of course had the wrong shoes on and after a few minutes needed to return to the car and put on his waterproof boots.  He also took the opportunity to put on a beanie as well. Then he could only complain about how cold his face was. I'm pretty sure icicles were forming on my nose.

We came across a couple of skiers who had just come down the mountain.  Not sure how they got up there to ski considering no lifts are working.

We had hoped to get to see where the snowboarding half pipe track was but was too far a distance away and we would have had to walk through calf high snow. It was hard enough trying to get through the ankle deep stuff, let alone trekking off through really deep stuff.

We did however get some photos of us taken in front of where they held the moguls and the aerials (albeit with the jumps now removed).  We had a great 45 minutes in the snow but then it was time to farewell Cypress and head to Whistler.

On the way we stopped at Shannon Falls which is composed of a series of cliffs rising 335 meters above the road.  We stayed here only briefly as all these places want you to pay for parking with a minimum of 1 hour. We were feeling stingy and didn't want to pay the $1, so we hurried to make sure we didn't get a parking fine.

Back on the road we came across another waterfall, Brandywine Falls, but as it was 15 minutes walk from the carpark and it was starting to get late, we decided to give it a miss.  We might get back there tomorrow depending on the weather. Plus we didn't want to pay the $1 once again.

When we got into Whistler at about 4.30pm, it was bright and sunny and the place was packed.  Today was the last day of the season for Whistler, but Blackcomb (next door) is open until 24 May. People were still getting on the gondola for the last skiing of the day but the majority were in the village.  We even saw some of the band Arrested Development who were live on stage. The outdoor concert was just finishing as we arrived. There were so many people around that we could hardly make our way through the crowd.

At about 5.45 we went and had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory.  It was really nice and inexpensive. The waitress was annoying so she didn't get a tip. When we came out about an hour later, the place was deserted.  Alan and I went for a drive hoping to get a glimpse of the Whistler Sliding Centre but unfortunately it is all closed off and is a construction zone.  Not sure if they are pulling it down.  We then drove up to the upper village and just like where we are in the main village, the place was deserted.  I will be interested to see what it is like tomorrow. Everyone seems to disappear very quickly once the chairlifts close.

I forgot to mention, there are Australians here EVERYWHERE from the girl from the Gold Coast who checked us into our hotel, the hostess at the restaurant to the checkout chick at the grocery store. We also heard plenty of them in the village when we first got here.

Our hotel room is very nice. It's a 2 level place, with our bed upstairs on the mezzanine floor. We have a balcony with a mountain view.

Tomorrow is scheduled for rain again but heres hoping they are wrong.

 

Day 7 - Vancouver

Sarah is writing today's blog and Alan will complain about the cold (constantly) in red. As if I would complain.

We had a lovely night sleep in our king size bed with very soft pillows.  Alan got up early this morning to check the soccer scores from England (on holidays and I still can't get away from it) but he was quiet about it so I slept in until 8.30.

This hotel doesn't offer breakfast so we chose to skip that meal this morning.  After a shower we dressed warmly to go and do the Vancouver Trolley Tour.  A quick check of the forecast before leaving the room said it was going to get to a maximum of 9 degrees today and be wet.  Lovely!  Even with jeans, a t-shirt, jumper and leather jacket, Alan still couldn't resist telling me most of the day it was cold.  Yes Alan, it's Canada! I think I'll have to start wearing 4 jumpers from now on. As Sarah's dad pointed out, I don't have enough insulation on me.

The trolley tour is a hop on, hop off bus and does two separate loops but we chose to stay on for an entire trip on each loop.  We enjoy these tours as it only takes a couple of hours, you get to see (and get information about) various locations and then choose what you want to go back and look further at. Luckily these weren't open top buses like you get in some cities.

The first loop took us through Stanley Park which is extremely large, very green and has great scenery.  We had only just entered the park when I saw something in the distance.  I asked Alan "what do you think that is?"  It was an animal of some sort but certainly not a squirrel the way it was moving.  Alan said "It's too small to be a raccoon", then it turned around and it was a RACCOON. Unfortunately he was too far away to get a photo. He was very cute though. Later in the day we came across a sign in the park warning you not to get close to the raccoons because of rabies.

After leaving the park, we continued on the trolley around the streets, eventually arriving at Canada Place.  The building juts out over the water and its
white sails makes it look like a ship in port and is the major cruise ship terminal for Alaska-bound cruises.  After a quick walk around, we got on the trolley for the second loop which took us through such areas as Yaletown, Chinatown and Gastown before returning to Canada Place.  There were a number of other Australians on the tour, including an obnoxious South Australian couple where the woman kept asking where Michael Buble was.  She was only in Vancouver to see him.  We tried to distance ourselves from her. It's disappointing when you see other Australians overseas being drunken dickheads.

After getting off the tour, we decided to take a walk to where the Olympic flame rests (of course no longer burning) and then walk back to our hotel.  The rain had held off for most of the morning but now, as we were walking, it decided to come down on us.  By this time it was around 1pm so we stopped into McDonald's for a bite of lunch until the rain stopped.  It was a typical McDonald's meal except the shakes were exceptional. We really only stopped there for lunch because at this point it was so ridiculously cold that we just had to get inside.

Back at the hotel we organised our plan of attack for the afternoon.  As it was still very dark and overcast, we decided to put off going up Grouse Mountain to hopefully tomorrow (there is no visibility today) and got in the car and headed back to Stanley Park.  First stop was to the Vancouver Aquarium. It is on a very small piece of land but houses a lot of different animals including 4 beluga whales, dolphins, seal lions and seals.  The belugas are amazing and Alan is convinced they are animatronic. They're not real. They're made of soft squishy marshmallow.

We were lucky we got there when we did as the queue was way out the door when we were leaving.

Our next stop was at the totem poles followed by a stop at Prospect Point to get a look at the Lionsgate Bridge. There are a lot of signs here to be wary of raccoons but unfortunately didn't get to see another one.

Then we left the park and went to English Bay’s Morton Park to see “A-maze-ing Laughter” by Chinese artist Yue Minjun. This is a larger-than-life, cast-bronze statues depict Minjun’s own face in a state of hysterical laughter.  Strangely entertaining to see.  It's on loan from China for 18 months.

Then we stopped at the Inukshuk.  The plaque at the base reads "Ancient symbols of Inuit culture traditionally used as landmarks and
navigation aids, this grey granite statue representing a human form
with outstretched arms is a well-known symbol in Canada of northern
hospitality and friendship".

By this time Alan was frozen and in need of a nap so we returned to the room.  Here we discovered that some of the cloud had lifted and that we did indeed have a mountain view from our room.

Alan had a very long nap and I finally had to wake him at 7.30 for dinner.  I had, three nights ago, spilled something on my jumper and had remarked to Alan numerous times that I was sure I had packed another one but it wasn't in my bag.  He, of course, never listens so I had to wear the stained jumper inside out for a few days.  I remarked again tonight that I wish I had my other jumper and he says "oh there is one in my suitcase".  Great Alan, just great.  Now you tell me!!! You never asked me for the one from my suitcase. You just kept blubbering on about the stain on your other one. Be more specific woman!

We chose to eat in the hotel restaurant as it was reasonably priced, we didn't have to go outside in the cold plus we had a $5 off voucher.  We both had crab cakes and shared a ceasar salad.  Nice meal.  The restaurant has a full glass frontage and we are located right in the middle of the busy section of Robson Street in downtown and we got to watch the traffic go by.  One thing we are confused about.  It is about 7 degrees outside and the busiest shop is the gelato place across the street.  At one stage there was a queue of about 10 people outside waiting to get in.  Now I think about it ... gelato might be nice Get me one while you're there please.

Tomorrow we are hopeful of better weather before we take off for Whistler.  We are still hopeful of getting up Grouse Mountain, might stop at the Capilano Suspension Bridge, swing by Cypress to see where the Winter Olympic events were held before taking the 1.5 hour drive to Whilster.  Unfortunately the forecast there is for rain for the next few days but we remain ever hopeful for a few breaks in the weather.

Trivia for the day:  There are no comfortable seats in Vancouver.  The trolley tour seat was dreadful, the chairs in the restaurant tonight were bad and the one I'm sitting on right now to write this blog is the most uncomfortable seat of all.  Wooden frame with cloth around it is not comfortable. By the end of the trolley tour my bum was so numb that I was happy to get off.

Day 6 - Hello Canada

Alan is writing the blog today with Sarah's comments in red.

 

We were up bright and early this morning to ensure that we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare to catch our plane to Vancouver. We chose to give breakfast a miss partly due to us still being full from the previous evenings feast and partly because Sarah was paranoid about missing our flight and wanting to get there as early as possible. As if we would ever miss a flight! We checked out of our Marina del Rey hotel just after 7am and made our way toward the rental car return place. The traffic at that time of morning was very light so it didn't take us long to get there at all. We dropped off the car and luckily a courtesy shuttle came along almost straight away and we were on our way to the airport. After arriving at the United Airlines terminal, we joined what we hoped was the correct queue to check in. After speaking to a United customer service rep, we were relieved to know that we were indeed in the right place. After a fairly short wait we made our way to the counter, checked our bags and printed out our boarding passes. Next up was the security check. The queue for this was very long and it took us ages to make it through. Lucky I gave ourselves so much spare time. Yes, it was lucky that I was prepared to get us to the airport in plenty of time.

 

So we made our way to the gate to wait for our flight. We went to a cafe and bought a sandwich while waiting and noticed an unattended suitcase in the cafe. That's a huge no-no in airports these days so we told the woman at the counter but when we came by again about 10 minutes later the bag was still sitting there. We boarded our plane, a CRJ-700 on which most of the 66 seats were full. The flight took almost 3 hours, but we slept through most of it since we had not slept much last night. We did manage to see Lake Tahoe as we flew over it, but we missed Crater Lake, Seattle and Mount St Helens. Not because we were sleeping but because it was on the other side of the plane.

 

After landing in Vancouver we made our way through the airport. There was a display of native animals made of wood in the terminal, although there were actually real birds nesting in there too. Strange. It didn't take long to get through immigration as it was very quiet at the airport, although the officer did ask us a heck of a lot of questions before clearing us. We left the terminal, found the Hertz rental car section and were given our Toyota Corolla. It's not as new as the car we had in Los Angeles, but it will do I suppose.  The car is registered in Alberta so we are taking it home.  We should have gotten a discount for returning it. 

 

By this time at was about 1.30pm, but we couldn't check into our hotel until 3pm, so we decided to check out a few Vancouver sights in the mean time. After driving through downtown Vancouver, we crossed the Lions Gate bridge and made our way out to Lynn Valley. Without too much trouble we found our way to Lynn Canyon and parked the car. It was starting to get a bit cold by this time but we wanted to see the suspension bridge. After a short walk we came to it. The bridge is a popular tourist attraction and there were plenty of other people around, many of whom had bought their dogs with them oddly enough. We ventured out onto the suspension bridge which was built in 1912, is 48m long, 50m above the canyon below and quite unstable. It really wouldn't be too hard to fall over, given that the rails are only waist height and the thing sways quite a bit. Not surprisingly there are warning signs telling people to be very careful as a lot of people have died there over the years. We decided against the 20 minute hike over rough terrain to see Twin Falls and made our way back to the car instead.

 

Back on the road and we drove to Cleveland Dam. The dam is at the end of Capilano Lake, Vancouver's main drinking water supply. It's surrounded by snow-capped mountains, most of which were covered by cloud. It was starting to get really cold by this time so we quickly wandered around the dam area, stopping for a few brief photos.

 

The rain was just starting as we got back to the car and as we drove to the hotel it got quite heavy. The drive was quite a slow one, especially trying to get back across Lions Gate bridge since 4 lanes of very heavy traffic had to merge into 1. We found our hotel and checked in. We've been upgraded to a king room on the 18th floor. We supposedly have views of the mountains, but we'll have to confirm this tomorrow as the cloud has completely obscured them this afternoon. Actually, as it starts to get darker, they are coming more into view.

 

We were really hungry so we left the hotel to look for something edible. Right across the street was a Mexican restaurant so we thought we'd give it a try. Not the best food in the world, but it was cheap. Unfortunately the dimwit of a waitress mixed up our orders, which meant that my food was smothered with sour cream, while Sarah's had none. Yuk!  It really wasn't that bad.  Alan scraped off the sour cream and gave it to me and it came with a good portion of his cheese as well.

 

It's just after 8pm here now and although it's not yet completely dark here, it's wet and very very cold. Tomorrows forecast is for a 90% chance of rain so we'll see in the morning what sort of things we're going to do. The weather forecast for our time here in Canada is not looking promising but we have our fingers crossed.

Day 5 - LA Tourists

Sarah is writing tonight's blog.  Alan will undoubtedly want to comment on his fluky navigation skills and will do so in red. Fluky? I always know exactly where I'm going.

We had a late night last night as Alan made me watch Marley & Me again. Grrrrr ... I don't need to be that depressed on holidays. The hotel offer free dvds for you to watch in your room and although there were plenty to choose from, there were very few actually worth watching.

Although the hotel is in a lovely location, the walls are pretty thin so as everyone started getting moving this morning, it was hard to sleep in.  We got up around 8.50am and got down to breakfast at about 9.30am.  It wasn't breakfast as we've known down in Anaheim so we settled for just a bowl of cereal each. 

It was a cool but clear morning when we got in the car and started driving, firstly to Venice Beach.  As usual we picked the wrong way to go.  We parked the car and started walking only to discover that the busy part of Venice Beach was a fair distance in the opposite direction so we walked the 15 minutes back to the car. One thing we noticed is that there are large piles of sand streets away from the beach.  We remarked outside one residence how much sand there was up towards the door and how we'd hate to have to live with that. There were also crews with brooms and shovels trying to get all the sand back onto the beach.

Back in the car, we drove down to the main part of Venice and walked around.  There were street vendors, muscle men at Muscle Beach, people riding bikes, people in the skateboard park, people throwing balls for dogs and homeless people.  There was even a guy who was trying to convince people to listen to his CD by thrusting headphones towards your head.

After a walk around there, we got back in the car and drove to Santa Monica Beach and visited the pier.  Unfortunately (or maybe that is fortunately) the rollercoaster wasn't going.  It would appear to have gotten stuck on the lift hill part and they were trying to fix it.  It would have been hysterical to see Alan get stuck up there. Poor me. I'm having rollercoaster withdrawals.

Unsure of what to do next, we started driving and found ourselves on Rodeo Drive and marvelled at the people standing on the side of the road with wine glasses in hand. We then found ourselves in the vicinity of the La Brea Tar Pits, the site for the 1997 movie Volcano.  They are not that interesting and they smell pretty bad so we weren't there long.

We decided to give Hollywood Boulevard a miss and try to find Griffith Observatory.  We had been there in 1999 and knew sort of which direction we wanted to go.  So Alan kept heading east along Santa Monica Boulevard, spending the majority of his time looking left up into the Hollywood Hills to see if he could see it.  How we didn't have an accident is anyone's guess. More awesome skill on my part. Eventually we saw it and thought we were heading in the right direction but instead found ourselves in Little Armenia. A few quick turns out of there and we were on the right road.  By this time the cloud had come over fairly heavy although it was a reasonably clear day, smog wise.  Must have been the tremendously strong winds we had overnight.  I love a place you can drive to and they don't want to charge you for parking.  A quick photo or two were taken and then it was back in the car (and the warmth) and we headed back to our hotel.

Before coming inside we decided to take a small walk around the beach/marina area where our hotel is located. I wished we had gotten here about 5 minutes earlier as just as we arrived, a guy was coming out of the water with his surfboard.  For those who haven't looked at the photos, we are located on a beach at the end of a marina.  There is only a small roped off section for swimming and the water is perfectly flat.  What was he doing on that surfboard?

We made a quick detour by the Cheesecake Factory, the location of our lovely dinner last night, to get ourselves some cheesecake for later.  With 50 cheesecakes and specialty desserts to choose from, I'm surprised we are not still there.  We have bought ourselves a really decadent chocolate cake and a chocolate mousse cheesecake to have later for dessert. One slice of each, not the entire cakes.

After freshening up, we headed to another favourite restaurants of ours, Olive Garden, about 15 miles from where we are staying.  Oh my lord.  It is places like these which is why we have breakfast in the morning and then don't eat anything else until dinner.  There was so much food.  From their bottomless garden salad (topped with cheese), to their bread sticks, the appetizer of melted cheese and then the main dishes, also covered in cheese.  Cheese overload. We ended up bringing part of a pizza back to the room which will probably be our breakfast tomorrow, considering we have cheesecake, chocolate cake and still fudge from yesterday sitting in our fridge. I ate all of my stuffed chicken marsala for dinner. The pizza was Sarah's so obviously her eyes are far too big for her tummy.

Tomorrow morning we are off early to the airport and then on to Vancouver.  I wonder what the weather will be like there. It's been particularly cold down here, so no doubt Canada will be lovely and warm.

All photos are now uploaded.

Day 4 - Magic Mountain

Today was Alan's day of indulgence, so he'll be blogging today with Sarah's comments in red.

 

We started our last morning in Anaheim with our free breakfast again. They had pancakes on offer today. Yum! After checking out of our hotel, we hit the road north to Los Angeles in search of our next destination. I had taken special care to check the route online and as a result we had no problems finding our way here. After about an hour driving we arrived at Marina del Rey and found our hotel. We knew we wouldn't be able to check in this early, so had already planned to go to Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park for the day. The sky looked menacing but we decided to risk it anyway, as it had to be either today or tomorrow that we went there. Another hour heading north and we arrived at the park without any sign of a wrong turn along the way. Those who followed our blog back in 2007 may remember that we had all sorts of problems finding Magic Mountain after Sarah's directions landed us about 48 miles off course.  <sigh> It was your directions.  I had the correct directions printed out but you choose to ignore them and me, but you believed the Police Officer when he told you that you had gone the wrong way.

 

Anyway we pulled into the parking lot which once again was only maybe 10% full and walked to the entrance. I have to mention that it was almost midday, but we were absolutely freezing. I hoped that rain holds off for a few more hours. For those who don't know, Magic Mountain is a thrill junkies playground, containing some of the most extreme rollercoasters on the planet. The following are the rides I went on....

 

X2 - A massive floorless coaster which sends you down the first drop backwards.

Viper - A steel coaster with 7 loops.

Tatsu - The world's tallest, fastest and longest flying coaster. You spend the entrie ride on your stomach as though you're flying.

Terminator Salvation - A brand new wooden coaster.

Riddlers Revenge - The world's tallest and fastest stand-up coaster.

Batman The Ride - An intense speed looping coaster with nothing but air beneath your feet.

Scream - Very high floorless coaster with 7 loops.

Colossus - The big old wooden coaster built back when the park opened in 1971.

Goliath - Monster coaster with a 255 foot first drop into a 120 foot underground tunnel, reaching a speed of 138kmh.

 

Needless to say that Sarah did not join me on any of these rides.

 

Deja Vu and Ninja were closed today but luckily I rode both of those last time so that was ok that I didn't do them this time around. There are also 4 water rides at Magic Mountain, 2 of which were operating today, but it was far too cold to even contemplate getting wet today. Something else that we didn't get to do last time was go up in the observation tower. It doesn't seem all that high from the ground but once you get up there 38 storeys in the air, you sure get a fantastic view. And no, that does not count as a ride that Sarah went on.  Yes it does.  I queued up, got in, went up and then went down again.  That's a ride.

 

All afternoon we were watching the clouds get darker and darker and by the time I had ridden the last coaster it was just starting to drizzle. We made our way back toward the exit and just had time to stop off for a photo and to buy a magnet. After spending some quality time with Bugs and Daffy.  We were lucky enough to exit just as the people mover was coming around to take us back to the carpark. Bye bye Magic Mountain. I had a fun day. And I love the fact that there was no waiting time for almost all the rides.

 

Alan managed to buy some pretty funny one liner t-shirts for $5 and a funny jumper.  I hope he can fit all of this stuff in his suitcase.

 

5 minutes into our trip down the freeway back to our new hotel and the rain came pouring down. We got out just in time. We checked into our hotel. Our room has a nice view out over the beach and the marina. It's far too cold to be out on our balcony tonight enjoying it though.

 

For anyone who has ever watched the tv show Big Bang Theory, you will know that Penny works at The Cheesecake Factory and the boys eat there once a week. Given that there is a Cheesecake Factory right next door to our hotel, we thought we should really give it a try. On tv it is portrayed as a cheap burger/cheesecake joint. It is anything but that. The decor is really nice, the staff are lovely and the food is amazing. The menu was 11 pages long, featuring all sorts of different foods. We both had a combination shrimp scampi/steak diane with mashed potato. Although I did choose it first and then Sarah copied me as usual. I pointed out the combinations first and THEN he decided he would have what I was having. We could go there every night for a year and still not try everything. Well worthwhile. The servings were so big that we had no room left for any of their dozens of different cheesecakes, although they're open for another hour and three quarters yet so we may walk the 30 seconds from our room back there if we get hungry later.  It's about 8 degrees out there.  I doubt it.  However, we do have fudge that we bought at Magic Mountain to eat.

 

Tomorrow will be a free day, doing whatever touristy type things we feel like doing around Los Angeles.

Day 3 - Disneyland

Alan's writing this short blog for today and Sarah's comments will be in red.

 

We began the day once again with our free hotel breakfast. We probably shouldn't mention the fact that Sarah had 3 donuts.  That's because I only had 2 and a bit.

 

After breakfast it was time to cross the road into Disneyland. We've been to this Disneyland and Disneyworld in Florida numerous times before, but it's always been during scorching hot weather with massive crowds to deal with. So the fact that today was much cooler than usual was something of a bonus for us. It's not unusual for the waiting time to get on rides at Disneyland to be well over an hour, but today it ranged between no waiting up to about 20 minutes which was just awesome.

 

We started off by going on the Indiana Jones ride twice in succession, simply because it's such a fun ride and also because it's so far to walk out and back in again. After that, we did the Haunted Mansion followed by Splash Mountain. Splash Mountain is one of our favourites and we would have ridden it once or twice more had it been a slightly warmer day.

 

I rode the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad while Sarah sat and watched. Unfortunately I was behind a family in the queue with 2 very annoying children who had made up a song about Disneyland and proceeded to sing it over and over and over. Sarah then convinced me to go on It's A Small World with her for the first time. Yes, it's pretty much as sad as I had imagined. When we were here back in 2007, the Finding Nemo submarine ride had only just opened and as such the queues to get on it back then were just ridiculously long. It was only a 20 minute wait today so we went on it. I have to say I'm darn glad we decided not to queue for hours to go on it 3 years ago, because it wasn't an exciting ride by any means. Add screaming kids sitting next to you in an enclosed space and needless to say we were ready to blow a hole in the side of the submarine to escape.  Unfortunately the Matterhorn wasn't operational today.  We like that ride.

 

That was about enough Disneyland fun for one day, so we headed over to California Adventure to see if it had added any rides in the last 2 and a half years, because there isn't a huge amount to do there. First up was the Grizzly River Rapids which is one of the best water rides we've ever been on. Once again, being a cool day meant that we only rode it once. I went on the California Screamin rollercoaster next, which is a pretty good coaster compared to some of the ricketty deathtraps I've ridden in years gone by. They have changed some of the scenery, not for the better unfortunately.  I wanted to go on the Tower of Terror as I hadn't done it before. Despite trying our hardest to avoid finding our way to the entrance by ending up in dead-ends in the park, we got there eventually. I told Alan he was heading for a deadend but he chose not to listen.  We'd done that the last time we were there. Not a bad experience I have to say. It's a 13 storey haunted hotel, with Twilight Zone style theming. You're taken up in the building in an old faulty elevator which then proceeds to drop you from great heights in the darkness, raising up again and again and dropping you. A couple of times the elevator doors actually open while you're way up in the air, giving you a view of the park before you suddenly drop. We'd had enough fun for one day by this time so we returned to our hotel for some rest. Was a good choice actually as it rained after we got back.

 

We took a drive to Target this evening to pick up a few bits and pieces that we needed, (like a mouse pad as even though Alan packed the laptop bag, he blames me for leaving it at home) after which we returned to our favourite Dennys for dinner at the request of Sarah's dad. Not that our arms needed twisting though; it's next to our hotel and we really love the food there.

 

So tomorrow morning we leave Anaheim and make our way to our next hotel in Los Angeles. It will probably be a fair few years before we're back here again.

 

Not sure what the weather holds tomorrow.  It is supposed to be rainy and cold.  Not sure whether we will go to Magic Mountain or save that until Thursday.

 

One last thing before signing off, I forgot to mention the large scrape on my arm that I got yesterday.  Anyone who has ever followed Alan up or down stairs, knows that he walks funny. (Let's just make sure people realise that it's not my fault. It's a result of a broken ankle years back.) Yesterday I made the mistake of walking next to him.  Reaching the bottom step, he seemed to throw his arm out to steady himself, pushing me into a concrete wall.  Gummy ankle boy! Whatever! You're just clumsy.

Days 1 and 2

This blog entry is started by Sarah while Alan sleeps.

He will fill you in on his ride tales later in red.

Sunday afternoon we bid a sad farewell to our little kitties and left them in the very
capable hands of our housesitters Mark & Vivien.  Dad took us to the airport and dropped us off
at our gate before doing battle with very bad traffic for his trip home, sorry Dad!

Even though check-in had only just opened, there were already about 40 people ahead of

us.  However, 20 minutes later we were checked in and quickly through immigration, the security check and then the secondary security check which seems to always be conducted for US flights.

The V Australia flight was on a 777-300 plane, high ceilings, the luggage bins above
the seats angle up so you have a feeling of space above you.  Also, being V Australia, we had various
lighting patterns which, I believe, is to make you feel like you’re a rockstar.  The only thing I didn’t like
is that you don’t have individual airflows but I was sitting on the aisle and
had a plane air vent over me so I was well and truly cooled. I’m naturally cool of course, so it didn’t worry me at all.

The individual entertainment units were great (I watched Mad Max before bedtime), the food was so-so and the plane seats were very hard.  On the return trip we are both going to try and score an extra pillow to sit on.  Not much sleep was had by me.  Alan, on the other hand, could sleep standing up.

We arrived in LA 40 minutes ahead of schedule.  Immigration here has changed since 2007 and there were many many queues to choose from (unlike the 1 we faced in 2007) and it only took 5 minutes from
the time we joined the queue, until we were outside with our bags, waiting for the shuttle to take us to the car hire place.

We got to choose any car we wanted from Section 1.  There was a Ford Focus, a Kia, Chrysler PT Cruiser  and several others but we choose the Chevy Cobalt, black. Has a lot of luggage room and we hope we get something similar to drive around Canada. It's a very nice car to drive and had only 3006 miles on the odometer when we picked it up.

We were quickly on our way to Anaheim with the streets becoming more familiar as we drove.

The accommodation we had in 2007 is just next door but I chose this one so Alan didn’t have as far to walk to Denny’s and also, to see whether the free breakfast was any better.  We weren’t disappointed, but more about that later.

We checked into the room and decided before showering we’d hit Denny’s for dinner.  I had a feeling that as soon as we’d showered we wouldn’t feel like going out.

First thing ordered at Denny’s was the Minute Maid Lemonade.  Hello my old friend.  I so wish we could get that stuff in Australia. Maybe when Costco opens we might get lucky.

For all those food lovers who always like to know what we are eating, here we go:

Sarah:  The Super Bird:  thinly sliced turkey, bacon, tomato and melted swiss cheese on a toasted sourdough bread served with fries and ranch dressing.

Alan:

Grilled chicken breasts smothered in Sweet & Tangy BBQ sauce served with smoked Cheddar mashed potatoes, fiesta corn and dinner bread.

Unfortunately there was no room for dessert although Alan did say he would come down during

the night while I was sleeping.  That didn’t happen of course.

So we turned in for an early night.

This morning we got up at about 8am and hit the free breakfast.  It was a vast improvement on the next door

hotel from 2007 which only served cereal and hard boiled eggs.  This morning we could have had cereal, eggs, sausages, bacon, waffles, toast, French toast, bagels and donuts.  There was also a variety of fruit, different juices, chocolate milk and of course coffee and tea for those inclined.

Then it was time to go to Knotts Berry Farm.  We had discovered we could get the bus for $1.25 each but we couldn’t work out from the website which side of the road we needed to be on to pick up the bus.  When we asked the hotel’s reception, she told us we would need to get one bus and change to another. That wasn’t right but instead of arguing with her, we decided to just drive and pay the $12 parking.  We are glad that we did, just for the convenience.

The park opened at 10am and we arrived at 10.30 to find very few cars in the car park.  On approaching the gate we saw a number of school groups but once we got into the park we found that the place was virtually empty.  No waiting times for any rides which is just what you want in an amusement park.  We are hoping Magic Mountain will be like that on Wednesday and we can only hope Disneyland/California Adventure will be like that tomorrow, but I suspect Disney is always busy.

So, now on to Alan to talk about his ride adventures.

It’s always fun to go to an amusement park for the first time. New exciting rides woohoo! I rode 5 coasters and even managed to get the normally wussy Sarah to ride the small steel "Jaguar" coaster with me. We also went on the water rides together; the log flume and the river rapids, as they're much more sedate than the extreme type coasters that Sarah makes me go on alone. Oh and we were all set to go on the "Perilous Plunge" boat ride together when Sarah had to call the attendant over to let her off because her gigantic oversized boobies were too much for the over-shoulder harness to manage.

We did go up the observation tower to have a nice scenic view of the park. It was kind of difficult though, given that the windows obviously hadn't been cleaned since the day the park opened. I was unable to go on the biggest coaster in the park, Xcelerator. Apparently all the staff who know how to operate that ride have quit, so new staff need to be trained. Bummer! We also caught the Wild West stunt show which was short but fun.

With so few people in the park we were out of there by early afternoon. I must try to remember that I'm not in Australia, and as such I must look both ways when entering roads and not turn blindly into oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the road. Lucky there wasn't a semi trailer coming our way. I'm sure Sarah must have been distracting me at the time. No, the problem was that I failed to remind you when you turned on the street.  Scared me and about 10 other cars to death.

Dinner tonight was at Acapulco Mexican restaurant. We've been there on each of our previous visits to California, but we keep coming back as it's awesome food. After returning to our hotel we watched the Disneyland fireworks from our balcony and took some long exposure night shots, followed by a quick dessert trip to Dennys.

Anyway, we should probably get some sleep since we have another big day tomorrow when we wander across the road to Disneyland and California Adventure.