Day 111 - 14 Oct '23 - Hollywood. It was a gorgeous day outside the RV window, when Dan and I finally dragged ourselves out of bed. It hadn't been a great night's sleep, listening to cars and motorbikes zooming past, then feeling cold around 1:30am. But 'get up, we must' as we had a bus to catch!
We had decided to do one of those Hop On Hop Off buses that you see in all the major cities around the world. We hopped on, and didn't hop off! The first tour we did was of downtown L.A., which lasted two-and-a-half hours. It took us past loads of places used in movies; train stations that became banks, apartments that doubled as hotels, bridges and tunnels and lakes. It was pretty cool to recognise the places from the movies we'd seen as we drove past them, listening to the commentary.
We went past the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which was a marvel in architecture, and looked stunning in the sun.
After the downtown tour finished, we quickly jumped onto the next bus to do a tour of Hollywood. This one took us past famous places like Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Melrose Avenue, Sunset Boulevard, the intersection of Hollywood and Vine, the Viper Room (where River Phoenix met his end), and the La Brea Tar Pits (which are a bit of a con as it turned out, as the pits that are there are from the 1800s oil discovery, not dinosaurs).
This tour lasted two hours, and once again, we got on and stayed on. We had toyed with the idea of getting off and exploring the various areas on foot, but in the end decided just to sit back and relax. Besides, by the time both tours had finished, it was 3:30pm, and some of the buses stopped their return trips.
We walked up the road to the Chinese Theatre; this is where actors have been putting their hands, feet, and signatures, into concrete. We saw lots of names we recognised, and lots we sadly didn't! Judy Garland was there from 1939, Bette Davis, the Marx Brothers, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keanu Reeves, and even R2D2, C3PO, and Darth Vadar!
The infamous stars on the street covered music, film, stage, and directors, and it would have taken us quite some time to see them all, as they were on both sides of the street and went for some distance. Once again, we recognised just over half of the ones we walked past.
After this, we headed home. We were all hot, the street was busier than ever, and we still had to go shopping for our dinner. Back at the RV, Alex and Abi finished decorating their caps, Dan made nachos for dinner, and I did laundry in the host's garage. Earlyish to bed tonight, as we have an exciting day planned for tomorrow...
Day 112 - 15 Oct '23. Anaheim. We had told the kids about Knott's Berry Farm, but surprised them when we pulled into the parking lot just before 10am.
"DISNEYLAND!"
I've always wanted to go to Disneyland, (every kid's dream, right?), and today was the happiest moment in my life...a long-desired photo with Mickey Mouse!!
(It has since been suggested that perhaps my wedding day, or the births of my children, were the happiest moments in my life...?)
Ha ha ha ha ha!
We started off at Monsters Inc, on a sit-down, ride-around ride, which was a nice and slow introduction to the Adventure theme park (once again, this resort is split into two distinct parks). After that we queued up for an hour to do a fun Spider-Man ride, where we did motion-recorded web shooting.
We had paid for Disneyland's equivalent of a fast pass, called Lightning Pass, and it was super confusing to use. We can't just walk up to an express lane and flash our tickets to jump the queues; we have to book a ride in advance, and there's only a limited number of passes allowed per ride. Not only that, but you can only use the pass once for each applicable ride per day, you can only book one at a time, and you have to wait an hour after booking before you can book the next one!
We had booked a Guardians of the Galaxy ride, but while we were in the queue for Spider-Man, we cancelled it in favour for The Incredibles rollercoaster.
Unfortunately, by the time we got to the rollercoaster, it had broken down. So then we had to think of what ride we wanted to do next and book that time slot, while looking around for rides we could possibly fit in the gap!
We had some lunch while listening to a mariachi band, then did some spinning swing rides (which I didn't much like), went on a Mickey Mouse Ferris wheel where the cabins slid around elliptical loops (which I didn't much like), and a Goofy rollercoaster that would go around hairpin corners and felt like we were going to fall out (which I didn't much like AND neither did Dan).
"Why have you come to a theme park if you don't want to do any of the adult rides, and the kiddy rides scare you?" Dan asked with a laugh.
"I DON'T KNOW!!" as I gripped his leg with my sweaty hands.
We got back to The Incredibles rollercoaster, and I dosed myself liberally with the doTerra Adaptiv oil I remembered I had. (This oil blend is a calming one, and it seemed to work, as my hands stopped shaking - if only I'd remembered about it at Universal Studios!).
Now, this rollercoaster is old school, with climbs and drops and a loop-de-loop...MUCH more my style, and enjoyable! No screams, just woo-hoos!
After that, we went on a really fun Little Mermaid ride, and our last ride of the day was a 3D fly-buy of famous landmarks of the world, such as the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of China, and Sydney Harbour. It was a pretty fun ride, but we could unfortunately see the feet of the people in the ride above us, which impacted slightly on the viewing.
We left the park just before 5pm, much to Abi's annoyance.
"Why can't we do the Guardians ride now?"
"Because the park will be closing soon for the Hallowe'en parade."
"Why can't we do the Hallowe'en parade?"
"Because the tickets were all sold out."
"Why can't we go and do the other rides again?"
"ENOUGH Abi!"
Dinner was at the Denny's right beside our motel. Dan and I decided we would all have salmon and vegetables for tea, much to the kids' disappointment, but the last time we'd eaten any fish was the week we were in Vancouver!
At 9:30pm, we went up to the roof of the motel, and along with about 20 others, watched a 15-minute fireworks display at Disneyland. It was quite funny, as we all thought the display finished twice before it actually did, and ended up applauding three different times!
It was quite a late night for us all, and we have an even earlier start tomorrow - alarms are set for 6:30am to get our free breakfast before going back to the park.
Day 113 - 16 Oct '23 - Disneyland day two. I should not drink Coke. I don't drink caffeine, and two cokes at dinner kept me awake for most of the night. The soft drinks are bottomless at restaurants, and since I was thirsty and didn't want anymore water, Coke was it.
Three hours of sleep, and I wasn't particularly happy about the 6:30am alarm!
We got to the Disneyland park around 8:20am and went to the main Star Wars ride, but since it had a 75 minute wait, we did the second Star Wars ride. In actual fact, we did it one and a half times, as it broke down partway and we were moved to a different screen to start again!
By this time, the first ride's queue was only 30 minutes; we booked our next ride for after this one, and joined the queue...
...which is when a message came over the tannoy telling us it had broken down, we were welcome to wait, or we could leave. We decided to wait, and as more and more people gave up, we moved closer and closer to the front.
"I queued up here twice yesterday," I heard someone say, "so I'm not leaving a third time."
"This ride is always breaking down," said someone else.
We waited for 50 minutes, and only because it was cool and we had somewhere we could sit. But when yet another announcement said it was delayed, we, too, gave up.
"If they're saying it's still broken after 50 minutes, and they don't know when it's going to be fixed, it's not going to be soon."
This ride then set the scene for the rest of the day. It seemed that every ride we either booked or queued up for, ended up breaking down and being temporarily closed. Despite getting to the park just before 8:30am, by the time lunch rolled around, we had been on just two-and-a-half rides! (It turned out the Star Wars ride remained closed for a further 40 minutes, so we made the right call).
After lunch we did a lot of criss-crossing of the park, trying to find rides that weren't broken, we could book in advance, and had short queues.
We also got to watch the Disneyland band perform, as well as the Mickey Mouse and friends parade. That was pretty cool, as the characters have not been around much, and we haven't even seen any princesses yet! We have seen an incredible number of people either in Hallowe'en costumes or wearing some form of matching Disney tshirts; we are definitely the odd-ones-out wearing normal clothes!
There were a few rides we got pretty lucky on, and arrived just at the right time to get most of the way to the front of the queue before it increased in length.
At 5:30pm, we decided to go back to our motel (which was right across the road) for a break, and come back at night to see it all lit up. We didn't really have any dinner to speak of; I had some leftover guacamole and corn chip crumbs, Dan had a couple of pastries saved from breakfast, Abi had a sneaky tomato sauce sandwich (yuck!), and Alex made himself a salami roll. Nice, healthy, nutritious meals for everyone!
The crowds at the adventure park weren't any less, in fact, they may even have increased! It was awesome to see everything all lit up, including all the Hallowe'en decorations such as carved pumpkins and Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
We did the Incredicoaster again, and when we finished, I heard Dan say it was worse than before.
"Yes! It WAS worse than before! I agree!"
"What? What did you say?" he asked.
"I said 'it was worse than before, I agree'."
"Ha ha ha ha! I said 'it was WORTH THE WALK'!"
Well.
After that, we went across to the Disneyland park, and caught up on lots of the little kiddy rides, such as the Mad Hatter tea cups, Alice in Wonderland, and It's a Small World, which has the 'best' earworm in the world!
When we got out of the ride, not only were we all singing the song, but we were in perfect time to watch an Encanto projection on the building.
Then, as we walked back through the park, the Hallowe'en projection started (instead of the fireworks). It was incredible! The whole place was PACKED with people who had started queuing up at 8pm. Sleeping Beauty's castle was lit up by characters from various movies, all singing Hallowe'en songs, and the projections carried on through the rest of the park streets and buildings.
We decided to take the opportunity to walk unhindered from the back of the park to the exit gates, while enjoying the music and projections the whole time!
Day 114 - 17 Oct '23 - Disneyland day three. Another 6:30am start, and this one was tough for us all, but we were desperate to get to the Star Wars ride before it broke down!!
When we got to the park, there were two huge lines of people.
"Oh! It looks like another parade," I said. "Wow, they start them off early."
"We'll just go up this way past them," said Dan.
We cut through a restaurant setting out their menus, but when we got to one of the lines of people, we realised it wasn't for a parade, but was the queue to get in to the gates!
"Oops - we've just skipped the whole queue!"
Dan and I felt pretty guilty at that, as we didn't know, but we didn't feel bad enough to go to the back, either.
We ran-walked with everyone else to get to the back of the park.
"This is the fastest 2km walk we've ever done!" laughed Dan. "If only people walked like this ALL the time!"
When we got to the ride, there was another line of people going in the opposite direction to the one we'd just come - they were streaming in from the other line we spotted. Dan cut in on this one with no compunction at all.
"This isn't the queue, it's just the line of people coming from the entrance. We're really just joining the line."
The queue to the ride didn't take too long, and in no time at all, we were back at the spot we got to yesterday. But still, it kept going. And going.
"We were nowhere near the front at all," I said. "That makes me feel a lot better!"
This ride was amazing! I can see why people pay an extra $20USD per person for a lightning ticket to this, and why plebs like us would queue for an hour or more. It was very cleverly done in three separate sections, with huge props everywhere. So much time and cost involved!
When we got out of this ride, we quickly made our way to our first booked ride of the day, the Haunted Mansion. This ride has been around for ages, and has recently had a movie made, but at the moment it is decked out for Hallowe'en with Jack Skellington and Nightmare Before Christmas. It was pretty good, but I'd love to see it in its original form.
Next on our list was Guardians of the Galaxy. We had our lightning pass booked, but when we got there, the normal queue was just 15 minutes.
"Let's save our ticket, jump in the normal queue, and if we like the ride we can do it again with our lightning pass," Dan suggested.
BEST. SUGGESTION. EVER.
This ride was fantastic! We all really loved it, and joined the queue straight away to get back on. We were in a lift and Rocket was rescuing the Guardians, but the lift kept racing up then dropping down, causing us to get moments of weightlessness as we plunged back through the darkness, listening to the Star-Lord's awesome soundtrack.
When we came back for the second round, the video was different, which made it even more exciting.
"Let's do this ride again this afternoon!", we all said, as it changed to a 'monsters after dark' version at 3pm.
We ticked off some more rides around the two parks, and also did the Incredicoaster and Thunder Mountain again (one of the rides we did yesterday). Dan told us a story of when he came here as a boy, and his sister screamed the whole ride, his dad did it with his eyes closed, and only he and his mum liked it. It was pretty fast, with lots of sharp turns.
Back to Guardians of the Galaxy, and the video had changed slightly - we were no longer on a rescue mission, but were instead trying to avoid a large monster. The drops were just as thrilling, and this time I even kept my hands off the grip bars, to really feel the weightlessness. (It bizarrely helped, as I was just going with the motion instead of bracing myself against it).
After this we did the one water ride that was here, and even though there were lots of rapids, and a rather quick and steep drop, we didn't get too wet. A massive difference to the utter drenching we got at Universal Studioa!
We left the park to get some dinner at Denny's again, although Alex had a kids meal, Abi didn't finish hers, and I just had an orange juice. The only person semi-hungry was Dan, and he even said afterwards he could probably not have eaten.
We went back to the Disneyland park to get in another couple of rides, and really get our money's worth. This park was open until midnight, but after three rides we pulled the pin and went back to our motel for 9pm.
General consensus was to set the alarm for tomorrow again, as we can always sleep in the next day when we're no longer here. Really not looking forward to that alarm!
Day 115 - 18 Oct '23 - Disneyland day four. Uuuuuggghh. Bloody alarm. Bleary-eyed, we started our queuing at breakfast, as the breakfast room was packed! Hopefully this wasn't an indicator for what our day would be like.
Dan and I felt we couldn't skip the queue so spectacularly as we did yesterday, so instead, we kind of sidled our way towards the front of one of the more central lines.
The daily message from Walt Disney came on the speakers, and then BOOM, the race was on!
"Abi looks like she's walking with a carrot stuck up her arse," I laughed.
"She should do competitive walking," Dan suggested.
We went a different route to Star Wars today, on a shorter path that took us to the back of the line we had to walk past yesterday. Even though we joined the queue further back than we did yesterday, we hadn't pushed in.
The ride was just as good as before, and because we were doing it for a second time, we could notice lots of little things we missed first time around.
The next ride was the other Star Wars one, where we were the pilots, gunners, and engineers of the Milennium Falcon. Again, lots of fun.
After that, we did a Mickey Mouse railroad ride, that was more exciting than we were expecting, then went back through Sleeping Beauty's castle to go on a Peter Pan ride.
We also managed to get a couple of photos with Jessie from Toy Story, and Goofy.
We had to go back to our motel to check out, but then parked our car back at Disneyland and carried on with our day, making it back just in time to do our booked Guardians of the Galaxy ride.
It was still AWESOME! We love this ride! And when we got off and discovered the queue was only 30 minutes, we went right back inside and did it again.
Up and down the lift shaft, climbing to 56m then dropping 40m, then up and down in various distances, reaching speeds of 63kph, relying on the seatbelt to keep you secured - SO MUCH FUN! Yes, our tummies felt funny, yes there were lots of screams, but I could happily stay on that ride all day!!
The rest of our day was a bit of a mish-mash, as we had booked the Hallowe'en Guardians ride for later on, which meant we had to stand in queues at other rides. We did the Ferris wheel again, and the rollercoaster, and the kids did the Goofy rollercoaster ride without us.
After that, we all stood in a line for an hour for a 3D Buzz Lightyear shooting game, holding our various toileting requirements in. Disneyland had a great app that had games to entertain you in queues; one of the games was where you had to hold the phone on your forehead, and the other person had to act out the animal on the screen for you to guess.
"You're turn to act Alex," Abi said, as she held the phone to her forehead.
Alex bent his arms and flapped.
"A chicken!" Abi guessed.
"What? What are you acting, Alex?" Dan asked.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" I laughed.
The animal on the screen was a horse.
(Guess he's tired).
Back to our favourite ride, the Guardians of the Galaxy. We went up, and down, and up, and down, and up...and then the ride broke down. The music stopped. The video screen door closed.
"Oh no! This isn't good! This would have to be the worst place to stop on a ride - the top of a lift-plummeting ride, and we don't know how or when we're getting down!"
A voice came over the speaker telling us they could see and hear everything that we were saying, don't worry, they're working on it, don't worry, they'll get us down soon, don't worry.
"It could be worse, we could be stopped upside down on a rollercoaster," Dan consoled us.
After a few, loooong, minutes, we were slowly lowered back down to the bottom, without any more videos or music. The doors opened, and an attendant came and asked us if anyone wanted to do the ride again, or get off. Just over half the people left.
The doors were closed and the ride started again.
With no sound. Or lights.
"Oh no. Oh my god. This doesn't look good! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!"
I'll tell you this for free. Suddenly speeding upwards in a pitch black lift shaft, with no sound other than the slightly manic screams and somewhat hysterical laughter of everyone in the seats, provided a whole different element of fear to the ride. Especially when the lift then plummeted back down!
When we would get to a video screen, we could hear and see the video, but again, no music or lights. About halfway through the ride, the music started back up, but the ride was still in darkness. I think we were all a little relieved to get off the ride!
We went to two other rides to finish off the night, one of which was the flying over the world one.
"Look! There's London!" Abi excitedly squealed, as we passed over the Eiffel Tower. In Paris. (Guess she's tired too).
We then had an icecream for dinner. Because, why not?
We had booked tickets to watch a fountain and light display, but it wasn't on until 9pm, and we were all beat. So, at 8pm, we said goodbye to Disneyland and drove to our new motel for the night.
No alarm set for tomorrow. Would probably throw it at someone if it was.
Comparing Disneyland to Universal Studios is difficult. They are both very different; Disneyland is bigger, has more attractions, and is geared for children, while Universal Studios has more and better thrill rides, and a better queuing system. There were also an incredible amount of breakdowns, across every ride, every single day. One thing we were all disappointed in, was the lack of princes and princesses at the Disneyland castle. We saw none. Not one. No Cinderella, no Snow White, no Ariel, no Belle, no Sleeping Beauty.
(Ooh, speaking of Sleeing Beauty, in her castle you walked through the storyline, and right at the end, when Prince Phillip wakes her with True Love's Kiss, he doesn't kiss her! His face gets close to hers, then she wakes up. This is all thanks to some politically correct moron a couple of years ago, who complained that it was 'non-consensual, so what image is this portraying to our children'. I mean, COME ON - it's a fairytale!!!).
Day 116 - 19 Oct '23 - Santa Monica. 10 hours sleep! Slept through the air conditioner. Slept through the whining fridge. Slept through the beeping smoke alarm in the hallway.
We had an interesting experience in the lift this morning. We'd donned our rucksacks to take to the car, and when the lift door opened, there was a girl standing in the corner playing on her phone, and a guy standing in the middle, dribble out his mouth, and a 'nobody is home' look on his face - high as a kite!
The kids and I shimmied past him but Dan got stuck in the doorway. I asked the guy to please move over so everyone can get in.
"WHAT? What you say motherf*cker? There's enough room here," as he shoved his face next to Dan's.
The girl told him to be quiet, and we climbed to the 4th floor instead of the 1st we needed to get to. The door opened, and neither he nor the girl got out.
"Are you getting off here?" I asked the girl.
"No, I'm leaving."
"Are you getting off here?" I asked the guy.
"No."
???
As we went back to level one, I asked the girl if the guy was with her, to which she sighed and said "yes".
The door opened (thank the good lord) and we got off the lift, and watched the guy push the button for level 4 again.
"They're having fun in the lift today!" Dan remarked.
We unloaded our bags into the car, and went back to our room to get the rest of our stuff. This time we met a lady in the lift drinking "milk" out a cup, while holding onto her obviously freaked out "psychiatric therapy dog in training" called Bruno.
Dan was keen to use the stairs to go back to the car, but I reckoned things couldn't get any worse in the lift a third time.
"Looks like Bruno couldn't hold it in," I said, as we stepped over a huge pile of wee on the lift floor.
Well, let's just hope it was Bruno's!
Today we went to the Santa Monica pier...and were a tad disappointed. Unfortunately, the local smog hadn't lifted, and the beach and pier were doused in a grey mist that obscured our view of the shoreline.
The businesses on the pier were still setting up when we arrived. When we got to the end, we were lucky enough to see a pod of dolphins playing in the waves, and then swimming along the reef edge!
We went to Muscle Beach, and the kids showed off their skills on the equipment. Alex tried numerous times to do the ring chain, but was more successful in climbing a rope.
Abi also tried the rings and the rope climbing, and she also gave slacklining a go. Her spectacular fall off it didn't result in the broken neck I thought would happen as she flipped over, but did give her left shin an impressive burn. Ouch!
We left Santa Monica and drove to Bakersfield, a not-too-long-a-drive-away. We were all drained, and when we got to our room, Dan had a sleep for a couple of hours while the kids played games on their Chromebooks.
At dinner time , the local supermarket had limited packaged salads and even less microwave meals, and we had no enthusiasm for either.
"I really just want a home cooked dinner made by someone else," I told Dan, when he asked me what I wanted to eat.
So, off we went to a Mexican takeout for tea!
Day 117 - 20 Oct '23 - Sequoia National Park. What an interesting night! At 10pm last night I called the front desk, to complain about someone in the parking lot, blasting their car stereo.
"Oh! They're one of our regulars. I'll get someone to tell them they have to keep the volume low."
What??!! Is that all??!!
At midnight we were woken by a loud, abusive argument, in one of the rooms nearby. The walls were PAPER thin, so we could hear everything. It was quite entertaining, despite it being a bit disconcerting in its locality.
"You've locked the door, haven't you?" I quietly asked Dan.
"Yep."
At 12:15am, I heard the phone ring in the room next to us. A minute later, our phone rang.
"Hello?" I answered in a quiet voice, as miraculously, both kids were still asleep.
"Hi, this is security. We've had a number of complaints about noise..."
"Yes!"
"...so I'm letting you know you need to stop or you'll be told to leave."
WHAT??!!
"It isn't us!" I exclaimed, righteously offended. "We've been listening to the same arguments."
"Do you know what room it's coming from?"
"No, and I'm not about to stick my head out the door or window to find out!"
"Okay, thank you," and they hung up.
"You should have told them to come up here and do their job," Dan said. I was inclined to agree.
Another 10 minutes, and we heard a door open, and the funniest part of the argument yet:
"I'M NOT YO' HO! I'M NOT YO' HO!" said a high-pitched male voice.
"Do you know who you're talking to?" responded a deep male voice.
Door slam. Footsteps down the hall. More doors slam. Engine starts, and a car drives away.
Silence.
"Well that was fun!" I whispered to Dan.
"Not really," he replied.
The rest of the night passed uneventfully, and we got a good sleep, although we were curious as to who the 'not-ho' was talking to!!
Our trip today was to the Sequoia National Forest, to see the world's biggest tree, General Sherman. It was a long winding road up through the hills, with some decent drops along the way. The view was impressive, but was quite hazy from smoke.
General Sherman isn't the tallest tree in the world, but is the biggest in volume. In fact, the top of the tree is dead and is no longer there, but it keeps getting bigger each year around its trunk.
The tree measures 11m diameter, 31m circumference, and is 84m tall. There was a pretty cool tiled area that marked the base of the trunk shape and size, that Alex and Abi stood on. It was really hard to get a decent perspective on the tree, as I couldn't fit it in a single frame!
We then carried on up the road to see General Grant, the third biggest tree in the world (we don't know what the second biggest was, but I imagine it's one of the other giant sequoias).
I did manage to get a photo of Dan next to one of the 'average' sequoias. He is standing right at the base...
There was a massive fallen Monarch, the name given to the biggest giant sequoias, which we could walk through. This trunk fell sometime in the 1800s, and has at various times been used as shelter for different groups of people working in the forest.
As we wound further through the forest, we were down to one lane of traffic as we drove past fires burning in the trees. It was quite strange to see smoke coming out of random patches on the ground. Some of the fires had been burning for over a month. (In this photo, the trunk on the middle is on fire, with flames coming out the top. I had to leave the car window up, so there's unfortunately reflections in the image).
From around 1860 to 1960, fires were actively repressed, in a misconceived attempt to preserve the forest. In actuality, this hindered the reproduction of the trees, and an entire generation of saplings was accidentally prevented. Sequoias only release their seeds when the heat from fires opens the cones - one of the biggest sequoias felled (it was 2200 years old) had evidence of surviving 80 forest fires!
We spent the night in Fresno - wonder what members of society we will meet tonight!!
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