Day 5: The Beaches

We were up at our usual time and had brekky round the pool as always, today we were off to the coast and visit a few of the beach resorts, we had decided we would see Santa Monica and Venice Beach then go over to Malibu for the evening sunset. We were on the road by 10ish and the traffic again wasnt too bad, it took us about an hour to arrive in Santa Monica, the google map served us well again and it was easy to find our way to a car park right on the beach.

It was another hot one and we had taken our swimming stuff and towels in my rucksack, as we walked to the beach it was certainly more breezy here with the wind coming in from the ocean, Santa Monica was nice, it had a huge pier with a big wheel and a few rides on it and shops and restaurants, we walked along the beach and took in the scenry of the palm trees and the ocean, we dipped our feet in the water but didnt go in it was way too cold for that so we chickened out. We went up onto the pier for walk on there it was a proper old wooden pier and amusement arcades just like back home, we even saw a Zoltar machine (from big), as we got further up we spotted people fishing off the pier and jayne asked them if they had caught any, this bloke was boasting how his mate had just caught a huge carcas, i didnt believe so he led us over to the bin and pulled out this huge fish carcas all rotted and stripped eeeeeew, in the background an older woman was saying how popular it was for fishing, it was funny cos the accent sounded English, me and jayne walked over to her and as we got chatting i noticed her accent was northen and when she said where she was from well i alomst died cos she was from Bolton !!! i told her i was too so we got nattering for quite a while, she has retired and lives here, wot a lucky lady i wish i did !

By now we were getting hungry as it was lunch time, we decided to take a look at Bubba Gumps menu (ive never really fancied this as i thought it was all seafood dishes) how pleasantly surprised i was when i saw a large variation off all dishes, so we gave it a whirl, oh and were we glad we did ! it was the best meal of the holiday !, the place was decked out with stuff from Forrest Gump in it, it was really cool even the servers would ask you quiz questions on Gump movie, jayne had fish and chips and i had a pulled pork sandwich, ive never had it before but it was awesome , one of the best sandwiches ive ever had ! we were now big Bubba Gump fans ! i even got to take my souvenir cocktail glass home.

We got back to the car for a bout 2ish and set off for Venice beach which wasnt far at all in fact only like 10 mins away down the coast, we drove round for a parking spot and there were a lot of side streets, we parked up on a side street right at the end what we thought was a legal spot, no sign posts nothing, great we thought, hmmpphhh later on we got a shock !......we got to the front and saw that it was a huge stretch of beachfront with many shops mostly tacky ones and lots of street vendors selling stuff, plenty weirdo's down here too, if Santa Monica was quite posh then this a bit of a dump to be honest, i got my pic taken outside the muscle beach gym area for a laugh, these guys are huge ! people play plenty sports down here, tennis, gym, roller blading, skateboarding, surfing, wake boarding. We walked for a good 30 mins or so and saw some right sights, the highlight was a woman who was out of her head on sumat in her going out gear decided she didnt want to wear her shoes anymore so she just kicked them off and carried on walking and didnt pick them up , it was funny then she walked into a bar shouting the odds like she was really drunk, everyone was staring at her, we got talking to a greek bloke for a bit after he was nice and freindly but a bit out there.

It was getting a bit late now so after walking along the beach back to the car it was now 5ish, as we appraoched i saw we got a ticket, oh shit ! and when i looked at it it was for $70 !!! holy crap thats one expensive parking spot, we couldnt work out why we had got it, no one else had, i asked some workmen who had parked there why we got it and they pointed to the kerb where we had parked, it was apinted RED !!! craaaaaaaaaap we didnt even see that, an expensive lesson was learned on driving and parking in LA ! luckily we didnt get towed, we drove up towards Malibu now along the Pacific Coast Highway, the scenery was awesome, with just having the ocean on one side and then hills of Malibu with huge houses on the other, i had printed out maps of bars to see the sunset at along the PCH in Malibu, we chose one called Moonstones, it looked quite posh and we even had to pay for valet parking cos there was no other room, we sat at outside on barstools right on the ocean/shorefront, all you hear was the crashing of waves, it was a spectacular view, we had 2 or beers here (well i did) and saw the sun go down, we even saw a seal and some crazy birds diving for fish, we got back on the road home about 7ish and it was going dark now, Jayne didnt like driving in the dark so we just took our time getting back and found our way no problem by the time we got to Anaheim it was nearly 9, we decided to grab some food to take back to the hotwl to eat round the pool so we stopped at a little strip mall near our hotel and opicked up some chinese take out from a panda express, it was good and we got huge portions for the price, another bargain, we sat and had some smirnoffs at the pool after our food back at the hotel and chilled till we were tired and in bed by midnight. Tomorrow was a relatively quiet day.

Day 4: Hooray for Hollywood

After breakfast round the pool (noticing the Klumps had now left yippee) we got in our Jeep and set off for Hollywood, Its just past downtown LA about a 40 min drive away. I was armed with my google maps which were proving a godsend as we hadnt got lost yet, the traffic was a little busier than the sunday but nothing as bad as we imagined or warned of, i took some pics of the scenes on the way as we made our way to our turn off which was Hollywood Blvd, when we got closer to the downtown/tourist area of hollywood we basically parked in the firat car park we saw and dumped the car, job done we had got there !

We got to the intersection of where Hollywood Blvd was and our first impressions were it wasnt as glitzy as they make out, there were tacky tourist shops everwhere and people walking up to you hassleing you to go on tours and buy this and that, we got accosted right away Jayne got suckered into buying some dvd from some comedian so it cost me $5 (when we watched it when we got home it was total cack!) we walked outside the Graumanns Chinese theatre for a while and took photos of names we saw on the walk of the fame and looked at the footprints in front, it was quite impressive and we bogeyed star spotting on the floor, after having our pic taken with a very grubby looking spiderman on top of a bin (which cost me $1 didnt know hollywood you had to pay to have ure pic taken) we got hassled by some guy asking if we wanted a limo tour, me and jayne ummed and aaahed bout it, it was $50 for both of us, but i'd read a good report online before we came here saying that these were quite good so we decided to go on it.

We got in the big black stretched limo and there was only 2 other couples with us, an american and an irish couple, we were told the tour would last about 2 hours, quite a bargain for $25 each really ! first stop we made was up some windy roads into the hollywood hills to get a good vierw and picture opps of the Hollywood sign, we were still quite faraway from it but wasnt too bad (i was determined to get closer) from here we drove back down to sunset blvd and through the streets and into Beverley Hills, wow how the other half live, the driver/guide let us out at Rodeo Drive for a walk round for 20 mins which was nice and we took a stroll down the famous shopping area, wow it was so plush and you could smell the expensiveness of everything, we took some pics and headed back without buying anything hahahaha phew thank god !

From here he drove us round beverley hills some more then up into the Hills itself to where all the stars live, he ryhmed off house after house and who lives here and there it was hard to keep up, a few highlights and ones that i can remember where: The playboy mansion, Richard Gere, Janet Jackson, Fresh Prince, Ozzie Osbourne, Sidney Poitier, Steve Martin, Aaron Spelling, Johnny Weismuller (original tarzan man who had a mile long swimming pool !!!) I asked where Beckhams new house was he showed me the road but couldnt go up it as there was nothing to see. We drove around for some more pointing out more sights and famous spots it was really interesting and we were really in the land of glitz and glamour, we got back to the original spot just under 2hrs later, well worth the money and a good way to see everything, we were glad we did it.

From here we walked a good strecth of the walk of fame back to the Chinese Theatre where we decided to grab lunhc, we got a Quizno's in the Hollywood/Highland centre which is right next door to the Theatre and holds the Kodak theatre in it which is the theatre where the Oscars are held. The shopping centre wasnt that great but the highlight of walking round was i spotted the fat guy from Borat in a coffee shop, i told jayne and she agreed it was him, finally we had seen a star i took a few pics of him it was quite funny how pleased i was.

It was late to mid afternoon now and we decided to walk east towards hollywood and vice for a bit, it was still really hot so we popped in a few tacky gift shops and got some tacky sounvenirs and some some right freaks whilst walking, it really isnt the glitzy part at all ! on our way back to the car we passed a bar that was having happy hour and 34oz beers so we decided to seize the chance and relax for a bit,after all we were on holiday, we ordered and Jayne couldnt believe the size of the beers, they were huge and there was no way she was drinking all of hers with driving back to the hotel on the highway, so i had to help her out, oh dear for me hahaha. We stayed in that bar for a good hour it was nice to watch the freaks go by and see the captain jack character skiving again !

We got to the car around 5ish and decided to get a better pic of the Hollywood sign as we could do this on our way to the highway, or so i thought!?!?! we got a little lost and with help from our map we got quite close up a street where we had to stand in the middle of the road to take a good pic it was quite funny. mission accomplished. We got back on the highway and headed for back to Anaheim by now it was almost 7 and sun was going down but not dark, when we got to Anaheim we decided to check out downtown disney where they had shops and restaurants so we could get something to eat.

It was nice down here, quite busy as all the restaurants seemed to have lines, we decided to check out the Mexican place (Tortilla Joes hahaha) and waited about 20 mins, the food was ok but a little bland, not enough spice was jaynes comment, it was true really. After our meal we went in all the shops and then went to the World of Disney Shop, this place was huge, the biggest disney shop ive ever been in, put it this way if they didnt have it in here they wouldnt have it anywhere ! we didnt get anything as were coming back on thursday.

By now it was 10pm so we headed back to the hotel and got our table and chairs back around the pool and chilled out with a few smirnoff ice before hitting the hayafter another tiring day in the hot hot hot sun !

Day 3: Disneyland

We were up at 9ish for breakfast round the pool, were quite enjoying our morning time eating at the pool. No need for the car today as Disneyland is only 10 mins up the road, we decided to walk up there and took us about 15 mins, on the way there we popped into a tat shop, jayne bought some new sunglasses as we think the night before she lost them in mcdonalds car park when parking thr car.

We got to the park entrance at around 11am and after grabbing a few photo's out front we made our way in onto Main St USA, the set up is the same as Florida and looks exactly the same just on a ever so smaller scale but still the magic remained ! jayne had her pic taken with Mary Poppins and we made our way up to Cinderellas Castle, the crowds were ok seen as it was Labour Day but it was decieving as most people were already off Main St by now. We decided to go back to front and hit Tomorrowland first, first port of call was into the big shop there to buy our "ears", i bought jayne a nice minnie mouse eared baseball cap, i got a pair of silver "flashing" mickey ears, wot a sight we looked ready for the day, getting right in the spirt hahaha !

First ride we went on was Honey i Shrunk the Audience then we went on Space Mountain, it was different to Floridas one as we sat 2 in a row, it seemed better than Florida and longer, one of Disneys best rides. We walked round a bit in this area and then looked at our show sheet to see that the Jedi Training Academy was on , we decided to watch it and what a show it was, they invited around 20 or so kids up to be dressed in Jedi outfits and battle Darth Vader with toy lightsabres, each kid got a big round of applause it was quite cute, oh how i wish i could have done this when i was younger, what a dream for the kids ! We had lunch after this and then decided to move onto another part of the park, we rode the Matterhorn ride (seemed like one of DL's oldest rides) we then went to Toontown while the mid afternoon parade was on, the crowds had gone cos of the parade so we had a nice time in here and got an ice cream and many pics, we ate our ice cream in Mickeys house it was roasting outside well into the 100's ! then we went to Mickey himself there was no Queue so we went straight in and me and JAyne had our pics taken with him, i was well made up ! when we got out i got to have my pic taken with Goofy and a woman in the Queue commented on our fancy ears and told jayne i was the biggest kid in the park.... a total compliment hahaha !

We made our way round to Frontierland but didnt go any rides as the queues were too big so we headed for the haunted mansion and pirates of the caribbean, this ride was waaaay better than florida, much longer and featured jack sparrow from the movie in it, lots more drops and visuals as well, i wish we had rode it twice as there was a lot to take in. By now it was around 5ish so we decided to take the railroad around the park adn got off back at tomorrowland where we could get spots fro the 6pm parade, we got great spots although this parade seemed alot shorter than florida's one but still just as good and was very full. After that we went into frontierland to try and get onto Indiana Jones ride but it was closed, oh well we were coming back on friday so wernt out of luck.

It was getting dark and we were both tired so we decided to call it a day and headed down main street and make our way home so we could relax round the pool with some smirnoffs, we went in a few shops but didnt buy anything there was plenty more time for that. We had missed the shuttle so decided to walk it back, our legs were aching by now and was trying to find any food place could , we had to settle for Carls Jr burger place near our hotel as we couldnt be bothered walking round, we popped in the garage for more drinks and sat round the pool at the hotel and relaxed, it was good to finally sit down, unfortunatley some new rather large family (in numbers and size hahhaa) who we nicknamed "The Klumps" had nicked our table and chairs so we sat on the loungers and hoped they went staying long at our hotel. After a tiring day we were in bed by midnight, back in the car tomorrow to navigate Hollywood itself, yikes !

Day 2: Universal Studios Hollywood

We were up at 8am and raring to go, a full day at a park i couldnt wait, we got breakfast in the hotel which was cereal,juice and doughnuts/danish's, me and jayne took ours to the pool area and ate it round there, it was so peacful and was getting hot that early in the morning, i went for a swim after brekko for 5 mins before getting ready to leave, it was nice this time not being rushed into catching shuttle buses we could take our time and leave when we wanted to, not relying on times.

We got in the car and left by 10am with my maps in hand ready to tackle the LA freeways, as it was a holiday weekend the traffic wasnt too bad and we made surprisingly good time up to Universal in Hollywood i got got some pics on the highway of downtown LA, we passed the Hollywood sign but very breifly, we got to Universal by 11am without getting lost, it was so easy to find with my map, we parked up in the curious george parking lot and made our way up to the theme park/city walk level.

Upon stepping out it seemed very similar to Floridas one, lots of restaurants and shops and bars, we didnt really go in any we thought we would leave that till later on, most wernt open at this time either, as we approached the turnstiles we took a few pics outside with the globe and on the red carpet leading up to the gates, we had a 2 day pass but we knew we would only be here for 1 day. As we got in the park seemed busy and we grabbed a map and noticed a bloke saying the queue for the stuio backlot tour was no wait, so we decided to make our way for that, i'd heard good reports about the tour as this is where they film real movies on the sets here and is used unlike the one in orlando, we waited only 10 mins or so before we boarded our tour train, me and jayne both got outside seats so we could take pics and get a better view, the tour lasted about an hour and was well worth it, we saw sets from Back to the future, War of the Worlds, Bruce Almighty, Evan Almighty, Desperate Housewives, The Mummy, Fast and the Furious, the tour also encorporated a few "mini" rides that were in universal orlando, such as the Earthquake, King Kong, Jaws, The Mummy and Fast and the Furious Car explosions, i took plenty pics and by the time we got off the tour my bum was acheing, at the top of the stairs was a Hollywood sign mockup so we got our pics taken with it and really it was quite realistic, i wonder if anybody will be able to tell hehe.

After a little walk round and reminiscing over the back to the future ride which was closing tomorrow for good awwww we decided to go to the lower lot down about 4 sets of huge escalators i took us about 10 mins,they called it the skywalk hmmmm!?! we headed straight for the mummy ride, this is mine and jaynes fave ride at universal but i'd heard it was quite a bit different, the Q wasnt too bad only about 20 mins, as we rode it, it was quite difffrent, there is a fast start off and you only go backwards right at the end and then it finishes all of a sudden, it seemed shoreter than Uni orlando but was still a great ride, this has to be my fave 3rd rollercoaster behind hulk and screamin.

At this point it was now 2ish and after watching the Jurrasic park ride (cursed from last time with my camera yuck!) and me getting totally soaked from the spash zone which was a welcome relief as it was a scorcher (over100 i believe) we decided to get lunch, usual park grub, pizza, salad, burgers, fries and overpriced, not bad tho $9 for pizza and cesar salad, jayne had a pizza too.

After lunch we went to the special effects theatre, this was fun it lasted about 30 mins and had audience participation, by now it was roasting hot and there was no way we were going into the backdraft ride ! we decided to ride the mummy for the last time again and then headed back up the starway to the upper lot, didnt go on Jurassic park ride this time, probably just as well !

We wandered around for a bit and i got a huge beer for $9, as we walked round we past a booth that was giving free tv show taping tickets for the week, i rememeber the bloke on the tour told us that Jay Leno tix for the week were free, i went and asked and indeed they were so we got 2 tix for thursday for the Jay Leno Tonight show and Harry Potter (daniel Radcliffe) was one fo the guests, what a result and they didnt cost us a penny, then even had "guaranteed" stamped on them !

Day 1: California Vacation, LA and Anaheim.....Off we go

Well todays the day, we booked our holiday over 2 months ago to go California, were staying in Anaheim just down the road from Disneyland at the Days Inn Maingate, we have hired a car and plan to go to Disney for 3 days, Universal Studios, Hollywood and a few beaches along the Pacific coast highway. I had changed my money and was taking $700usd that cost me $750cdn.

I stayed a Jaynes overnight and we were up at 5am, i was bit groggy as i has been out for some jars the night before with the boys but i was home by 11pm. Jayne made us a coffee and tea to take with us in the taxi who was waiting outside Jaynes building at 5.45am...ouch !

We got to the airport for our flight at 8.30am and checked in and filled in all the forms for US immigration whilst in the huge line. We got our duty free and Jayne got a muffin and we sat at the gate for our flight to Las Vegas where we would change planes onto Santa Ana Orange County Airport.

The flight was good and quick it only took about 3hrs 45 we arrived in vegas 45 mins early, most of the people were getting off at begas but we had a 2 hr wait for our connection, it looked hot hot hot outside ! the airport was a bit dingy and small for Vegas i thought, we got some food for our lunch and had over an hour to wait, our connection was on time which was good, they had slots in the terminal (of course its vegas!) so we decided to play a bit, we both put $5 in, Jayne blew hers within 5 mins but i managed to win $10 so we split it and made our money back, we decided to put that money back in and didnt win anything else, oh well $10 down aint bad wont break the bank.

We waited at our gate and boarded to Santa Ana, John Wayne Airport, the plane wasnt quite full and it was only a short flight to OC, we had touched down within an hour and we got inside the airport, it was a small airport and there was no hussle or bussle we quickly got our cases and went to the desk to check in for our car rental, we had to pick it up in the underground parking place, as we stepped outside for a fag the heat hit us, wow was it hot, not very humid just roasting hot !! great weather, probably hotter then Florida 2 yrs ago. We picked up our car downstairs , they gave us a free upgrade and we got a Silver Jeep Patriot instead of a bog standard economy car...bonus !!

I had printed off lots of google maps directions so we could find our way around and not get lost, Jayne was driving safe on the highway ( i wasnt going to drive out here) and we took our time, we got a little lost on the way to the hotel but only like 2 mins out of our way and we managed to get there in the end without to much trouble, the hotel looked nice and seemed about a 15 min walk down the road from Disney, by now it was 2pm and the desk guy told us that check in was 3pm, so we walked down the road for a bit and asked where we could get a drink at bar, we decided to pop over the road to the Double Tree Hotel Suites (posh place) to their bar and we sat outside and had a vodka/lemonade each relaxing in the sun and toasting our holiday, finally we were here and we were happy.

We got our room an hour later it was nice, we had a huge king size bed instead of 2 queens, it was clean and we had a fridge and microwave, we were on the ground floor in the corner where there was less noise from the street, room 127 to be precise and a stones throw from the pool area, it was a no smoking room so we had to fag it outide which we didnt mind,we decide to check out the pool area, no one was around it was very quiet si decided to go for a swim (i'd forgot my swim shorts so had to wear some shorts that passed for swimmers), the pool was tiny but nice it also had a hot tub that was nt very "hot". Jayne didnt come swimming she just dangled her feet to cool off, it was nice to cool off as it was baking outside. after a while we had ahad enough and decided to dry off and pop over to the petrol station right next door to grab some snacks as we hant eaten since the morning (the plane didnt feed us), the petrol station sold everything we wanted, buttys, burgers, crisps, chocs even beer and coolers !!! we got some doritos and picked up some smirnoff ice black so we could put them in our fridge in the room, a god send this would be and regular occurance hehe, we had a couple of smirnoffs and scoffed the crisps before getting changed to go to Disneyland for the evening for a while, we decided to use one of our day hopper passes as we were only going to disney on 3 occasions, there was a free shuttle from the hotel so we hopped on it at 6.30 and it took us straight there, very handy 2 mins up the road.

We got dropped off right at the gate and made our way in through the security checks, Disneyland is layed out different than florida's,
as you enter the main square to your right is Disneyland and to your left is Disneys California Adventure, we chose to go to California Adventure tonight and do a few rides and check it out, we took some pics in the main square and went in, by now it was 7pm and the park was thinning out it didnt seem to busy, we walked straight on Soarin' over California (they have the same ride at Epcot in Florida)
after that we walked round to Paradise Pier, they have a huge lake surrounded by rides and a pier, the big photo point is the California Screamin rollercoaster and the sun wheel big wheel ride, looks really nice all lit up at night, we made our way round to Screamin, Jayne wouldnt go on, but i couldnt wait, the line wasnt too bad and only waited like 10 mins, as it set off it stops on the straight and after a 54321 countdown it blasts you off on the straight and uphill into a drop at the top, the ride was awesome and long, nearly 4 mins apparently, i loved it !!! i couldnt wait to get back to Jayne to tell her how good it was, i'd say its my 2nd fave coaster behind the hulk at universal orlando !

By now it was getting dark and we decide to go on the sun wheel , there was 2 choices for cars, a swinging rocking one or a stationary one, we choose the stationary one, good choice as the ones that rocked REALLY rocked, yikes, it took a while to load up and for us to do around 3 revs, we took some pics up at the top it was pretty hairy being up so high stuck at the top, we were glad when we got down.

Straight away i went on the Mailiboomer which is a tower that that launches you straight up and then back down again , Jayne was no way coming on this, i walked straight on it, oooooh it was high and fast but good especially when when you get to the topa nd come down. When i got off the electric light parade had started and Jayne was watching it, there were some great floats and we took lots of pics, after this was over it was now nearly 9ish and the park was closing so we made our way out, the shuttle was due to pick us up at 9.30 so we made our way to the pick up point and the fireworks were going off in Disneyland which we could see, by now we were tired and the shuttle got us back by 10pm to our hotel, we popped to the petrol station to grab a bite to eat, i got a steak rib sandwich jayne got a pizza, we took it back to the pool area and got a couple of smirnoffs from the fridge and chilled round the pool for a bit before heading to bed, it was a very long day we were in bed by 11.30 with another early start in the morn to come. footnote: the bed was a kingsize and was huuuge i used to laugh with Jayne cos i called her "Faraway" cos she really was !