Touring L.A.

A bright and early start, we boarded the bus ready for a huge day of sight seeing in Los Angeles! The bus drove us down the coastal route, with the driver giving us an informative tour of the local area. Crusing through Orange County, Melrose, Laguna, Long Beach before arriving in downtown LA.

Our first stop for the day was Universal Studios (city walk - shops etc - no theme park today). The weather was fantastic (around 35) and gave us a wonderful view of the skyline. After an hour of looking around the area, we made our way to the Hollywood sign & star walk - where we admired the hand prints, stars on the pavement as well as the big sign made of concrete. The area was not as glitzy as we'd imagined, but impressed us none the less. We also got to see the Kodak Theatre (where the Academy Awards are held), Chinese Theatre and the many famous restaurants that were close by (celebs frequent them).

Moving on to the Farmers Market (where obviously farmers traded goods etc for many years), which is now one of the more famous shopping areas (the new building is called the Grove in appreciation) we took in the local shops, as well as admiring the old buildings etc that adorned the area. Our tour guide was rather informative here, as he had spent the past 37 years touring the Hollywood area (Welk Resorts provided this tour - 20 people in total on a coach - excellent!)

Departing the Farmers Market after a bite to eat and a good 90 minutes of touring around, we made our way to the glitz and glamour of shopping - Rodeo Drive! Celebrity spotting was going to be tough - especially with everyone driving Porsche, Ferrari, Corvette & big black SUV's. Heading into Tiffany's (window shopping only) we toured around the streets, with hundreds of tourists, taking in the sights and hopeful of scoring a bargain.....not likely! After a good chunk of time allocated to looking at the shops, hopefully seeing a celeb or two (we thought we saw Teri Hatcher.......a very good resemblance) we boarded the bus, ready for the coming trip back to the resort.

Our tour guide continually cracked jokes throughout, keeping us relaxed and continually informed us of the many wonderful sights within the area. Thankfully we took this tour, as we would have had fun trying to find all the "Hot spots" with our own car!

Dining with Shamu

After our first encounter with the Orcas, we both decided that it would be too good an opportunity to miss if we didn't "Dine with Shamu". Arriving at the park around 5, we took in the Arctic area before making our way to dinner.

Around 60 guests had lined up (all pre-paid) ready to enter - all hopeful they would be sitting on the edge of the pool to take in the Orcas up close. Reading the many warning signs on entry concerned us a little - "24 hours splash zone" & "Whales free time area" - with the trainers reiterating the point - you could be soaked at any given time......As we were seated (front row - SCORE!!!) we headed to the buffet, provided with a wonderful meal - and a couple of beers!!!

The show started after we had seated. Shamu was not on show - but instead was replaced with Ulycees - the biggest Orca at Sea World San Diego - weighing in at over 10,000 pounds! Each trainer spoke about training the whales, interacting etc and answered all our questions, then began demonstrating some of the "acrobatic stunts" that the whale can do.

Noises, cries, jumps, dives, turns etc soon followed - a spectacular event witnessed first hand. We didn't get drenched, however, the whale playfully jumped around the pool, causing enormous splashes (anything that weighs 10,000 pounds can cause a serious splash!) and thrilling the crowd.

After the 60 minute dinner / performance - we made our way to the nightly performance, we again took in the wonderful 30 minute show, more appreciative of the work and training that each whale takes in on a daily basis.

DISNEYLAND!!!!

Crusing north towards LA (after all the traffic had gone!!) we made our way to Anaheim, home of Disneyland, California Adventure and......not a lot else!

A beautiful day welcomed us to Disney. Grabbing our tickets quickly, we were informed to use our "Fast pass" early, as it was going to be a hectic day here.

Taking in the sights of the park (and being ultra-touristy), we snapped many pics, before diving into our first ride for the day - Pirates of the Caribbean. A pretty tame ride (in terms of turns, dips etc), it made up for it in appearance and interaction, with many robotic characters telling the story of Jack Sparrow throughout.

Next it was time to get a bit loony and cartoonish - welcome to Toon Town. Taking in the Roger the Rabbit (I love him) ride, we spun ourselves dizzy in the crazy taxi they provided us with - so much fun!!! Wandering around Toon Town, we also ran into a few of the old favourites - Goofy, Mickey and Pluto. Taking a few happy snaps, we soon realised we had better get moving to our next ride.

Screams filled the air as we arrived at Splash Mountain - with the thrilling drop at the end - bound to soak us (but give us some relief from the 38 degree day!) After bypassing 95% of the line due to our fast pass, we boarded, with Kate scoring the front seat and me laughing not to far behind her. As the ride progressed, the few smaller dips in the ride caused us to get damp, then the big drop came, soaking us completely!

As we continued to tour the park and take in all of its sights, we decided to do the "Disney" thing and take in the nightly parade - it was quite good - seeing all the kids smiling (and a lot of the adults who were with them!)

Overall a great experience! The many lines etc prove that people love this place and continue to flock there from all around the world to take in the magic that is Disney!

5 Star Luxury!

The title says it all - a week in beautiful Escondido! Picking up our Toyota convertible (cruising down the freeway in the hot hot sun - thankfully no red blue lights, flashed us from behind!) we took in the wonderful sights of Escondido area - before arriving at our destination for the next week - Welk Resort - home to a beautiful 18 hole golf course, 5 star luxurious apartments / villas and 5 of the most beautiful pools you can see!

Our jaws hit the floor as we opened the door to the villa - arriving in air conditioned beauty. Two TV's greeted us, one in the lounge, the other in the bedroom - where the King bed lay! Full cooking facilities for the week as well (decked out nicely) - it's going to be an absolute blast!

Photos don't do this place justice - only 35 minutes from San Diego downtown and 90 minutes from Disneyland, we're sure to see plenty of California - as well as relaxing!!! WOHOO!!!

San Diego Zoo

Up bright and early with excitement (this has been something that the two of us have wanted to do for a long time – see one of the world’s premier zoos up close!). Arriving at the zoo (until recently it was the largest in the world – and is home to some of the world’s more exotic and endangered animals, with over 4000 different species in the park) we immediately grabbed the map – looking for the Panda enclosure.

Seeing many amazing animals – sun bears, panda, puma, elephants, birdlife, reptiles etc (and koalas – the largest koala breeding centre outside of Australia!) we had a fantastic day (the place was huge – so much so they had 2 different shuttle lines, a guided tour – 35-40 mins, a cable car from one end of the park to the other – 3 min ride and lastly several sets of escalators / elevators due to the elevation). After 8 hours wandering through the park (and using all the battery on the camera), we headed home to rest – then out again tonight!

Note – One funny sign we saw had “Birds from Australasia” – which includes birds from Australia, Indonesia and Tasmania – we

San Diego, Sea World and Shamu….

Arriving in San Diego to a wonderful blue sky, warm beach going weather and to a host of Spanish speaking people, we headed to the hostel….ready for our San Diego adventure.

Taking a stroll around town, we wondered how we were going to spend our afternoon – what could we do – hmmmm – SEA WORLD! Jumping on a trolley and then a bus, we soon arrived to Sea World – home of the world famous “SHAMU”.

Shamu is an orca / killer whale that WOWS crowds 5-6 times a day with natural behaviour / acrobatic tricks and the world famous specialty (and a crowd pleaser) the Shamu slam. The massive arena was bursting at the seams with people cheering and waiting in anticipation for the show (we arrived five minutes prior to the show, sitting in one of the front rows, with everyone wearing a waterproof jacket…..uh oh).

Turning around, we soon realised we were in the SOAK ZONE – labelled as such. Maybe not a good idea after all! The three Orcas performed many amazing tricks, with the crowd pleaser – the Shamu Slam getting crowd involvement, before a massive Orca tail appeared out of the water, shooting water 10-12 rows back into the crowd – we were drenched!!!!

Meandering through the rest of the park, we found ourselves up close and personal with walruses (massive), polar bears, sharks, dolphins etc.

Taking in the wonderful night time show of the Orcas (yeah we watched 2 for the day!), we again sat near the front – heeding all warnings that the night show was wetter than the day – who would have thought we’d end up wetter than earlier in the day! A great first up experience here!