Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
April's Travels
Hello one and all from April and Steve.
Well the American holiday started a week ago today. I met steve at the airport, he was late in after a bomb scare in heathrow and had managed to board the plane 5 minutes before the gates closed after running all the way from the check in desk, but he made it!!
We took the shuttle to our first hotel, The Farmer\'s Daughter. It was so fab. You pull up to a blue chequered hotel, there are lots of cowboy type decorations everywhere and there is a swanky restaurant. Our room was so good, pure luxury, a king bed, rocking chair, lots of quirky bits and pieces. I loved it. We were there for two nights. The first night we were there we all went out for macaroni and cheese and fries, and all felt really ill afterwards. My body is just used to chicken and rice!! The Americans sure know how to eat fried stuff!!
The next day we went to the Farmers\'s Market next to our hotel. It\'s quite well known in LA, lots of shops and eateries around tables and chairs so you pick what you want and sit down outside with little heaters around. Love it. We had waflles and coffee, steve is an avid pancake and waffle fan, yippee!!
After that we went to Santa Monica, the Bay watch beach. We shopped and got pizza, just mooched around really. Later that night we got picnic food and watched a movie in the room.
The day of Disney!! On Tuesday we had planned to get to Disney, after working out that it was near impossible to get there as it\'s in the middle of nowhere, we hired a car. We had a free upgrade to a convertible, Becs and I are loving this but seeing as steve\'s driving and it\'s a big car he\'s not jumping for joy. He did great anyway, few hiccups on the way but nothing too drastic. We made it to Disney and in we ploughed with all the crowds. Disney is so good, i went to the one in Florida about 10 years ago and it looks just the same. You walk in along the main street with all the country and western shops that lead up to the magic kingdom. Then you have different areas of the park all with a different theme, we went on space mountain first. A roller coaster in pitch black apart from little stars, don\'t let the fact that small children can go on it fool you, it\'s scary ok!!
We ambled around most of the day, we watched a parade as it\'s Disney\'s 50 year anniversary so we saw all the characters. We also saw a fireworks display and a fantasia type show at night with Mickey mouse \'good vs evil\'. We were all kids for the day it was great. Oh and we went on a \'ride\' called \'It\'s a small world\', it\'s a boat trip through lots of minature people (not real) in different countries, like around the world in 80 days, Mum and Dad you should remember that one!!
On Weds we got up early and it was a really sunny day. We put the top down on the car (didn\'t realise my coat was on the parcel shelf back there and it got taken in with the roof when it went down, we didn\'t figure this out for a couple of days so i thought i had lost it!!) Then we drove up to the Hollywood hills and took pics of the big HOLLYWOOD sign. We are so LA baby!! For the rest of the day we ambled around Santa Monica again and then went out to dinner at an argentinian place. I had fish, hooray, normal food!!
On thurs we went to Universal Studios. It was a really really sunny day again and just so fab. If you ever get a chance to go to universal definitely go. We had our pics taken with spiderman, doc, king kong etc... Went on back to the future ride, jurassic park water ride twice. Both times we ended up at the front and got completely drenched. There was a rollercoaster in the theme of the film Mummy, half of it went backwards, so good!! Then we saw shrek in 4D, a show called The fear factor. It\'s a popular show in America, where people had to have scorpions put on their head, and drink fish paste with sour milk and things, yuk. The best show was Waterworld, based on the film, lots of people do stunts, jet skis, speed boats and a massive plane flys in at one point. We watched the last one of the day and got aboslutely drenched AGAIN!!
So it really was such a good day.
Friday our final day in LA for the mo. We hired another car for 8 days and drove to San Fransisco. We underestimated the driving duration. Should take 6 hours, Took April and Steve 15. I thought it would be a good idea to take the scenic route. It was absolutely stunning. We stopped at little places like Pismo Beach where they have lots of caravan parks and shops by the sea. There were also a couple of real country and western towns with Saloons!! Didn\'t know they would still exist. Eerily enough there were another couple of hill billy towns. I couldn\'t help but picture one of those teen horror movies when the kids go on a road trip and it all goes wrong. The towns just have this feel about them, you know there are some crazies living there. On route you are nearly always by the sea, on the other side of you there are redwoods and mountains with mist on the top, it\'s beautiful. At one point we drove past a big place that looked country and western esq called the Madonna Inn, i had to go and take a look. We pulled up to a big lodge type affair, the restaurant was the most amazing place i\'ve ever seen, it was all pink with little fairy lights, it looked like fairy land. We had clam chowder soup and coffee in the cafe and took lots of pics, it was a real little gem!!
The highlight of the drive we managed to get to in the dark. Sheer cliff drops with winding roads and rock slides. Excellent!! It took us hours, we went all around these roads and came across a rock slide at one point. Luckily the weather was dry otherwise it would have been terrible. Don\'t think we will forget that part of the trip for a while. We rocked up at a motel in Monteray about 2 hours from San Fran at 11 o clock. It was really cute, i love motels they\'re really fun. We slept for a bit then got back on the road at 7 and did the rest of the drive into San Fran. Saw the golden gate on the way in, stunning!! Then we went into an Apple store, borrowed the internet, booked a hotel and walked down the street to it and checked in, technology today is great!!
I\'ll update you on San Fran soon!!
Lots of love from us. xx
- comments