San Diego & Farewell to Cali! - Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Friday morning we were a little slower than usual, after three hugely exhausting but amazing days at the theme parks. We packed up and made our way to a sports store that Liam wanted to check out. He ended up spending over 2 hours in there and left with a brand spanking new pair of ice skates that had been baked especially to fit his tootsies. He was a very happy boy indeed! We then headed back to the coast where we continued to mosey on down the highway, driving through some beautiful towns along the way. Newport clearly had a LOT of money, with some gorgeous houses and flashy cars, as did Laguna Beach. We were super tired by this point so we pulled in to a beach car park and took a little nap in the car. It made me wonder how all those kids were handling their Disneyland hangovers, haha! With recharged batteries, we kept driving down to Northern San Diego, where we were really excited to be staying with John (who used to work with Liam) and his wife Hayley. We arrived about half an hour before they were due home from work so went to a pub around the corner from their place to fill in the time with a drink. We stopped in to the liquor store next door to grab some supplies, where the guy behind the counter took on the challenge of pronouncing Liam's surname. He got it easily and when we told him we were staying around the corner at John's, he knew exactly who we were talking about. Clearly John visits too often, bloody alco! ;) We were welcomed with open arms at the Parry residence, Chester the staffy was especially excited to meet us. We spent some time catching up and then walked up the road to their local pizzeria, where we ate, drank and were merry. The merriness continued at their place afterwards, with the boys showing Hayley and I how it's done. We made further use of our camp beds and sleeping bags, setting them up in 'John's room' (full of decks - the record and skate variety) for the duration of our stay. Saturday morning we walked down the road to a little diner where we had a scrummy brunch to charge us up for the day. We went to the mall where we got ourselves another suitcase to carry our many purchases and indulged in a 'world-famous' Cinnabon (everything seems to be world-famous over here!) while John and Hayls did some Christmas shopping. By the time we finished there, it was time to eat (again), so we went to a local Mexican fast food joint and loaded up on $1.65 tacos. I seriously don't know how we're going to cope with the expense of food when we get back. Everything here is just so cheap, and SO DELICIOUS!!! We're both addicted to Mexican food and I am hanging out to experiment with some new recipes. That night, Hayley had organised tickets for us to see a college basketball game. It was the two main San Diego universities facing off against each other, and what an experience it was. We got there before the game started and grabbed a freebie jersey, they were giving them out to all the college students you see, and we clearly fell into that category. Hehe! Next, we got set up in our nose bleed seats with a humongous bag of kettle corn and our non-alcoholic beverages (college game = under age = no alcohol) and waited in anticipation for the game to commence. There was a large section of seats where all the college students sat, along with the brass marching band, and the gazillions of dancers and cheerleaders. This area was called 'The Show', and what a show they put on for us - it was almost more entertaining that the actual game! They passionately performed many chants to rev up their team, as well as having lots of tricks up their sleeves to throw off the opposition. It was hilarious! The brass band was amazing and played intermittently throughout the game, the cheerleaders and dancers were kept busy too, with lots of choreographed routines. They take college games so seriously over here that the games are televised, the stadium has a massive screen right above the court which shows instant replays, there are major team and game sponsors who give away prizes for quarter time fan games and even give out free tacos to everyone in the crowd if the home team scores in the first minute of the game. Double win!! Unfortunately nobody scored in the first minute, but it didn't take long after that for the points to start adding up. It was a great game, very fast paced with so much going on. And our home team (SDSU) smashed the opposition for a very exciting outcome indeed. It was an AWESOME experience, thanks so much to Hayley for organising tickets for us, we had a ball!! After the game, we drove downtown and met up with a few of John and Hayley's friends for a drink at the trendy hipster bar Craft and Commerce, a very groovy place indeed. Next we headed to Til-Two Club, where one of John's clients (skateboarding company Lurkville) was hosting their 2nd birthday bash, including a gig by moustache-clad ensemble King Tuff. It was fairly late when we arrived so a lot of people were already reeeeeeeally drunk. The boys disappeared into the crowd eager to play catch up, while Hayley and I battled with the many inebriated skaters who had lost their ability to hold a conversation. We were also entertained by her hilarious friend ________???, who just wanted to get a kiss from a boy, bless her. She was a hoot! It was a really fun night, we loved it :) A couple of sore heads from the boys meant a slow start to Sunday, which Hayley and I were totally OK with, and we stayed in the slow lane all day. When we were finally up and going, we went to an outdoor mall to grab a few things - Christmas presents! - after which we indulged in our second In-N-Out burger. I must say that it was a lot more impressive the second time around, still not mind blowing, but overall yum. The whole experience was just so exhausting that we spent the afternoon on the couch, chatting, relaxing and watching TV. The only thing the got us moving was the growl of our stomachs at dinner time. We went out for some absolutely delicious chicken veggie soup from a local Mexican kitchen. At less than $6 for a huge bowl, who needs to go to the effort of cooking?! Again, the inexpensive food over here RULES. And so do John and Hayley :) The next day being Monday, The Parry's were back at work so Liam and I headed downtown for a day of watery fun at Sea World! The forecast wasn't good, but we were very lucky to end up with a lovely sunny day. After our two amazing days at Disney, we had high expectations and were slightly underwhelmed with this theme park. The Manta roller coster was awesome but the rest of the rides were pretty lame. We had to keep reminding ourselves that we were at Sea World (not Disney!) and I must say, they did what they should've done well, fabulously. I'm talking about the shows, which were totally amazing and I'd recommend to anyone planning a visit to try cramping in as many as possible. We saw a Christmas production starring two of the seals and a misbehaving otter, an acrobatic extravaganza featuring the park's amazing pod of dolphins and finished up the day with the HUGE killer whales in the breathtaking Shamu show. The talent of those animals and their trainers was unbelievable to watch and they absolutely LOVED splashing the audience, with the first fifteen or so rows of each stadium named 'The Soak Zone' for very good reason. After an action packed day, we had a quiet night at home with Chester (and microwave soup for dinner!), with John and Hayley attending their work Christmas party and coming home late. The next day was zoo day! And in typical US holiday tradition, it was pouring with rain. We drove through the terribly stormy weather apprehensively, wondering if we should just forget about it and head home or do something else... but in typical US holiday tradition, we carried on. We asked the front gate man if the wet weather would affect what the animals were doing and our viewing possibilities. After giving us some fluffed up non-answer, we went in anyway and headed straight for the bears. Strolling past their enclosures confirmed our suspicion that these creatures are in fact, mythical. We could not see any of them as they were all in their caves either sleeping or escaping the miserable weather. LAME! Luckily it stopped raining not long after we got there which made the experience a lot more pleasant. We went back to the bears later on in the day and ended up seeing a grizzly, which was something at least. He could've been a fake though, just to throw us off the scent of discovering their imaginary status... As far as the rest of the zoo goes, that place is enormous!! So much to see, and very easy to miss things with little paths regularly shooting off the main walkway in all directions. We covered most of it, with the highlights being: - The pandas, munching on copious amounts of bamboo and sleeping in funny positions up trees. - The crocodile, who was hard to spot from the surface, with only his eyes sticking out. But looking under the water level proved a big shock, with his jaw open wide showing all his sharp teeth and his claws hanging down from his perch between the underwater branches. He was scary, even making a few kids scream! - The elephant, who was getting a manicure in the foot health centre. - Of course, the giraffes, just because they're AWESOME!! Oh, and they were drooling all over the SDSU football players, who were there feeding them at the time. Too funny. That night, we went to the Parry's local Vietnamese place for some delicious noodles and soup. It was just the veggie fix we needed and a lovely last dinner in San Diego with the awesome John and Hayley. It was so awesome to stay in their home and spend some time with familiar faces, thanks for being such fantastic hosts! On Wednesday, we headed off for our final 'road trip' with CC. While we still had a bit of driving ahead, it was the last time we'd be taking her to see awesome scenic places. Sniff, sniff! Hayley had very kindly written us an itinerary which would allow us to explore some things in the San Diego area. We started just up the road from their place at the Oceanside pier, a picturesque spot with a bit of fame to its name. It's the location of the outdoor amphitheatre in the movie 'Bring It On', as well as being home to the blue house from 'Top Gun'. There's a bit of trivia! After checking out the fishermen and surfers at the pier and performing a super high energy (not) cheer routine in the amphitheatre, we had a few bits and pieces to take care of - sending a parcel home and trying to return our unused table and chairs to Walmart. We continued to follow the Pacific Coast Highway south, to soak up our last day of beautiful Californian sun and sand. We stopped at a Mexican spot Hayls recommended - La Especial Norte - but unfortunately, we had a very mediocre meal. It was a bit disappointing to finish our love affair with Mexican food on this note but not to worry, hopefully we will be back one day! ;) We picked up some cherry pie from Pannikin, just a few blocks away, and put it in a special place for an afternoon tea sugar fix. A slight detour through University City came next, where we parted with our awesome camp beds and sleeping bags via a French buyer on Craigslist. It's a shame we couldn't take them home with us, but they were just too bulky - hopefully we can find some just as good in Oz. With a much lighter load (CC must've thought we'd gone on some amazing diet), we continued along the coast, checking out the 'Children's Pool' - a small beach protected by a manmade sea wall which has been taken over by harbour seals - a group of people skim boarding, the Sunset Cliffs, and then drove up Mt Soledad for a 360 degree view of the whole county. It was very pretty! It was then time to hit the highway for our trek back to Anaheim for our LAST night in California... A very sad occasion indeed. When we were arrived, we were cheered up pretty quickly with a walk through Downtown Disney. What an awesome place, with lots of restaurants, street vendors and tons of Disney goods available for purchase, we spent up a storm and got lost in the happiest place on earth all over again. We awoke early on Thursday morning, with the big job of packing up our luggage ready for our flight later on that night and hoping to get the most out of our last day in the Disney parks. Although we thought we done almost everything, we spent the first few hours ticking off all the rides that we hadn't done yet. Many were in Fantasyland (the 'little kid' rides) but we did them anyway and loved most of them. We then smashed out some of our favourites again, managing to cramp in three more rides on the legendary California Screamin' - I LOVE that roller coaster!! It was a hell of a lot busier than our visit last week, with longer lines and plenty more people to dodge it made us appreciate the amount we were able to cramp in to our first two days! We said a sad goodbye to Mickey and his friends just before sunset, as it was time for us to head back to LA for an even sadder goodbye... taking CC back to her home. It took quite some time for us to clear out all of our stuff and even longer for the idiots that work at Budget to process our paperwork. Apparently they couldn't find us on the system and we waited for over an hour for them to 'fix up' our booking, which we later discovered was not fixed up at all. My credit card has since been charged another $1500! Something to look forward to sorting out when we get home... Anyway, we gave CC a big hug and prayed that those incompetent morons can look after her and give her lots more amazing adventures! We caught the shuttle to the airport, where we managed to get our three bags checked in without any problems or extra fees. And then came security, holy moly! ***********, shoes off, full body X-ray scan and idiot me, who packed liquids galore -soups, drinks and maple syrup - in Liam's backpack resulting in losing the lot (we were upset only by the maple syrup!). I had to be escorted back out by the customs officer to empty my water bottle and on our way back, she pulled a guy out of the line dressed in his army fatigues to take him straight through. As he passed the others waiting, a number people stopped him to thank him for his service, such a respectful gesture that I have never witnessed before. It was heartwarming and quite moving. I finally got the security stamp of approval and proceeded to the terminal where we eventually boarded our New York City bound plane, complete with exit row seats thanks very much! And so is the beginning of The Final Chapter on our epic US adventure... Can't wait to see what 'the city that never sleeps' has in store for us!