Everyone is hyper-excited this morning and bursting with energy Our first day at Disneyland! Our three day pass entitles us to have one morning where we can enter the park one hour prior to the official opening time. We decide to use this early entry today, of course. It’s a good 15 minute walk down Harbour Bvd from the Doubletree Hotel to the gates and then another 5 minutes thru bag check (fortunately we didn’t have all our lunch and drinks confiscated) and into the lines. It seems every other person decided to use the early entry day today too - [View Full Entry]

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Went on our tour of Hearst Castle this morning. What ridiculous opulence and wealth! This "Castle" cost William Randolph Hearst in excess of $10 million to build in the 1920's and took 23 years to complete. We only saw the outdoor pool - which included a 2000 year old Greek sculpture, an 8 bedroom guest suite that had slept the likes of Cary Grant, Marilyn Munroe, Charlie Chaplin to name a few, the dining room complete with antiques galore, the living room which was decorated with 300 year old tapestries and the indoor pool made out of gold plated tiles!!! Unbelievable. [View Full Entry]

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Up and out early this morning (for a change) - even stooped to Macca's for breakfast before visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium. By Asian standards (Singapore & Bangkok) this aquarium is on the small side, but for what it lacked in size, it more than made up for in its unique exhibits. They have a Sea Otter tank and we managed to catch feeding time - well, talk about CUTE!!! These little guys are absolutely gorgeous! They lay floating on their backs and use their hands to get the fish out of it's shell. When the trainer then gave them some [View Full Entry]

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Up early this morning and on the road towards Monterey. Took a rather long detour up to Glacier Point within the National Park and HOLY COW - What a view! From being way down in the valley looking up at all the granite mountains around us, to being on top of the world looking down on the toy village below. Phenomenal! Not for those of us who suffer vertigo - incredible sheer drops of thousands of feet from the lookout to the valley floor. We could also see thru the telescope from up there, to the insanely stupid people standing on [View Full Entry]

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Bit of a sleep in this morning. This place is very relaxing - we even had a family of deer eating outside our room this morning to provide entertainment. Decided to rent some bikes and explore the valley this way. Not cheap at $25 per bike for the day, but we thought afterwards that it was well worth it. We headed up the valley to check out the Curry Village (tent cabins which I’m glad we’re not staying in) and up to Mirror Lake (what lake? - there’s not a drop of water to be seen). Spent a couple of hours [View Full Entry]

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Up very early this morning to pick up our rental car from Dollar. I’d walked past the other day and noticed about 20 people all queued down the street waiting for their car and we hoped that by arriving early we’d beat the rush. Turns out it was the best thing to do as we walked straight up to the counter and had no waiting at all. I’d been stressing out a bit before the trip as we had no control over what car we would be allocated. For all our luck we’d end up with a Mercury Grand Marquis (a [View Full Entry]

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Another beautiful day. Perfect for our day biking over the Golden Gate Bridge! Caught the cable car down to Fishermans Wharf and got off at Lombard Street. Thought we'd better take the opportunity to walk up and then back down this famous crooked street. Steve and I thought it was really worthwhile and enjoyed it, but the girls just didn't "get" it? Found the bike shop (Bike and Roll) and organised our sappy looking wheels and a map for the day. There were heaps and heaps of other people doing the same thing and the city has a fabulous bike / [View Full Entry]

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Well, today didn't start out the best. Bren had the toothache from Hell and it was pretty clear that she had to visit a dentist. Fortunately we found one close by that could see her at 9.00am. Whilst she was in the "murder house", Steve took the girls window shopping downtown. They managed to find the one and only Halloween shop in SF and wanted to spend all their money in one hit. The masks and props were simply amazing - almost like those in the movies. The Americans are so into Halloween! In the meatime, the dentists did their magic [View Full Entry]

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Went on the Mr Toad's Postcards of San Francisco 3 hr tour today in a 1924 Yosemite Vintage Bus. Our tour guide / drive Kathy was awesome. Such a character and full of stories and anacdotes. She seems to have a million friends in San Francisco including Robin Williams (if you believe everything she says). First stop was Chinatown and the Fortune Cookie Factory with a detour to the shop next door to sample some Dim Sums. Yummmmmm. Next we drove around Nob Hill and learnt all about the SF earthquake and subsequent fire which destroyed all the mansions but one [View Full Entry]

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Day 2 and we're rearing to go surprisingly early given the 19 hr time difference. Must have been the great sleep we all had. Headed downstairs for our complimentary breakfast which comprised of; bagels with cream cheese, huge muffins, pastries and selection of cereals including Fruit Loops, Sugar Pops, Frosted Cornflakes & Coco Bombs. Far out! Not for the faint hearted nor us after today - gross! Grabbed the wallet and a map and headed down the hill towards Union Square which was only a few blocks away. After looking at the looooooong queue for the Cable Cars decided to forego [View Full Entry]

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