san francisco and disneyland

well it's been a jam-packed week since i last wrote! last weekend we were still in vancouver, and went to visit the capliano suspension bridge, which is, as the name suggests, a huge suspension bridge over a river. it was really beautiful, with snow on the ground, fog in the mountains and huge fir trees everywhere - it was the type of scenery you see in the travel brochures for canada.

tuesday we had a 3.30am start to catch a 4am taxi to the airport for our flight to los angeles! we cleared american customs in vancouver, which was weird but handy cos it meant we could then just exit the airport like you would on a normal domestic flight. we got a shuttle straight to anaheim, checked into our hotel, met up with greg, lorinda and jessi (a friend from arizona) and went straight over to disneyland! the park was incredibly crowded, apparently half the world decided disneyland was the place to be for new year! i had been once before but on my own, so it was really nice to experience the park with other people, heaps more fun!

new year's eve was a massive day, we went into disneyland as soon as gates opened so we wouldn't miss out, and stayed til 1am. we did all the rides, my favourite being space mountain, the rollercoaster that is in the dark. it's a pretty amazing place, they put a lot of imagination, work and money into the park, and have such great attention to detail, everything is themed. after about 12 hours in the park we were all getting pretty tired and cold, so were quite pleased when we got stuck on the pirates of the caribbean ride for about 20mins and could sit in the warmth! by about 9pm the park was so crowded that you could hardly move - we formed a big long train and held onto each other so we'd stay together - not having phones, it could have been a little hard to find each other in the crowds.

new year was a bit of an anticlimax - there was so much fog that you could barely see the sleeping beauty castle, let alone the fireworks, so after the countdown we started making our way through the crowd to have a ride on space mountain before we went home.

we spent new year's day in california adventure - disneyland's sister park across the road. i love this park, more so than disneyland because it has so many great rides! we went on california screamin', one of the most fun rollercoasters i've ever been on; the tower of terror, where you sit in an elevator which goes up to the top of a tower and the doors open so you can see how high you are. you sit there for however long they feel like making you wait, then the elevator drops into the shaft. it is terrifying! but so much fun! they shoot the elevator up and drop you a few times, each time a different amount so you don't know what to expect. we did that one before lunch! then there was another ride called the maliboomer where the platform you are sitting on gets shot up a huge tower in about a second. that was also scary, especially because it wasn't in the dark, so you could see the whole park around you as you went up! the scariest ride for me was soaring over california, which is pretty funny cos it's a fairly sedate ride. it was absolutely amazing - you sit on a platform which is lifted in front of a screen probably bigger than an imax screen, so it fills your whole vision. then they have a movie running with aerial shots of different places in california taken from a helicopter, so it's like you are actually flying over each place. it was amazing quality, just like really being there. the platform would tilt so it felt like you were flying up to clear a mountain range, and they put smells in so that when you flew through an orange grove it smelt like oranges. really amazing! i was terrified because there is nothing in front of you but the scene you are flying over, and i like the security of a window or a harness!

yesterday we hired a car and drove from anaheim to san francisco, where we are all flying out from next. the drive went really smoothly thanks to lynne's great driving and god looking out for us, and we got to our hostel round dinner time. we went to pier 39 for a dinner of clam chowder, and met up with paul and jen (friends of the crofts) who live a couple of hours away. we caught the famous san francisco trolley car back to our hostel which was fun, great views.

today lynne and i had breakfast with lauren and croft before they flew back to vancouver. this afternoon we did a go-car tour. it's a little 2 person side by side scooter/car, with gps navigation. lynne drove us around and we had a great time seeing some of the sights and getting stared at because of our funny little vehicle! we had dinner at the much-hyped in'n'out burger place, where you get real beef patties on your burger, and your fries are actually made of potato...what are the chances?! then we went to hooters, to find out for ourselves whether it is really a 'family friendly restaurant' like we've been told. i'm not sure it's the place i'd take my kids to eat personally...

tomorrow lynne and i are heading off on a day tour of yosemite national park, which should be fun! then i have a few more days here on my own to sightsee and catch up on sleep, before heading to chicago to meet up with a friend. can't wait! hope you all had a happy new year :)

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Part of trip: Canada & US

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