and we are on our way...

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Hello All! This is our little blog we will 'try' to update in our travels to Toronto, Canada. A little under 4 weeks all up.

So all those who I thought may enjoy have been added to the 'viral subscription list'... if you don't appreciate the happy messages while your slaving away at work just add me to your block list!

So here is our itinerary...

March 18 > Los Angeles
March 25 > Las Vegas
March 28 > San Francisco
April 1 > Vancouver
April 7 > Rocky Mountains & Calgary
April 14 > Toronto


Los Angeles - Newport Beach

So we arrived in Los Angeles early Tuesday afternoon after about 24 hours in planes and airports, pretty frustrated by the end of it. However customs was a welcome surprise and only took us about 5 minutes to walk through... and we did just that... walked through and barely stopped for 10 seconds. Which was good because of our concerns with visas and the like... very weird, they weren't concerned at all about anything, didn't even talk to us.

Fist stop was Newport Beach... made famous by television show 'The O.C'... very nice place. The beaches are very big... more than what we have back home (ie. the sand comes a long way back) and there are some great piers that get you right out into the ocean. We get the vibe that a lot of interstate people come here to stay however there aren't many international tourists because of how difficult it is to get here (very hard without a car... which we dont have!... but we are troopers). On our first full day we walked pretty much non-stop for 5-6 hours, along the beach past multi-million dollar beach houses that aren't much bigger than a townhouse, then we ended up at a man-made island called Balboa Island which is all residential ($$$)... then off the other side too a very ritzy mall called fashion island. As we turned up all sweaty and under-dressed a limo pulls up and 'someone' rich, famous or both - made us feel a lot better. Highlight for the day - Frozen Banana!! (dipped in chocolate), Lowlight - Sunburn!

Second day was Disneyland... everything you'd expect and absolutely packed with people. So we missed out on a few rides (a) beacuse of lines, (b) because when we finally got to them they broke down (after we waited in line for 45 minutes). Most rides are aimed at the younger ones anyway so we got to see what we wanted. Also very successfully navigated the local bus system there and home with the help on the Internet which was a great effort - its a pretty safe area... not something we will try in Los Angeles itself. Its a 1 hour trip each way and we managed to pull it off for $6, rather than prob $150 in Taxis. I'm sure there is an accountant joke there.

Off to bed now... we move up the coast to Venice Beach tomorrow and am in the process of organising tickets to the Lakers game tomorrow night.

Get some pictures to you when we can find an internet cafe.
Take care everyone!

p.s. looks like the Blues are tanking already!!

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