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3 March
It was a long day as we had two March 3s. Headed off in good time to the airport then queued for 40 mins to check in! Plane then delayed so no time to dawdle in Auck! Quick flight to LA with tail wind, 11 hours. Blu had a duff TV screen -only managed one movie which was a good one (Sapphires). Entry to the US took ages, then got out to the Alpine Inn in Anaheim, yum pizza for lunch and a wander around, shrimp dinner at Bubba Gumps , crazy fun atmosphere, very American - the entire staff gather round customers who are celebrating birthdays, and chant and clap loudly! Walked round to Disneyland to watch the fireworks display, tired now.
4 March
Disneyland, great day! Did heaps, skipped on the scary rides much to Alister's disgust ha ha but we are getting a bit too old for rough stuff! It was pretty quiet actually- only 29,000 attendance, and so queues were short. We both loved the fun of the Mad Hatters Tea Party ride, and a couple of gems were the Captain EO 4D movie with Michael Jackson, special effects were unreal, And
great moments with Mr Lincoln was more impressive than 34 years ago, with new animatronics. Pirates of the Caribbean still one of the best rides in our opinion! -we did it twice. Very impressed with the organisation and quality of attractions, great place for kids of all ages! Stayed till closing at 8 to watch the parade.
5 March
Trained down to San Diego on the Amtrak Surfliner, there were 4 nice Argentinan ladies of Russian descent next to us who shared their baking and an impromptu Spanish lesson, found Hotel Vyvant in Little Italy, nice room and good location. After a REAL Italian style sub, we walked up to Balboa Park in afternoon. Great park, ornate buildings and lush gardens - visited the Model Railway museum , Blu thought he was in heaven - excellent layouts. Managed to find our way out to Mission Valley to get a new Canon SX 260 camera, before heading back for dinner. Our hotel was situated in the best eating part of town - good cheap pasta and wine everywhere.
6 March
Spent a fantastic day at Sea World, highlights were the 2 main shows, Blue Dolphin and the
Orca Whales, also the dolphin and bat ray encounters, aquariums, Sky Tower, and much more. Went to Old Town on the way home, had a great margarita at one of the bars there, wandered around the old buildings and market, back to Little Italy for great pizza and chianti. Big day!
7 March
Finally, Blu gets to go to San Diego Zoo, one of his dreams! It was just amazing, so many exhibits to see and the habitats, vegetation, layout etc are all really well done. Such a full day, at night we just wandered down the road to the historic Waterfront Bar (was on the waterfront once, not now!) - we had craft beer, buffalo wings and fish tacos - yum. Amazed at how friendly people are here!
8 March
Our first day of rain. Today we explored the city some more, went downtown to the Horton Plaza, then Seaport Village and the Embarcadero, then caught the ferry to Coronado. Heavy rain on arrival, good thing we just bought an umbrella. Visited the famous Hotel del Coronado, which was the set for the movie Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe. Sun came out and
we were able to admire the beautiful stretch of beach looking across to Point Loma. Go Loma! Hotel very grand indeed. Back to SD for dinner on the waterfront, great view, crap food! . Back at our hotel Happy Hour was still going - Hotel Vyvant is small friendly B and B hotel and everyone mixes in at breakfast as well. Packed for VERY early start tomorrow, Mexico here we come!
A couple of observations about our short time in California, unhealthy lifestyles with lots of obese people and youngish people with Zimmer frames, courteous drivers, more foreign languages spoken on the street than English, and very friendly, hospitable people.
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