Disneyland, etc, etc.

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Well here we are in sunny L.A. We spent the day at Disneyland yesterday and had a wonderful day. We are staying in a hotel which is about a 8 minute walk from Disneyland, which is very convenient, as we spent the day there, went back to the hotel for a rest, a bath to ease my aching feet, some dinner and then walked back to Disneyland for Round Two which included the fantastic fireworks show. Disneyland was really great, and we had a wonderful time, though the queues were just as horrendous as I expected. My biggest, biggest disappointment of our entire trip was awaiting me however, when I discovered that "It's a small world" is closed for Summer 2008. There were two things about Disneyland that I was most looking forward to, that I was remembering from my visit as a 9 yr old in 1976 - one was the Haunted House and the other was "It's a small world". So I was bitterly disappointed about missing out on that. However, the Haunted House was as I remembered it and David, the ghosts still accompany you in your little pods that carry you around the haunted house. The rides that we have been on so far at Disneyland are so clever, and so much work has gone into them. You realise why people come from all over the world to visit these parks, as our own theme parks pale into insignificance in comparison. Despite spending an entire day there (we left at 11.30pm), we still have only seen a fraction of it. We go back for a second day in a couple of days.

Today we visited Knotts Berry Farm and I have to say that it didn't fare well against my memories of it. We were all rather disappointed with it, in fact. The queues once again were terrible. Nathan and I waited for 80 minutes for a ride that lasted less than 5 minutes - much worse than Disneyland. But unless you wanted to go on a lot of very twisty roller coasters, there wasn't much else. The first rollercoaster we went on was awful. Shannan was in tears half way through and got off feeling very green and I spent the ride worrying whether Mum was going to have a heart attack. It was really bad and we didn't really have any warning. Anyway, the day improved considerably when we went for dinner at Medieval Times which was absolutely fantastic. You have a medieval feast - so no cutlery, while being entertained with a medieval show, which included jousting, sword fights etc. It was most entertaining. Nathan thought he would like the job of a knight - riding the horses and playing with swords and jousting sticks and axes etc.

So tomorrow to Universal Studios, then back to Disneyland on Friday and then home. I can't believe our holiday is almost over. We've certainly had a great time.
See you soon,
Fiona

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