3 Days of Disneyland, and we are worn out!

Thats right - 3 straight days of going on rides at Disneyland and California Adventures had taken its toll, and we are all completely worn out.

Yesterday we went into the California Adventure park, which is good, but not as good as the main park. It has a few really good rides, and a lot more of a sideshow feel than the main park. Elijah and Caleb both loved the California Screamin' rollercoaster, and we rode this a couple of times in succession (very similar to the superman roller coaster @ Movie World on the Gold Coast). Later in the day I took a Dodge Durango for a test drive, and will be picking it up on Friday :) More pics will be uploaded this weekend.

This morning we had what is known as a Magic Morning, where we were able to enter the gates of Disneyland 1 hour before it opened to the general public (wahoo), but that meant a 7am at the gates start, but as you get caught up in all the excitement, tiredness soon leaves and is replaced by the general excitement, especially as you get on the rides that make the boys eyes light up. Thankfully we found out about their stroller passes (if you make it here with kids still small enough to take in a pram, these are great!) But you must ask for a stroller pass in your best american accent, as they just look at you blankly when you ask for a pram pass in a standard Aussie accent, apparently they have no idea what a pram is! This allows the kids to go 2 times in quick succession, whilst each parent takes turns to look after the stroller dweller (aka Nyah) without having to wait in line for the second ride. This was fantastic, and we re-rode all the good rides today at the main park using this, so the boys got a lot of rides, and Diabra also got to ride them, rather than just sitting around with the Pram. Nyah fell asleep on her second round of the Pirates of the Carribean ride (she said she enjoyed the first one, despite clinging closely to me for the whole thing!). Thats pretty much it for the past couple of days, so I thought I would waste a few extra lines noting the most obvious things you might need to be aware of / interested in knowing if you come over to the home of the brave - or America!

• Huggies Nappies are NOT the same over here - ours are much better
• Their money is odd - not only does it go down to 1c denominations, but their is virtually no size difference between a lot of their coins, and none with their notes (apart from them all being green), so you have to read everything, it could be a $20 tip you are giving, when you meant $5 - they look identical!
• That brings me to tips - make sure you tip any service oriented staff who do stuff for you - apparently the rate is @ double the tax, or $1 per bag for the bell boy
• Tax!!! - every state has its own tax regime (hard to work out, as it seems to differ depending on the product, but i think it is generally 7.75%) - and all prices advertised are EXCLUDING tax - go figure. So if you see $5.49 - its actually $6
• They seem to be obsessed with the news - almost every channel is news - 20 channels, only 1 or 2 decent shows at any one time - seriously we have more good stuff on our free to air stations than here, and it is all old, stuff we have seen years ago generally - I know, I am as shocked as you are!!
• They dont have full cream milk anywhere (so far), yet everything else is so full of fat and sugar you can only eat half of what you get. Fresh food is a paradox, its all very processed - even the "fresh" stuff, except apples and oranges - they appear normal
• They all say "Your Welcome" to just about everything - its almost like they are programmed to have the same response, its never "no problem", or "no worries" etc. - even little kids
• They truly do worship their armed forces - there is propaganda everywhere commending them on the "great job they do", and how important it is for them to protect their freedom, seaworld even get any members of armed forces to stand and get everyone to applaud them before their main shows!
• Generally most people are nice, but rather ignorant. They all (sweeping generalisation) think that Tasmania is a make believe place made up for the Taz cartoon character. When we tell them that Tasmania is a real place, and Tasmanian Devils really do exist, but dont spin really fast, they are actually truly amazed.

I am sure there are many more things I could write here, but in the interests of getting some sleep before the AM hits, I will hit the sack :) - until next post, bye for now.