Well, we thought we should give you all an update of whats been happening in our lives for the past couple of weeks. We have settled in quite well, and other than a few minor hiccups, things are going relatively smoothly. We have met our neighbours on both sides, and all seem nice. We have also met some neighbours just over the hill who are also really nice people. Brodie who is 10 (lives just over the hill), has made our place his second home after school, hanging out with Elijah playing xbox or swimming in the pool, or chilling in the hot tub which is great. The boys have both got mountain bikes now, so every night we try to take them out for a ride around the neighbourhood, whilst Diabra and I walk Nyah and say G'Day to the neighbours as we go. The neighbourhood was completely demolished 5 years ago in a big bush fire, so all the houses here are brand new and quite large.
We have been out for meals with neighbours and have had neighbours over for meals this past couple of weeks, and have even introduced some of the neighbours to each other (even though they have lived near each other for 1 year or more, it took some strange talking people to introduce them within their first 2 weeks here!). Caleb caught a frog in one of their yards and kept it for a pet for a few days (catching crickets and other insects to feed it until Diabra could not take it any more). We have also seen a few chipmunks in our backyards, but no deer or bears as yet, though apparently there is a deer who lives and walks around our street close-by.
The boys have just started to get into Gymnastics over here, and they are loving it. Caleb is going every Monday night from 6:30pm - 8pm. Elijah's course is pretty full on and goes every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 4:30pm - for 3 hours each night! He is also meant to go Sunday 2pm for 3 hours, but we said no. The gym they are going to can house 150 students at a time, and the coaches are all quite relaxed and easy going. There are obviously high expectations as they have had world gym champions train there, so the equipment is also well laid out, and everyone who is there seems to be quite self motivated to do well, so we are hoping it will rub off onto our young hoodlums.
Indoor Soccer starts next month and Caleb plays alternating Mondays and Tuesdays at 4pm - 5pm, and Elijahs will be Saturday mornings. Season starts in the first week of October, so it will be interesting to see how they hold up, (especially E with so much Gym time).
We have been attending New Life church the past couple of weeks and have met a nice couple who have a baby the same age as Nyah, who we are going out for supper (thats what they call their evening meal) on my birthday. That's right, another year older this week (18th for those who may want to shower gifts in my direction - dont use Canada post as they apparently take 2-3 months to ship via their snail mail system to Australia - sorry Mark, your present may turn up in time for Christmas :( ). Thanks Mum and Dad and Nardene and family for thinking to send cards in advance - I got them today thanks :)
Diabra and I have basically settled into the routine of working / cleaning / homeschooling as we were at home, and having a place to get away to do work at home has been an absolute God-send. There is enough space for us all to be separate, yet close enough to enjoy breaks together. I have had a reasonable amount of success and am on-track with our plan to make work really work well over the time zones.
Now that I have given you all the bits and pieces, I will finish up with a few facts about the place we are in so you can sound that bit more like a local if you make it over here.
There is a new Wal-mart store being built in Westbank (just over the river) that will be the largest single floorspace for any shop in the Okanagan Valley - it will be the equivalent of 5 soccer fields all put together under one roof. Highway 97 is called Harvey Avenue, and most streets are referred to by only their first name, ie if you want to get to Canadian Tire (similar to Mitre 10 with a car servicing section) from downtown, you need to take a left on Harvey and continue until you get to it on your right hand side just past Leckie.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Vancouver and beyond
It has now been a week since we crossed the border, no we didn't get locked away by customs, but it sure did take a while for Mr 11515 to 'process' our immigration papers, or Raoul's to be precise. Apparently it was the most complex he had ever done. The kids and I amused ourselves by making a game of 'beginning with the letter ' whatever'' out of the confiscated items display. After a few (too many) hours we made our way into beautiful Vancouver. We unfortunately could not see it through the heavy rain, but it was nice to be over the border and getting ready for the next bit of the adventure. It has felt a little like treading water this week, we are really ready to be out of hotels and begin cooking and cleaning again! We did manage to go to Stanley Park, which is truly beautiful and very large. We have seen one squirrel (from a great distance), two deer, and signs warning us about feeding raccoons and a recent sighting of bears. The boys have been go-karting, but most of the time we have been doing practical things like getting phones and Raoul organizing business meetings. On Friday we travelled over to Kelowna, about a 5 hour drive. Again it rained, very heavily, but we still saw some big rock faces towering over us which was pretty cool. We also saw a semi-trailer on its side and a SUV with its side window smashed, we think from a rock fall. We are considering encouraging winter visitors to fly straight into Kelowna. Did a drive by the house we have rented over the internet, and heaved a sigh of relief, it looks really nice, and so does the area it is in (soccer field close by, and signs saying "slow down, our kids are playing"). Tomorrow we are visiting a church, which has Elijah excited and Caleb a bit nervous. On Monday we move into the house and real life here begins, Raoul will start work (although it is labor day over here, so he might not be able to get everything done that he wants to), and the rest of us will start schooling again. All in all a strange week for me. I have felt quite homesick, I think it has been the first time I have had much of a chance to think. The rest of the trip felt a bit like survive the day by comparison, this week felt like biding our time until the real part began. Two more sleeps, one more hotel packup, until then, see you later and we miss you heaps.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Seattle
Hi. We are all glad to be close to the end of the driving part of the holiday. We travelled 6+ hours to Medford, swam, ate chinese (massive containers arrived, we could only get through about one quarter of it), slept, drove 5ish hours to Portland, swam, ate not great teryaki, slept, drove, finally reaching Seattle.
Yesterday we went into the city for the day, starting off at the Science centre. We were slightly underwhelmed, as it appeared to be very similar to the Imaginarium back home. After looking at the 'speed' display we went on the dukw. Yes, a tour that drives you around Seattle and then takes to the water, in an army dukw (the model number of the craft we were in). A real hit with the boys. The tour guide was very noisy and funny (added in by E), playing loud music and changing gag hats to suit his jokes. The boys thought it was great. Oh, I forgot to mention that they sold quacking toys to many (MANY!!) of the kids on the tour. So as we quacked, sang, and generally yelled our way around Seattle, Nyah slept and we learnt a little of the history of the place. The city centre is constructed of non flammible materials after the fire of 1889, apparently even the water pipes were made of timber before then, and as such is very dense looking. It is also extensively tree'd, so quite pretty. They have a policy where 1% of all building costs must be spent on public art, so there is lots of art. One of the funnier sculptures in a rock (a la natural), and 10 foot away is a sculpture of the rock. That was at one of the new millions of dollars baseball stadiums, and probably cost 100's of thousands of dollars. Another one was of 6 figures and a dog, waiting for a now non-existant train. The sculpture had so much trouble with a local politician, that he put the politicians face on the dog. Once on the water we enjoyed looking at all the house boats and homes on water. They only allow 500 homes on water, and they are really plush. Our guide pointed out the apartment and home used in Sleepless in Seattle. Caleb's favourite thing was all the water planes flying and landing near us (apparently Lake Union is the only officially recognised water airport in the world). Seattle is beautiful from the water, much more like I imagined it, rather than where we are staying, highwayed suburbia (a little note telling us about the dangers of the are tucked in to the hotels compendium). After the tour we went back (reluctantly) to the science centre. We watched an Imax movie on the local Mt St Helen, which erupted in 1980. Elijah just wants to see lava, but alas, like NZ's mud pooles, there was only dust and ashes. It was really interesting. Finally we discovered the rest of the centre, and had a great time. We made patterns, looked at dinosours, enjoyed the northern hemispheres stars at the planeterium (with a short look at the southern hemisphere at our request - most people did not know about the southern cross, as they cant see it - they only see "the North Star"), played in the tiny tots area (Nyah can now slide all by herself and climb up stairs quite easily - getting down stairs is another matter!) and went in the butterfly room. Heaps of fun. We finished the day with a quick drive past Microsoft, for inspiration :-) Today we are driving to Canada, only a 3 hour drive (we think). We are staying in Vancouver for the next week, before heading to Kelowna next weekend. Seattle is definately on our list to explore more on the way home.
Yesterday we went into the city for the day, starting off at the Science centre. We were slightly underwhelmed, as it appeared to be very similar to the Imaginarium back home. After looking at the 'speed' display we went on the dukw. Yes, a tour that drives you around Seattle and then takes to the water, in an army dukw (the model number of the craft we were in). A real hit with the boys. The tour guide was very noisy and funny (added in by E), playing loud music and changing gag hats to suit his jokes. The boys thought it was great. Oh, I forgot to mention that they sold quacking toys to many (MANY!!) of the kids on the tour. So as we quacked, sang, and generally yelled our way around Seattle, Nyah slept and we learnt a little of the history of the place. The city centre is constructed of non flammible materials after the fire of 1889, apparently even the water pipes were made of timber before then, and as such is very dense looking. It is also extensively tree'd, so quite pretty. They have a policy where 1% of all building costs must be spent on public art, so there is lots of art. One of the funnier sculptures in a rock (a la natural), and 10 foot away is a sculpture of the rock. That was at one of the new millions of dollars baseball stadiums, and probably cost 100's of thousands of dollars. Another one was of 6 figures and a dog, waiting for a now non-existant train. The sculpture had so much trouble with a local politician, that he put the politicians face on the dog. Once on the water we enjoyed looking at all the house boats and homes on water. They only allow 500 homes on water, and they are really plush. Our guide pointed out the apartment and home used in Sleepless in Seattle. Caleb's favourite thing was all the water planes flying and landing near us (apparently Lake Union is the only officially recognised water airport in the world). Seattle is beautiful from the water, much more like I imagined it, rather than where we are staying, highwayed suburbia (a little note telling us about the dangers of the are tucked in to the hotels compendium). After the tour we went back (reluctantly) to the science centre. We watched an Imax movie on the local Mt St Helen, which erupted in 1980. Elijah just wants to see lava, but alas, like NZ's mud pooles, there was only dust and ashes. It was really interesting. Finally we discovered the rest of the centre, and had a great time. We made patterns, looked at dinosours, enjoyed the northern hemispheres stars at the planeterium (with a short look at the southern hemisphere at our request - most people did not know about the southern cross, as they cant see it - they only see "the North Star"), played in the tiny tots area (Nyah can now slide all by herself and climb up stairs quite easily - getting down stairs is another matter!) and went in the butterfly room. Heaps of fun. We finished the day with a quick drive past Microsoft, for inspiration :-) Today we are driving to Canada, only a 3 hour drive (we think). We are staying in Vancouver for the next week, before heading to Kelowna next weekend. Seattle is definately on our list to explore more on the way home.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
San Francisco
Well, I thought I should give you a quick update on where we have been / what we are doing. After leaving Disneyland, we headed North via the I1 highway (up the coast). We stopped at Santa Monica Pier for lunch, then proceeded up the coast, going through Malibu, up through Santa Barbara, and ending up at Lompoc for the night. The coastline is absolutely stunning, with lots of cliffs, beaches and RV parks. We spent approximately 5 minutes looking around Lompoc, and came to the conclusion that there is not a lot there, and appears to be a military accommodation city, as all the houses literally are the same - with 2 different shades of beige as a choice of exterior colour (Vandenburg Air Force base is a few minutes North). We found out afterwards that there is also a large "Mens Colony" (we refer to them as prisons!) there. After a night at Lompoc, we headed up to San Francisco. We got in @ 6pm and easily found our accommodation near Stinson beach after driving over the Golden Gate bridge. After a quick dinner at a nearby restaurant, we hit the sack ready for a big day the next day.
That brings us to today - we started out by heading into Fishermans Wharf via the Ferry. It was a foggy morning, but cleared after lunch time. Fishermans wharf was fantastic, and after watching a street performer, we headed to a cafe for a seafood lunch, which was unbelievably fantastic. Overlooking the 300 odd sea lions who gather a pier 39, with Alcatraz in the background eating clam chowder was slightly surreal, but a lot of fun - it was probably the first meal Nyah was entertained (by the sea lions) enough to stay in her high chair the whole of lunch time. After lunch we took a 2.5 hour guided trolley tour, which was fantastic. The tour guide was an old dude, who was a Russian immigrant with a thick accent. When he introduced himself as Igor, we had to laugh, as he looked and sounded like an Igor, even before he told us his name. He had obviously been there a long time, and gave us a lot of cool info about the places we visited, and apparently we hit on one of the few days where you could see the whole of the Golden Gate bridge (apparently 80-85 days a year is all the blue sky they get). We then headed back to the ferry, and back to our hotel for the night, and the boys had an obligatory swim in the pool, even though today has been the coldest day so far (we had to buy jackets at the wharf it was so cold).
All in all, we LOVE San Francisco - the atmosphere, the scenery, the history, everything here we have experienced would put San Francisco into the "most desirable place to live in California" category (despite its 800 earth tremors every year). Almost every house has a view (and no yard), very low crime rate, beautiful properties (which are apparently among the most expensive in the world, with small 1 bedroom properties > $1 Million, and small 3 br terrace houses >$4 Million. If we had to pick a place to live over here - San Francisco would be it (if we could afford it!). If you only had a few days in California, I would fly into San Francisco rather than LA any day of the week.
Tommorrow we head to Medford via the Napa Valley, then to Portland and Seattle for 2 days before getting into Vancouver on the 23rd. Until we get our next post done, we hope you are enjoying reading about our adventures, and look forward to receiving any comments / emails etc asking anything (in case we forget stuff) and letting us know what you guys are doing back at home. We are all missing everyone back at home, and look forward to hearing from you as well.
That brings us to today - we started out by heading into Fishermans Wharf via the Ferry. It was a foggy morning, but cleared after lunch time. Fishermans wharf was fantastic, and after watching a street performer, we headed to a cafe for a seafood lunch, which was unbelievably fantastic. Overlooking the 300 odd sea lions who gather a pier 39, with Alcatraz in the background eating clam chowder was slightly surreal, but a lot of fun - it was probably the first meal Nyah was entertained (by the sea lions) enough to stay in her high chair the whole of lunch time. After lunch we took a 2.5 hour guided trolley tour, which was fantastic. The tour guide was an old dude, who was a Russian immigrant with a thick accent. When he introduced himself as Igor, we had to laugh, as he looked and sounded like an Igor, even before he told us his name. He had obviously been there a long time, and gave us a lot of cool info about the places we visited, and apparently we hit on one of the few days where you could see the whole of the Golden Gate bridge (apparently 80-85 days a year is all the blue sky they get). We then headed back to the ferry, and back to our hotel for the night, and the boys had an obligatory swim in the pool, even though today has been the coldest day so far (we had to buy jackets at the wharf it was so cold).
All in all, we LOVE San Francisco - the atmosphere, the scenery, the history, everything here we have experienced would put San Francisco into the "most desirable place to live in California" category (despite its 800 earth tremors every year). Almost every house has a view (and no yard), very low crime rate, beautiful properties (which are apparently among the most expensive in the world, with small 1 bedroom properties > $1 Million, and small 3 br terrace houses >$4 Million. If we had to pick a place to live over here - San Francisco would be it (if we could afford it!). If you only had a few days in California, I would fly into San Francisco rather than LA any day of the week.
Tommorrow we head to Medford via the Napa Valley, then to Portland and Seattle for 2 days before getting into Vancouver on the 23rd. Until we get our next post done, we hope you are enjoying reading about our adventures, and look forward to receiving any comments / emails etc asking anything (in case we forget stuff) and letting us know what you guys are doing back at home. We are all missing everyone back at home, and look forward to hearing from you as well.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
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!
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.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Disneyland, the happiest place on Earth
Tuesday
We have travelled up from Carlsbad (much easier than the trip down) and arrived at the Disneyland Hotel. Raoul and Caleb returned the rental car and had a look around the local caryards. The rest of us chilled at the hotel, unpacking, getting ready for the next 5 days here. It's really nice to be in the one spot for a little while. Disneyland here we come!
Wednesday
What a big day. Left the hotel at 6:50am and got back in at 11:30pm. In my personal journal I was going to write about how I was feeling, but I haven't bothered too much, as the main feeling would be summed up in the word stuffed. Fabulous day. We used a pre-bought computer program that organises your day to be the most effficient use of your time on rides. It worked, the boys had completed 5 big rides by 10 o'clock. I think the favourite ride would be space mountain. The outstanding moment for me would have to be the fireworks, so pretty, and many I haven't ever seen before. Exploding stars, with sparkly centres, wriggling lights, and massive shimmery balls. We have met some nice people while waiting for rides/shows. Phil and Sue in Legoland, generously sharing food with Nyah, while much waiting, and last night Chris, Lisa and Sawyer. They are from San Diego, so we were able to give them our Zoo pass we were not able to use. A little later another couple gave us their fast passes to Space Mountain, so we finished the night with a real buzz. It made me feel 18 again. Thusday we are going to have an easy morning, and then off to California Adventure.
We have travelled up from Carlsbad (much easier than the trip down) and arrived at the Disneyland Hotel. Raoul and Caleb returned the rental car and had a look around the local caryards. The rest of us chilled at the hotel, unpacking, getting ready for the next 5 days here. It's really nice to be in the one spot for a little while. Disneyland here we come!
Wednesday
What a big day. Left the hotel at 6:50am and got back in at 11:30pm. In my personal journal I was going to write about how I was feeling, but I haven't bothered too much, as the main feeling would be summed up in the word stuffed. Fabulous day. We used a pre-bought computer program that organises your day to be the most effficient use of your time on rides. It worked, the boys had completed 5 big rides by 10 o'clock. I think the favourite ride would be space mountain. The outstanding moment for me would have to be the fireworks, so pretty, and many I haven't ever seen before. Exploding stars, with sparkly centres, wriggling lights, and massive shimmery balls. We have met some nice people while waiting for rides/shows. Phil and Sue in Legoland, generously sharing food with Nyah, while much waiting, and last night Chris, Lisa and Sawyer. They are from San Diego, so we were able to give them our Zoo pass we were not able to use. A little later another couple gave us their fast passes to Space Mountain, so we finished the night with a real buzz. It made me feel 18 again. Thusday we are going to have an easy morning, and then off to California Adventure.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Last Night in San Diego
Well Carlsbad actually - about 30 mins North of San Diego. Where did I get to from the last blog?...thats right Wednesday night - just before Universal Studios. Before I get into that - just a note to say we have uploaded a whole heap more photos (probably 70-80 total) so if you want to see the latest ones, just scroll through manually or visit http://picasaweb.google.com.au/diabraa/SydneyAndAuckland2008072820080801 - I promise I will associate the pics with their locations when I get a few spare minutes :)
Thursday and we took the shuttle to Universal Studios. I would highly recommend staying at the Sheraton or Hilton if you are going to Universal Studios, as the free shuttle (which is a 5 min ride, if that!) would save you so much in time and money that you would have to spend staying anywhere further away. Anyway, every review and person we spoke to who had ever been to Universal says get the $139 front of line pass (per person) and you can get through it all without waiting in obscenely long lines. Well, given we have 2 days for the price of one (a special we found online at their website) I figured that we would just cruise around, ride what we could and save the passes for the second day (yet to be enjoyed). Well, we were incredibly blessed with the longest wait in any line being only @ 20 mins, so we got through every ride (a couple twice) and a show where I (Raoul) got the opportunity to be part of the show, albeit rather poorly and I ended up being killed, but was heaps of fun. Started at the Simpsons and just went around all the ones with the shortest wait (they have an electronic board that updates regularly telling you what wait times are at which line). Obviously something else was on somewhere else that day, as a lot of rides were only 5 - 10 mins wait. All in all - we all loved it completely. Shuttled back to the hotel, and finally fell asleep again in the early hours - damn these time zones!!!
Friday rocks up and we are heading to San Diego. First things first, headed in a taxi to pickup our rental car. Talk about induction by fire to driving in LA!!! After having a friendly discussion with the manager of Hertz about what is classified as a large car, he upgraded me to a Subaru Forester, which apparently is larger than what they classify as a large car. In the land where everything is on a massive scale (Walked around car yards tonight, and most of the utes I would need a ladder to get into the cockpit of!!) this absolutely astounded me, so tip for travellers hiring a car, do NOT go by their descriptions of the car, and unless you are happy with something with a boot that is lucky to hold more than 2 large suitcases, go the SUV option!! Enough said. The traffic here is actually not that bad, when you get onto the freeway. The hardest thing to get used to is what side of the road you should be getting onto as you turn corners. That and their turn right on red rule, which nearly got me a couple of times! On the freeway you basically do quick headcheck, indicate, turn at the same time, close your eyes and hope you hit nothing - well thats how the locals appear to do it (minus the closing eyes bit). If someone honks when you indicate and start turning, stay in your lane. After a few wrong turns and getting used to the way things are signed, and the way the GPS tells you where to go, we finally made it onto the I5 (I wont mention our goal was to get onto the I101), which ended up being exactly where we needed to be, as the I101 bypasses Carlsbad, which would have meant a trip to San Diego, then turn back to Carlsbad, unless there was a turnoff somewhere. Anyway, staying at the Holiday Inn and it has been really good, nice atmosphere, almost perfect weather, near the sea, warm, but not sweltering. RVers (motorhomes to us Aussies) heaven apparently, as there are literally thousands of them just shacked up on any little road that goes toward the water. On the way we accidentally drove into a huge discount clothing outlet area (the Citadel near Santa Ana for those who might want to visit - super cheap, and all good brands like osh kosh, billabong, CK, etc @ 50 - 80% discounted prices) whilst looking for some lunch and a toilet stop. We ran into a family from the UK with 2 boys there who we had just met 2 days prior on our tour of the stars homes - what are the chances!! When we finally made it to Carlsbad we went out for a meal, and once again, tried to get to sleep, but succeeded in the early hours of the next morning.
Saturday we drove down to Seaworld, which we managed to find without the aid of the GPS!!! It was quite good, but honestly, was a bit hard to navigate around, and only 2 rides, one of which the line was so long that we didnt even bother trying. We went to a couple of their shows and looked around a bit. We thought it would settle down of the evening (its open until 11pm with fireworks @ 9:50pm) but it just got livelier, and harder to see anything, so we decided to head back @ 8pm. It was good, but honestly, the one in Aussie is better, esp. for kids. We headed back, and D and the boys went for a late night swim, whilst I restrained Nyah from trying to join them in her PJ's. Luckily her jumping action is not quite accurate, and she doesnt like the bubbles of the hot tubs, so I kept her near there as much as possible.
That brings us to today - LEGOLAND!!! Wahoo - talk about a great day, perfect weather, not too many people there (comparatively) and fairly short waits for the rides. The boys both got to perform a small part in a play, and Elijah and I had the chance to play with some of the robotic lego stuff - tres cool! We got to experience pretty much everything there, except the skyride, which broke down whilst we were waiting in line for it - bummer. Pretty much everything else went well and once again, staying close by with free shuttle saved many $$ on fuel and parking. Well, its 11:45pm now, so in the interests of trying to get into sync with the time zone, I will sign off, and post again in a few days. Tomorrow we head northward to Disneyland, where we will be staying for 5 days. Feel free to comment or ask questions in this blog, as I am sure to have missed stuff out somewhere along the line :)
Thursday and we took the shuttle to Universal Studios. I would highly recommend staying at the Sheraton or Hilton if you are going to Universal Studios, as the free shuttle (which is a 5 min ride, if that!) would save you so much in time and money that you would have to spend staying anywhere further away. Anyway, every review and person we spoke to who had ever been to Universal says get the $139 front of line pass (per person) and you can get through it all without waiting in obscenely long lines. Well, given we have 2 days for the price of one (a special we found online at their website) I figured that we would just cruise around, ride what we could and save the passes for the second day (yet to be enjoyed). Well, we were incredibly blessed with the longest wait in any line being only @ 20 mins, so we got through every ride (a couple twice) and a show where I (Raoul) got the opportunity to be part of the show, albeit rather poorly and I ended up being killed, but was heaps of fun. Started at the Simpsons and just went around all the ones with the shortest wait (they have an electronic board that updates regularly telling you what wait times are at which line). Obviously something else was on somewhere else that day, as a lot of rides were only 5 - 10 mins wait. All in all - we all loved it completely. Shuttled back to the hotel, and finally fell asleep again in the early hours - damn these time zones!!!
Friday rocks up and we are heading to San Diego. First things first, headed in a taxi to pickup our rental car. Talk about induction by fire to driving in LA!!! After having a friendly discussion with the manager of Hertz about what is classified as a large car, he upgraded me to a Subaru Forester, which apparently is larger than what they classify as a large car. In the land where everything is on a massive scale (Walked around car yards tonight, and most of the utes I would need a ladder to get into the cockpit of!!) this absolutely astounded me, so tip for travellers hiring a car, do NOT go by their descriptions of the car, and unless you are happy with something with a boot that is lucky to hold more than 2 large suitcases, go the SUV option!! Enough said. The traffic here is actually not that bad, when you get onto the freeway. The hardest thing to get used to is what side of the road you should be getting onto as you turn corners. That and their turn right on red rule, which nearly got me a couple of times! On the freeway you basically do quick headcheck, indicate, turn at the same time, close your eyes and hope you hit nothing - well thats how the locals appear to do it (minus the closing eyes bit). If someone honks when you indicate and start turning, stay in your lane. After a few wrong turns and getting used to the way things are signed, and the way the GPS tells you where to go, we finally made it onto the I5 (I wont mention our goal was to get onto the I101), which ended up being exactly where we needed to be, as the I101 bypasses Carlsbad, which would have meant a trip to San Diego, then turn back to Carlsbad, unless there was a turnoff somewhere. Anyway, staying at the Holiday Inn and it has been really good, nice atmosphere, almost perfect weather, near the sea, warm, but not sweltering. RVers (motorhomes to us Aussies) heaven apparently, as there are literally thousands of them just shacked up on any little road that goes toward the water. On the way we accidentally drove into a huge discount clothing outlet area (the Citadel near Santa Ana for those who might want to visit - super cheap, and all good brands like osh kosh, billabong, CK, etc @ 50 - 80% discounted prices) whilst looking for some lunch and a toilet stop. We ran into a family from the UK with 2 boys there who we had just met 2 days prior on our tour of the stars homes - what are the chances!! When we finally made it to Carlsbad we went out for a meal, and once again, tried to get to sleep, but succeeded in the early hours of the next morning.
Saturday we drove down to Seaworld, which we managed to find without the aid of the GPS!!! It was quite good, but honestly, was a bit hard to navigate around, and only 2 rides, one of which the line was so long that we didnt even bother trying. We went to a couple of their shows and looked around a bit. We thought it would settle down of the evening (its open until 11pm with fireworks @ 9:50pm) but it just got livelier, and harder to see anything, so we decided to head back @ 8pm. It was good, but honestly, the one in Aussie is better, esp. for kids. We headed back, and D and the boys went for a late night swim, whilst I restrained Nyah from trying to join them in her PJ's. Luckily her jumping action is not quite accurate, and she doesnt like the bubbles of the hot tubs, so I kept her near there as much as possible.
That brings us to today - LEGOLAND!!! Wahoo - talk about a great day, perfect weather, not too many people there (comparatively) and fairly short waits for the rides. The boys both got to perform a small part in a play, and Elijah and I had the chance to play with some of the robotic lego stuff - tres cool! We got to experience pretty much everything there, except the skyride, which broke down whilst we were waiting in line for it - bummer. Pretty much everything else went well and once again, staying close by with free shuttle saved many $$ on fuel and parking. Well, its 11:45pm now, so in the interests of trying to get into sync with the time zone, I will sign off, and post again in a few days. Tomorrow we head northward to Disneyland, where we will be staying for 5 days. Feel free to comment or ask questions in this blog, as I am sure to have missed stuff out somewhere along the line :)
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