Anaheim, the home of Mickey Mouse

Left San Diego fairly early in the morning. Drove about 35 minutes North to Carlsbad. Stopped for a few hours at the premium outlet stores- over 90 stores including all the designer names like Banana Republic, Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger etc. Evan, Alex and Lynley did a little retail therapy, I was too busy coughing and fighting this cold. Drove further north to have lunch at Laguna Beach, pretty ritzy place.then it was on to Newport Beach ( could find the turn off), things have changed a great deal since Lynley and I rode bikes around the area 31 years ago. So it was on to Huntington Beach. Parked up and walked the pier, plenty of people. Watched the surfers around the pier. None tried to ride through the pier. The plan from this point was to head to Anaheim and the motel. Well, the GPS had other ideas, it took us all over the place. Basically it had us lost. After 2 hours of driving around in ever increasing circles, we found Katella Ave. Drove up and down East Katella, with the GPS telling us we had arrive at our destination - a small strip mall. Finally found our hotel and checked in. Evan anD Alex headed to Disneyland to see the parade, will we settled in. Around 7 pm we hit Disneyland and so did half the worlds population, the crowd had to be seen to appreciate the weight of people in the park. All the rides like pirates of the Caribbean had over 40 minutes w.aiting time. Al we did was Toads wild ride and it's a small world. The firework show was amazing and we saw Fantasia which was excellent. Finally quite the park around 10 pm, and walked home, coughing all the way. Christmas. The Ameriicans do this so well. Every park we have visited is all geared up for the festive season. Lots of father Christmas houses with Father Christmas in residence. All the music is Christmas carols. The size of the lit Christmas trees is amazing. Last night at Disneyland they even produced snow ( in the form of foam) as part of the Christmas theme. It's a Small World had the full Christmas theme including cold winds blowing. A really amazing experience. Saturday morning it's not quite 8 am and Evan and Alex are off to Disneyland ( it opens at 9 am, closes at 12 midnight), so it is going to be a long day.

Sea World

Headed of to Sea World in time for the 10 am opening, when we arrived everyone was standing to attention presumely because they were playing the " Star Spangled Banner", the US national anthem. Once the music finished, everyone went about their business. Should mention the hotel was full of people coming down to San Diego to witness their son/ daughter passing out from Marine training. The hotel was running shuttles to the event. Back to Sea World, was an interesting day, saw all the live shows we could, like Shamu (Orca), sea lions etc. the exhibits were very good. Saw the penguin enclosure with the handlers feeding them. Didn't realize that penguins are only found in the Southern Hemisphere. Evan brought fish to feed the sea lions and got mugged by a few aggressive birds and had his finger bitten by one of them. Would recommend Sea World, however, be aware that they charge $14 to park your vehicle. Thankfully, the wind storms - Santa Anna winds did not hit us here in San Diego. However, further North cities got hit pretty hard. Just been watching a tv article about a primary school trying to raise $50,000 to pay for a technology upgrade, their network is 13 years old, they have no smart boards, iPads or any form of touch technology. So, they were asking people to vote for them in some national competition. So far they are first. I believe the schools are not getting the funding they require. Local taxes to support education is facing great barriers. I must a Ologise for the spelling or grammar mistakes, I have found it difficult to type on the iPad touch screen, plus with this nasty cold, really can't focus. Today we leave San Diego and drive North to Anaheim for the next 3 days. Then home.

San Diego Zoo

After a good normal breakfast at Howard Johnson Inn, we drove over to Balboa Park to the zoo. The zoo opened at 9am and with Evan and Alex very kean to get there as soon as possible we duly arrived around 9.15. Once in the park we parted company with Evan a Nix Alex. They wanted to do the back stage tour to feed and pet some of the animals ( cost an extra $99 each ). Lynley and I did a 35 minute bus ride around the park, getting a pretty good view of the layout and saw a number of animals. After that we started the tour on foot. It is a great zoo, well layers out and the majority of the animals are very well housed. The highlights - the gorillas, the Californian condors ( they had just been feed, so we got to see them eating, mainly dead rats). One of the people viewing had a dog with him. The dog was just lying on the ground, this attracted the condors as we think that they thought the dog was dead. The majority of the condors rushed up the the glass screen. The day wasn't sunny and warm as we had expected. It was cold, with fog and little sun. Evan and I had worn shorts and t shirts, hence by the end of the day we were frozen.last it out until around 4 pm, then drove back to the hotel, via one or two missed directions, as Lynley miss read the GPS directions. However, in the end we made it back. Hit the showers to warm up. Later Lynley and I went for a walk and gues what we came across a Target and Ross outlet stores, so we did what we should - we shopped. Good prices on clothing. I got a Docker casual shirt for around $10 ( normally retails for around $50) so we consider we got some bargins. We were pretty tired so used room service. The meals are soooo big, it becomes very unenjoyable. So far we haven't been able finish almost any of our meals. Tomorrow we are off to Sea World. Lynley and I are still fighting head colds and coughs. Not much fun. Have found it almost impossible to add photos to this blog when using an iPad, so sorry no photos. Seems like a wind storm is about to hit San Diego today, the " Santa Anna" winds, so they are forecasting strong winds from mid morning onwards. Should be fun driving as the Dodge is a tall vehicle.