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.