California - round 1

The Golden State.

California is instantly cooler. so bizarre that you can notice the difference straight away and not only with the climate but the scenery as well, it turns into farms and palms instead of cactus' and desert.

Our first stop in Cali is Joshua Tree, we get into the park and find the camping grounds and despite having camped in Grand Canyon we are still completely unprepared for the stay and scrounge around for food and we cant even have some of our vodka like we wanted to because we didn't get mixer even though we had every opportunity to.

Cut to the end of the night we take some mushrooms that Jaymee's friend gave us in Colorado and hop in a sleeping bag and lie on the picnic table and watch the stars.

It was Hilarious and beautiful. The stars were insane and we saw about 15 shooting stars combined. 

We didn't have enough shrooms to get completely high but what we did made the what might have been a usual star gazing into a fantastically funny night, making pictures from the stars and getting lost in many conversations , i am actually surprised the other campers didn't come over to complain, we were being way too loud for about 5 hours.

wake up the next day and try to start a hike, we make a quick pitt stop at this Cactus farm that has warnings everywhere as to not go off the path.. so what do we do? go off the path and start to take photos.

We put the setting on HDR and run around the trees. Jaymee is wearing her cowboy boots so she is fine but when she tells me to go running around the trees in my thongs it doesn't go as well.

We take one photo but she isn't happy with it and makes me go back in, running back in i kick a fallen cactus. this is so fucking painful. Jaymee runs over and starts taking photos, i was not impressed, i am on the edge of crying and she documents it. We stupidly try and remove the cactus with our fingers.. this obviously leads to our fingers getting pricked, so then we try and pry it off with rocks and that a) doesn't work and b) is excruciating.

I don't know what to do, i have a cactus digging into my toes and no way to take it off. I send Jam back to the car to get scissors to cut it off so i can at least walk and the cutting off is fine until i see that i have about 15 needles in my foot and i have to pull them out.

each one hurt equally and i go to get the last one out and it is actually underneath my toenail and trying to get that fucker out is horrible, so much so that i actually give up and want to leave it in there to grow out.

This not an idea Jaymee agrees to and we drive to a info centre, they cant do anything because of liability and hand her the pliers. surprisingly it is quick and not half as painful as the other 14 needles i tried to pull out.

I hobble out and as you can imagine i am not too keen on a trek through the desert so we try and find a cool place to take some photos with the Joshua trees and fly Jam's kite.

We end up at this huge rock feature and climb to the top. not easy. We play around for a bit and just as we were leaving i drop part of the kite down the rocks and it takes about 30 mins to get it back, trying not to fall off these huge steep boulders.

Joshua Tree was eventful and now every time i see a Cactus i swear like a sailor.

Forward to Anaheim. 

We get there about 5-6 ish and wait for Jenni, our next surfer to get home from work. 

We meet her and her crazy dog and head over to a lovely Vietnamese dinner, which she paid for before we head back for drinks and a well deserved shower.

We set the alarm early because the next day is going to be a big one in Disney Land.

DisneyLand is huge and we are completely lost just by walking in the gates and for a friday there is a fire truck load of people, we get in a line thinking that this is the way that we have to enter the different areas of the park until a lady tells us that we are in line for Star Tours, a ride that was opening that day and the wait was already 4 hours at 9:30am, having no idea what this was there was no way we were going to wait that long ( later in the day a Disney Worker told us that the ride now had a 7 hour wait.. we asked if she thought the ride was a 7 hour wait and she said it would be a 2 hour wait limit for her but she said it was amazing, we wonder what would make it that good that someone would waste an entire day to see it. 

So we continue forward knowing that day wouldn't be completely shit because of huge lines, half the park is all for Star Tours.

Our first Destination is Adventure Land. This land is the jungle portion. Indiana Jones, Jungle Cruise and because we couldn't be bothered to wait for the rides we go into the Tarzan house. not so thrilling. 

French Quarter was next. I was in New Orleans again and did the one thing that i wanted to do in NO.. go into a haunted mansion. it wasn't scary as much as clever, the technology of the place was amazing, they had ghosts dancing with each other that were holograms.

Forward to Critter Country . this first section is mainly a kids area but we had the time of our lives.

We went on Splash Mountain, our first ride for the day and it was so good. we hopped into a log and got very wet, just after i had straightened my hair.. but not half as wet as the chick who was at the front, she was a teenage emo.. hilarious and of course jame hide behind me so she was was practically dry.

In the line for this ride we saw Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore hanging about and thought we would live out our childhood dreams to get a photo with them. The line wasn't too long and our excitement clouded any impatience we might have had.

Photos done and you couldn't get the smiles off our faces.. it was only the beginning.

Next land was Fantasy and the part i was looking forward to the most. 

The entry was a pink castle that i had seen in so many blogs and photos and now i can take my own.

It had all the best parts, Mad Hatters Tea Party, Snow Whites Story, Sleeping Beauty's Castle, Peter Pans Flying ride, King Arthurs Carrousel, they were all amazing.

After Failing miserably to pull out King Arthurs Sword from the stone we joined the Mad Hatters  line. it was the best, when i think of Disneyland i think of that ride, it was short and sweet but it was another childhood dream to cross off the list.

Mickey's Toontown.

This part was so so good. Rides were for kids but we still enjoyed them.

The Inspector Gaget roller coaster was first up, another short but sweet ride then a quick tour of Mickey Mouse's house and fortunately enough he was home. We wonder around this house that felt like we were in a cartoon, Mickey's Toontown felt like that in general. it was so bizarre. We get to the back of the house and get a photo taken with old school Mickey and head to his girlfriends house.

She made us wait for a bit as girls do but she came back and we got to see her house as well, not as good as mickey's but understandable, right?

Then to Donald Duck's boat- no Donald :  (  a quick visit to Goofy before he left and then to catch the last minute of performance by all the Princess'.

In our haste to get everything done we totally forgot about the Parade that runs through the town so we only catch The Lion King float, Mary Poppins and Peter Pan which was a shame but we got over it when we went to TomorrowLand.

Amazing. We went on Space Mountain.. a ride that made us wait for 60 minutes. This ride is crazy, the entire thing is pitch black like you are in space and its a roller coaster so you are shitting yourself cause you cant see a fucking thing while zipping all over the joint. The wait was worth it.

That was pretty much the extent of DisneyLand itself, we looked around the stores and did a round of penny pressings before we left for California Adventure land.

This is the grown ups rides. 

We make our way around the park, they isn't as many people in this part which is nice, making the lines not as long.

In order we go to the Silly Symphony Swings, California Screamin', walk the pier, think about going to do the Little Mermaid ride that had opened that day but decide to go later, Monstars Inc ride, through the hollywood sets and land on the Twilight Zone tower of Terror. THIS WAS THE BEST. we had no idea what this ride was and i guess it was the perfect way to do it. The fact that we had use seat belts should have been  a dead give away. So we get buckled in and get lifted up this elevator shaft. this screen is talking in front of us and then a countdown begins.. We are dropped down the elevator shaft and if you are not expecting this its really fucking scary. this goes on for a very long time, when we get to the top the windows open and we can see the entire park and just before they drop us a photo is taken.

I have my hand on my heart the entire time as if it was going to fucking come out of my chest i was that scared, At one point jame wanted it to stop completely and just let us down.

It was amazing and if we hadn't made the plan to go back to the other side and do some other rides i think we would have ridden this all night.

We make a quick silly stop in A bugs land and go on the least thrilling ride of the day especially compared to what we just experienced.. we rode the caterpillar from a Bugs life and he was going as fast as an alive caterpillar but his voice was hilarious and the props were pretty cool.

Our plan after this was to go on the Ferris Wheel at sunset, California Screamin' and then see the little Mermaid ride. The mermaid ride line has basically tripled in size.. super annoying, so we have to take the line now or we might miss out. we wait for a really long time, the sunsets and we are not on the Ferris Wheel but we had some really entertaining little girls in front of us that entertained us till it was eventually our turn.

When we got there is wasn't a ride as such.. more like a trip through the story. We hopped into giant Clams and headed in. it was pretty amazing to see what they can do, the 'Under the Sea' song was the best, it felt like you were inside the movie.

5 minutes later and after a probably 90-120 minute wait the ride is over but it was it's first day so we couldn't not see it AND it was the little Mermaid. I love Eric so i had to see him.

Its approaching our 11 hour in the park and we quickly dash over to the Twilight Zone to see if we can fit it in before we head back, the park was freezing now and we only wanted to do one more ride. 

The wait was 50 minutes.. disappointed we leave, the wait was way too long for the temperature it was outside so we head over to Disneyland for the fireworks before we head home.

The Fireworks were set up behind the Fantasy land and it was a pretty good show. Dumbo flew through the air over the castle, as did Tinkerbell while the lights of the castle changed and every movie got a bit of play for the back ground music.

12 hours we spent in that park and had we not been so cold we would have stayed till close. it was definitely a highlight of the trip.

Next day we leave for Nevada- Las Vegas!

We quickly have lunch at the Vietnamese place Jenni took us and when we are pulling out around 1ish - perfect timing for our decent into Vegas a man tells me that our tyre is flat.

fuck. we drive it to the closest auto store.. luckily 1 block away and ask them to fix it for us. Sal's problems did not finish there. We ask them to check the brakes and they are pretty shocked because we are driving a car with no break fluid or break pads. So 5 hours and $440 later we are back on the road to Vegas.

Our high from the day before had vanished and all i wanted  was a hard drink. this fucking car will be the death of me.