Day 15: Bye Bye Vegas

Some pictures from a night in Vegas... The pics seem to be able to load now which is good sign as no doubt there will be plenty of Disney ones to put up!

At the Venetian with some lovely decorations behind

Casino's go all out with decorations and look gorgeous!!

This is a display which was at Aria.

Now on to today...

After packing up our Las Vegas room we managed to leave at a reasonable hour considering the packing up we had to do. First stop was the famous 'Welcome to Las Vegas' sign. We took a few pictures (including with the the 'boys', that is Mr Mick and Goofball). Dad and Daniel also admired a Nascar that was under the sign (we think there was a parade or something on) and a Ferrari in the parking lot.

Our next stop was at Primm which is not far out of Vegas. There are outlets there (surprise surprise i bet your thinking!) and last trip we all thought that these were the best ones. You be glad to know that again we were certainly not disappointed!! We really didn't think that we would buy all that much there, but little were we to know that many of the stores had specials that none of the other outlets have had *yippeee*. Tommy Hilfiger was rampaged by Dad and Daniel, but mostly Daniel of all people. As Mum said he was like a dog let off a chain. He found numerous things there and other places as did Dad. Mum and I were not left out with Gap being out desired choice along with Fossil.  Prices are literally ridiculous and this was especially evident at Primm. With aching feet and arms after 4 hours it was time to fit our purchases into the already pretty full car. Dad threatened Goof and Mr Mick that they would be put on the roof racks which I was not too impressed with and as a result Goofy got up to some mischief!

Goody raided the Glove box...

and went swinging on the steering wheel when Mum and I were bored and needed to amuse ourselves for a few minutes while the boys were looking at a golf course.

After our shopping expedition it was time for the 5ish hour drive to Anaheim. Just because we hadn't done enough shopping already *haha* we stopped off again at the Barstow outlets as Daniel wanted to look in a shop there. A 'quick look' that was really only intended for one store turned into a little longer! Again we got a couple more little things and luckily Daniel got what we went for. By this time it was 5.30pm and with another couple of hours of driving left to Anaheim we ate dinner before venturing off. What I love about being away is that you don't have to run time. We initially intended to be at Anaheim around 3pm if not earlier but of course that didn't happen, but it didn't matter at all!

After a stop at Target in Anaheim *necessity shopping* we checked into our accommodation. We had a big sort out and a look at what we bought which brings us to now.. We are all tucked up in bed either already sleeping, researching, writing a travel journal or writing this. We've got a big few days ahead of us with our first day at Disneyland tomorrow. I cannot wait and I am so excited to see it all experience the magic all over again! Shivers ran down my spine when we heard the fireworks while driving past it tonight. It is yet to sink in that I'm actually going back. The place holds so may happy memories that are still vivid in my mind and feel like they happened yesterday. No doubt over the next few days there will be many more!

Day 14: Last day of Vegas

Finally, a few pics have decided to load so here is a small selection from the Grand Canyon and Vegas. Still a few more I'd like to put up but these will do for now.

A view of the Grand Canyon

The Elk at the Grand Canyon

The Paris Casino from the Bellagio Fountain lake.

Today is our last day in Vegas and with a list as long as our arm of things we wanted to do today we knew we would be pushing it! We set off at a reasonable time and went to look at a few shops at then the outlet shops at the opposite end of the strips from yesterday. We spent quite a while there before Mum and I went to visit a scrapbooking shop. Unfortunately it was a bit disappointing with nothing new we hadn't seen before, with my place of work probably contributing that.

With the hours going fast, we quickly went back to our room. Mum and I got ready to walk down the strip to look at the shops while the boys stayed back and had a rest. Not wanting to waste any time, Mum and I had lots of fun looking at the souvenir shops and a casino or two we hadn't looked in yet. Between this trip and the last we have been in nearly every casino, or at least the main ones! We met up with the boys later on and headed into the Venetian in search of dinner. The Venetian is gorgeous inside and out with a real looking sky lining a canal that does Gondala rides through a part of the casino. We found a lovely little Italian restaurant for dinner and had our best meal yet. The pizza was delicious and the boys raved about it!

After booking tickets earlier in the morning it was next time for what I had been looking forward to all day today... The Cirque du Soleil show Mystere and Treasure Island. I had anticipated that it would be good but just how good I had no idea! Incredible doesn't begin to describe it, with the attention to detail and performances being outstanding and inspiring. I have always loved circus and acrobatics and to finally see a Cirque du Soleil show that I remember was amazing. I absolutely loved it to say the least and cannot wait to see another show one day. Even Dad and Daniel loved it too, especially one performer who gave a humorous rude gesture, all in good fun which Daniel has been honing his skills of all night!

Leaving Vegas last time we didn't really like it but this time I feel totally different. I feel like we have seen Vegas for what it really is aside from the casino part of it. The casinos on the strip are ridiculous and nothing is too far fetched. If you take a moment to look around you, the architecture of the buildings is beautiful. I really did love Vegas this time around and would love to come back one day to experience it all again!

We leave Nevada tomorrow to go back to California, in particular Anaheim which is where Disneyland is. Anaheim will become our home for the next five days while we have a ball at Disneyland and Seaworld in San Diego. We are two weeks into our trip now with one week to go. The days fly by, but overall it feels as if we have been away for a very long time. 

Day 13: Vegas time!

Sorry, pictures still not loading tonight! Will have to do a picture blog of the past few days once we move onto our next accommodation.

Today was a the Vegas shopping day. We set off first to one of a few outlet centres in Vegas. We only got a couple of things and the shops are beginning to get a bit repetitive, although there are a few different things around. We went to a few more shopping places and to a shop that sold cheap OPI nail polish. I'd be lying if I didn't say a little bit of damage done, but its hard to resist as a quarter of the price of what we pay at home!!

Later today Mum cooked us dinner in the room before we again went down to the strip. We went into some casino's we haven't been in and especially liked New York New York. It had a little strip of shops that mimicked a New York street and was very quirky.

We are a bit sick of the smoke that is everywhere here and often if you walk along one of the footbridges there are groups of people smoking drugs which you get a waft of when you walk past. Some parts of Vegas are very appealing and others not so much, this being one of them! As I said tonight, you can basically do whatever you want, whenever and wherever you want to do it! I've never experienced anything quite like it and I am enjoying it much more than last time.

We've had a lot of laughs over the past few days a few of which I am allowed to share..

To start off, we'll go with Dad!
In an outlet shop a little while ago, a Japanese woman came up to Dad holding a jumper up to his back as he was 'a similar size to her husband'. If that wasn't enough he was then asked to try the jumper on before they asked him his opinion of which one he liked. The three of us were in fits but that was just the start!!
Multiple places we have been including most recently the Grand Canyon Dad has been singled out and asked by people to take a photo of them. It has happened quite a few times now and we have joked that he needs a shirt that has helper written on it!

Mum is another story...
While at Laguna Seca racetrack a while back the boys and I were in the souvenir shop when Mum came in briefly. She then departed back to the car to come back in a few minutes later and tell us the car was locked. Dad thought it was a bit strange but gave her the keys to the car. It actually turns out that the exact same car that we have in black was parked next to our grey one. She had in fact been trying to open the door of that car instead of ours.
She is also well known for her lack of direction. Most recently at one of the places we stayed at Mum was out of the room and was trying to find her way back to our room. She thought she had the right floor and room number so was knocking on the door, but no one answered. I wonder why when she was on the floor above us!! We all found this very amusing! Even more funny after the floor above didn't answer she had to go down to the foyer to check with Dad what the actual room number was.
At the Grand Canyon the layout of the accommodation was a bit confusing but she managed to get herself lost at EVERY turn, much to our amusement and again just yesterday she showed her fine form! We had come back to our resort in Vegas and had gone up the lift and she said in a smart tone that she knew where the room was so we all thought we'd let her show the way. Out of the lift she confidently went left while Dad went the correct way right. She again had the wrong room number and wrong direction. I was in fits of laughter as well as the boys.

I'm typing this quite late so I better be off to sleep before another day of Vegas fun tomorrow!

Day 11 and 12: The Canyon and Vegas

I decided to do a combined post for the past few days as Day 11 was basically a very long drive to the Grand Canyon. When I say long, I mean about 7 hours of driving, not including breaks. That day we were actually in three states! We started in California before travelling through Nevada and we ended up in Arizona. We checked into our very nice accommodation that night and after being indecisive and going for a drive, we decided to eat at our huge accommodation place. The weather was certainly a shock to our system. It was bitterly cold and lets just say I was worried about how cold it was going to get! By bed time, the outside temperature was in the negatives at about -2 degrees celsius if I remember correctly. It was expected to get to -8 overnight!!!

Now onto Day 12...

I awoke this morning being presented by Dad, with a can of pepsi that had been sitting in the boot of the car overnight. It was frosty and even colder than the bottles of water and cans that were in our fridge! Just crazy really!!

After leaving our accommodation we set off for the Grand Canyon. Mum and I had absolutely no idea what to expect or what we thought we might see. When we first hopped into the car it was again freezing cold. Touching anything in the car was a bad idea and the heater took an extra long while to heat up. My beanie that we got in San Fran came in very handy to keep my ears and head warm and toasty!

My first glimpse of the Canyon was something that will remain vivid in my mind for a long time to come. A huge expanse of earthy colours in every shade you can imagine. It was simply breathtaking. No amount of photos will ever do it any justice, you simply have to see it to believe it. Not too far up the road my jaw dropped to the ground for a second time. We were driving along and out of no where two Elks (or what we think were Elks) leaped across the road in front of us. Luckily Dad had a very quick reaction time and no damage occurred to either party!

Family photo at the Canyon.. Good old camera timer!

We continued along exploring the different spots to take pictures and the lookouts along the side of road for a few more hours. At what I think was our last lookout spot, we were driving out of the carpark and Mum saw another Elk on the side of the road. Mum and I leapt out of the car, cameras in hand and walked in amazement to view the creature from a closer distance. We literally got to about a metre away from it. It was extremely tame and absolutely gorgeous!

Throughout the day we saw many squirrels and have now seen a countless number on the trip. They are very cute and extremely quick, so to get a picture you have to be quick or them not realise that you are there.

Mr Mick and Goofball also got up to some mischief today! Often thanks to Daniel, Goofy can be found doing various naughty things, especially when I am not around. The two of them keep us entertained in the car, but today they also got to see the sights of the Grand Canyon as you'll see in the pics. We just couldn't resist getting them out of the car for some photos opportunities!

After the Canyon we headed off on a 5ish hour drive to Las Vegas. Mum and I napped for some of the way and we could all feel the effects of coming down from being in a much higher altitude! After getting here, we checked in to our home to be for the next three nights and soon after headed off on a walk down the strip for  sightseeing and dinner. I thought I remembered what Vegas was like, but after seeing and experiencing it again I  was completely mistaken!

I got my first stomach attack in Vegas after going to Maccas and it was a surreal feeling walking past the exact area where I remember being at the time! So much has happened and changed since then in my life and I metaphorically deposited my current stomach to the spot and hopefully changed it for a new one!...... It was worth a try anyway!!

We are all settled in for the night and it is Time for sleep now, more Vegas fun to come tomorrow!!

(Sorry only one pic would work tonight! Mum and I took heaps between us, but they are taking FOREVER to load, I will try again tomorrow night!!)

Day 10: The stopover on the way to the Canyon

Not all that much happened today.
We got up quite early to leave San Fran early before heading to Barstow, a stopover for the night on the way to the Grand Canyon. Before leaving we drove down Lombard street (The crookedest street). It was very pretty, although very steep as San Fran mostly is!

Lombard Street

View from a San Fran hill over the water

The new additions to the family also got up to some mischief in the car. Mum quickly christened them the Bobbsey Twins and they have the nicknames of 'Goofball' or "Goof" and 'Mr Mick'. Mum and I had to keep ourselves entertained somehow on the lonnnnggggg drive and making them do silly things and taking photos caused many laughs and even Daniel and Dad got involved too!

Just hanging around!

Driving time..

Upside down!

After stopping off at a Walmart and Maccas earlier for brekky, we again stopped for lunch. It just so happened that there was also a Michaels there! OHOH!! Mum and I did more damage and we now need to be banned from the shop!! Also we need to order a semi or a whole 737 to ourselves to get home! Stuff is just so cheap that you can't resist it.

We continued driving onto Barstow where we saw the sunset in a another beautiful sunset. The weather has been so nice the past few days and tonight we had rainbow coloured clouds. We checked into our room and headed off to the outlets that are here and dinner. What a surprise, more purchases were made!! Daniel was the biggest spender of today. Im not far off being over my original budget and I haven't even been to Vegas or Disneyland yet... Ooops!!

Huge windmill farm we saw on the drive

Got another long drive to get from here to the Grand Canyon tomorrow. We are expecting it to be in the negatives weather wise over night there which should prove interesting! Luckily for me, I've purchased a beanie and polar fleece top and bottom pyjamas!

Day 9: Black Friday

Not having as much time to do a blog as I'd like. We often get back to our room late and after getting ready for bed I have no time! Apologies for any mistakes I have made and no doubt will do, as when I have been doing them it is normally quite late.

Just a quick update with mostly pics of what we got up to today...

Today is Black Friday and they have sales over here just like we do on Boxing Day.
Mum and I set off to the city shopping while the boys went off to a Science Centre and sightseeing. I was very much looking forward to some alone shopping time, although to the boys credit, they are usually very patient when we want to have a quick look in a shop!!
Already cheap items compared to back home, became even cheaper, doing damage to the travel cards. The crowds were absolutely insane everywhere you went. In one shop there was a queue of 100 people at the very least. In those stores we just gave up and walked out. We are patient, but that is ridiculous! I'd go as far to stay that they were worse than our Boxing Day sales.

Mum and I lugged bags around the San Fran Westfield and the stores in the city nearby and in total we shopped in the city for about 6 hours.

Curvy escalators in Westfield

Looking up to the top of Westfield 

Two new additions to the family!! (A Mickey and a Goofy)

A proper pic of them to come!

After getting back to our room with VERY tired and sore legs, Mum, Dad and I then again set off to Fishermans Wharf and Pier39. Daniel stayed back at the room while we got dinner and looked at the shops. Yet again a little more damage was done!!

Mucking about at the Pier 39 Christmas Tree

We are off on a long drive tomorrow before a stop over in Barstow tomorrow night on our way to the Grand Canyon. I'd say it is just a coincidence that Barstow happens to have a large outlet centre!!
Okay, maybe it was planned, but we are very much looking forward the Black Friday sales at the outlet stores too!

Day 7 and 8: The road to San Francisco

Just a little update for the past few days..

DAY 7:

We left our accommodation in Monterey and set off on the 17 mile drive. The boys were in their element looking at what they could see of the golf courses. At Spyglass Hill we were lucky enough to see a group of Deer on the fairway. At first their were just 2 until about 6 came out of the trees. I was stoked!!! Safe to say Mum's and my camera's were clicking over time!

Where we were standing

So cute!

Next we went to Laguna Seca (a racetrack). We had a little look around and the boys spent a looonnnnggg time looking at the circuit and the few cars that did happen to be racing that day.

We stopped off at the Gilroy Outlets (Just for a change) before we headed to San Fran. We only had a very brief look, seeing only half the shops, but we still managed to stay for an hour and a half!

It seems I have developed motion sickness when we are doing any kind of windy or long driving. I felt really unwell at lunch time and slept for a while on the drive to San Fran. Later we realised it was actually the motion sickness tablets making me sleep!!

We arrived late to our accommodation after a wrong turn was taken. The Chief Map Reader and Navigator (Daniel) was giving directions that the Chauffeur (Dad) decided to disobey resulting in us turning off way too early and becoming stuck in traffic. Anyhow, we still got here safely! We are actually staying at the same place as we did last time and also ate dinner at the same restaurant on Pier 39. To my liking the restaurant was a surfy theme, so kombi van decorations scattered around, unfortunately none to buy. Walking down to dinner Dad also noticed a big cruise ship docked a little further up. It was actually the same one that we saw anchored at Santa Barbara.

We decided to have an 'early' night but as always early was not so early!

DAY 8:

And it's Turkey Day today!!

Opening the curtains this morning revealed clear blue sky as far as the eye could see. Being on the 3rd floor, we could see some of the bay and had a great view of the Coit tower even though we are a reasonable walk away from the water. Was about 20 degrees today which is warmer than we expected here.

Being Thanksgiving we were uncertain as to how many or what shops or restaurants would be open. We ventured on the off chance down to Macca's for breakfast and decided we would hire bikes and ride across the Golden Gate bridge. What a perfect day to do it!! The view was incredibly clear and there was little wind!!

While riding up the first hill of the bike path, someone who has requested to remain unnamed, took a nice tumble. We were worried at first, but they turned out to be fine, except for a few bruises and grazes. After the entertainment we continued riding to discover that the ride to bridge was  A LOT steeper than we expected. We stopped at many Vista Points (I better say it the american way) along the way admiring the incredible view and the beauty of the city.

Looks like a postcard

There were many people also biking the bridge today, so it was quite busy. We took our time and eventually made it onto the bridge. We rode right across to the other side before Mum sat down for a much needed for a rest and the three of us walked under the bridge to the other side to admire the view from another angle.

We made it!

From the other side

Hopping back on our bikes with weary legs we rode back over the bridge. It was an amazing feeling to be riding across while admiring the beauty that surrounded us. After making it over, we had to ride back to return our bikes. We managed to get a little lost and take a detour and after some map reading at a bus stop we again found our way. The little adventure uncovered a beautiful little park with a fountain, so at least something did come out of it.

Family photo

Mum did very well making it considering she hasn't ridden a bike in about 10 years. She loved riding across the bridge the most and also the down hill parts as did we all!! She looked quite cute sitting on the bike!

After finding lunch and having a rest at the room we went off to do some sightseeing. We stopped off where  the show Mythbusters film in a studio at Daniel's request, before driving to twin peaks. Twin peaks is a look out at the top of a hill with two peaks to walk up for a better view, hence the namesake. Mum stayed in the car while the three of us walked up rocky, unstable stairs to the top of a big hill. Luckily, the effort to get up there was worth it!!

Up the top of the hill there was an even better view of a stunning pink, orange and red sunset. It was like nothing I had ever experienced and something I will always remember. The photo's do not do any justice for it at all. From the hill is also an amazing view of the city and the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges. The city really is so beautiful all lit up at night!!

The sunset

Looking out over the city

Tomorrow is Black Friday and they have big sales just like we do on Boxing Day. I think some damage may be done...

Day 6: Big Sur

To start off today, here is a photo of the sunset view from last night that refused to load on that blog..

We left Pismo early this morning to head to our next destination. Weather was much the same today, although started off quite nice then we got misty rain as we drove through the mountains before getting clear blue sky and warm sun later on in the day. Our first stop was at a place called Morro Bay. It was a little fishing village with a HUGE rock identifiable from the sea. As we were about to leave there were seals frolicking in the bay making loud noises of which Daniel compared to Dad's snoring of recent nights.

Morro Rock

Next we stopped at an Elephant Seal rookery that I had heard about. There was a huge amount of sub-adult male seals lazing and play-fighting on the sand. It was quite a sight to see, however the stench was not pretty!! While watching we also saw our first squirrel for the trip. It was about a foot away scurrying in the bushes. Again the loud grunting of these seals was compared to Dad's recent sound effects along with being identified as Daniel's cousins.

The little Squirrel

Sleep time!!

Other end of the seal beach

A baby Seal I wanted to take home

Yawn!

Driving along the Big Sur was like nothing I have ever experienced. The road was VERY windy in parts, however the views that the road wrapping around the mountainside revealed were incredible. We got misty rain while driving up the very high parts of the road, which actually made for stunning photos, with clouds hugging the edge of the mountains, below the height that we were.

View from the front window

Low hanging clouds

Weather turned cloudy

Following a pitstop for snacks due to Daniel's ever-rumbling stomach and fetish for chips we arrived at Jennifer Pfeiffer State Park. The views were so pretty. Dad was very interested in the history behind the park whereas I was more interested making sure the stop was more than well documented. The park is famous for the Mc Way Falls, a waterfall that used to drop into the ocean. You can just see the waterfall as it is today, tumbling into the beautiful bright blue ocean below in the second pic towards the left.

Waterfall view

Selfies with Mum

We followed the Big Sur along seeing more scenery along the way, including the Bixby bridge. The road is known for its rock falls, but luckily for us we did not encounter any! We stopped at a quaint town called Carmel for lunch, which is more on the exclusive side, however it is very cute. We arrived at our destination for the night, Monterey at about 4.30pm. We decided that we all needed an early night and went next door to a Woodfired food place for dinner. Following this, we did go to a pharmacy across the road which had everything from food and drink to medication and fishing gear.

Bixby bridge

On our trip we have had more than our fair share of laughs. Mum and I have been known to laugh until we cry, mostly at the expense of the boys. It is all in good fun and makes the trip even more enjoyable, whether it be in the early hours of the morning while trying to get to sleep or while eating dinner or driving along. 

And just to note my American accent has rapidly improved! I can now fluently pronounce 'water' and mimick my order of a garlic pizza holding the cheese.

While driving today we were stopped for quite a while in a line of traffic due to road works. We noticed this sign and thought  the way it was written was quite funny, compared to how we write 'cyclists'. I'm not sure that one of us could actually say 'bicyclists'.

Bicyclists....

Over here they have different names for many things. While ordering a pizza for me one day Mum asked for herbs and was confronted with a confused look, before he said "aahhhhh you mean urrrrbs!". Often when we ask for something we have to explain what we mean as they have no idea.What we would call a 'look out' are called 'vista points' and 'speed humps' are just referred to as 'bumps'.

That is all for tonight! This time tomorrow we will be in San Francisco.

Day 5: Beach drive

Today's adventures revolved around arriving at tonight's accommodation, Pismo. It is the most gorgeous little beach side town that we dearly loved from last trip. Opening the blinds at valencia revealed lovely blue sky, but was a bit cloudy. I was worried while driving throughout the day as we drove through low cloud with periods of no sun. I've been wanting a clear blue sky and sunset the whole trip and soon you'll see that I got my wish!

We started off today by departing our accommodation and driving to the Westfield where Mum spent much of her time yesterday. We had a good look around, got a thing or two and had a quick drink and bite to eat.

Our first stop on the drive to Pismo was at a town called Fillmore. After driving past a sign to it days earlier I passed comment that I'd love to visit. Little did I know we would! I wanted to visit as the town has the same name as the Kombi Van out of the Cars movie. It may be named after it?? After a quick car wash for our filthy dirty car or should I say 4wd we had a look around the town. It really was very cute!!

We arrived at our next stop, Santa Barbara at about 1pm. After being indecisive Mum concluded that we should go back to a pizza place we saw up the road. After forgetting where it was then finding it again, we stopped at Rusty's pizza for lunch. Everyone said that the pizza was nice and even I managed to get a garlic pizza bread. Sorry make that 2 garlic breads. Of course we had to say "hold the cheeese!". While at Santa Barbara there was a cruise ship that we watched anchor off shore. We were told that it was an exclusive boat that took the passengers on tours of different areas.

Yummy pizza

Cruise ship

Driving view

Santa Barbara beach

We left Santa Barbara and hit the road again about 2.40pm for Pismo. The scenery was beautiful and as you may be able to see the weather cleared to reveal clear blue sky! On arrival at Pismo we went to check into our ground floor ocean view room. The view is magical and there are seagulls flying around everywhere, however they do stink a bit. Upon opening the room blinds we were greeted with a a huge sun, blue sky and a few clouds on horizon. The making of what was to be a perfect californian sunset. We stood on the balcony of our room taking photos of both ourselves and the sunset in awe of how beautiful it was. We even went for a little walk on the grounds and saw a cute little bunny. 

The accommodation

Accommodation

I wanted to take it home!

Sunset pics with Mum

Gap jumper twins

Family pic

After watching the sunset we headed off for dinner. At Mum's suggestion and upon Dad's finding of it we had In Out Burger. It was a really unique experience and unlike anything we have at home. Everyone said it was delicious!! Just near  In Out Burger there were some outlets that we were planning on visiting. Last time we went there, there was a great Levi's outlet. Once again, Levi's was great!! We literally spent an hour in the store, with Daniel trying on countless pairs of jeans until he found two he was happy with. I also managed to find two pairs, a denim jacket and a skirt all for $70!! Quite ridiculous really. Exhausted we ventured back to our room and settled in for what was to be a late night and we were all up until the early hours, having many laughs along the way.

And for a bit of fun.... How we keep ourselves occupied on the drives..

Chief photographer!

Photograph downloader and iPad addict!

The loose hanging head!

And to be fair he is also navigator and chief map reader!

The chauffeur!