Day 1 & 2 of America...

The day we arrived, waiting to get the rental car

Our first meal in Disneyland, Breakfast burritos and oranges with crap coke :)

Hamish at Sleeping Beauty's Castle, looking across the moat.

Nayd visiting another Princesses' castle :P

Makenzie out the front of Mr Toad's Wild Ride, before we went in

So, where to begin?!
We have had a crazy few days so far in America, so much to get used to, so many different sounds, foods, ways of doing things! It is crazy to think about because you always think it is fairly similar in America and Australia.... till you get here! LOL The tipping was something to get used to but so was taxes, we keep looking at prices thinking it is reasonable till we get to the counter and they whack on another 8.45% on top! We have gone through so much money already because we don't want to insult people by not tipping enough but no one will tell us what is a good amount to tip and how to easily work it out! We were talking to a man in Radio Shack today and he was telling us about all the hidden cost. Apparently, when you book a table in Orange County (Our Current County) at a restaurant you don't want to have more than 8 people in your party they automatically hit you with an EXTRA 17% gratuity tax! So on top of your 8.45% regular tax then 15-20% tip you then have another 17%!!! Isn't that the craziest thing you have ever heard?! But then he told us, average wage in his area is $8us (Around $10.50au) so they rely on those tips to get a decent wage... to pay for all the taxes! LOL
While talking about the Radio Shack Guy I should mention he was HOT! As are so many round here, there is a very high Mexican population and a lot of "mixed" people and they are just stunning, makes me want to stay home every day! LOL

Anyways, back to the story....
We left Perth at 11pm on Friday night, arrived in Brisbane at 3am (Perth time) and left at 11am (Brisbane time) then arrived in LA at 7am LA time... flights were really good, all the kids were born fliers! Makenzie thought it was hilarious, taking off was the best fun ever! She loves to go "Whoa, Whoa, Whoa!!!" When we, according to her, drive too fast or too crazy so I am sure you can imagine her reaction at taking off, it was so funny, she was Whoa-ing all over the place, not a second of crying the whole trip so it was really good. I had been so worried that she would be trouble but about the biggest problem we had was on the Brisbane to LA flight the TV's in the headsets kept cutting out so I kept losing my spot in Twilight (Which SUCKED bigtime BTW, but that is a whole nother vent! LOL)

So, we landed in LA to a coolish morning and made our way over to pick up the car. From there we drove around the block to get used to the car and the backwards driving and then attempted to navigate, from a tiny map I had, to Gymbo Outlet. We drove through some....interesting areas... and then almost found the GO but the streets are signed funny and the intersections are very confusing so we took the long way around but finally found it and it turned out to be a whole shopping centre, sort of like Harbour Town, with a variety of Outlet shops and food places. We wandered around before stopping at a "Ruby's Dinner" for lunch (Yes, we had been driving that long! LOL) which was kind of like Jimmy Deans or Johnny Rockets, then we went shopping. Nayd got some sunnies and I got some Gymbo (No surprise there! LOL) not a lot that I wanted though so my shopping spree wasn't as big as I had planned.

We then went to Walmart to get a car seat for Hamish and a few other bits and pieces (Including a GPS so we could find where to go! LOL) before heading to the hotel. We were supposed to go to another shopping centre but by this stage it was after 3pm, everyone was falling asleep and getting grumpy at each other so we left it for another day (Today, but it still didn't happen!).

Walmart was an experience in itself, the trolleys are stupid, they have a fixed set of wheels at the back and only the front two turn. You know on ours how all 4 sets turn here, only the front two do! Not so much fun, makes it hard to turn corners and thing! It was also Saturday arvo so lots of shoppers and not a very nice area so the store was a bit manky and the employees were not very helpful. I made the door lady grumpy because I didn't hear her calling me to check my bag and she was screaming "Ma'am" at me till nayd told me... oops! LOL I got confused because we showed the cashier our other purchase and she said "It's okay, I believe you" and we then walked out, I missed the door lady... *blush*

We then checked in at our first hotel The Grand Californian Hotel at Disneyland, it is so lovely. The beds are huge, Hamish needed a lift to get up. Nayd had her own room although she only had a sofabed but her own bathroom and all and it had a little balcony overlooking the hotel. The hotel was themed as aMountain lodge with all the cast members wearing Swedish type uniforms and a huge fireplace in the lobby (Photos tomorrow maybe) and lots and lots of wood everywhere. The service was amazing, not a thing was too much for them and any cast member who was asked a question could give you an answer not once did they say "I just need to check..." or anything it was fantastic! We went for a walk at night down Downtown Disney, it was all lit up and there were bands playing and things to see all over despite it being about 11pm! We went to the World of Disney store and spent about $2.5 million dollars on hats and shirts and jackets and shoes and socks.... okay on everything! LOL I could have easily spent a million more there too! LOL Picked up a few presents for Hamish and went up to bed. The hotel is right in Downtown Disney and two seconds from Disneyland so it was well placed, worth the money it costs!

We ended up in bed at about 1:30am tired and grumpy knowing we had to get up WAY too early in the morning, 6am to be precise, because we had early entry to Disney the next day. Early entry basically means we get to go in 1 hour before other people, it is only available to Disney Hotel patrons so it means really short lines on all the popular rides.

We got up early to give Hamish his presents on Sunday and then went over to Disneyland. We met a lovely old man and lady in the line who gave Hamish a light up clip with a Lightning McQueen on it (That Hamish lost later in the day!) and Jessie on with Tinkerbell on it for Hamish's birthdya and since Jessie already had hers. It was the mans birthday as well and we stood chatting in line. When we got the entrance it turned out they were not hotel guests so were going to get turned away so we said they were with us since they had been so nice to us. We went and rode on the Finding Nemo Subs (Wait time is usually 45+ minutes) then had breakfast after that it was a crazy whirlwind of rides and things until we stopped for lunch. We went back up to the hotel for a nap and I ended up staying there for the next 24 hours because of gastro, so not cool!

I will leave it there for tonight, more photos and descriptions tomorrow hopefully. Hamish is down with the gastro now after Jessie throwing up yesterday and me the day before so if he is still in bed tomorrow I will have a few more minutes free to update.

We are sitting watching I Am Legend so wil run and do that, hope all is well with everyone and everything is going good!

Mel