The Big Trip - Day 20

So today is our third full day in Anaheim, and my feet are killing me! We have spent the last few days doing the Theme Park thing, with one more (Universal Studios) to go tomorrow. But let me back up a bit first.

Before arriving in Anaheim we had three nights in Niagara Falls followed by two nights in Las Vegas.

Niagara Falls was amazing! We absolutely loved it! Mr.P and I both agreed that if we were going to live anywhere else but the Hawkesbury, it would be Niagara Falls. On the Canadian side! Canadian people are all so lovely and friendly!

When we arrived in Buffalo we hired a car to drive over the border to our beautiful hotel, Sheraton on the Falls. This was my first time driving on the 'wrong' side of the road, and I am proud to say, I didn't drive on the wrong side once! We made it to our hotel with only one wrong turn (which we could do nothing but laugh about, especially when we had to go through toll booths again to get back in the right direction! Lol! I blame the sat-nav), and after deciding to pay a little bit extra, we got upgraded to a King Room with jacuzzi on the 20th floor. It was amazing! We had the most awesome view of the Falls from our balcony, and the best seats in town for the fireworks over the Falls on the Friday night. So worth the little bit extra!

We did the usual touristy stuff in Niagara, the Maid of the Mist (very cool, although probably didn't help my cold, but I did not care, it was just too good not to do! You get on a boat that goes right up to the bottom of the Horseshoe Falls, amazing!), we went Behind the Falls, which is also very cool, where you go down to some tunnels that have been blasted out directly behind the falls, and also a viewing platform which is right beside the Horseshoe Falls. It was really cool feeling the power of the water from down there.

Behind the Falls

We also did the Niagara's Fury '4-D' experience, which really, unless you're about 10 wasn't too exciting, but I am glad we did it nonetheless. Mr.P was less impressed! Lol!

We also did the White Water Walk, a short walk alongside some of the fastest and most dangerous rapids in the world, and went for a ride in an Aero Car (an open viewing car suspended on wires) that goes over the Whirpool, at the end of the rapids, which was really cool, and an amazing view. Highly recommend!

The rest of the time we just wandered around, enjoying the spectacular view and greenery (I haven't seen anywhere so green in my life, it was lush!) and relaxed in the jacuzzi. Mr.P even went to the gym the three nights we were away, and reckons it's the only gym in the world with such a breath-taking view!

After our Niagara adventure we drove back over the border to Buffalo and boarded a flight to Las Vegas. I got a window seat this time and I am so glad I did. The scenery from the plane was amazing! You could see so much, and it's amazing how much the landscape changes in the five hour flight, from patchwork paddocks to Rocky Mountains, to Grand Canyons, it was sooooo good. I read the last few chapters of the latest Sookie Stackhouse novel (Dead in the Family, again, I highly recomend) and had plans to continue on with The Historian (which I started a week before we left Australia!) but I just couldn't stop looking out the plane window, so I gave in to the view and didn't regret it!

When we left Niagara Falls it was freezing and raining, about 13 degrees! When we landed in Vegas it was a DRY 42! The shift in temperatures was hard to get used to with a cold (damn you Summer cold!) but thankfully everywhere in Vegas has hard-core air-con!

We only had one full day in Vegas so we made the most of it. We did some shopping and got some amazing bargains at a place that has lots of end of line and overstock stuff. We are talking brand new Fila runners for $30, a pair of Nine West wedges for $24 and a lovely pair of sandals for $12. Oh, and we bought some clothes and swimmers and another carry-on suitcase (otherwise we could not get everything home!) for super cheap also. This place had so much stuff!

That night we had quite a few bevvies and did a bit of gambling. Didn't win much at all (although we did get quite drunk, Mr.P especially!) but that's not the point, we still had fun! We then made our way up the strip (we were staying at Circus Circus) to see the lights and to watch the fountain show out the front of the Bellagio, the one thing I just had to see in Vegas. And it didn't disapoint!

The next day, feeling slightly worse for wear, we made our way to the airport and caught the very short flight to LAX...

...Where I just happened to sight my second celebrity for the trip (if you can call him a celebrity these days!), Stephen Dorff. If you don't know who he is, hire The Power of One. He was picking up his bags from the same baggage carousel as us and I stared at him for a full minute before I figured out why he looked so familiar! I thought he was someone I went to school with at first, so thank God it clicked before I went up to ask him how I knew him!

We are now in Anaheim, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, and have spent today at Knotts Berry Farm and the the two days before at Disneyland and the Disney California Adventure Park.

Sadly, Disneyland isn't really geared for people our age. There is a grand total of about 5 rides (worth going on) and it's just wall to wall kids. I expected the wall to wall kids, but I also expected a little more from it too. It actually seemed quite small compared to everything I've ever seen on tv, so it was a bit under-whelming, but I am still glad we went. We were just 20 years too late to really get the most out of it! Definitely want to bring my future kids back here one day though!

The California Adventure Park was better than Disneyland, only because it wasn't as filled with tiny kids and there were a few more rides, it's definitely geared more towards teenagers, this park. We loved the Mali-boomer, which basically shoots you up 1000 feet in the air really fast and then drops you back down. It was great and we went on three times! Plus it had the shortest line!

We spent today at Knotts Berry Farm, and it was definitely more our style. Mr.P liked this place so much more, purely coz it's mostly just rollercoasters, and really fast ones at that! The only downside was the fact that being the end of the school year here, the place was filled with teenagers on their end-of-year excursions, and let me just say, some of those kids were little pieces of shit! A lot of them really didn't get the concept of 'waiting in line' and thought it was perfectly ok to call their friends up to their position in the line, even though everyone behind them had been waiting for at least half an hour and it wasn't allowed! I challenged a few kids with this, and when I got there lame 'we wanna be with our friends' excuse, or 'we had to go to the toilet first', I pointed out to them the rule that stated that they go all together or wait at the back like everyone else. The only reason they got away with it was the fact there was no-one around for me to grab so they could be pulled out. We were so pissed off with it by the end of the day, as we had line-jumpers in EVERY line we waited in, and it was just so rude and inconsiderate. If I had known where their teachers were I would have had words, that's for sure!

So anyway, apart from the line-jumpers, Knotts Berry Farm was great and I'm really looking forward to Universal Studios tomorrow. Mr. P isn't as keen as it doesn't have a lot of rides like Knotts, but I'm excited, especially as we shelled out extra for the Front-Of-Line passes, so we won't have to spend three-quarters of our day waiting in lines like we have the last three!

Well I think that's it for now. We are here for another 2 full days, and then we head over to Honolulu on Monday, where we plan to do nothing but sit on the beach, swim and do a bit of snorkelling. The perfect way to end a hectic, yet fabulous trip!

See you when we are back in the land of Oz. I left the country 27 and I will arrive back 28, with a whole 6 hours of birthday to celebrate! Think I will stay on US time for a day!