okay so on to Wednesday - we got home late the night before and we didn't fancy doing it again as Caleb whined all the way back last night and there is nothing worse than a whinging teenager (actually maybe a grumpy old lady that is struggling with the heat could be worse!)  So we decided to not waste $117 USD each on a trip that we are only going for Caleb and he didn't seem all that fussed so we decided to go to K1 speed and spend the morning shopping at The Outlets at Orange.  Since mum is really struggling with the heat we decided to take a taxi to the outlets stores as we are not familiar with the bus system and didn't really want to drag her around walking in the heat to get to bus stops.  It cost us $15 (with a tip) to get there and another $15 to get back.  It was a successful shop for Sharon and I and Caleb got yet another pair of shoes (see last photo)

 waiting for a return taxi I took this photo for you Neil ...

 so initially we were to go from the shops by taxi to K1 Speed but some how I managed to loose the address and when we did get the address the damn taxi driver had no idea where it was so we went back to the hotel and booked one at reception and she put us on some taxi service that is similar to uba (spelling) basically it was a luxury limosine and tours type thing.  He charged us $30 to go to K1 Speed and another $30 to get back.  It was a lovely comfortable 6.5 mile ride!  So all day Sharon and Caleb were going on like pork chops as to who was going to win the go kart race that they were almost ready to kill each other ...

 so the track looked really windy and complicated for me but sharon and caleb were off their heads with excitement ...

 so here we are waiting for our go ...

 they are electric cars which are quieter than the petrol ones we went on in Auckland to go drifting ...

 so you wear a balaklava under your helmet and for some strange reason caleb thought you put it over your mouth - ideally if it was around 10 degrees fahrenheit yes but since it was 91 degrees ... no!

 so we went around 14 laps for $20 I got constantly lapped and was robbed of about 3 laps ... I am useless at these car racing things I just don't like going fast ... so they all laughed at the snail (me) when we finished and the first thing I said is I am sick of organising these events to suit caleb and sharon that next time i am only going to look for some mountain biking type ride/race ... that way i know i will win!!!  So sharon and caleb decide to go again and i volunteered to be the photographer so here they are waiting for their go ...

 naturally sharon one and I tell you sharon made it clear to caleb that he is at that age that he can accept defeat and that she was not going to let him win ... see I couldn't offer that to him as i knew he would win against me regardless!

 so on the way back we passed the baseball stadium of the LA Angels and it was a packed stadium and car park the photo below is not that great ...

 happy to be back at a reasonable hour at night we headed for Dennys for a lovely dinner, mum had steak, sharon salmon, caleb double cheese burger and I had a chicken fillet with veges oh it was delicious and sharon and i shared a apple crumble dessert.
here are calebs new shoes ..

so today is Thursday and sharon, caleb and i are going back to the outlets without a grumpy nana/mum so we will catch the local bus for $2 one way.  I am hoping some shorts will a) fit me and b) still be there to buy.  Outdoor gear is not common here like stuff you get at all the outdoor stores in Melbourne but there are alot of sport shoe stores and they are not necessarily cheap - sharon found some for $40 which is $70 nz but i think that is expensive - my $25 usd is around $40 nz.
Tonight we leave the hotel at 6pm and take the long journey to the airport for a 10.30pm flight and will skip a friday and arrive in auckland on Saturday 7.30pm.
see ya!

We are in Hollywood!

I am behind by 2 days for this blog and I will just do what we did on Tuesday today and Wednesday tomorrow (hopefully!)

So today we went on a Hollywood tour so it ended up being a very loooooooong day.  But first I will show you our breadfast room, with your stay you get a free breakfast which is all you can eat and a little bit of take away for lunch!  Here is the main island and this side you can see is the waffle, coffee, juice and cereal side and the other side is the meat patties, omelette, roasties, toast and muffin and danish side

this is mums first part of her brekky ...

this is sharons waffle ...

 and here is my lunch for today (minus the yoghurt) which is the front muffin and sharons is the back with the chocolate donut for lunch ...

 so we got up at 6.15am to be at brekky just after 6.30am and out the door and at the bus stop for a 8.15am pickup.  This bus took us on a 30min joy ride picking everyone up to take us to their office which is about 400m from our hotel - we could have slept in an extra 30mins and walked to their offices at 9am!  So all jump on a bigger coach which takes us on a 2.3 hour journey across los angeles to Universal studios and then onto hollywood.  We do pass by the city center and while on the bus you realise just how flat this city is ...

as we passed the city center we got stuck in traffic which occurs throughout most of the day ...

 so we get to the start of our hop on hop off tour at around 11.30 and we start at the chinese theatre which also is in the same building as where the host the grammys ...

 this is all on hollywood blvd

 this is also where they have the walk of fame where all the stars are

 our bus is a double decker and we are sitting on the top level which is open so it is very hot for everyone but me!

so we look at all the stops where you can hop on and off and there is really nothing to look at for the first 10 stops!  at this point my camera battery died so the photos from now on are from sharons phone and if you look at these photos you will understand that really these are not typical photos that would be taken by me ... the one thing sharon and I do have in common when taking photos is we take photos of street signs!

the tour initially starts in Hollywood and then heads to west hollywood and then through beverly hills

by now sharon is almost leaping out of the bus oooohhhhing and aaahhhing over the fact that she is in beverly hills!  Here is a photo of the Beverly hills city hall

a local park

and now we begin the typical sharon photos - all the la-de-da named stores ....

this is the Versace building

and the city hall again

after here we headed to the farmers market where we had lunch and found a kmart and had a look, then back on the bus and this time it is too hot for all so they sat downstairs in the airconditioning while I went up stairs.  So we get back to our starting point near the chinese theatre

we are all pretty tired now and have 90mins to kill before our bus comes to pick us up so we kill time shopping and drinking.  Here is a great view of the hollywood sign.

so our bus picks us up at 5pm and we go to universal studios to pick up the other passengers, we get there with 20mins to spare so we have to wait.  Once all on the bus we make the slow journey home as it is peak hour and we are crawling along a 4-5 lane wide highway along with everyone else!  It is so slow we take 3 hours to get home and get back at about 8.15pm.  This makes it a terribly long day and what is worse is that we have to got through this again on wednesday for universal studios so we decide to cancel that and do something else ... more on that tomorrow.

@ Disneyland

Today was a trip to Disneyland which is about 1.5 miles north of us but we paid $5 for an all day ART bus pass (mum got a seniors discount which was a $3 discount!) 

We got there just as it opened - we decided not to go with the 2 park pass as the other park (adventure land) is not really suitable for Caleb since he doesn't go on any of those adrenalin rides.  

It has been 35 years since I have last been at Disneyland and they still have the same rides and machines!  The only difference is the yellow submarine which has a Nemo theme ... Nemo was not around 35 years ago!

Our first ride is the train that takes you around the park and then we go over to Autopia which is car driving.  There are heaps of cars so Caleb had one to himself, Sharon was with mum (mum steering while Sharon was on the pedal/accelerator) and apparently that was hilarious with mum driving, while I was behind them in my own car filming their driving!  for some strange reason I think mum was struggling with the driving and they kept stopping !

 next was a short walk to Disneyland castle, didn't go in it as you just pass through it and end up in an area that is full of kids!

 We go in the yellow submarine and as soon as the  narration started we all chime that it was an Australian accent!  since it has a nemo theme and the characters are predominantly Aussie so it was only natural that the narration would be Australia.

 so this ride when I was 8 years old was fantastic ... now it doesn't really grab me!
So next stop is Small World.  This is a boat ride that floats inside this castle ...

and it constantly plays the small world theme while you cruise around looking a some very colourful dolls representing various countries ...

 it is a very small float for New Zealand

 and a little bit bigger for Australia which was right next door to NZ

 Hawaii dolls were nice ...

 and this is what Caleb thought of the ride ...

 Sharon on the other hand was singing the theme all the way through!  Mum was probably asleep!
At lunch mum had a toasted ham sandwich (right) while I got an iced coffee (left).  I didn't realise their version of iced coffee was not like oz or nz - milk based.  this one was just cold coffee ... it was actually quite nice!  I didn't buy any food as I bring a donut, muffin and apple from brekky with me ... sharon does the same as the lunches are big and I find that if I have too bigger lunch I can't fit dinner in and besides it is cheaper!

 this is Calebs ... chilli dog I think!

 after lunch was the jungle cruise and unfortunately I thought this one was just stink ... I could not understand the person that was narrating at all but Sharon was laughing at him and his jokes (she was the only one!)

 next up is a cruise on the Mark Twain steam boat ... this was nice as we were in the shade for most of it ...

 Sharon managed to convince Caleb to try Thunderbolt mountain which is a mild adrenalin ride, he hadn't been on it before but he loved it ...

 I forgot to show you our first adrenalin ride from this morning - matterhorn bobsled which he had been on a previous visit.

 by now it is hot and mum is getting grumpy and caleb is complaining about the heat while sharon is scratching herself silly as she thinks she has a heat rash on her legs and arms, so we make the cups the last ride ...

 caleb was with me again and he tried so hard to make me vomit by giving the cups extra spin but the heat got to him and it was too much work and he gave up!

 at this point mum is nearly dying of thirst and typically leaves it to the last minute to get some fluids in her, so I find what she wants - some ice drinks and we all by some to cool off - calebs was blue raspberry, mine and sharons was passion mango while mums was cherry

so we leave the park around 3 and straight away we put some laundry on as there is a guest laundry room and jump in the pool to cool off.
Tonights dinner is Carls Junior - I will hopefully remember to take the camera to brekky tomorrow to get some photos.