Disneyland! (At last)

So, just to restate why we're so far behind. My new digital camera was set to take picturesw of a size and resolution to be projected onto 3 storey walls with ease. This meant that each picture was about 5 MB in size, and so big that it wouldn't show up in the Blogger editor to resize. So we've been using an online picture resizer, whose batch resizing function kept crashing the browser, so we had to do it one at a time. Last night's motel appeared to be using dial-up, so it took about 10-15 minutes per picture to resize. Thankfully, tonight's has been much better, so we finally have pictures of our Disney day out!

We left at about 6.30 to get to Anaheim in time for the gates to open at 9. Traffic was much better than anticipated. Here, Sara tries not to die of embarrassment whilst I take pictures of her.

We got there at about 8-ish, and not wanting to hang around outside the park for an hour, we decided to find breakfast. Go-go $3.79 pancakes, eggs and bacon! NOM!

Somebody's excited! (Daisy Duck parking lot, level 2, sections 5-6)

It's a horsey!

Queuing for the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Disney queueing is great, always something see whilst waiting in line.

Our Kodak moment, courtesy of a kindly passing Scotsman.

I didn't know they did characters from the Pixar films. And I  probably shouldn't have taken pictures of kids that aren't mine...

I WILL be the once and future King, dammit!

Argh, which joke to go for? Looking for her Prince? Having a frog in her throat? How great I'm looking in this shot? I CAN'T DECIDE!!!

The Mad Hatter's teacup ride.

The Mad Hatter, sans hat.

The same.

Boy, NASA have become a lot less selective since they shut down the space shuttle program! On our way to ride Space Mountain.

Not quite a pose, not quite natural. WTF am I doing?

MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE!

The Matterhorn. We rode this right at the end of the day, and it was fun, if a bit sucky.

The Finding Nemo ride submarine. We weren't sure what to expect from this one, but the effects were great and pretty much everyone from the film showed up. Well, not the school of fish. I love them...

Inside the sub. One of the strange things about being underwater is that Sara's face suddenly became three times its normal size. Who woulda thought it?

The view from the front of my Autopia car. This ride was incredibly fun. I remember sharing a car with my Dad when I came here in 1994.

One of the silly, fun sights from the ride.

6.5 mph? I hope I watched my speed!

TUNNEL!!!

Bloody tailgaters....

Me, by me.

In one of the small streams around the center of the park, we found a mother duck with five cute little ducklings.

I hope you're enjoying the pictures, because unfortunately things took a rather nasty turn.

As they were swimming around, a mallard turned up. Contrary to what the kids think, mummy and daddy ducks aren't in love. In fact, a daddy duck basically forces himself on a mummy duck. And this one was in the mood.

Thankfully, by ducking and diving and hiding in the undergrowth, mummy duck was able to escape and lead her ducks onto the walkway. Everyone who had watched understood what was going on, and basically joined together to block traffic, scare the mallard away, and allow the mother and her ducklings to cross to another part of water where they were safer.

The view from the Tarzan treehouse.

Put a small person on an oversized walkway and they look even smaller.

It's me, with my fraudulent '1st Visit' badge.

Me, with my first churro. Imagine a long, thin, ridged donut covered in cinnamon sugar. Nom!

Us, on the jungle cruise. Self-taken pictures kinda work!

The best bits are usually the unplanned bits. We decided we needed coffee at about 4.15, and popped into a coffee-selling-place at the top of Maine Street. Inside was a pianist performing ragtime music, and playing it very well. After a few minutes, a member of the audience asked if he could play with him, and the two proceeded to improvise around famous rag tunes for about 10 minutes. It was absolutely amazing. The piano, as you can see, was open, and watching the hammers go on the strings was really something. It was a very pleasant way to enjoy a cup of overpriced coffee.

We walked down Main Street and came across a barbershop quartet. What you see in their hands are pitched chimes. They shake them to produce a pitch, and used them to great effect in their routine.

One of the shops and museums had portraits of notable Disney collaborators. This is Jim Henson, the creator of Sesame Street and the Muppets. I absolutely love the Muppets, and wanted to get a picture of me with his picture. And here it is.

The view of Mickey's Toon Town from the top of Donald's house.

Later at night, on the carousel.

Same place, different person.

Notice the rain jackets. After threatening to do so throughout the day, the rain finally hit late in the evening. Thankfully, we were on our way to an amazing dinner at the Blue Bayour restaurant inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, so we missed most of it.

The famous Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse statue, with the original Sleeping Beauty's Castle, beautifully lit, in the background.

And so ends our day at Disney.

A brief update.

So, I was hoping to get pictures uploaded today, but the ridiculously poor internet connection at this otherwise-great motel means that you'll have to wait some more for our Disney-and-beyond pictures.

So, a fast run down of the last five days.

Thursday


Disney World in Anaheim. Forecast to be wet and miserable, the rain only hit late into the evening. Splash Mountain was closed, which was really annoying, but we still had a great time. Good use of the Fast Pass system meant that our longest queue was only 40 minutes, and rarely more than 20 in any queue. We didn't go for character-hunting so much - although seeing Donald Duck about 3 minutes after walking through the gates was definitely cool - but we enjoyed the rides and atmosphere. We spent the evening at the Blue Bayou restaurant. If you've ever ridden Pirates of the Caribbean and looked to the left just after the ride begins, you'll have seen the restaurant, set within the ride itself with an amazing atmosphere and great jambalaya!

Friday


Solo day for me, as Sara had various family things to attend to. I decided to walk two miles to the nearest comic shop to check it out. Sadly, google maps lied to me and I ended up walking 4.5 miles there, and the same back. It was a nice way to fill up the day, walking down Ventura Boulevard in the sunshine. The evening was a night of rest, but the best bit was the morning, when we went to a restaurant called CiCis for a true American pancake breakfast. I had a short stack (which was a lie, it was bloody massive) with fresh strawberries and blueberries, and wow, it was good!

Saturday


In the absence of the wedding that was planned to bring everyone together, Sara's family came together for a big family brunch, to which I was invited. After hearing so many things about her family over the years, it was great to finally meet the majority of them. I have to thank them for letting me into their family gathering and for providing great hospitality.

We headed down to Venice Beach in the late afternoon, to walk along the boardwalk (we found an amazing independent bookshop!) and see the places where Sara hung out as a teenager. We then made our way to a lovely Italian restaurant called C&O Trattoria, famed for its Killer Garlic Balls (provided freely). This was probably the best meal of the holiday to date, an amazing plate of linguine in a cheesy white vodka sauce. The atmosphere was great, and we quickly got talking to a few people on nearby tables. Completely amazing, and I wish I had an endless stomach so I could live there!

Finally we drove into Hollywood to meet with Sara's cousin Matt, who took us out to a couple of bars on Sunset Boulevard. I got to sample some good American beers, including one called Arrogant Bastard, and although we were out way later than expected, it was a really great time.


Well, time is up. Hopefully we'll have better internet somewhere in Pismo or Avila Beach tonight and we can get some pictures up, finally! Either way, we'll have the next few days up before the day is gone.

Pictures, Part 1

Yay, we have a working laptop, a working camera, a working internet connection, and a working uploader for blogger (yes, each of those has failed us over the past few days). Now that things are back to where they should be, this blog can get back to what it should be. Let's take a look at some pictures from the first few days of the trip.

WARNING: This post contains PUPPIES!!!

To start, an incredibly flattering photograph of Sara, being bored, on the Picadilly line, at about 7.20 on Monday morning. I have gained a knack for grabbing pictures of her in less-than-flattering poses, and I'll be sharing my favourites over the next few days.

This car was about three cars ahead of us at the final set of lights before we parked up for dinner on the first night. Traffic on the stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway that we were on was a nightmare, thanks to the recent rains that had caused some sort of minor landslide, blocking a lane and throttling rush hour traffic. It all cleared up a few hundred yards before the turn-off, and then this happened...

Sunset, by the Pacific Coast Highway, right next to Gladstones, the amazing restaurant where we ate on the first night. About 10 minutes later the sun was below the horizon, the sky was dark, and exhaustion caught up with me.

Disaster strikes. Work people may recognise this suitcase, just not in this condition.

The next day, we found that this had happened to the laptop. Ouch.

Chloe. The oldest of the three dogs, with extra-special evil camera eyes!

Cosmo, aka Marklar, refusing to look at the camera.

Marklar steals the limelight. These guys have no idea how to pose for pictures.

Aw, sleepy doggy. We've not yet seen Mongo, but when he sleeps, he likes to pull the doggy basket over his head and hide underneath it.

Marklar, Mongo and Chloe can't understand why the silly British guy won't let them out of the kitchen.

Snooze time, and a rare non-covered sleeping Mongo.

Doggy Tower.

A lovely dog, and some weird guy.

This is after a couple of hours of rain. No drainage and lots of roads means that pretty much every intersection has a foot-wide, several-inch-deep run of water that goes for miles until it hits a storm drain. It makes crossing the road rather interesting!

The Beast! Yes, it's a Suzuki! This is what you get when you don't want to spend much money on car hire. It's a good ride, it does the job we need it to do, and it's just not worth spending the money on something flash when you don't need it.

Well, that's enough for today. I hope to be back within a day with pictures of our day at Disneyland.