Wednesday 15th December

Up and we say goodbye to the Magic Castle with great and helpful staff. Today we will head to Anaheim to begin our Disneyland adventure. But first a quick detour to Beverley Hills as Lara would like to buy a bag at Gucci on Rodeo drive (like hell!!). So we casually drive down the street and do not feel worthy of stopping in the company of such opulence! (couldn't find a park anyway and we had somewhere more important to go!) Driving through Beverley Hills 90120 (just like the show), half of Mexico appears to be employed as gardeners in this area! Gardens and house are amazing. Did not have our 'where the stars live' brochure with us but you could guess the big stars by the size of the security fences on some houses!! Once we left feeling poor, we drove to a secret Addy destination to a 'famous house' seen on tv regularly in the Antich household. Got the mandatory photos and left quickly! (Leave that story to Addy). Then onto battle with the LA freeway system heading to Anaheim (about 40km away). We found ourselves at a motel style accommodation ACROSS THE ROAD from the entrance to Disneyland! What the hotel lacked in 5 star furnishings it made up in location, location, location.. (nice one Addy). We dumped our bags, grabbed our 3 day tickets and casually sauntered across the road (walked really fast in an excited way) the loooong 5 minutes to the entrance to kiddie Nirvana (maybe even adult fun as well!!). Where to start…..

Walking down Main street, us kids wanted to dash off for rides, and not soak and smell the atmosphere. Addy had other plans and we had to anchor ourselves on the curbside to see the upcoming parade. And of course it was great and the right decision (dammit!). Now, where to start….Addy of course had bought the brand new " 2012 Guide to Disneyland" which was a great way for us to plan our attack which blended aggressive ride timing manouvers with chilled out sections to hear entertainment or seek solace on Tom Sawyer island to discover treasures. Disney land day 1 was a bit shorter for Lara and I as we left at 5:30pm to again do battle with the LA traffic (at 'rush our') to see the UCLA Bruins (Uni basketball side) play near Hollywood. Not a driving experience to be enjoyed and absolutely IMPOSSIBLE without GPS!!! Flyovers, flyunders, makeovers, I needed a beer when I got there, but refused as I needed my wits about me to drive home again! It was a good game with the Bruins winning (even though Lara was going for the other side!). I had the mandatory hotdog and we ate "Cracker jacks" (candied corn) Is there anything that isn't candied? Good atmosphere at the game even though the small stadium was only half full with the big band and cheergirls balancing on a few strongmen kept us all entertained. Head home, traffic still crazy busy at 10pm, thank god for GPS again! That it for this day!

ciao baby