I'm probably gonna talk a lot about fairytales today but I just need to denote that, contrary to what I said in my first blog, this really will be about fairytales. Because today we were going to Disneyland! Yep, the happiest place on Earth with arguably the happiest person on Earth. Stace is ******; just not in the way I was going to use fairytales to describe. Today we were also leaving Anaheim and flying to Las Vegas later tonight, so we had an early start to pack our bags up, check out of our room and leave our bags at the hotel reception awaiting our vehicle transfer later on, all before breakfast. That sounds more hectic than it really was; we'd only been here a couple of nights so there really wasn't that much packing to do - Stace and I were both up, showered and packed in under an hour - but it does make a more mundane part of the story sound more full on. After dumping our bags at the hotel reception, we got to breakfast at about 8:30am, ready again for some cardboardy waffles. At least it gave me an excuse to drown them in maple syrup, or as the yanks call it, breakfast syrup. Again, no wonder they're fat. It's probably worth mentioning here that Stace and I had previously decided to completely give up our sugar awareness campaign while we are in America, because we have to, you know, eat while we're here. At breakfast, we bumped into one of Stace's old work colleagues, who I also know that works at Latrobe. It wasn't fully unexpected as we knew she was travelling in the States (she married her partner in Vegas last week; classy I know), but we had no idea she was here in the same place and time as us, so it was a little bit of a surprise; it is pretty amazing we can be 13,000km from home and bump into people we know. She was really excited to see us, which I found a little bit weird as she's never previously uttered a word to me in our office, but nevertheless I acted all excited in return. In truth I was just looking forward to those cardboardy waffles, and I used that as inspiration for my glee. She wanted to get a photo with us (yay), so we lined up in the middle of the Best Western breakfast room for a group shot. I'm sure that picture will be a real keeper, a great showcase of what the United States has to offer. Later on (like literally within 5 minutes), we realised why she wanted a photo so desperately. Straight away it was on Facebook, together with a spiel about how awesome it was to bump into us (because she's excited every time she sees me...). I've made that sound all a bit harsh, it was actually nice to see her and congratulate her on her wedding, but it's just interesting observing the motives of getting that photo - the narcissism brought by Facebook astounds me. It actually resulted in a pretty hilarious story though, which I'll go through right now. I promise that I'll get back to today's events after it! Once the photo was put on Facebook, Stace was 'tagged' in it (I don't know this Facebook stuff), which apparently means all of her Facebook friends can comment on it. One of the people to comment spelt my name as Jarred or something like that, which led Stace's dad to comment that there was only one 'r' in 'Jared'. It was nice of him to give a lesson in the spellings of Jared (and there are probably a lot of ways to spell it, I don't know, I'm not one of them), but he could also have let them know that's not my name anyway! Oh well, at least he hugs me! We can work on the name. Anyway... We finished breakfast pretty quickly and headed out and across the road to the Disneyland entrance. We literally were directly across the road from the entrance, which despite our travel agent telling us this when we booked, we were still really pleasantly surprised about. I think there's a bit of a car salesperson vibe to travel agents, where they really try to oversell it. Not this time though; we couldn't have been any closer. Nice work Jo (Jo is our travel agent). We joined the growing crowd heading towards the gates, which consisted of a lot of little children dressed as Disney characters, lots of teenage girls dressed as Disney characters, fat Americans, more jeans and runners than you would want to see in your whole life, and most hilariously, whole families who had actually made personalised t-shirts for whatever occasion it was they were celebrating. There was one family we saw in the security line, who all wore the same shirts with their family name emblazoned on the back, then descriptions of who they were on the front. Like 'proud mother / father of the birthday girl', 'older / younger brother of the birthday girl', and of course 'birthday girl'. It was so tacky, but so funny for us, and made the security line go so much quicker. Once we were through, thankfully carrying nothing of danger (apart from one supercharged excitement machine being me, which I argue is more dangerous to anybody, particularly Stacey in the morning), we headed to the ticket box to sort out our tickets. As mentioned yesterday, we were meant to have two days in Disneyland; one day in each park. But as we decided to cruise LA like celebrities yesterday, we wanted to try and look through both parks today. At the ticket box we asked about this, but were told that would be downgrading our ticket so it was likely we couldn't do it. The girl checked with her manager to see what they could do, and when she came back they not only agreed to downgrade our ticket to what we were after, allowing us to see both parks in a day, but they would give us Disney credit to the value difference. Score! What a happy place! At this point I was glad Stace said our plane was late getting in as the reason we couldn't come yesterday, because I'm not sure that celebrity limo cruising would've cut it. After we got our tickets sorted, we were in a massive plaza with Disneyland on one side, and California Adventure on the other. We decided to head into California Adventure first, mainly because the line was shorter. I was a little disappointed at that justification, given the higher chance we'd have of seeing more family t-shirts in longer lines. We got through the gates at about 9:30am and stepped into a whole other world. It was amazing; this whole massive cartoon land opened up right before us. Our first stop was sunscreen. Of all the rides today, I didn't want to ride the wave of pain of blistering skin that otherwise would inevitably eventuated. LA has so far been hot every day, with clear blue skies and a really stinging sun. Today was no exception. We went into a shop and got some sunscreen, which by using our Disney card, was a gift really! After we both lathered up with what was likely half the bottle (we both burn at the mention of the sun; any future kids we may have (don't get excited Mum) will do well not to be albino, or at the very lease, rednuts), we were glistening and ready to go. The park is set up into many different theme lands, and we thought we'd just make our way through and stop where it looked interesting, knowing we didn't have oodles of time. The first place we chose was a big mountain, mainly because it was at the front of the park, but also because I really wanted to go on the river rapids ride. They're my favourite type of ride. Along the way, we saw another one that looked sort've interesting, so we got a skip-the-line ticket to come back to it later. You can get these tickets once every couple of hours or so, which give you a time to come back to skip the line and do the ride. This one gave us about an hour before we should return, so we moved on to find the Rapids! Unfortunately it was closed. Happiest place on Earth my ****. But oh well, by that time we were further into the park so went to find the roller coaster. Yay (puke). The mountainous area opened up to a massive lake area, where the was a big Mickey Mouse ferris wheel and the roller coaster on the other side. Luckily the line wasn't too bad (about 25 minutes), so we got in line and got excited for the ride. Some (Stacey) more excited than others (me). It was pretty good fun actually, and I only felt like spewing at the start. If you hadn't guessed it, roller coasters aren't exactly my cup of tea. I enjoy them once I'm on them, and it's not like I can't do them, but being tossed upside down on rides makes me dizzy! After that was done, we walked around the lake and past some other rides, but none were really sticking out as things we wanted to use our limited time to do. Besides, we were almost due to use our line skip so we didn't really have the time to wait in these lines,so we headed back to the first. Along the way, we say Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and a few Child Bears walking along. These weren't the Disney character type, but the tacky-matching-t-shirt-family-wearing type. **** me. By the time we got back to the first ride, it was our time to ride, and we headed inside. The ride was called California Soaring or something like that, and it raised our seats up and made us feel like we were soaring like a bird over American scenery such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Grand Canyon. It wasn't just California scenery so I'm not sure why it was called exclusively California, but it was probably all the better for it because it wouldn't have been as good as if it was limited to just that state. And it needed to have good scenery because it was really tame. I liked that. Knowing we didn't have very long to look around, we quickly moved on to the next land, which looked a bit like Hollywood, only better (after yesterday's observations of Hollywood, my backyard looks better than that, even if Josh hasn't mowed our lawns. Which he wouldn't have, we don't have a mower). We found a haunted tower ride that looked fun, and as the line was below 30 minutes, it also looked attainable to do (we were pretty much dictated by line length). It was a really fun ride, taking us right to the top of the tower, opening the doors to give a view over the park, then quickly dropping us. After that, we each had a banana, that we'd taken from the breakfast buffet earlier. This wouldn't be remarkable but for the fact that, at the time of writing (I'm over a week behind on this, getting close to 2 weeks), this is one of two pieces of fruit I've consumed this trip. We had another couple of lands to look through, before we needed to head over to Disneyland to give us enough time to look through there. We went to Cars land, which was based on the movie Cars and looked as if we had indeed stepped into the world of Cars. With so many people dressed in matching family t-shirts, even they looked comical befitting the scene. I really wanted to do the big Cars ride, but with the line length at about an hour and a half, we just didn't have the time. I'm not sure I would've bothered waiting that long even if we did. With lines getting longer and our exploring taking us to pretty much all of the park, we decided to cross over to Disneyland. My excitement was comparable to when I see trains, or Christmas, or Lego, or 42 - you get the picture, I was excited. We got through the gates and there was an actual train. Holy **** I was losing my ****. We crossed under the tracks, and the legendary Main Street USA stretched out in front of us; another even more gorgeous world that looked really out of this world. There were horse drawn carts on tracks, perfectly manicured gardens, happy kids everywhere, themed and personalised t-shirts in even more places, and cartoon buildings stretching all the way down the street to the majestic castle at the end. It really had this whole magical feel to it; it was amazing. As it was getting close to lunch time, Stace and I decided to get a small bite to eat to keep up our energy levels. We settled on a gigantic pretzel shaped like Mickey Mouse's head and sat to have a break while eating it. It's a bit ironic that Mickey Mouse is so loved, yet people are happy to rip into his head when it takes the form of a pretzel. But food does trump all in the United States. We'd just about finished eating when we heard there was a parade about to start at the foot of the castle and go down Main Street, so we gathered our things and headed to where the parade band was starting up. We saw all the Disney characters come down and dance, and then a ****-ton of kids showed up almost out of nowhere, as the parade headed off on its march. I couldn't believe how busy this place was, even though I expected it to be. The worst thing was that this wasn't even a busy day. I have no idea how you could possibly come here at its busiest, it's just packed, but I do see why people devote a whole week to coming here, not half a day like we had. Not that any of the crowds or our briefness of time in any way detracted from the aura of this place; it was amazing. Similarly to California Adventure, we decided to wander through all of the different lands that made up the whole of the Disneyland park. And they were all truly spectacular. Except for maybe Star Wars, even if it was the newest. I hate Star Wars, don't get the fascination with it, and we didn't go there. Stace isn't a fan either. We're soulmates. By now it was getting into the early afternoon, and al the rides had hour plus lines attributed to them. There was no desire from either of us to wait in queues that long; we much preferred to ensure we got around the whole park (except Star Wars, we were never going near you). I got excited when I saw the teacup ride, which I know is for little kids, but it's like the quintessential Disneyland ride. When we made it to the Wild West area, we saw the steam train at the station and nobody there looking at it. Cue me getting so excited I could possibly **** my pants. We went in, and I got to sit in the driver's cab and talk to the driver! There are 4 stations all around Disneyland that the trains circle around, making it easy (and magical no doubt) to get around different lands. Sadly, the trains (and the monorail for that matter) weren't running for the next year or so due to the building of the Star Wars s***sville, err I mean land. But it did mean I could go in the cab, and even go around and toot a train horn that was at the station. Now that was fun!! As if seeing the excitement written all over my face, the staff at the station awarded me the Engineer of the Day certificate and I pretty much lost my ****. This is the happiest place in the galaxy. Needing to get a grip of my excitement, we decided it was probably about time to have some lunch, so we found a place to get a feed. Thanks to our gift card, that was on Uncle Disney as well! After lunch, we had about an hour left to have a look around before we needed to head back to the hotel to get our transfer to the airport. We headed back to Main Street to have a look for some gifts to take home, then had a look inside the main station that I first lost my **** at when we first walked through the gates. Right at the end of our time, we found some Disney characters to get a photo with. They were chipmunks or something, I'm not sure, I've never been a big fan of Disney, but they mustn't have been the most popular characters because there wasn't a 20 metre line of kids waiting to get photos, unlike every other character we'd seen today. By the time we got our photos, it was time to go. We didn't end up doing any rides as the lines were just too long, and there were a few that weren't even going. It was a little disappointing that neither the railway or the monorail were open, because they would've been some fun things to go on, especially given the lengths of lines for rides. But all of this didn't stop the place being as magical as I imagined, and if I viewed it as glass half full, gives me further ammunition to hate Star Wars even more. Even if we'd have had the two days to go through, I'm not really sure how much more we would've seen; it likely would have meant that extra time would've been spent in lines for rides, which you can only take so much of. Either way, we left the parks with massive smiles on our faces at the great time we'd had. On the way out, we saw yet another family approaching with what looked to be personalised shirts. Thinking quickly, Stace got in front of me so I could get a photo of her, and just so happen to be able to get them in it as well. Priceless. Americans have no shame. We timed out day perfectly, because when we got back our airport transfer was just pulling up ready to take us to LAX for our onward flight to Las Vegas. We gathered our bags from reception and jumped in the car for one final trip down LA's freeways to the airport. Given it was a Monday afternoon, it wasn't the quickest trip, but we got there with plenty of time to spare, checked in for our flight, got rid of our big bags and proceeded through security. Getting through security in American airports is a pain in the ****. They're super strict and you even have to take your jackets and shoes off to get through the check. Except if you're armed forces of course, they worship them like they're gods. It's weird. The flight to Vegas was pretty easygoing; it's only about an hour away. Stace and I were split up from it though as it was pretty busy, and in an early birthday present for her, she even got the emergency exit seat. That sort of stuff always seems to happen on short flights; where was that luck on our 15-hour ****er?! It's hard to describe the sheer extent of gambling in Vegas, and harder still to escape it. As soon as we were off the plane, there were pokies in the terminal. If there was a spare area of space, they'd filled it with pokies. It was unbelievable. From the airport, it was pretty easy getting into Vegas, as it's literally right beside the strip. In about half an hour we'd landed, collected our bags, and caught a taxi to our hotel. Even the taxi ride was eye opening, with a massive TV screen bombarding you with ads. The couple of casinos and shops we passed on our way were so bright and flashy, it was already exactly as its reputation suggests, and then some. Everything was geared up for maximum entertainment, and we were going to have a fun few days! We were staying at the Egyptian themed Luxor Hotel for the next few nights, which is a massive black pyramid. When the taxi dropped us off and we walked inside, we walked into an enormous foyer with a huge casino floor, restaurants, pubs and clubs. There was everything; it was like its own city. After a little bit of a wait in line (we seemed destined for lines today), we checked in - scoring a room upgrade in the process as it was Stace's birthday tomorrow - and headed up to our room. It was getting late and we were both hungry, so after freshening up a bit, we headed back downstairs to one of the bars and ordered some food and drink. It wasn't all that hard to be encouraged, and we had a couple more than anticipated, getting a little drunk in the process. As it approached midnight, we hit the casino floor to lose a little bit of money as well. Welcome to Vegas I guess! After that, we retired back to our room, and with that, Stace's life in her 20's was done.