How much of Disneyland can our feet take? We took a day of rest on wednesday and found ourselves a ride. Our new Dodge Charger is so fierce, it looks as if it could change into a massive robot at any moment. It is going to be fun exploring California in that "transformer" car.

Thursday, we were at the park at 8:00. What a luxury to do our favourite rides once or twice more, or even nine times more for Paul and Callum in their beloved Roller Coaster. The kids had lunch along the Mississippi river, watching the steam boat sailing by in a stream of blues, we lunched somewhere in Mexico, in front of a scary looking railroad in a stream of screams...At night, we enjoyed the show "world of Colour" a last time and forgot to breath all over again. Maxim and Callum keep asking if we can do that again next year. If only...

We left Disneyland with a few unanswered questions:

1. Is there an age limit to stop wearing funny mouse ears on your head or big bright yellow princess dresses?

2. Is there a special toilet provided for the cast in caracter costume, and if yes how fast can Donald Duck run to it?

3. It is legal do give a small baby pure undilute Coca Cola in his baby bottle to him keep happy as we saw a mum do during the Disney Parade?

On Friday we packed up and made our way to Santa Barbara on what was supposed to be a two hours ride on a quaint road along the sea.

Let me tell you something, Highway 101 is not a quaint road by the sea. The only highlight on this 12 laned nightmare is that we got to see the Hollywood sign despite the smog. Half of the LA people were also headed North, each of them alone in a massive car driving at a snail pace. We all wished that we were still in the magic kingdom where scary rides only last 3 minutes. And no, our car did not transform into a huge robot who would have just walked all over the trafic, We looked and looked but could not find the right button.

Luckily we now have a new guardian angel, TOM TOm whose sweet female (the kids wanted Darth Vador, but it was not available) is now guiding us through the maze of American towns and the spagettis of freeways surrounding them. Otherwise we would still be on the road somewhere, lost in the night.

After 5 hours, we arrived in Santa Barbara in front ouf our lovely and fully booked hotel, having learned 3 valuable lessons:

1. No matter how short the drive looks, always have food and water in the car. Hungry children are not a pretty sight, or sound...Hungry parents do not sound much better

2. It Tom Tom says to go right and the chief driver keeps on going straight, do not scream or panic or even ask why. It will stress the chief driver who is also hungry and tired. We can alwyas try the next exit, or the next one, or the next one...

3. Always, always book ahead, the better the hotel looks on the internet, the quicker it gets booked out.

The whole thing could have led us to a bed bug ridden smelly motel. But we bumped into David, the Map Man, who armed with his phone pulled a few strings and soon found us a cute motel with pool and spa in sunny santa Barbara. Ah the kindness of strangers...