14/08/2007 by Russell.

Got back convenient time at 12.08pm at Heathrow.

The holiday was a wheeze, can’t believe we all went and saw so much and participated in so many activities.

Most stupid moment

Walking into a glas sliding patio door at The Bahai Hotel, not once but twice!

Best Activity:

Mule Ride (Emily and Gregory)

Best Theme Park

Disney (Emily and Gregory)

Funniest Moment

Runaway Chicken (Emily and Gregory)  Drive in McDonalds at Grand Canyon (Dad)

Biggest Surprise 

Cycling past full grown Elks at 6.00am on the way to Mule Ride

Best Beach

Del Coranado, San Diego, Malibou, Santa Monica - too many

Best View

Seeing the HOLLYWOOD sign, Grand Canyon

Best Shopping

Emily and Las Vegas

Worst Value for Money

Hotel breakfasts

Once the dust has settled I am sure we can add a few more pointers

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11/08/2007 by Russell.

Arrived at the posh Sheraton hotel at our final destination.  A self contained shopping street outside the studio we will visit on Saturday.

Have been up to Universal for a stroll and found ‘Bubba Gumps’ and an 18 screen cinema, we might go to the movies on our final night.  We can watch Harry Potter on an IMAX here.

Earlier today we visited a Hollywood cemetry, couldn’t find Edward G Robinson or Peter Lorre, but saw Cecil B deMille, Johnny Ramone and Jane Mansfield.  Strolled Hollywood and found Rodeo Drive, Have got a map of all the celeb’s addresses which we will check out on Sunday morning, we have found Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Angeline Jolie, MM,  John Wayne, Steven Spielberg are among the A list celebs homes we will visit.

This might be the last post before returning home, our expensive Internet willrun out by the time we have finished at Universal.  We shall do the tour of the sets aswell as the Mummy experience , Back Draft and of course Shrek.

E and G in great spirits, will go tothe studio before breakfast again to get a good full and final day.

If we organise ourselves properly with the freeways we hope to have a closer view of ‘HOLLYWOOD’ sign.

Goodbye Hollywood

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10/08/2007 by Russell.

Emily and dad had a spat in the car becase of a simple but important misunderstanding, the air was blue because of a wrong freeway, 2 and half hrs later we arrived in Malibou.  I hate going in the wrong direction when it can be avoided, otherwise we have got to all our destinations really well.

Lunch at a takeaway sandwich bar - expensive but hey - the sarnies were delicious.  Greg met peanut butter for the first time on this trip.

Wanted to get up to Santa Barbara, but really wasn’t possible, so went on the beach and Pacific at Malibou.

DRove a bit further up PCH, and returned on 101 back to LA - some 55 miles back.

I would like to do the drive again, once you get in the hang of the freway system, it falls into place, but from Anaheim, we are about 1.5hrs from the beach.  LA is huge.  We have to move north by 35 miles to get to Universal today.

Will do the macabre today and visit some gravestones…

…and take a drive round the celeb homes in bel air.

Glad C and K had a good time and Phillip kept the house in order during your break.

Kids in bed as I write, but they are ahving such full days and don’t necessarily realise what a huge place LA is.  Forget public transport you need a car with aircon.

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09/08/2007 by Russell.

Happy birthday and 10th anniversary today.  Have a great day if you manage to read this and love to Ify, Ade and Jo

Love

Russell, Emily and Gregory in USA

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09/08/2007 by Russell.

Weds - up and out of Hotel without breakfast at 8.40 to go to Disney, we arrived back after 10.30pm.  It was a long day.

To beat the crowds on the best rides wearrived early and managed to conquer Star Tours ( Star wars ride) and Space Mountain before 10.am and then we had breakfast.  Emily soon got into the swing of things on the rides.  Greg had the desire of getting on the big rides just like I remember Phillip.

We slowed down at around 12.30pm, by which time I was flagging, and we had been on, Buzz Lightyear and Critters (log fume) and seen Cap’n Jack fighting his enemies on an island.

We also visited Californian Adventure Park, another extension to Disney, Muppets and monsters Inc.

We walked up and down and around, seeing and watching the parade in the heat.  It  was so hot to sit on the pavement - you burnt your ass!

To finish we watched a firework show to end all shows, fireworks from behind and to the side aswell as over the castle centrepiece.

It was another full day, and hopefully we will have a sedate drive up the Pacific coast highway for a beach.

Still got Universal studios to crack yet, can’t wait.

The sun hasn’t stopped shining since we have been out here  and only thing now is the eating habits of burgers and chips and pizzas.  Would like some vegetables… 

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08/08/2007 by Russell.

Took over an hour from our Hotel just to get to this famous destination, Graumans Chines Theatre and the Hollywood walk of fame et al.

My hands fitted Robin Williams, MM had small feet as did Bette Davis.

Harrison Ford and Johnny Depp’s feet were there along with R2D2 ….

Emily even had her photo taken with Cap’n Jack. We strolled and went into Ripley’s ‘Believe it or Not’ Museum.

HAd our lunch where we could see the HOLLYWOOD sign in the far distance.

Drove down Sunset Blvd, about an hour to Santa Monica beach via Beverly Hills, Bel Air…

We had a very full day with only an hour on the beach..and were cussed at by some Hood as we left because we took our time in the parking lot.

We are all tired and settled for a rive thru, which would have been fine except for ice going all over my nether regions…ow that was cold. 

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07/08/2007 by Russell.

Mon/Tues

Took us awhile to gey out of Diego, we couldn’t get on the right freeway we wanted.

Arrived at the Hilton, It is a huge hotel along with several others servicing Disney.  We are 10min walk away from Disney.

Hotel not as nice as Diego, have to pay for Internet here £5 a day.

There is a pool, a gym etc.,but really there is nothing around here other than more Hotel chains.

WE have to go by car everywhere and we have to pay for parking here!

Have to get on the freeway to go anywhere even to the beach.  We are about 10 miles from the beach and 25 miles from Universal.

We will try and do ‘Sunset Boulevard’ today and take it from there…

Wednesday is Disney day.

Have a nice day..

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06/08/2007 by Russell.

What a final day we had in Diego.  We were more adventurous, visiting the bay area and over the bridge to the Coronado.  Famous for it’s wooden structured hotel, La Coronado.

Visited abeach up the island, which wasn’t to Greg’s satisfaction, so moved back towards the famous hotel.  As usual, able to pull up outside the seafront in a prime slot. 

Ambled into hotel, had free glass of Lemonade, and saw the splendid interior.  It is regarded as a national treasure, and has a fantastic lift (old caged thingy) and wooden staircase to die for.  It was the first hotel in the west to have electricity and I think a lift.  It was also used as a backdrop to ‘Some Like it Hot’ movie and has hosted presidential dinners - Nixon, Reagan…and the beach was great.

In the evening we ventured downtown in the dark with a rough notion where wanted to be, took us 3/4 of an hour but we found the ‘Corvette Diner’ complete with Corvette inside the diner.  Fantastic, a woman took the SUV to be parked, and we had ice cream shakes, great burger and the dj even played a request for E and G - ‘Let’s twist again like last summer…is it a bird? is it a plane? ‘NO!’ it’s a twister…you know the one..and that’s it. End of Diego.

Off to drive up to LA - have you seen the number of freeways there are up there? we were lost at times around Diego.

 Hope folks are reading this…

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05/08/2007 by Russell.

Took us awhile to get downtown to the Gaslamp Quarter (town centre).  Ambled round usual shops - Gap, Macey’s, Body Shop.. and then drifted off to ‘Seaport’ on the waterfront.  A bit like Covent Garden with the sun but no artistes, only artists and tarot readers - for whatever reason.  Saw some quiant three wheel cars for hire.

Saw the naval ships here across the water.  It is a city on the up..

Got some bits and bobs, had a lunch with fries (its fries with everything).

Spent afternoon in the pool and will watch Superman tonight in the pool with the movie projected on to a large screen..there is a carvery here tonight, something Phillip would quite enjoy.

Had a dossy day

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04/08/2007 by Russell.

Is it possible for sea creatures Dolphins, Whales, Walrus and even an Otter do do all those tricks?

We found out with an afternoon of great drama and excitement as all types of sea animals treated everyone to thrills and spills in the pools.  It was a spectacle as only America can put on, troubadours entertained the waitng crowds in the seating areas.

Dolphins must have leapt around 30feet, Shamu the killer whale entetained to rock music, The seals even talked with their trainers.  Amazing stuff.  Even the penguins were treated to an Antarctic  habitat.  The first time we saw them swimming we were taken aback at their speed and agility.

Greg and Emily had a ‘whale’ of a time….we stayed until the firework ending and came back to our hotel to find that not only had we lost two of Greg’s t’shirts drying on the balcony earlier in the day, to now losing his United towel…the hunt is on.

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