Day 22 Today we pay tribute to Paul and coming home

Well today we sadly pay tribute to our good friend Paul, and today is our last day of our holiday. So we are off to Disneyland, and we remember that Paul was the biggest kid of us all. We will miss you very much, particularly the kids you were a great friend to them.

We are signing off now and will see you all when we get home.

Its been a holiday we will never forget.

Day 18 Universal Studios

The oldest and largest working movie studio in Hollywood, it's the second largest in the world behind a studio in Bollywood India.

The Davis's and Marschke's were again together at universal - now Christened the Mavis's.

The train tour of the back lot was fantastic, with 45 mins spend touring around all the various movie sets, all thoes 'on location' shots I thought I had seen in the movies turned out to be movie sets, really well done. We hit the rides, the highlight being Jurasic Park flume ride, thoes dino's look pretty real!!

We all learned how the movie effects take place through the tour of the sound stages. Didn't spot any stars though, although quite a few TV shows & movies were being shot while we where there.

The day turned cold and wet mid afternoon so we dicided to headback to Anaheim, so did the rest of LA by the look of the traffic! Driving in LA is really just a race to the next traffic jam.

Day 17 Disney California Adventure park

No photos this day, Leisa had the Camera at the show, but I took a bit of video to capture the day.

Another great amusement park. The attention to detail, and the quality of the performances in the park is first class. We spent most of the day in California Adventure park going on as many rides as we could, then crossed back into Disneyland for dinner (Calm Chowder in a sour dough bowl - yummy) and watched the Dreams Parade that night. It was just like seeing all those old Disney stories coming to life. A real highlight.

Day 15 Disneyland

Last night we settled into our hotel in Anaheim. It's a great location half way between Disneyland and the Conference Centre.

We spent the day at Disneyland with the Marschkes. The kids really enjoyed having David around to join them on the rougher rides.

In a word Disneyland was simply mind-blowing, we all had a great day, and we only got through half the park spending most of our time in Tomorrowland, Fantastyland (the home of the spinning tea cups and Alice in Wonderland) and Mickey's Toontown. Mickey was in town so the kids got a photo with him and Maddison loved Minnie's house.

The next day we took some time out and had a rest day, the kids went for a swim, good thing the pool is heated, it's still pretty cool outside but the sun is shining. Leisa went to the first day of the Crafters Home conference.

Day 14 Wild Animal Park

Today we left San Diego, but we visited 2 Scrapbook stores 1st, check out Scrapbook City's Blog.

And then we arrived at the Wild Animal Park, we had decided to do this rather than the San Diego Zoo, as we had heard great things about it, but we were somewhat dissappointed, as a number of the attractions we couldnt do, as they were either closed, or Lincoln was not old enough, but we did see Lions, giraffes from a distance, and elepants.

Day 13 Legoland

This is the day the kids have been waiting for, also because Lachie would be there too.

Once again we hired a wheel chair for Shane.

Well this place is heaven on earth for the Davis family, the kids have loved it because there was so many rides, and David took them from one to another, how brave Maddison and Cooper have become. And Shane is in love with Legoland, because the main sponsor is Volvo, there is a life size car made with Lego, and right out the front of the ticket booth there is preferential parking for Volvo drivers, we all had a good laugh about this. Unfortunately we had hired a Ford Explorer.

Day 12 Seaworld

Today at lunch time we meet up with David, Belinda and Lachie, how nice to see friends. David recommended a nice place to have lunch by the sea, very nice.

After lunch we headed off to Seaworld. We had decided to hire a wheel chair for Shane, which worked like a treat. He didn't want to miss out on any excitement.

There were 2 main rides both involving water. I managed to talk the kids off the 1st one, but gave into the 2nd one, which was a rapid type ride, similar to the one at Dreamworld. Well when we go off the 4 of us were completely soaking which was not a good thing, as the sun was about to go down, and the temp was about 10 degrees. It was very painful to be in wet jeans when it is very cold.

Anyway we stayed so we could see the show with Shamu the killer whale. It was worth the wait, such clever animals.

Day 11 Off to San Diego

Shane had a fantastic night, but very sore, the kids and I get him dressed and he is only eating soup and yoghurt, what a great way to lose weight.

It is about 4 hours to SD and we have to go through LA. The traffic will never cease to amaze us. It is a Saturday morning and we are bumper to bumper on a 5 or 6 lane highway.

I had never imagined that I would be doing the driving, and can easily say, that I have not really enjoyed it.

We reach SD around 2ish, we have a great room, and Shane can now have a rest after being in the car for about 10 hours since leaving hospital. Thank goodness for drugs.

Day 9 and 10

It was such a relief when at about midday Shane's doctor said he could go home, and that it was ok for him to travel. He had even given him dissolvable stitches which meant we didn't have to find another doctor in a weeks time. yay.

So we finally left Modesto about 2ish, we hope we will never be back.

We have now decided though to skip some of our planned itinerary via San Francisco and head straight to San Diego, very dissappointing but the sensible thing to do.

We had hoped to get there that night, but we travelled until Shane was comfortable enough and stopped at a Best Western at Lebec approx 100 miles north of LA. He felt every bump on the road I'm sure.

Lincoln had decided it was his turn to be sick, and we had some fun car antics with him vomitting.

Day 8 Recovery

When we went to Shane about 10am he was sitting up and looking really well. We were secretly hoping that he would come home already, becasue where we are is the 6th most violent city in the States, and the kids and I have been out there by ourselves.

Anway still in hospital for another night, he is finding it very painful to walk and get around.

Day 7 Shane takes a ride in a special kind of Limo

Well please don't be alarmed when you read this, we are all now well and safe.

But it started around midnight, Shane could not sleep because he was having terrible pains in the stomach. He originally thought he had just eaten too much dinner.

Anyway after 3 hot showers and 1 bath, and was just beside himself with pain, and obviously I was very worried.

At 5am I called the check in people for the house and said we needed a doctor urgently. The nearest doctor was 40 mins away and we could drive there. I said that I was not happy to do this as it was very dark outside, the kids were sleeping, it was very cold and I was not keen to drive, let alone on icy roads that I did not know. So an Ambulance came.

The decided to take Shane to the Yosemite Medical Center so that a doctor could assess him, the drive would take 40 mins, and they said to give them a call in an hours time.

I tried to stay calm, I really did not think it would be anything serious, maybe just an irritable bowel problem. It was just starting to become daylight, and for the 1st time I could take a look out the windows at the park.

Cooper was up now with me, and we sat and did a jigsaw puzzle to pass the time.

When the hour was up, I rang, and they said, the doctor ruled out all viruses and thought that more than likely it was appendisitis, sorry for the spelling, and that he needed to go to hospital for more tests, this hospital being 3 hours away.

By now sheer panic started to set in. The nurse on the phone said that i needed to go as well, just in case I needed to make decisions. I think at this stage I started to cry, because how was I going to drive a car I didn't know, on icy, very dangerous roads I didn't know. I felt for sure I would not be able to handle the car and that I would kill myself and the kids, anway I kept telling myself to stay calm. Until I realised I had no money, Shane had taken his wallet with him in the ambulance. At this stage I started to pray.

So i quickly woke the other 2 kids, packed up, put all the suitcases in the car and headed off to a city called Modesto.

My heart was racing the whole way, but we made it very safely and in hindsight it was quite easy. It took me 4 hours, but I drove very slowly.

We were very relieved when we got to Modesto, that Shane had arrived as well. I had terrible thoughts that what if they changed their minds and didn't take him and we had driven all this way for nothing, there was no way I was going to drive back.

When we found Shane in the ER, he seemed quite well, and we thought that whatever it was had gone away, but that was the morphine talking. About 6pm we found out that Shane had appendisitis and that they would operate straight away. there was chances that it had ruptured.

The operation went well, and no rupture, thank goodness.

Day 6 Sequoira National Park

We woke up early this morning as we needed to get onto the road and off to Yosemite, early so we could be there before dark. We first needed to get chains for the car, it was snowing where we were staying, but it was where the Big Trees were.

A very long drive up the mountain, but decided to keep going that it would be all worth it, we had heard how beautiful the trees would be, and the kids were very excited about it.

Finally we found the General Sherman, the largest living thing on earth, wow, very amazing, it was very beautiful.

We were now very late, and still needed to get to Yosemite another 4 hours away, but we all agreed it would be a long time before we forget Sequiora National Park and the Sequiora's, it was a great day.

Anyway we arrived at our house that we had rented around 8pm, all very dark, and not really knowing where we were, when we got there we found out that we did not have the house that we had booked, it had a leaking roof, so they gave us a different one, this was very disappointing. We also could not get the tv to work and Shane could not get the fire going, thank goodness for central heating. The temp is about -5 degrees.

Day 5 A Day of Travelling

Well we sadly left the cruise this morning but very excited about what lay ahead of us. We went straight to Budget to pick up a new car, and Shane became very disappointed when they gave us a Chryllser Pacifica, and said that it was an SUV which is what we needed for the luggage space.

Anyway this car was total luxury, very much like a Mercedes R class if anyone know what that is, but is was not what Shane wanted. So we decided to go to LAX and see if we could switch cars, (they couldn't do it at Long Beach).

Anyway about 2 to 3 hours later, Shane was now happy and we have a red Ford Explorer, heaps of luggage room, yay.

Today is the day that we are due to meet David and Belinda, and finally we were able to reach them via texting. We decided to keep driving until we reached the Sequoira National Park, and then try and find somewhere to stay for the night.

About 5ish we found a quite little cabin and motel place with beautiful mountains with snow on in the distance. When we checked in, the lady mentioned that there was another couple from Brisbane staying there as well, which was very freaky, as there was only another 2 cars around.

We also learnt about 4pm that we had missed David and Belinda by about 20 minutes, it was not meant to be to catch up with them today.

Anyway when we checked in the lady also mentioned that it was going to be 20 degrees F tonight, which is about -5. So I asked her did the cabins have air conditioning, and she looked strangely at me, and said it was going to be very cold. I did not realise what I was saying, but Shane realised I was asking for it to be even colder, what we needed was HEATING.

Day 4 Relaxing Day at Sea

We had a very quite relaxing day today, once again the kids were anxious to be in the kids club. We are learning lots of new words like
lollies - candy
soft drinks - soda
take away - to go

And we now know what a Martini is!!

Day 3 Ensenada Mexico

We dropped the kids back to the kids club, and Shane and I did a city tour for a couple of hours.

Nothing had prepared us for the absolute freezing weather, the tour guide said it was probably the coldest day on record.

Once we hit the shopping we did warm up and found a sensational place for lunch, the Mango Mango, the Sangria also helped to keep us warm. We love mexican food and this restaurant did not dissappoint.

On the way back to the boat, we saw the original Black Pearl from the movie Pirates of the Carribean, on its way to florida for the No 3 movie.

Day 2 Cont

Well we were so excited, to finally arrived at the Cruise Harbour, yes that was Shane's last comment, and I think he was more interested in looking at the cars around us, rather than concentrating on the freeway, anyway we made it safely.

The kids nearly passed out with excitement when they saw the boat, it was very big to say the least. We got on board with no problems at all around lunch time.

Exlored the boat and found something very exciting called the kids club, Maddison was not so sure, but the boys were rearing to go. What it meant was the Shane and I could have dinner in peace, how wonderful.

We have no porthole in our room, so once all lights are off it is complete darkness.

Day 2 - driving in LA

Temp - max 12, min 0, fine and sunny but pretty cold. Maccas for breakfast, then checked out of our hotel, and traveled down the San Diego freeway south to Long Beach. Driving in LA is an experience, 6 lanes of traffic moving at 70 mph unitl someone jams on the brakes at the next traffic jam. The highlight for me was driving along Sunset Blvd stopping at the traffic lights in Beverley Hills, and having two Bentley Conyinential GTs on one side of us and a Bentley Continential Flying Spur on the other side. We made it down to Long Beach and got on board the M/S Paradise our home for the next few days. Grabbed some lunch at the Paris cafe, got settled into our cabin and set sail for Mexico at 6.00pm. The kids had a great night in the Kids Club while Leisa and I enjoyed a quite meal in the Restuarant.

Welcome to Los Angeles

After having such a great flight, we headed off to Budget to pick up the car. Shane was so tempted to get something bigger and better than we had booked, but we only have this car for 1 day so it would do. Lots of complaints later though, that it had no guts and not a good turning circle. Anyway it took us about 1 hour and 10 mins to get from the airport to the Hotel on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Quite a short drive, but it was peak hour in the morning. As soon as we got to the Hotel about 10am we were very fortunate to be able to get our room straight away, so we decided to book a Movie Stars Homes Tour for the afternoon, just enough time to have a nap in between.

We all passed out very quickly and nearly had to shake the kids to wake them. The tour for the 5 of us was very expensive, but very worth it, even Maddison and Cooper enjoyed it. So we saw the famous peoples homes, the Greystone Mansion from Batman, we saw the Hollywood sign, we went to Rodeo Drive, the Chinese Theater and the Kodak Theater. Beverly Hills and Bel Air is just something else, it really must be seen to be believed.

After the tour the temperature became very cold, about 10 degrees Celcius, it was quite warm when we got off the plane. We then came across an original train carrriage done up as a
Diner, across the road from the Hotel. So that's Day 1, we are all looking forward to having a good nights sleep.

Leisa

The flight over

Departed Brisbane at 7.00 am Thursday and landed in LA at 7.20am Thursday - quick flight hey, thanks to the international date line. If only it was that quick.

The Brisbane Melbourne leg was a peice of cake. Melbourne to LA - 13 1/2 hours looked a little more daunting, but we had an excellent flight. The trip to LA started really well with some time in the Qantas Club First Class lounge with free Moet, how good is that?!

The highligh for me was the wide eyed look of amazment of the boys when the Jumbo took off. Acording to Cooper the plane was four times the size of Disney Land. Wiat 'till he sees just how big Disney Land is! Didn't get much sleep but that was Ok as we had lots of movies on demand and the kids were really well behaved.

Shane.

6 Days to Go and Counting

Well can you believe there is 6 sleeps to go before our big American Adventure. The suitcases are on the loungeroom floor, as much winter clothes as possible has been bought. Leapsters are ready. Passports are finally organised, is it now just a waiting game.