Day 9...

So the next morning we drove the short distance from Anaheim to Los Angeles. However the morning traffic made it seem like a long distance. I'm not sure why people would want to do that to themselves everyday. I will never complain about my 45 minute drive to work again (okay maybe not never but for a while anyways). At least I'm continuously moving (unless I get stuck behind a school bus) and I have a smog free, beautiful drive. Anyways, used to think I was a city girl but not so sure of that now.

We decided to head to Hollywood for the day. It was very fun to stand in front of buildings and see things that I had only saw on TV before. Such as:

The Kodak theatre where the Oscars are held every year and

the Chinese theatre were all the Hollywood movie premieres happen and where one can find many stars hand and feet imprints:(Marilyn had very tiny hands and feet incase you can't tell from the picture) We also walked up and down the street to look at the stars in the sidewalks. We didn't see them all because they are on many blocks but we walked a few blocks and Jason was stopping quite frequently to take pictures of them. Did you know that in order for someone to have a star on the walk of fame they have to have been famous for five years, pay 25 000 dollars, be invited by the committee to do so, submit an application and then be approved by that same committee. Isn't that crazy? Anyways it was really neat to see it.

After all of this the four of us decided to take a tour in a van to see some of the Hollywood sights and of course stars homes. This was one of my favorite things on our trip. It was so neat to see everything. We also saw a lot of places that were used in filming that you would recognize from movies. We really lucked out with our tour guide. He loved history and was adding in lots of tidbits of information for us and could always answer any questions that we had. Anyways here are some of the many pictures that we have of some star's homes. The crazy thing about these huge homes were that they are in neighbourhoods and usually just have a gate or sometimes no gate at all. However there's no room in Beverley Hills to have a huge private lot if you want to live there. Bob Barker's houseYou may recognize this house from the Osbourne's perhaps? Yup Ozzy was there that day when we were there!Jason's favorite Dr. Phil quote is "grass can't grow on a busy street son". He has no problem with the landscaping on his lot. His house was my favorite. It looked like a Tuscan villa. It was beautiful.Lastly our tour guide told us that he would know if the next person was home simple by turning the corner onto the road. When we turned the corner he said "nope he's not home". We were confused. Then I saw the gate that we parked in front of and knew who it was right away (you couldn't see the house form the road). I watched too much of Entertainment Tonight a while back and therefore recognized this gate when the cameras would storm any vehicles leaving it when everyone was trying to get the million dollar shot of baby Suri. You got it, this is Tom and Katie's gate. Apparently Tom has been living here for two years and doesn't own the place, instead he chooses to pay 30 000 dollars in rent every month. Isn't that crazy! Apparently when they are home the streets are lined wiht paparazzi....how sad is that? What kind of life could that be?

Lastly I'll leave you with the LA skyline taken from the Hollywood hills

and of course, one of the most recognized sings in the world (how sad is that, even though I thought it was really cool to be standing just below it)

Next stop is the fabulous (or not so fabulous) Vegas!

Day 7 and 8......

Ah Disney....I don't care how old you are when you go. Disney just has this magical way of transforming you into a kid again. Having lived in Florida for a few years and going down to visit my dad after we moved back up here I have been to Disney World a lot. So I was really excited at the opportunity to be able to go to Disneyland, especially with Jason because he has never been. Jason's such a big kid at heart. It's wonderful and I love this so much about him. He gets so excited over the simplest things that I just have to laugh at him sometimes. He brings a lot of fun, laughter and craziness into this marriage for sure.

Anyways so day 7 we were off to Disneyland. We were so excited. We got in there and bought our 2 day park hopper passes (because there were 2 parks so we wanted to be able to go to both) for the small price of 135 american each...ouch that one hurt. However it was SO WORTH IT!!!

The first day we decided to head into the park that is called Disneyland. For those of you who have been to the Magic Kingdom at Disney World this is what I would compare it to. Although some of the rides are the same, some are different as well. Also for those of you that have been to the Magic Kingdom, when you turn the corner onto the main street of Disney and see the castle at the end it takes your breath away, that magical castle that we all grew up seeing on TV. So I was preparing Jason for this moment and couldn't wait to see his reaction. So we turn the corner and see the castle and he reacted just as I was explaining. However I couldn't help but laugh because the castle at Disneyland is so much smaller than the one at Disney World. The one you see on TV is definitely from Disney World. However since Disneyland was built first in 1955 I guess they did it on a smaller scale. Anyways enough with the rambling and here comes the pics.

Here is main street in Disney with the castle at the end.

Closer look at the castle.

This is where Mickey and all the gang live. This is Mickey's house under the sign.

Self-explanatory I think. This was very exciting for my husband but he was upset that Mickey didn't have red pants on like he does in the cartoons. So Jason has written them on email because on his ticket it say "Disneyland Where Dreams Come True". However his dream did not come true because his dream was to meet Mickey with the red pants. Maybe we'll get a free trip out of this or something :)

Definitely one of my old time favorite rides!

At the end of the evening they have a parade. Everything at Disney is wonderful and this was Jason's favorite part. He was moved to tears in this moment because it was so overwhelming for him. It was so great to experience those two days with him. We had such a fun time. We already can't wait to head to Florida and do Disney World some time in the future!

Next stop Los Angeles and Hollywood baby!

Day 4-6....

So Saturday morning off we went to San Diego, California. I was so excited. At this point I was still in awe of the desert so I took lots more pictures from the motor home window. We were in desert like setting until we got to the other side of the mountains going into San Diego. Here's one of the great pictures I took. Or as Jason would say one of the few if only good picture I took (I'm certainly not meant to be a photographer in life).

So after a few hours of this we crossed into California. It was still a little bit of desert for awhile and then I started seeing green fields. It was great. I didn't realize how much I had missed the green colors after being in winter here and being in the desert for a couple of days. The green fields were things like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. They were huge fields with people in them picking. It was neat driving by reading the signs and recognizing produce names that I pick up at the local grocery store. It was also neat to think that I was now in California where this stuff would be considered local. Sometimes I feel guilty buying strawberries in the winter that come from California or something else because they come from so far away. Anyways, back to the trip that's a whole other topic :)

A short while after crossing into California there are the sand dunes. I'm not talking the ones like you see at Parlee Beach either. These things were huge. It's sand that has blown in from the desert in California and Mexico. It was really neat.
I tried to take the picture so that you could imagine how big they are when you compare them to the RV's that are there or the power lines. Those two black dots on the sand that you see are four wheelers that you can rent and drive on them.

After some travelling complications (road in mountain shut down to high profile vehicles due to high winds) we finally got to San Diego after supper. We parked at the beach for the night and prepared for our adventure the next day.

Day 5 was a full day at the San Diego zoo, one of the biggest and most well known zoos in the world. We were so impressed with this zoo and highly recommend it to any of you who may be heading that way. It's a non-profit organization which I loved as well. So even when you bought a bottle of water for $3.00 the money was going back to the animals. So you didn't mind paying the extra money, or at least we didn't anyways. Jason and I had a blast walking around and looking at all the exhibits. The following are some of my favorite pictures that Jason took. There are so many more but I don't want to bore you with too many animal pics.

Jason really enjoyed the pandas and koalas. My favorite part was the giraffes. You could stand in a really long line and pay money to feed the giraffes cookies. However we decided to watch others do it. It was really neat watching the way they use their tongues to wrap around your hand to grab the cookie. I will never forget the giggling joy of this little girl in the picture, it was great.

The next day (day 6) we headed outside of San Diego (only about 20 minutes) to a beautiful area which I can't remember the name of. Anyways, my dad and Jason went golfing and my dad's girlfriend and I went with them (to watch though of course, I suck at golf).

After being in the hot sun all day we drove to Anaheim, which is where Disneyland is. We got there just before supper and found a big mall parking lot to park in. So we stayed there for the night. Jason and I went shopping. I may have spent some money :) Okay I spent a good chunk. Let me just say, we need a Victoria Secret here and a JCPenny. However I do not know their labour codes so I shouldn't be so quick to jump on that train.

We went to bed early knowing that our next two days would be at the magical world of Disneyland! (more to come on that)

Day 1-3.....

Okay (deep breath) now that I'm able to be at home for a little bit I'll have some time to post today. Since I'll be posting pictures from our trip I'm not able to blog at work because the trip pictures are on my home computer. Anyways here I go.....

On February 28 Jason and I boarded a plane to go see my father and his girlfriend in Tucson, Arizona. The night before we were ready to leave we both developed this dry cough. Weren't sure what was going on however the next morning when we both woke up with colds we realized what was happening. I was so upset. I had managed to escape sickness almost all winter so far and the day I'm going away on vacation I get sick (I blame sinus infection Mandi for all the hugs before I left...hee hee hee). So the sinus pressure with flying was wonderful for the both of us. Jason was worse than I was at this point (he actually was worse and not the man idea of being worse than me....for those of you who are married to whinny husbands when they get sick you know what I mean). We had a four hour wait in Toronto before boarding our plane to head to Denver. I thought Jason was going to not make it. He was sweating, had a fever and was nauseous. However I just kept dumping juice and pills down his throat and we made it to Tucson (one hour and a half later because of a delay leaving Denver). So our first day that started at 7:00 am did not finish until 2:30 am. We were a little tired to say the least!

The next day, because we both still aren't feeling so hot, we decided that we would drive around Tucson and look at some things from the car. Tucson is a valley. There are mountains all around. It was so beautiful. However on top of this it's all desert. It was nuts. I was not expecting this at all. I knew that it was a desert but I guess it was not what I was picturing. I don't know. It reminded me of the old coyote and roadrunner cartoons. In fact they even have roadrunners, mind you they aren't as big as the one in the cartoon. Anyways here are some pictures that we took the first day.

This is my dad's RV that we called home for 16 days and took on our adventure.

The mountains surrounding Tucson (they were so beautiful). The next picture are these same mountains but we're now on them. I was shocked when I saw what grew on mountains in Arizona.

Yup those green things that you see everywhere are cactus'. Isn't that crazy? I was so amazed when we walked outside of the airport the night we arrived. There were cactus' everywhere. It was really cool. There are very strict laws regarding these cactus'. You are not allowed to cut one down. In fact if you're caught even breaking an arm of of the cactus' you get in a lot of trouble. I was told that it takes 100 years for an arm to form off the side of a cactus like the one you're going to see in the next picture.

However these ones have not been growing for 100 years because they aren't fully developed yet but I'm sure you get the idea.

So that was about it for the second day. Just drove around looking at stuff but it was so cool to see. The third day my dad and Jason (who is now feeling better) got up bright and early and headed to the golf course. It was very fun watching Jason lug golf clubs all over the place in the Toronto airport. We didn't fight too much going through customs :) Anyways, I stayed in bed that morning and laid on the couch watching TV all day on Friday. I only went out for a drive once that day. I just was feeling too yucky to do anything. Jason was so happy to go golfing!

K, I think that's enough to bore you with for today. Stay tuned, next we'll be heading to California!

We're back......

Hello everyone, thanks for hanging in there and being patient! So the reason I haven't been blogging for the past bit is because Jason and I have been on vacation for the past 16 days. I didn't want to post that on my blog before I left because you just never know who may be reading this thing. Anyways, we went to visit my father in Tucson, Arizona. From there we went in his motor home to California, Nevada and back down to Arizona (we drove 1800 miles, that's like driving from here to Florida). It was an amazing trip. We saw many beautiful things and tried to take as many pictures as possible. However like any trip we've been on we find we are picture happy for the first bit and then by the end to drag the camera out for another picture seems too hard. Anyways my plan is to post some pictures on here and recount the days for you, since I know a lot of you would like to know what we did. So stay tuned for that.

PS- Seems weird that two days ago we were in the hot sun (34 C) Jason was golfing and swimming and then we woke up to a snowstorm this morning. Wow!