Munich

We´re here safe and sound and about to head into Oktoberfest on the subway!
The free wireless internet access has ground to a halt, so I will have to find a new way to post.

later....

Area 51

We'll leave it to you to decide!

Road trip.

The longest drive we have done so far was a couple of days ago from Santa Barbara (which we loved) to Monterey (which we thought was ok)

You can either go up the 101 Motorway or take the shorter but much more tricky coast road.
To be honest we didn't enjoy the drive as much as we had hoped, but there was plenty to look at and Rach got her first chance to intentionally drive on the right side of the road.

One thing that is interesting is how familiar so many of the place names are, for instance we had lunch at Los Alamos, a name I knew very well, but the population is only a few hundred.





In Santa Barbara I wanted to stay at the Fess Parker lodge (he was my boyhood hero) but because no-one else had a clue who he was I got out voted which turned out to be a good thing coz the place we stayed in rocked!



Anyway here's a few pics we took out the window while driving along.



This could be Canterbury.




On road trips we always play "windmill" which is the same as "horse". This time we decided to play "flag".
The Americans sure do like their flags and the game became very noisy very quickly!

Janice, you would have loved it!






On a toilet stop this wild and fierce creature attacked me!









The photos don't do the views justice.


The sunset was pretty special too.

The Reality.

On our way north from LA we stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant we like right at the end of the famous Santa Monica pier. On the beach were almost 4000 crosses, each representing a US soldier killed in the current combat in Iraq.

This was a sobering and surreal experience for all of us.

One of the signs also said that if they were to put out across for every Iraqi killed it would take up the whole beach. (It's a bloody big beach!)

This is a huge issue here in the US; people are very passionate about it and it's no wonder when you consider that not only have over 3800 US soldiers died, more than 56,000 others have been wounded.

Johnny Depp

When we were in LA Amy was very enthusiastic to find her future husband's star on the famous footpath.

Unfortunately we run out of time and didn't find it, but she did get a chance to place her hands and feet into the concrete where Johnny had left his mark.

She's only just started to wash her hands again!

San Francisco

We have arrived at our final American destination of the trip, in old Fisherman's Wharf in San Fransisco. The city itself when driving in to it, is so very cool. It is such an interesting looking place. The city skyline looks fantastic and the houses are unbelievably symmetrical. Very strange, but pretty cool!
Tomorrow we are going to spend the day exploring the central city and down town areas and the famous area of Union Square, for some shopping and hopefully a spot of lunch!

So please don't forget to leave your comments it's good to know who's reading. You do this by clicking the comments and the bottom of the blog, then click on other and just type in your name then you're good to leave your comment!

Hope y'all are well!

Take care of each other
Le Eders

Square pants!

Erika has been on a crusade to find Sponge Bob Square Pants on this trip.
Unbelievably she found him twice in one day!

Pic one is on Hollywood boulevard, the second is at Universal studios.

Dairy farmer watch!

With the NZ dollar rising again as it is, (yay!!!) I have been worrying about the financials of my dairy farming friends.
My fears were allayed at Universal studios however when I found that those astute ones (and I did know he had media connections) had diversified.

Celebrity watch!

Yay, I actually met a celebrity in LA.
Last time we were here Rachel met the Versace daughter (the skinny one), but I had no idea.
This time, not only did I share a lift with a real live one, but we chatted for about 5 minutes afterwards about all sorts of stuff, rugby included.

Here's a clue to whom; he was famous for his work with kids, but more recently has moved into a more adult format.
A free Hawaii T-shirt to the correct answer in the comments section.

More cheese pleeze!

Before we depart the USA, there's a couple of things I need to share.
Firstly we have found the ultimate cheese dish: 3 cheeses (American Cheddar, Jack and Monterrey) injected with tequila!!!!, then deep fried.
The bonus is that you could order corn chips as a side order to eat with this delicacy. We didn't order it, but judging by the size of the average American (feeling fairly skinny actually) plenty did!

Secondly, I meant to comment on this last week. Rach and I found pedestrians so rude last time we were here; everyone bumped into us and it seemed we were constantly walking upstream. Then it dawned upon me; you know how they drive on the right hand side; guess what side of the footpath they walk on?
Here's a clue; it's the opposite side to what we are used to and their natural reaction in the collision zone is the opposite to ours.
It's not hard to spot the Australasians!

Skipping ahead quickly...

Ok - I still LOVE the happiest place on earth and that ofcourse ladies and gents is Disneyland. It's soooooo much fun - Ok so we have actually done Disney, Universal and LA DONT worry we will post more about them soon when we get the photo's loaded. Right now it's after midnight and I want to go to bed...however I had to tell you all about where we are....

SANTA BARBARA - What a beautiful, quaint little place - It's just gorgeous, and sorry not actually that little but gives that illusion. Staying in a lovely hotel but the town just screams, little greece or tuscany....a sign of things to come maybe? It's lovely, the gorgeous little resteraunts spread out around the town are great so seems to be most of the menus....yay no more NACHOS AND CHEEEEESE! Everyone here seems to still like to dress up nice to go out for dinner too which is great!

Oh well that's it from me for now. Best get myself to bed and try and fight off the cold I still have!! Grrrrrr......

I will let Kevin tell you all which famous celebrity we ran into in Disney town!

Take it easy out there!
Love Rach :)

Hawaii photos

The last of the Hawaii pics.

It's a small world afterall.

We have stayed at the Staybridge Suites in Anaheim for the last 2 nights which are fantastic.
Being so close to Disney means that they are set up for families, but aren't too budget. Simple things like having the bedrooms separated by the lounge room with both bedrooms having separate bathrooms and leaving the swimming pool open to 11pm makes it an easy place to stay.

We did Disney all day yesterday and while it was pretty busy, being a Saturday, it didn't really stop us doing anything. Same at universal Studios the day before although we got there late and had to rush around a bit. We are all pretty shattered however and the time difference from Hawaii to LA hurt us over the last couple of mornings when we were getting up at 4am Hawaii time. All good though and I'll let Rach give the full Disney and Universal Studios review.

Today we are heading downtown LA to do some el cheapo shopping in the fashion districts around Santee. Rachel and I did this a couple of years ago and her Spanish helped us buy some good bargains; it will also be cool for the kids to experience it. Then later we head up the coast with no particular place to stay tonight although it would be nice to get as far as Santa Barbara.

Tomorrow night we are staying at Monterey so over the next 2 days we have to drive that far (5 or 6 hours I think) but it's all up the coastline made famous in the California surfie movies etc etc so should be pretty cool.
So far on the trip we have had free Wifi or broadband in all our hotels hence the regular updates; hopefully the trend continues.