Day 13 - Saying Goodbye

Tuesday dawned sunny, beautiful, and tinged with sadness and we zipped our bulging bags closed, tried to guess weights, did final readjustments of carry-on choices and got ready to check out.

As we weren’t leaving until the afternoon, the helpful lady at the hotel kindly offered us a late checkout, so we’d have time to go have lunch without the burden of toting our luggage. 

So we jumped on the Disney tram and headed for Downtown Disney. I hadn’t realised quite how over Mickey and the gang I’d become by this stage. But after shopping for jewellery and last-minute gifts, we sat down to lunch at House of Blues. 

Lunch done, we headed back to the hotel and the sad task of waiting. It was a beautiful day though, and there are worse places to wait than by a sparkly blue pool in California. 

LAX, backwards.

All too soon, it was time to leave for the airport and check ourselves in. I was eager to put my bag on the scales, if only so I could quit worrying myself about it – and it ended up being a figure that had me openmouthed in shock. 23kg on the nose! I almost did a wee dance. 

Through security and we had dinner at Nate ‘n Al’s, where a wine cost $17.50, before settling in for the monotony of waiting for our flight. 

The fact that I had two boarding passes caused no small flutter of alarm as we boarded (our seats got shifted around so that Kylah wasn’t sitting on her own) but this was soon straightened out, and we were on the plane and away home. 

Arriving back in Christchurch, unlocking my lonely, empty flat – I felt somewhat unreal, like I’d awoken from a very good dream. 

I’m going to have to start saving again, because I’ve definitely got the travel bug now!

Day 12 - In Which We Meet Walmart

What is a trip across the world to America without visiting the infamous Walmart? Therefore, that was our main plan for the day. 

It being a lovely morning, we decided to walk there – about half an hour’s journey. On the way, we discovered Ruby’s Diner and stopped there for brunch. 

The place was every cutesy-cutesy stereotype of an American diner. Booths, waitresses in cute uniforms, real lemonade or iced tea in a bottomless glass. I ordered the sliders with fries, and it turned out the fries were bottomless too – though how a person could make it through the first serving, I’ve no idea. 

With full stomachs, we continued on to Walmart.

Walmart was huge, but although I kept an eye out, I didn’t spot anyone wearing neon cowboy boots, a mankini, or shorts six sizes too small.

After Walmart, we shopped in Ross Dress for Less, where I found an amazing winter jacket for $30, and Old Navy, where I finally found that holy grail of shopping – a pair of jeans that fit me! And of course, a stop at Petco to coo over kittens. 

The heat getting to us by this stage, we sat down for ice cream from Baskin Robbins. Here I finally got to satisfy my curiosity about what Butter Pecan tastes like. It wasn’t bad. 

Thoroughly exhausted by this stage, we caught an Uber cab home to our hotel and refreshed ourselves with a swim in the pool and lounge in the spa before dinner. 

In N Out burger had been recommended to us by multiple people, and we were fast running out of time to try it, so we headed there. I ordered my food “animal style” and the guy asked me whether I wanted that on my burger or my fries. Flustered, I had to admit that I really had no idea what it meant, and ordered it on both. 

It turned out it just meant added stuff. In the burger this was great – but on the fries it meant cheese, onions, and some goopy stuff which tasted quite nice, but was just a bit too much. So a win on the burger, fail on the fries. 

After a wander down the street and through a bowling alley, we headed back to the hotel for our final night in Anaheim – and Emma and I ducked over to the Sheraton for a final Sauv from Cynthia.

Day 11 - Let's Go, Ducks!

This time we researched the trains – and they weren’t going anywhere near the times we needed them to. So we jumped in an Uber cab again and headed back into the fray of LA. 

My lover...

Back at the Chinese Theatre, we did a little shopping first – having spotted a Designer Shoe Warehouse – and walked along the path of the stars for a while before jumping on the tour bus again to make our way to where the lines cross, and take the Yellow Route to Santa Monica this time. 

Unfortunately we slightly misjudged how long this would take – and by the time we made it to Santa Monica Pier, there was barely time to duck into Bubba Gump and have a late lunch before we had to leave again for Anaheim. 

Meeting up with Keely back at our hotel, we called at taxi and raced to the Honda Centre, missing the first period of the LA Kings vs Anaheim Ducks pre-season ice hockey game. 

Let's Go, Ducks!

Once inside however, the mood of the things soon swept aside any annoyance about being late. The lights, the violence, the cheering…! It was exciting as all hell. I picked the Ducks to cheer for because their uniforms were nicer looking. But apparently I cheered quite enthusiastically, because when the game was over and the Ducks had lost, the guy behind me told me “I’m so sorry”, with a heartfelt sympathetic look. 

Buoyed up by the game, with Nigel sporting a shiny new Ducks jersey, we wandered around until we found a nice looking place to eat. Having learnt our lessons of American food well, we all ordered appetisers only (except for Keely, who chowed down on a rack of ribs) and it was still so much food we didn’t get through it all. A shared bottle of American Sauv went down a treat as well. 

After the Disney fireworks sounded in the distance, we called it a night and headed again for our hotel.

Day 10 - Adventures on Public Transport

Saturday, we started the day off with a good breakfast at IHOP. This place really is all it’s cracked up to be. Eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, waffles… all for so cheap! I just wouldn’t recommend putting the vanilla creamer in your coffee.

We then decided to head into LA for the hop-on hop-off tour bus routes. Armed with directions to get to the train station, we met a guy at the bus stop who told us to take the bus directly instead. This seemed like a great idea – at the time. 

On the bus, it quickly filled up fast, with… colourful characters. After an age, it was full to bursting, with people standing everywhere and no personal space to speak of. And a quick look at the map showed that we’d barely made any progress at all. 

The decision was soon made to abandon this course of action. We jumped off the bus at a gas station somewhere and ordered an Uber cab, which arrived in five minutes flat. The rest of the journey to LA went much more pleasantly. 

Arriving at the Chinese Theatre, we looked around us for a bit and jumped on the Red Line bus which took us into Beverley Hills. A wander down Rodeo Drive, where I doubt we’d afford a stick of chewing gum, and we found ourselves at the Cheesecake Factory for a spot of lunch, some huge slices of cheesecake, and a deliciously fortifying wine.

Some more time on the tour bus, narrated by an annoying British voice who pronounced Boulevard Boo-le-vard, past interesting sights and shopping areas, and we landed back at the Chinese Theatre. From there, we jumped on the subway trains to make our way to the Staples Centre. 

The warm-up acts were just getting underway when we arrived. Christina Perri, Becky G, MKTO, and then the main act – Miss Demi Lovato. 

I hadn’t really expected to enjoy myself, but she performed with such passion it was impossible not to. Plus she did Thriller as a Hallowe’en treat. 

Concert over, we headed back to the trains and made our way to Union Station, where we expected to find a train back to Anaheim. However, the last train for the evening had already left – and though we’d heard rumours of an extra train being put on because of the concert, the information window was closed up until after it was reported to have left. 

So we ordered another Uber cab, and travelled back to Anaheim in style instead. Our driver, though suffering from a disturbing lack of personal hygiene, was an interesting guy who’d previously travelled the world as the bass player in a death metal band.  It turned out he loved Demi too.

Day 9 - In Which They Shopped

Originally the plan for Friday had been to head into downtown LA and take the tour buses around the sights. But the consensus was that we were all done in by the theme parks, and it should be a cruisy rest day instead. 

So we slept in, and we shopped. 

The Outlets at Orange are like a shopper’s wonderland. Like the Premium Brands Outlets, they come with a coupon book for extra savings – but the bargains were so good in each store that we barely even glanced at the coupon book. 

I was accosted by a guy in a kiosk selling hair straighteners, who insisted on straightening my hair. After the price came down from $200 to $89, I relented and bought some. My own straighteners had broken the very day I was flying out, so it was really a blessing. Plus I got my hair straightened by a professional!

After that, we lunched at a place he’d recommended, called Saddle Ranch. It’s a huge place with a big mechanical bull in the middle, with metal on the sound system. Our meals were huge and delicious, the bubbly was cold, and they brought us out their signature dessert on the house – a three-foot tall wad of candy floss. Being the sensible, responsible grown-ups we are, of course, we immediately made this into moustaches, monobrows and beards. 

Once shopped out, we headed over to Chris and Julie’s hotel, Hotel Menage, to lounge around by their pool bar for $5 cocktail happy hour. A guy with a guitar set up and took requests, most of which came from our table. And then later in the evening, the fireworks from Disneyland lit up the night sky. Holiday bliss.