Carley’s Travels

Only 19 days to go before I hit Melbourne.  Boy hasn’t the time gone fast.  It feels like I only just booked the tickets, but that was last year.

Everything is set – just need the next 19 days to go by (hurry up, faster!!)

oh yeah – have to mention this.  Russell Ingall won the 2005 v8 supercar championship! I can’t wait to see the Caltex Ford with the number 1 on it! I know I’m a holden girl but I can’t help – I’ve always liked Rusty.  Don’t worry I’ll be cheering for holden in the support race.  And of course I’ll be cheering for Michael Schumacher in the F1, though Jensen Button causing an upset would be great!!

The first event of the day was finding the group breakfast room which was actually located in another section of the hotel on the other side of the block. The weather outside was getting cooler (still can’t get used to get colder as you head North – it’s the opposite in Australia) so we rugged up.

The itinery for the day was touring and thats what we did. We saw some beautiful churches and buildings and then headed up the hill for a fantastic view of the city (think Castle Hill in Townsville). SF just stretched for as far as the eye can see.

We finished the day with a visit to the Golden Gate Bridge (which is actually red but hey!). We got off the bus to take some photos and were then informed that the bus would meet us at the other end. We had to walk across the bridge. It may take about an hour to walk across but it was so worth it. The views were spectacular. We saw Alcatraz from the bridge which is destination for tomorrow.

This morning we packed our things and were given a room to store them in until our departure later in the day. Our last thing to do in LA was Universal Studios. We had a look around (think bigger scale Movie World on the Gold Coast). The highlight was definately the Backlot Tram Tour where we got to see behind the scenes at movie sets (past and present). The set I enjoyed the most was the backdrop and capsule used in Apollo 13. We also got to see the famous clock set from the Back to the Future movies. There were also sets that were being used as well as the Flintstone set. There was a collapsing bridge effect as well as the life size shark from Jaws that jumped out of the water. The special treat for us was getting to go through a real movie set. There was a movie being filmed (for the life of me can’t remember the name) and they were out on location so we could go through their train station set and experience some of the effects they used while filming. We also visited the set of the movie Backdraft which was so hot. I couldn’t imagine working with that heat all the time.

Sadly the time had come to leave Los Angeles. We headed back to the hotel and got our bags and headed back to LAX for our evening flight to San Fransisco.

In SF we checked into our hotel which was the Holiday Inn. After we were all given rooms the tour leaders decided that we had to play musical rooms. After we were finally settled we turned in for a good nights sleep.

Disneyland!!

It took me 17 years, but I finally made it to Disneyland. The queue to get in at opening time was enormous, but we got to go in the group entrance which was much quicker. We were given orders to meet back at a certain time and then have fun!

The first thing we did was head for Space Mountain, which is the roller coaster. The line was short but the ride was unbelieve able. The whole thing is in darkness. You feel like you are going down when suddenly you drop and you realise you were heading up the whole time. Rest assured this was not the last time we would go on this ride.

We went to It’s a small world where everything is in miniature and went on the boat ride of the same name (with a song playing that I still remember to this day)

We went on a train tour and wandered down Main Street purchasing souveniers. We also went to Mickey Mouse’s House and got his autograph as well as photos take with him. The other ride that we went on a few times was Splash Mountain which is obviously a water ride that was awesome. Other ride include – Spinning Tea Cups, Big Thunder Mountain Raidroad, the Haunted Mansion, Swiss Family Robinson tree.

Unfortuanatly this brought us to the end of our Disneyland fun. We grudginly left and headed out for tea. We went to a place called Wild Bills Extravaganza – which was a western themed dinner.

Knott’s Berry Farm!!

No it is not a berry farm as I’ve been asked countless times, but rather a theme park. It was a bit of a wet day so raincoats were in order.

We went on all the rides that we could fit in as well as Wild West stunt show. We got cuddles and photos taken with Snoopy (he is so soft and so huggable!).

We ended our time at Knott’s Berry Farm with a ride on the Denver and Rio Grande Train.

A trip to Tijuana was on the horizon for the day. Making sure we had our passports we jumped on the bus for the trip into Mexico. We arrived, our passports were shown and we crossed the international border into Tijuana.

Tijuana is so crowded and polluted. There are children begging on the street. We had to stay in groups of 3 or more and given a map with streets that were our boundaries. We hit the shops. Everything here is so cheap and they love to barter with you so whatever the price is ask for less. If they say no, go to leave the shop and they will accept your offer. I got a beautiful doll with traditional Mexican dress for about AU$10.

We had been warned not to eat food from street vendors or anything that looked suss so we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe which we figured had to be safe. While there we picked up some hard rock souveniers and met back up with the rest of our tour group and it was back on the bus. While we were waiting two Mexican buskers got on and started singing for us. It was fantastic and everyone enjoyed it. We all chipped in a little bit of money and gave them a huge round of applause. Then off they hopped and we head back across the boarder(passports shown again) and back to the hotel for a good nights rest.

I woke up really early this morning – the time change is going to be a killer for the next couple of days. Luckily I wasn’t the only one with that problem.

Today was touring day. After breakfast we all grabbed our cameras and jumped on the bus. First stop was Venive Beach. We were allowed off the bus to walk on the beach. Now I live near a beach but this was beautiful. Took lots of photos including the life guard stands (made famous in Baywatch).

Next we headed to the Santa Monica Pier. This is like a small carnival, amusement park with a ferris wheel included! The tour continued with some of the history of LA before hitting Rodeo Drive. We got off the bus to walk down the drive. I could not believe that I was actually standing on Rodeo Drive – the road where you have to prove that you earn a certain amount of money before they will even let you in the shop! I took photos of all the shops as well as the Rodeo Drv sign.

We continued our tour with a stop at Grumans Chinese Theatre, home to celebrity handprints and footprints alike. AS well as a walk over the Stars walk of fame we put our hands and feet in the prints. It was so much fun.

More history of LA followed with a tour to San Juan Capistrano and a chance to see the “Hollywood” sign high in the hills.

By that time the sun was setting (and it was only 4.30/5.00 in the afternoon!) so we made our way back to the hotel for dinner and some sleep.

The first thing we did after arriving at LA was to take a bus and check into our hotel.

The Brookhurst Plaza Inn
which is in Anaheim. We had already been grouped into rooms, but by this time we had all made friends so some room switching was in order. I got to room with Jessica, Melanie and Dallas – such cool girls.

Renee and Carmel let us loose for awhile with orders not to venture too far from the hotel (in other words don’t let the hotel out of your sight!). Jess, Mel, Dallas and I plus a few others headed for the local shop conviently located a few doors down to stock up on some supplies for our room. We also headed across the road to the local burger joint – “The In ‘n’ Out Burger Joint”. From memory this place makes the best burgers – have yet to be beaten. After finally figuring out American Money (it’s all the same colour – how stupid is that!) we took the food back to the hotel and dug in.

That was it for the day as we had been travelling for over a day (and had actually lost a day. The date was actually the day before we had left Australia – gotta get used to time difference) and were knackered.

The day that we had all waited for had finally arrived! I was leaving for the USA!

My day began really early in the morning well and truly before the sun had risen. We all arrived at Townsville airport by 4 am. Although the first flight out of Townsville to Brisbane doesn’t leave til 6am our tour leader thought it would be a good idea to have us all there nice and early with no chance of missing our flight. That and the fact that they (Renee and Carmel) had to organise 14 kids plus themselves!! As Townsville has no international airport (actually not technically correct as it is an international airport – it just doesn’t function as one) we were flying to Sydney via Brisbane. We were all checked in, we said our good byes and we boarded the flight. At last we were on our way!. After a relatively short flight (it only takes 1 and a half hours) we landed in Brisbane. This is where we met up with the group from Cairns. The two groups were to travel together only splitting up when we went to host families in Seattle.

We were marched (almost literally, think of Madeline) down to the boarding gate for the flight to Sydney. Even though we would be travelling with the Cairns group, there was a group from Brisbane heading over as well and we were all on the same flight (can you imagine over 40 teenagers on 1 plane – i’m sure the flight attendents had a headache thinking about it). Another 2 hours passed and we landed in Sydney. We split with the Brisbane group as they joined the Sydney group as the two groups were flying into different locations. We were flying into San Fransisco.

At Sydney airport we were taken straight to the international terminal to check in and make our way through customs. This actually didn’t take long as Renee and Carmel took all of our passports to the counter and they checked us in as a group. Once through, we were allowed to look around for an hour before meeting at the boarding gate.

Having been up early in the morning and only eating airplane food (which back then was not that crash hot) we headed off to get something real to eat. We all met up again at the gate and were finally allowed to board the plane. I had a window seat thankfully. We settled in for the long flight ahead. Most of us, despite out excitement were able to sleep.

14 hours later we arrived in San Fransisco. You’d think this would be the end of our travels for the day, but n0. After going through customs we took a short flight to Los Angeles werfe the flights would end and the sightseeing to begin.

I’m going to recount my journey to the West Coast of America. Forgive me if it sounds vague, but I’m writing this from memory with help from photos and some other travellers!!