Websters Family Adventure

Here we are, our last day in Disneyland, our last day in America which means last day of our trip. It also means getting on a plane and heading over the seas to NZ to our first day of our next adventure - what will this bring, no one knows but it's the beginning of something new.

Girls, especially Charlotte, sad to be leaving disneyland but also very excited to be seeing family and especially Grandparents.

We packed, checked out and had a great day in Disney, few gifts bought, few rides done (and a few more!!) and then a fond farewell - but as Olivia says, it's not goodbye, it's see you soon.

Shuttle to the airport filled with Australians, gosh they have been everywhere in LA, apparently they love the shopping! Checked in, boy T4 at LAX, best part of the airport I am sure. We really dislike LAX and always seem to find disgruntled customs officers, but here they were great. Olivia had to have her hand luggage checked, and we made such a joke of it, even the customs guy was having a good laugh - nothing was found, she just had so many books in it they couldn't see anything properly!!!

And now, we sit and wait, what will the next 2,3 ,6 12 months bring, where will we go, what will do, will we stay in NZ? So many questions, but for now, it's just a matter of making it home and being altogether and enjoying Christmas time with the family.

We look back on these last nearly 7 years in the UK and what we have seen, what we have achieved and what the girls have learnt, so many fantastic memories that will be with us forever. So many wonderful, wonderful friendships we have made, and they too will be with us forever we hope!!
And we look back on these last 2 months, what a fabulous time it has been as a family and what wonderful sights we have seen, again many memories to cherish.

Charlotte has lost two more teeth, Olivia has swum with dolphins, David has been in a shootout at the OK Corral (!!) and Claire, well think she has shed so many tears there really is no more left to shed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And it leaves us, waiting for a plane and thinking about what will happen next...........................

Okay, friday has arrived and it's time for our final stop - Aneheim, Los Angeles and in particular, Disneyland!!!

We are staying at the Ramada Inn right across the road from the Parks, an easy stroll at the end of the day! We had our car booked for a few more days but decided to drop it back early as we thought we wouldn't need it here, so we did. It wasn't till we were sitting having lunch and David and I were discussing what we wanted to do whilst here, we thought maybe Universal Studios or Hollywood. Looking at the map we realized that they were both over the other side of town and right in the area where we had been staying right at the start in Santa Monica when we had the car!!!!!!! We then also realized that we needed to get to the airport and were now going to have to pay for the shuttle coz we had dropped our car off early - great planning by us!!!!!!!!!! In the end, we decided not to pay for any other tours and to just enjoy Disney as that is what the girls were looking forward to - and yeah, we would just have to pay for a shuttle to the airport!!!!
Lazy afternoon friday, enjoying the sunshine and the pool getting ready for a few big days.
Saturday, up bright and early, breakfast in our stomachs and ready to go. Although the park opened at 8am we made it for 9am, mixing with all the other holiday makers - the park was packed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (And it continued to be all weekend). We headed to Fantasyland, (we do have a princess lover in our house) and enjoyed many a ride there, David and Olivia were allowed to sneak off and do a rollercoaster, whilst a few more rounds on the carousel was had by Charlotte!! We tried out most of the rides in there and also got over to a couple in Tomorrowland. We know that most people would have been alot further than this by now, but we were happy with what we were doing, it was hot and busy and you really can only do so much! We headed back for a swim early afternoon, grateful that our hotel was close, enjoyed some lunch and headed back around 5ish to the park. Wow, talk about crowds, we had forgotten we were heading right into 'Parade' time, the place was mad!! We decided that we would not worry as we were here a few more days and so headed to a ride we had not done. As we got up the front, I told the young man on the operating machine that he had the best viewing spot for the parade, he agreed and then I nicely asked if him we could stand there with him when we finished our ride - he kindly obliged!!!! So not only did we have a fun ride, we then got to stand in a great spot and actually saw the parade - lovely man and two happy girls!!!
We were hoping to end the night watching the fireworks from our room but they did not happen, we found out it later is all to do with the wind direction and if it's not right then it doesn't happen.
Sunday has arrived and it is Charlotte's turn for her treat now, which is Breakfast with the Princesses in Aeriel's Grotto!! What David goes through for his girls!!!!!!!!!!!! What a lovely setting, we chose to sit outside over the water with all the amusement rides going on behind for the girls to watch - and to choose which ones they were and weren't going to do!! All the Princesses came out to see us and many a photo was taken, lovely food too! It was in California Adventure Park which is next door to Disneyland Park and all part of it. It has rides and amusements all to do with California. David and Olivia went on a few and David even went on this hair-raising rollercoaster which he loved!!!
It has been the hottest day here for us, 30 degrees, and we decided to head to the 'Grizzly Rapid Ride' we knew it would be a long queue but we wanted to get wet! It was 50mins to wait but the ride was great and cooled us down!!
We headed back for another swim, lots of Australians over here at the moment, they all seem to be staying here! Apparently, the Aussie dollar is good at the moment!
Back to the park after dinner, over to the fantasyland again (!!), few more rides before time for bed. Fireworks happened tonight which was great and we could see the whole thing from our balcony.
Lazy day tomorrow, no disney day. Taking the girls to see Tangled, the new Rapunzel movie and then we will head to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner.

We arrived to this beautiful coastal city on thurs, it is now tuesday night and I need to catch up. Here goes, hope I can remember it all!!
Our first full day in SD, friday. We are staying at the Beach Haven Inn at Pacific Beach, have our own 1 bedroom suite, complete with a kitchen which is just great as we are staying a week and being able to cook is really nice. The girls enjoy their homemade food and I have missed cooking, so it's a win win situation! We decided to go for a big walk and explore the area we were staying in. We are half a block from the beach and the 'boardwalk'. Just such a lovely walk, down Pacific Beach and onto Mission Beach. We were looking all the time out to the sea, and then what did we see...............Whales! It is the time of year, they are starting to migrate south, the grey whales, the whale watching boat cruises start next week and go until around Feb. So it is just the start of the season, but we saw them!!!! They were fantastic, the girls (and us!) couldn't believe it, we quickly walked to the pier, to get a better look as this went out further across the water. We must have seen 7-8 whales, some were jumping up, some were just quietly cruising along, but we could have watched for ages.
We carried on walking along the boardwalk and then turned into the town a bit and made our way to Mission Bay Park. This is like a big lake surrounded by water activites, hotels/resorts, walking and biking paths and also Sea World. We stopped and had our lunch, girls played in the playground and then walked back. It was a great people watching time, boy did we see some strange sights, and then yes, we saw some more whales! Back to 'home' and a great swim in a very nicely heated outdoor pool.
Saturday arrived and was our visit to Sea World. Everyone has their own opinion on this sort of place, about animals being kept in not their normal environment, but we decided that it would be okay to take the girls and that these places can also be educational, just like a zoo.
We got ourselves a weeks ticket (same price as a day!) as we knew that we would come back at least once more. We had a fab time, first thing we did was head to the rollercoaster/log flume ride. I decided to watch (!!) and the others went on, Charlotte who usually says no wanted to do it - well, they got rather wet and both girls said never again!!!! Apparently quite a scary rollercoaster! We then had a wee look around and headed to the Shamu show, which is the killer whale show. Just fantastic. We sat in the 'soak zone' chosen by David!! This is where you are going to get wet - and yes we did - soaked!!!! We all loved the show and talked about it for along time after - and still are!
We did another show after lunch called Blue Horizons, this is with the dolphins. Yet again another fantastic show, in fact Charlotte and me most likely enjoyed this one even more than the last. We saw a few more things and David and Olivia did a water rapid ride (and yes, got wet!) and then we decided to head 'home'. Been a long and busy day and weknew we would get back.
A nice swim was finished off by going to a local burger place - a 'kiwi' burger place!!! It's actually owned by an American who lived in NZ and he owns one in NZ and two here. And the manager - yeah you guessed it, Drew is from NZ! Was great, we got special attention, great food and David even got a t/shirt!
Sunday saw us head over to Coronado. Just a lovely 'island', can be reached by pedestrian ferry or car across a lovely bridge - which is what we did. It is made famous here by being the home of the Author of the Wizard of Oz and also by being the place where Some Like it Hot was filmed with Marilyn Munro. We strolled around and then headed to the beach where the famous Hotel Del Coronado is. It is a magnificent place, huge or more sprawling along the beach actually, just lovely, the sort of place you would love to stay at or even have your wedding at. The beach is basically it's front garden. We played and people watched and had our picnic and enjoyed a lovely afternoon out the front of this hotel - I immediately tried to find a deal online that night but no such luck!!
Yet again, the day was ended with a swim.
Monday morning arrived with us thinking about when to get back to NZ. As we didn't get across to New Mexico we had another 6 days added on to the itinerary and were deciding whether to spend this in SD or LA or maybe get home a few days earlier. Well, for whatever reason, who knows why, we decided to try and change our tickets and get home 5 days earlier - which is what we did and now we fly out next Tuesday and get home Thursday 16th - OMG!!! That is so soon but girls are really excited while David and I are somewhat nervous and apprehensive!!!
We took another stroll along the beach where the girls played and found hermit crabs. We decided to go out for dinner and got a few recommendations from lovely Pat in the office. Unfortunately the first one was closed and the second one, well it really wasn't us, we ended up nearly doing a full circle but managed to get to the third choice. An Italian restaurant, just has candles on, the girls were really intrigued by this and kept wondering why they couldn't put the lights on. It ended up being one of the worst meals out we had had, and decided to put it down to experience. We left with the last three slices of Charlottes pizza in a box, as we were walking down the street a couple of homeless guys asked us for money, but we gave them some dinner instead!!!
Tuesday today, (seem to have caught up), and today we headed out for another day at Seaworld. Today was to be Olivia's wee treat, swimming with the dolphins, Charlotte had decided she was too nervous! Olivia had an absolutely fantastic time, just loved it and wished it could have gone on for longer. She commented tonight on how she enjoyed the start of it where they introduced you to the dolphin slowly and let you just touch gently before doing anything else. What a wonderful memory for her and she left the park with new towel, t/shirt and photos! We did a couple more shows and rides and then called it a day, a hotter day today and the pool was calling.
It was lovely sitting over dinner and discussing all the things that we have done, enjoyed and also things not enjoyed. We always have a laugh about the different sights we have seen, especially the people!
Wednesday has arrived and nearly finished, what fantastic weather we are having, the other side of States is having snow and more snow and the UK is having freezing weather and we are at the beach and enjoying weather in the 20C's - and this is their winter!!! It's funny, coz the locals are cold and wearing fleeces and can't believe that the girls are getting in the pool everday!
We headed out to Cabrillo Monument today, it is out on Point Lomu, it is where Juan Cabrillo landed on San Diego Bay. It is also the place where you can go and watch whales, unfortunately we did not spot any today. We then headed to Old Town where the Mexicans first arrived, lots of lovely old shops and interesting people! Back to the 'home' for swim and pasta. Booked the hotel for Disneyland tonight, right across the road from the park! One very excited 8 year old about Disney!!
Last day in San Diego, actually we are all quite sad. We have stayed here the longest on our whole trip (apart from with friends in DC) and it has been great. There is so much to do here and we really have barely scratched the surface, in fact this morning we started listing more things to do and we cannot fit them in - guess we will have to come back! Decided to head to Balboa Park today, which is in the middle of San Diego, again similar to going to the park in San Fransisco, many museums, playgrounds, an art village, japanese gardens and home to the world famous San Diego zoo. We actually decided not to go to this and just enjoyed strolling around, we went to the art village which is outdoors and has 30-40 artists selling their wares and some also demonstrating. We went to the International village and just enjoyed all the wide open space. Was great for the girls just to be outside and running around.
A really lovely city and so many different things going on, will be sad to leave but on to another adventure.............................

Okay, so the Websters sat down and decided to have a family discussion about where we were heading to next. On the 'schedule' we were going into New Mexico via the 'four corners' (Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona), David was going to do some fishing and we were going to explore around Santa Fe. But we were sitting at Monument Valley after having had a fantastic day in the Park the day before, it was snowing, -1 degrees and we were wanting some sun! David knew he was going to freeze fishing and it wasn't going to get any warmer for a few days. So we had a vote and decided to head South. We decided that New Mexico was for another trip - there's always another trip!!!
So we looked at the map and agreed on Tuscon down south in Arizona - and it was having 20 degrees!!!
We left Monument Valley in snow, drove through desert, lots and lots and lots of cactus' and arrived to thinking about jumping in the pool!
Great accomodation, stayed at the Country Inn and Suites which is a chain here but this one is really new and they are trying to make a good impression. That they sure did. We arrived and checked in, with what was a good deal, but I asked if we could be upgraded (as you do in America!!) and they obliged - to a queen suite, complete with living room and extra beds, just fantastic! Also helped us out with scanning and faxing things back to NZ for our shipping company.
Anyways, as for Tuscon, great place for a few days. We headed the next day out to the Sonora Desert Museum, just fantastic, cannot rate this place high enough. It's like a zoo, museum and botanical garden all in one and all outside. They had volunteers located all over giving us lots of information which was like a whole day of school for the girls!!! Really relaxed place and great to be in 'quiet' season, we saw many animals, plants etc that live in the desert, and signs everywhere telling us to watch out for snakes!!!!!!!!!!!! We didn't see one in the wild (thank goodness!!). It was a great day and one of the best things the girls have enjoyed so far.
The next day, David was really keen to get to Tombstone. Only about an hour from Tuscon, so we drove out there to show the girls something completely different. It was such a laugh, quite touristy but again because it was winter, not many tourists so wasn't so bad. We went on a trolley ride round the town and got a bit of history, and then, you guessed it, we went and watched a re-enactment of the 'shootout at the O.K. Corral'!!! The girls loved it and wanted it to carry on !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! David even had his photo taken with the cast! It was very well done and had the girls asking lots of questions after.
A great couple of days in Tuscon and it was now 25 degrees!!!

Our drive from Flagstaff to Monument Valley, was desert, desert and hey, lots more desert! But well worth the drive. They say that this area is visited by many a tourist but not as much as the other parks, eg Grand Canyon and Yosemite due to it being a bit out there to get to, but gosh, we are so pleased we came. It is magnificent, such a relaxed atmosphere and truely spectacular.
I grew up with a Dad who loved the John Wayne movies, and I can remember many a sunday afternoon with the old country and westerns on the TV and I remember the scenery in these movies, I actually always thought they were paintings when I was younger! I'm sure some of them were, but not this scenery, it is real and we have seen it!
We are staying at Gouldings Lodge, just a few miles from the Monument Valley Tribal Park, we have a nice room, fantastic view and comes complete with an indoor heated swimming pool - yes, we were in their straight away! There's a great museum onsight here too, telling the story about Mr and Mrs Goulding and how this place came about and it's history, also a cabin that was used for one of John Wayne's movies. We find the place not touristy at all, maybe because we are not in peak season, but it does feel very relaxed compared to some of the places we have been. It also has a dining room and arts and crafts store selling many handmade articles from this region. We really like it here and love our view from our room.
Today we went into the 'valley', what an amazing place. More 'rocks' (buttes) to be seen, what a fantastic place, we learnt so much today - and yes, had a test over dinner! We drove the 17mile loop ourselves rather than doing a tour, we didn't get all the information from a guide but we had a book and a map and we enjoyed stopping off wherever we wanted. A very dusty and bumpy ride but we took our time and got some great photos - even got the best photo for 'best spot for port-a-loo!!' There were a few stalls along the way with jewellery which we did purchase at, lovely chatting to the locals who have lived here all their lives.
What a fantastic drive and today, I think has topped the spot for best picnic yet. A great day was finished off by another swim.
Tomorrow brings our last day here, a relaxing day has been requested by girls, which means not having to rush up, a swim and doing some postcards - I think we can agree to that!