Day 89 – Great end to the day!

Today was a day where we bought things we needed that we hadn’t gotten yet so we were driving all around town!

We had a quick stop in Bobbe Joy’s make up studio this morning, I’ve been getting make up from her for quite a few years now. I bought three eye shadows from her. Yay for more make up!! Shes such a lovely woman and I totally recommend you all to go see her and get some of her make up! Her products are so good! She works in Beverly Hills and her website is: http://www.bobbejoycosmetics.com/

After all our shopping we got back to the house around 6:30 and relaxed for a bit. Barnaby and I wanted to take Logan and Susannah to our favorite food places for dinner and dessert so we walked down to Sayuri, which is a sushi bar. Barnaby and I both had the Chenzo sushi; shrimp tempura, crab, avocado, tempura crumbs and eel sauce. It is so delicious! It’s the only meal I have from that restaurant. While we were paying the bill, outside the restaurant next door, called Crustacean, were a few paparazzi taking photos of Iggy Azalea!! Barnaby and I got up from the table and raced over to take photos of her! It was amazing! Susannah came over and we got a photo together with Izzy (which is definitely the photo of the day!!!) They drove off in her boyfriend’s blue Ferrari which was cool! No license plate! And super tinted windows!

So we paid the bill and then Barnaby and I told Sus and Log about the GoGreek Yoghurt place, which was next door, and we walked up and it was closed!!! We were so upset! There was this guy out front and we told him it was our last night in LA and we were leaving for Christchurch tomorrow and this was our favorite place to come for frozen yoghurt, and I’m pretty sure he was the manager or something because he brought us inside and he gave us greek yoghurt for free!! So nice! We talked to him for a while and he told us about how he wanted to bring a healthy alternative to frozen yoghurt. His greek yoghurt really comes from Greece! Flown to LAX once a week! So cool! And so fresh! He told us it arrived yesterday so we ate really fresh yoghurt today!

What an awesome way to end our day!! And to end our 3 month holiday! Only one more blog post to come, maybe two more blogs just to say we arrived in NZ safely etc.

Photo of the day, Susannah and I with Iggy Azalea!!

Day 88 – The day after Disneyland…

So sad. Disneyland is over, it’s behind us! I wish we had gone again! Its so magical there!!! So we left Anaheim and headed straight for Downtown Disney! (Cant leave Disneyland that soon!) I had some disney dollars so bought a book about Walt Disney and Disneyland. It’s a very impressive book! I’m really enjoying it! I also got a disney scarf and a disney cookie cutter! Yay!!! 

We then drove to Long Beach and had lunch at a french restaurant on 2nd street. I had a steak sandwich with fries and a caesar salad. Barnaby had a savory crepe with chicken and some pasta-like sauce, his was so delicious! We then walked down 2nd street and looked in some cute shops. After that we went to Culver City’s Westfield Mall and got a few things since we’re leaving in 2 days. 2 days!!! So sad!

Today was definitely not as impressive as yesterday. Maybe I could work at Disneyland!! So I can be there all the time and make people feel happy!

We got back to the house we were house sitting a couple weeks ago, started reading my Walt Disney book and ate some chicken pasta for dinner and now about to go to sleep! Sorry for a short blog..

Photo of the day: Saw this board in one of the shops today! For those who follow the food we’re eating and love food! 

Ps. here are some Disneyland photos! You all must go!! Walt Disney even said that he wanted Disneyland to be a place where children and adults will both enjoy!
Clockwise from top left: 1. Me receiving my birthday badge, and Log and Sus receiving their first time badge. 2. Us outside the Walt and Mickey Statue and Sleeping Beauty Castle! 3. Barnaby and I waiting in line for Space mountain in our disney gear! 4. Fireworks!! 5. Us all pulling faces on the Space Mountain ride. (best to see these in large view!)

 

Day 87 – Disneyland!!!!!

 

 

Oh my goodness. What a day! Definitely one of my favorite days I have had! Disneyland fulfills it’s saying, “The happiest place on Earth”!

 

We woke up at 6am to be ready for the park for an 8am arrival. Thanks to some amazing family friends, we all had free tickets into the park! We arrived and I got my “Birthday Button”, YAY! Susannah and Logan got their first time buttons as well. It was so awesome! All these people who worked at Disneyland were wishing me happy birthday, even the Disney characters on the parade spotted me in the crowd and wished me happy birthday too! And even just random people visiting the park wished me happy birthday! It was so nice! I felt so special 🙂

 

Our first ride we went on was Space Mountain. The line was 15 minutes, which is short but expected so early in the morning. We went on this ride twice today because it is so much fun! It’s dark inside so you can’t see which way you’re going to go and its fast. So many tears streaming from the sides of our eyes! It was awesome!

 

We went on quite a few rides:

 

 Pirates of the Caribbean – Not a rough ride, but it was mainly going through the storyline. Was enjoyable.

 

Indiana Jones Adventure – Extreme, going around in a jeep with bolders heading your way and fast movement which was super fun!

 

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – Pretty good, rather fast but not extreme, not big drops.

 

Splash Mountain – I was so scared to go on this ride from a past time I went on it! I was about 8 or so years old and I found it so scary when it drops that I hid in the canoe. The photo came out and it looks like I wasn’t even there! So Logan, Susannah and Barnaby all decided we should do it. I started panicking and felt like I couldn’t get enough air in. And to make matters worse, they opened an entrance in the line, which made us go straight onto the ride! I held Barnaby the whole time, sitting behind him. When the drop came I held him tight and my stomach went up. We checked the photo out and you cant see me again! I’m hiding behind Barnaby.

 

Haunted Mansion – It has 999 ghosts! The beginning is when you’re in a room and it starts stretching but really you’re going down a floor, really cool effect. But when you get on the ride, the effects they use on the ghosts and floating objects is just incredible, I don’t know how they do it! Definitely a must see!

 

Matterhorn Bobsleds – Very bumpy! Fast ride with sharp corners.

 

Mad Tea Party – We we’re in a teacup spinning around. Did get a little dizzy!

 

“It’s a Small World” – Slow ride going through different countries singing, “It’s a Small World” in their languages. They had for New Zealand a Maori character with two kiwis. Not a lot for NZ, Australia got a huge corner! You get pretty sick of the song by the end of the ride, its around 10+ minutes long.

 

Alice in Wonderland – Another ride going through the storyline of the cartoon movie. It had reopened on Friday after being done up.

 

Peter Pan’s Flight – Walt Disney’s first ride he went on! Super short ride and not the most exciting, but it was Walt’s first ride!

 

Dumbo – Our last ride for the night, we did this one at almost midnight, you’re in an elephant spinning around going up and down.

 

Soarin’ over California – A virtual ride in California Adventure where the seats go up towards this huge screen and you’re shown clips in California and it feels like you’re flying around!

 

Aladdin – In Cali adventure. Pretty much a musical maybe like the one on Broadway. It was great, very funny!

 

We also got some photos with Disney characters! I really wanted my picture with Mickey and Minnie! So we went to their homes. Minnie wasn’t around but Mickey was at his place. I didn’t realize we would be waiting an hour to get his photo but we waited.. Totally worth it! Mickey (silently) wished me a happy birthday and gave me a kiss on the cheek and asked for a kiss on his nose! It was awesome! While we were over on the Cali Adventure side we saw Minnie in an aviation outfit so I got my photo with her too!

 

Alright, now onto the food! For lunch we ate at Plaza Inn, which is on Main Street. Barnaby and I shared the pot roast with veges, potatoes and gravy, and a biscuit as they call them here (tastes like a scone), popular with meals here. It was pretty tasty. We made a reservation for Carnation Café, also on Main Street, for dinner. It was really good! We all really enjoyed our meals! Susannah and I had the chicken, which was one of Walt Disney’s favorites! It came with veges, potato and gravy and a bun. They even came out with a birthday cupcake with mickey ears sprinkles! Logan, Susannah and Barnaby sung me happy birthday too 🙂

 

After dinner was the parade! It was awesome! So many Disney characters and dancing! It’s just so magical there! I want to live there! Or work there! Everyone is so happy and excited to be a part of Disney! My favorite part of the parade would have been when Mary Poppins and Burt came out on carousel horses bobbing up and down. So cool!

 

We saw the start of the fireworks in Disneyland but had been given fast pass tickets for World of Color, which is the water feature at the end of the evening. It was so amazing. Beats the Bellagio Fountains 100x!! It was just so incredible! If you don’t know much about it, I’m sure there would be a video on youtube! We were super lucky getting fast passes as they go early in the morning. We were talking to one of the ladies at information in the later afternoon and she asked us if we had fast passes as they had sold out from the desk there and she said she would get us some! So awesome!!

 

After the World of Color we went back to the Disneyland side and went on a few more rides until it was 12am, which is when the rides shut. So once they shut we went down Main Street and had a look in a candy shop then walked back to the hotel. So we were at Disneyland for over 16 hours!

 

It was so amazing! Such a cool birthday present!

 

Sorry I haven’t had the chance to revise this as it is after 2am now and I desperately need sleep! Hope it all makes some sense!

 

Photo of the day: Myself with Mickey and Minnie!

 

Day 86 – Anaheim

We have made it to Anaheim! Tomorrow is the big day! Disneyland here we come! And it will also be my birthday (USA time). It was my birthday NZ time today so it was nice to receive some birthday messages from people at home.

We stayed at Susan’s house last night which was lovely, and this morning she head to leave early for her job, 6am she left! We got up at 8 and got ready for the day. Susan even bought me Fruit Loops! So sweet! We did our laundry, had breakfast then drove off heading to Anaheim! We stopped off at the Citadel Outlets and had lunch and bought a few things. Then we drove to the hotel in Anaheim which is on the block of Disneyland!

We decided to have a couples night so Barnaby and I went out for dinner and we had Indian which was very tasty and their mango lassi was yum! Logan and Susannah went to P.F Changs which they really enjoyed too! Barnaby and I walked up to Downtown Disney and had a look around and I bought some Minnie Ears! It was nice to have an evening with my man on my NZ birthday 🙂

Photo of the day: No photo! Stupid Wifi…. not loading the photo… hopefully the internet will work better tomorrow so I can post photos of Disneyland!

Day 85 – Hollywood again!

(Barnaby’s post) Last night was our last night in Woodland Hills and the last time we are all going to be in the Valley. This morning we all packed up and drove to Hollywood to go to the church Brooke and I have been going to for the past three months. It was lovely to see everyone there for one last time before we left. Dan did a fantastic sermon, it was his first in a series on Jeremiah, we are kind of sad that we miss the whole series! Before we left for the last time, a number of people that we have become friends with over our time here, came over and prayed for us. It was really really nice of them, and we are really really going to miss them all!

After church we (Brooke, Logan, Susannah and myself) walked down to Hollywood to see the sights. We had lunch at the Hard Rock cafe, then did a bit of shopping around the highland/hollywood mall (the girls shopped, logan and I drank tea and sat outside). We are spending tonight at Brookes mum’s cousins house in Glendale. It is lovely to see Susan one last time before we go home, and its lovely to get to another side of the city to show Sus and Log around.

We decided to all go out for a meal in Glendale. We went to a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant that turned out to be a hookah bar too (flavored tobacco)! The food was quite nice, I had a salad, Logan and Susannah shared a pizza and Brooke and Susan shared some chicken kabob! Brooke also got a chocolate brownie (that we all ate) with a candle on top, because it is her birthday in two days!! (tomorrow for those of you in NZ)!

Photo of the day: All of us (minus me) at dinner this evening.

Day 84 – Six Flags and Shopping!

Today was a super long day!

The place we are staying at does breakfast but only until 9:30, so we’re all waking up early to have it but getting to sleep sooo late! So we got up early, Logan and Barnaby had breakfast then drove off to Six Flags at 9am for a 10am opening, while Susannah and I took our time getting ready but we were downstairs for breakfast at 9! We walked to Westfield Topanga Mall which was about an hour walk! Got there around 11:30 and started shopping! We bought make up and clothes, and other beauty products. For lunch we went to that Korean BBQ place Barnaby and I went with my parents a few weeks back. It was happy hour so we had some cocktails and had their lunch special. It was a lot of fun! We had to cook our own meat. Definitely nice to have some girl time and not worry about the boys being bored from us shopping! We shopped until 8:30, so we were technically shopping for 8 hours with a one hour lunch break! The time flew by soo fast! This was the day we were waiting for to get some shopping in!

The boys enjoyed Six Flags a lot, although I think their lunch made them feel a little queazy, so they only went on a few rides after that and headed home. Barnaby said his favorite was Tatsu, which was mine when I went. Its a roller coaster which makes you feel like you’re flying! They had a lot of fun there and they probably enjoyed having some guy time too! They also got free coke cans where they out each of our names on them which was awesome! They got back to the hotel and went swimming and chilled out for the rest of the afternoon/evening.

We met up at almost 9pm for dinner, such a late dinner! We ate at the Cheesecake Factory and our waiter looked like Andy Samberg! He told us he got that a lot, and then this other waiter came past who looked like Opie on Sons of Anarchy, which I don’t personally watch, but it was definitely a night for doppelgängers!

We got back to the hotel, sorted out all our new stuff and now in bed.

Photo of the day: Susannah cooking lunch at the Korean BBQ place! More food photos!

Day 83 – 4th of July!

Another super short blog as I haven’t been sleeping well and we definitely haven’t been getting enough sleep lately! (and its already 12:20am)

Happy 4th of July! This morning we drove over to Malibu to show Logan and Susannah the area. We then drove to Pacific Palisades for their 4th of July parade and concert/fireworks. The parade was awesome, there were so many marching bands! Barnaby and I had a big slice of Pizza each for lunch and then we walked down to the local school field and heard bands playing and then at 9:00 the fireworks began! And they went on for over 20 minutes! They were awesome!

Photo of the day: I’ll give you two photos to make up for the lack of content in my blog tonight. Fireworks! and Barnaby and myself all dressed up red white blue for the special holiday!

Day 82 – Back in LA!

This morning we left Vegas. So sad. We all wish we could have stayed longer..

We drove off to Primm to their outlet mall and we did some shopping, then had lunch at a greek place there. We got the mall’s discount card which meant we got 20% off lunch! Wooh! We continued to drive and saw a sign saying Peggy Sue’s Diner, Susannah and Logan hadn’t been to a 50’s diner before so we drove in and they got a coke and a shake. We then continued driving to LA,we’re staying the next three nights in the Woodland Hills area which will be nice to see some of the valley, but tomorrow we’re going over to the Palisades for their 4th of July Parade, concert and fireworks! Looking forward to it! So we arrived at the hotel at 7:30pm and have been just hanging in here ever since.

Very short blog as pretty much nothing happened but getting back to LA!

Photo of the day: Hello and Goodbye to VEGAS!

Day 81 – Las Vegas Day 4

We had our last full day at Las Vegas today! So sad to be leaving tomorrow.. We really like it here. The hotels are so amazing and I love how each hotel has it’s own style! You can be in Paris, Venice, Rome, New York, Egypt etc. very very cool! It’s actually cleaner that what it was last time we were here which is nice!

This morning we drove to the mall and split up, so Logan and Susannah did their shopping and we did some shopping, had Chinese for lunch at Caesars Palace, then went into some more of the hotels and looked around. We met up with Log and Sus at the Bellagio fountains for the 3pm fountain show in the super heat! It is just way too hot here! So we squeezed in the shade under a tree with everyone else watching the fountain show, very cosy.

After the fountain show we drove down to the Luxor (Egypt-style hotel) and saw “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition” where we saw a huge piece of the Titanic, an almost exact replica of the grand staircase, what some of the bedrooms would have looked like, lots of plates, a hairbrush, people’s suitcases and things that were in them. We each got a passport boarding pass for the titanic which was a replica of somebody’s originally on board! So I had a lady who was heading over to the US with her two children in 2nd class awaiting her husband who was already over there. They survived! I never realized just how many people died compared to who survived!! It was so sad to hear some of the stories of people who were transferred to the Titanic because their other ship was delayed or cancelled etc and they never survived.. It was so sad. But if you’re in Vegas, do go see it!! (As well as the bodies museum they have at the Luxor too which Barnaby and I saw last time we were here) (more info at http://www.vegas.com/attractions/on-the-strip/luxor-titanic/ )

We had dinner at The Rainforest Cafe at MGM Grand. Its a restaurant which is a rainforest with Elephants, Gorillas, leopards which come to life when the thunder and lightening come on. Family friendly. Barnaby had a burger and I had these wonton crispy Mexican wraps, don’t know how to explain it any other way! It was so delicious.

Photo of the day: Barnaby and I on our honeymoon in front of Bellagio (left, Jan 4th 2013) and us (right, July 2nd 2014) Literally 1 and a half years ago! From Mid freezing winter to mid boiling summer!

Day 80 – Las Vegas Day 3

10 days of our trip to go!!

Today we all slept in as we had been having late nights and early mornings and I haven’t been very well (thus Barnaby doing the past two blogs). We all went down to Fashion Show Mall and did some shopping, had lunch in the food court, Barnaby and I had Tacos and Log and Sus had Panda Express. We then did some more shopping then at around 5pm we headed back to the hotel.

At about 7:30 Susannah’s friend who lives in Vegas picked us all up and took us to Downtown Vegas for dinner, which is where the old strip was. She took us to Heart Attack Grill (website: http://www.heartattackgrill.com/heart-attack-grill.html ). It’s a burger place which you could possibly get a heart attack from! You pick a burger, from “Single Bypass Burger” to “Octuple Bypass Burger” and you can choose fries or not, and if you don’t finish your meal you get spanked by your waitress (dressed as a nurse) with a paddle! There are some videos of them on the link! I was so nervous!! I don’t eat very much and about an hour earlier I had a smoothie so I was really freaking out that I wouldn’t be able to finish it, so I didn’t choose fries! I managed to finish it and feel super full afterwards…. We all finished except Susannah’s friends, who took a spanking for the team! Susannah put some of her fries on my plate because I accidentally got some in my meal so it just looked like she had finished them all. It was a fun time though! The wine comes in an iv drip, other drinks come in pill bottles with a prescription of the drink you’re having or a syringe! Very crazy place!

After that we walked down the Freemont Street Experience which was covered in lots of old neon lights, quirky bars and street performers. I think we all enjoyed it a bit more than the normal Vegas strip! After walking down for a bit, we went to one of the little lounges that is tucked away just down from the strip. It was very cool, I guess it would be a typical lounge/nightclub. It’s been a while since Barnaby and I had gone to one like that in Christchurch, so it was nice to go to one. We then went a bit further down the road to a container mall (Christchurch isn’t the only place with one!!) outside the front there was a big metal preying mantis that had huge flames coming out of the antennae in time with some music that was playing, it was pretty amazing! The mall itself was like the one in Christchurch, only much more open, and a bit more fun. there was a big stage down one end that had a jazz band playing, in front of a big lawn, in the middle of the shops was a contained and supervised playground for kids, and on the outside was about 3 stories of little quaint shops covered in little fairy lights. After that we went to one more bar which was a bit more hidden than the rest. At first glance none of us could see the door to get in there, until Susannah’s friend pulled away one of the walls to let us in! It was a specialized cocktail bar, that had a pretty amazing menu! The bathrooms were probably the most interesting part, the cubicles were made out of glass. From the outside it was like a mirror, but from inside, you could see everything going on outside, it was quite odd!

Photo of the day: Barnaby and I at the Heart Attack Grill, waiting to chow down on our bypass burgers!