Los Angeles California USA

DAY 38 27th SEPT
Today, is our first actual day in Los Angeles. Everyone (particularity the Catchesides) had a big sleep in. Once everyone was moving in the afternoon, we went for a drive down to Santa Monica Pier. We parked at a parking lot at first but moved to a parking lot at a mall after realizing how far away we were. We walked through the mall and down the road to the pier, when we were walking through the mall we found a store called the cheese cake factory (the same franchise as the shop where Penny from the Big Bang Theory used to work). When we got to the pier, we realized just how much of a mini theme park Americans make their piers into. There was a roller coaster, a Ferris wheel and even a miniature death drop like ride. We got a light lunch of 'pier burgers' and set off looking around. We mostly spent our time at one side of the pier. We got further down the pier and we noticed all the fisherman and a sign warning people not to eat some of the fish as they are dangerous to eat from the polluted waters. We looked at the view from here and walked back. Along the way back, Peter got a message on his phone from Britt stating how she just got her picture taken with the Sheriff. Much to our dismay, it wasn't to do with anything bad. We headed back to our cars around 7-ish and drove home. There was a eclipse of the moon tonight but as it started so early I only captured the last bit of it. Everyone

slept well that night.

DAY 39 28th SEPT
Today we got up at around 8 with a knock on the door and prepared ourselves for the first theme park in America, Universal Studios. We arrived at Universal Studios around 11-ish after a grueling long drive (the reason it was grueling was because it was farther away than I thought it was so I didn't bring entertainment, resulting me in being really bored). We arrived and parked in the Frankenstein car park and made our way up the escalators to the entrance. We arrived at the start of the queue and we met up with the Catchersides. On the wait in the queue I noticed the front gate of theme park had iron doors with writing on it and hands poking through the

centre of it. Written on the door was 'don't open dead inside'. I found this cool and humorous from the TV show fear the walking dead. We finally made our way into park and we had bought with the tickets a 'A Fast Track' pass which allows us to skip the line for a ride once for each ride. We dropped our backpacks into lockers and made our plan of attack. We decided to head down to the lower area which had things there we were more interested in. The first ride we went on was 'Jurassic Park the Ride'. I thoroughly enjoyed this ride. So we skipped the line and got into the boats (these were floating but still attached to tracks). We went up the ramp and got our introduction 'welcome, to Jurassic Park'. We floated on through and came up to 'supersaur lagoon, there was a supersaur head and neck poking our which sprayed us as we went passed it. We kept on moving and we came across some young Edmotasaurus. We then proceeded through a cave and came to 'Stegosaur Springs' Which had a couple of stegosaurus. At the end of the springs a parasaurolphus popped it's head out of the water with an eruption and sprayed everyone. We kept on moving passed a pen labeled 'Velociraptor Enclosure' Which had broken wires, soon we floated past a broken shed with a Dilophosaurus chewing what looked like a hazard suit. We kept on moving and along the way we were sprayed by some Dilophosaurus's before we noticed a car upside down high up on a wall. We then made our way up the 'water treatment facility' where a few Velociraptors made an appearance and a Tyrannosaurus stuck it's head through a gap. We made it to the end of the facility where we got a close up look of the Tyrannosaurus before dropping free fall 30 metres before splashing down a ramp and we all got saturated. This

was about the end of the ride other than some Dilophosaurus sprayed us some more. There was an 'Raptor Encounter' which was meet a discount 'Velociraptor'. We then met up with Mum who doesn't like rides. The second ride we went on was 'The revenge of the mummy'. I enjoyed this ride but I preferred the JP ride. The other rides we went on were the Transformers ride and the Simpsons ride. We also went on a tour around the movie taking area where there was a King Kong 3D experience, a Jaws encounter, we saw Skull island, a Fast and Furious thing and witnessed an earthquake (fake). We also saw a bunch of scenes and stuff in movie taking here. At lunch time in Springfield, we have our prepared lunches and even bought jumbo doughnuts from Lard Lad. These doughnuts are really nice and about a foot wide! We even saw a stunt show based in 'Waterworld' which was very entertaining with special effects. Before we left the park we went on The revenge of the mummy again and Jurassic park the ride multiple times. We arrived home around 8:15 and all had a good night sleep, tomorrow we are going to Disneyland.

DAY 40 29th SEPT
Sam and I were woken up at 8 again this morning and we got out of bed a bit groggy. We made our preparations and headed off to Disneyland around 11 ish. We had a bit of a detour as Dad went the wrong way and arrived there in about 15 minutes. We got into the goofy parking lot and caught the tram to Disneyland. We bought a ticket and met the Catchesides inside (they left separately and didn't take the detour). At first we got a fast-pass ticket for space mountain and left for another ride. We got in line for the Mattehorn Bobsled ride. This ride was cute and not as adrenalin filled as the ones at Universal Studios. There were a couple of Yetties which gave some other people a fright. The ride needed more cushioning as the turns dug into my ribs. We departed from Mattehorn Mountain to Thunder Mountain. Along the way we passed a Finding Nemo ride. After a long wait, we got onto the ride which was fun but not adrenalin filled, it was pretty fun but not that great. We then made our way to Splash Mountain but the line was too long so we got a fast-pass ticket, they weren't valid due to the previous so we tossed them. We split up a little later so Michelle, Katherine and I headed off for the Indiana Jones ride and the others did their things. The Indiana Jones ride wasn't exhilarating but it was nice, the detail in the cue was amazing as there were traps, writing and stone paintings looking really cool. There was a giant 'snake' on the ride which

was kinda cute. We departed and made our way to Space mountain for the fast-pass return (the way fast-pass works here is you get a ticket for a specific time between an hour for later, when the time comes you get to skip the line and go on). The Space Mountain ride was the most fun as it was much faster than the others and had cool effects. After the ride we went back to Splash Mountain for a fast-pass ticket and headed off. We had a look around and found the others, we had a talk and by the time we left it was time to go on the Splash Mountain ride (they got their tickets right after us). I have three words to describe this ride: cute, mean and wet. What happened is there were animatronics along the track and a few quick parts. At the drop, the spray was minimum BUT the 'log' we were in dipped down and a wave of water flushed in from

the left. At the next drop, same but on the right. At the final big drop, the spray wasn't that bad but the wave came in from all sides, DRENCHING all of us. For the rest of the day, our shoes squelched with each step. and thanks to all the water, Michelle,s phone will no longer function properly. We mainly walked around after that trying to cool off and went on 'Autopia' and Space Mountain before we left. At the parking lot we watched the fire works and I must say, the Royal Adelaide Show Fireworks ain't got nothing on these. The rest of the day was uneventful and sleep came mercifully.

DAY 41 30th SEPT
Today, most of us are going to Knott's Berry Farm. All but Mum, Britt and Sam are going. We woke up at around 9 ish and prepared ourselves like always. We left all in the same car and arrived at the park at 11 o'clock. We packed our belongings into a locker and headed off. Katherine met up with a work colleague and went off without us. The first ride we went on was the 'Silver Bullet' and by 'we', this time I mean all the others BUT me. I wasn't game to go on as it was the roller coaster were the seats are below the track and the track itself looked like scribbling. When they got off and we went to the 'side-winder'. This roller coaster is like a roller coaster except for two things, the well known loop the loop and the cars would move and twist as well. Most of the time I was facing the sky but I feel sorry for people who have to sit almost falling to the ground. After that my adrenaline level was up and I was ready to go on more. Over the course of the day, we went on most of the rides and if I included them all in, this paragraph would be longer than the one at Universal Studios. The three most fun/memorable would be Big-foot Rapids, Montezuma's Revenge and Xelerator. Big-foot Rapids is a ride where you WILL get wet and may get soaked. You float along a man made stream with waves where splashes come up and soak people. When the lot of us went on, Michelle got saturated by a big wave. The second interesting ride was Montezuma's Revenge. This ride was: take off, loop the loop, a rise before plummeting onto the track BACKWARDS, the same loop the loop backwards, another rise like before, rising until you fall back down and you come to a stop at the beginning. I didn't like the backward part at the time but adrenalin changed my mind after. The third ride is the Xelerator. This has a REALLY fast take off, faster than the Montezuma's Revenge. After take off you would rise 50, 75 maybe 100 metres into the air before plummeting back almost vertically before a few laps. The pictures taken at take off are priceless, though no one bought nor took pictures. We left the park around 6 and headed home. Turned out that other than relaxing at our apartments, the others spent their day shopping. Sleep was relatively easy tonight.

DAY 42 1st OCT
Day 2 for Disneyland and instead of the same Disneyland, we are going to the California Adventure Park (next door). This had better rides than Disneyland but not as energetic as Knott's Berry Farm. At first we got fast-pass tickets for the cars ride (Disney owns this theme park too) And met the Catchesides at the boot area. The first ride some of us went on was Grizzly Rapids ride and others went on Soarin'. Grizzly rapids ride was a lot like Big foot Rapids except for three things: the length (Bigfoot was longer), the drops (slides) and the drenching (you get wetter at Grizzly). We all met up, half of us wet and went on to other rides. We went on a multitude of rides from cool ones to cute ones. The most memorable ride was the 'California Screaming'. This ride was very fun and long. Not bad drops and a loop the loop, words I know cannot describe this other than fun and awesome. Britt screamed for the whole thing so it lived up to its name. There was also a Ferris wheel but this was no ordinary Ferris wheel. This Ferris wheel at a ratio of 2:1 had 'carriages' that would move freely on a track, so that these would slide back and forth to the extent that some people loose their lunch. Late in the afternoon when our fast-pass for the cars ride were valid. We went on it after a queue and the ride was fun but mostly cute. You drove around

a Radiator Springs for a bit then had a race, there were no controls so it was clearly on a track. After that ride I went onto the Soarin' Ride and it was very nice, you get elevated into the air and watch a video for as if you were hang gliding, but sitting. This was a good experience and had two memorable parts: the first is when you 'fly' over an orange field and you can smell oranges, the second is when you 'fly' over a golf coarse and virtually are nearly hit by a golf ball, I admit that I flinched at this and my family will never let it down. When we got home, we spent a good time packing for Yosemite and had Pizza for dinner which came with some Jurassic World cards. That is all for today, Peace out ;).