Our Travel Blog: San Diego to Anaheim

After only a quick visit and relax in San Diego it was off to Anaheim for Disneyland.

After a short trip up the coast we reached Anaheim at about 9.30am and were able to check into our hotel straight away (very unusual). The hotel was pretty average but was close to the Disneyland entrance and convenient to everything else. After unpacking the car it was straight across to Disneyland to hit the rides! It was a Sunday so the park was relatively busy but we still didn't have to wait too long to go on anything. We stayed on until the early afternoon before heading back to the hotel, jumping in the car and going for a drive to see what we could find. We ended up at Downtown Disney wandering through the shops. Dinner tonight was at Rainforest Cafe (where we had a really nice meal)! The cafe is set up like a rainforest and every 20 minutes they simulate a rain storm. After dinner we headed back into the park to see the night time fireworks.

Next day we were up and at it early and headed a few doors up to IHOP for their all you can eat pancakes (for $4.99)! Then it was back across to the parks, only this time we headed into Disney's California Adventure Park. Here we went on a couple of tame rides/attractions first, before the brave ones (Jo & Wade!!) went on the California Screamin rollercoaster and Tower of Terror. As it was a Monday and school was back in the US the parks were really quiet (I think we heard more Aussie accents than anything else!). By lunchtime we had pretty much finished in the park so we headed back across to Disneyland to go on a few rides we had missed the day before. For dinner a few of us headed into one of the restaurants for the World of Color dinner package (where we got a three course meal and then priority viewing for the World of Color show that was on that night). The World of Color show was amazing - similar concept to the Bellagio Fountain show but also incorporating colour, and video projections on the water. Seeing this would have to be one of the highlights of the trip as well.

On Tuesday, after a slower morning, Wade and Jo decided to head across to Knott's Berry Farm (as Wade had a need for more rollercoasters!!). This park was only about a 10 minute drive away and when we got in there it was like a ghost town!! There was hardly anyone in the park and there was no wait on any ride we went on. After riding about 6 rollercoasters in less than two hours we were pretty much done and headed back to the hotel for a bit of a rest. Later in the afternoon the boys headed into LA for their Lakers Game. The boys had some great seats - on the floor about 8 rows back and saw some celebrities while they were there (including Andy Garcia, Will I Am, Cameron Diaz and Nate from Gossip Girl). The game was well and truly won by the Lakers (final score of Lakers - 112 Cleveland Cavaliers - 57).

Wednesday = last day of holiday! Today we took our time getting up and finishing off packing as we had a long day ahead of us. Our flight wasn't due to leave until 11.50pm so we had the whole day ahead of us. After checking out around 11, we headed across to South Coast Plaza - which was one of the big malls not far from Anaheim (to do some last minute shopping)! After some shopping and a bite to eat we started on our drive up the coast (with the ultimate destination being LAX). Our drive took us past Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Manhattan Beach and on to Santa Monica. We had a bit of a wander at Santa Monica, before we jumped back in the car. By this stage everyone was pretty much done but we still had over 6 hours until our plane left! We went for a bit more of a drive before finding a Westfield where we wandered for a while and then grabbed some dinner before dropping the rental car off and heading across to the airport to wait for our plane.

And so that is another holiday over (now where to next....)!!

Here are the photos from this last part of the trip.

San Diego