Our first few days...

Hi everyone!

Sorry for such a delay before my first post, for some reason my laptop wouldn't connect to the wireless at our hotel in Anaheim.

Here's a bit of a recap of our first few days.

Our first day was spent flying via Brisbane to LAX. It was a LONG trip, but worth it for how much cheaper the flights were compared to anything departing from Auckland on the same dates. For our flight from Brisbane to LAX, we few V Australia and I was really impressed! Last time we flew Air NZ, and V Australia is way nicer for cheaper. The food was good and even though the flight was bumpy around 80% of the flight (no joke), I actually managed to get some sleep!

Day 1 - Anaheim

We got to our hotel in Anaheim on Sunday at around 9am, and it was too early to check in. Even though we desperately wanted to shower after our flights, we went and had breakfast at Coco's, then spent the rest of the morning and half of the afternoon at Disney California Adventure (a second park next to Disneyland). We got to do a few rides, including my FAVE ride at DCA, the A Bug's Life 3D movie:

Aaron wearing the epic A Bug's Life 3D glasses

After a while we needed a break from the theme park, so we headed to a mall nearby (the block at orange) and did some shopping. Aaron got some shoes and I bought a top.

That evening, we were so tired, we were asleep by 8pm!

Day 2 - Universal Studios

On Monday, we went on a tour to Universal Studios, Hollywood and Beverly Hills. First stop for the majority of the day was Universal Studios.

Some awesome chihuahua actors. I have no idea what movies they're from

A highlight once again was the animal actors show. The show was mostly the same as last time, except a few of the animals had changed.

Our bus picked us up around 7pm and dropped us off on Hollywood Blvd for an hour. Because we'd been there before we knew what to expect and it wasn't too exciting.

The tour ended with a drive around Beverly Hills.

Day 3 - Disneyland

Yesterday we spent the day at Disneyland! First up was the It's a Small World ride.

Token Maori on It's a Small World.

We had a break from Disneyland in the afternoon as it was insanely busy. We knew it was going to be busy, but this was even more packed than when we were there in July 2009. We went for a swim at the hotel and had an early dinner.

Animal plants next to the pools at the hotel.

After dinner, we headed back to Disneyland and straight to use our Fastpasses for the new 3D Star Tours, which opened just over a month ago. It was pretty awesome, and apparently there's over 50 different stories that the ride can follow so it's different each time you ride. The lines at the moment are on average 2 hours long though, so we only rode once.

Next, we lined up for the Indiana Jones ride, and FINALLY got to ride it! It was pretty awesome, but I think it could have been a bit more epic than it was.

We headed back over to Disney California Adventure for the elecTRONica night show. It was mainly just part of the park lit up to look like the grid, and we weren't too impressed at first. Just as we were about to leave, we stumbled upon a big tron themed dance party, and behind it a bar selling glow in the dark cocktails. Behind that, was Flynn's arcade! We went inside and it was filled with almost every epic arcade game from the 80s that you can think of. They had a big tron game battle on which we watched for a bit.

The outside of Flynns

Our epic glowing drinks.

Day 4 - Vegas!

This morning we got up early to fly to Vegas. It's definitely hotter here than it was last time, so we tried to stay inside air conditioned buildings as much as possible! Unfortunately, we went to an outlet mall for some shopping, and when we got there found out it's an outdoor mall! The mall was OK, but not as good as the one at the south end of the strip which we are hopefully visiting tomorrow.

The highlight of our day was definitely registering for Rollercon and watching our first bout there, Nerds vs Jocks. Both teams were made up of both men and women, and it was an interesting game to watch! The skill was amazing. We're hoping to make it to some of the seminars tomorrow and watch at least one more bout. The shopping at Rollercon is AWESOME, everyone is here - Sincity, Wicked Skatewear, Fast Girl Skates, Derby Vixen (the awesome toe snouts!), Pivotstar and LOADS more. I think I may need to buy another suitcase to bring our purchases back in!

Anyway, sorry for the long post, but had to catch up! We leave the US on Monday, so have 4 more days in Vegas to enjoy.

Kim