Disneyland 2012

[churros]

What no shopping?

[KeithS]

What no shopping?

Plenty of shopping, I spent $500 at the track on car racing stuff!

[churros]

What no shopping?

Plenty of shopping, I spent $500 at the track on car racing stuff!

What... like tyres and stuff?

[ajp]

What no shopping?

Plenty of shopping, I spent $500 at the track on car racing stuff!

YEAH! I sense a Laguna Seca leather jacket, bomber style Keith?

[KeithS]

Anthony, you know me so well. Although I didn't get a leather bomber jacket as they had none but I did get a summer jacket and two dress shirts, a t shirt, cap and more!

I will give you an update on today's adventures soon.

We are having brilliant fun here, wish you were all with us!

[KeithS]

Day 5 – Thursday, 7 June 2012
Got up this morning and headed down to breakfast. We were staying at the Normandy Inn in Carmel and it was a beautiful little hotel. It has nice gardens and little pathways lined with flowers and had a very old-world/European feel. Della said it felt like living in the little town from Allo Allo! After breakfast, we took a bunch of photos around the hotel before hitting the road and driving further south.

The coast road from Carmel heading south is fantastic. You go along rugged cliffs and bays, long bridges, beaches, and forests – it really has it all. At Big Sur, we pulled over at a restaurant called Nepanthe. It used to be owned by Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth and was a favourite place for Hollywood stars in the past. It has amazing views over the coast cliffs.

We hit the road again and continued on the twisty road towards Hearst Castle. We had a tour booked for 1pm and 3pm. It was a beautiful sunny day but quite cool – about 20 Celsius. We arrived at the visitors centre around 12:30, grabbed our jackets and headed inside where our bus awaited to take us up the 500 metre climb to the castle. When we got out at the top of the mountain, we found it was very warm – about 30 Celsius, so we didn’t need our jackets!

Hearst Castle was built by William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper mogul, over a 28 year period, spending the family fortune his father had made in the mining industry. It became the place to be seen amongst the Hollywood elite from the 1930’s – 1950’s. Charlie Chaplin, David Niven, Cary Grant and many others stayed there and partied there. The castle was pure decadence – a monument to someone with too much money. Hundreds of rooms, swimming pools, tennis courts, artwork from the Mediterranean and Middle East.

We had a wonderful tour guide who was super knowledgeable and funny. We did a tour of the ground floor first, which was the reception, dining rooms, smoking rooms etc. The second tour (same tour guide!) was of the upper floors, including the guest bedrooms and guest library (4,000 books), and Hearst’s own private floor of bedrooms and main library (10,000 books). We also spent a long time walking around the gardens which were magnificent. Visiting Hearst Castle was really enjoyable!

We headed back down the mountain around 5pm, grabbed a bite to eat and headed back onto the road. We drove on south to Pismo Beach and checked into the Sandcastle Inn. Coincidentally, we have ended up in exactly the same room that Dad and I stayed in last year. We went to the local fish and chip shop and are now getting ready for bed.

Tomorrow, we are going to Santa Barbara and the following day, Anaheim!

[KeithS]

Today's picture of the day is the Neptune Pool at Hearst Castle.

[churros]

We are having brilliant fun here, wish you were all with us!

Bit late to invite us now!

[sandie]

[mushu mama]

wow... thats some pool...

[calisota]

We are having brilliant fun here, wish you were all with us!

Yeah, if you'd asked a couple of months ago I would have gone with you. I don't snore.

Greg

[KeithS]

A club trip to San Francisco would be great together - I'm sure I could arrange to use a function room at the Walt Disney Family Museum to host the meeting - woudn't that be great?

Anyway - on to today's short update!

Day 6 – Friday, 8 June 2012
Woke to another cloudless day and we could see for miles up the coastline from our hotel room. We had a quick breakfast then packed the car once again for another day on the road. We were heading for Santa Barbara, but thought that we would go via a town call Solvang that someone had mentioned to us.

After about an hour on the road, we reached Solvang and found a car park. We didn’t know what to expect other than that it was billed as a Danish Village. What we found was a real nice town full of quirky shops with an overriding European motif. It was sort of like a giant Main Street USA in Disneyland but with a European theme. It was really clean and the people were friendly. Della dragged me into just about every shop in the town and bought heaps of loot. There was one particular shop that stocked tonnes of Disney collectibles, so we got another fix merchandise and jewellery (I left empty handed…)

We grabbed a late lunch and ice cream there before getting back on the road around 4pm. We took the route through the mountains from Solvang to Santa Barbara and headed straight to the hotel. Della came up with an excuse to head downtown and somehow we ended up in Macy’s again. Della bought more clothes and after a long look around the shopping precinct, we headed back to the hotel and ordered room service.

Sitting back now relaxing – knowing that it is only 24 hours to Carsland.

I am not sure if I'll be able to keep up the updates tomorrow. I don't think the Carousel Inn has wireless, so you might have to wait until I get back for full details! I'll try and post short updates from my mobile phone.

[churros]

Oh no you don't Keith, we demand daily updates, photos and videos on YouTube.

If you just sucked in you pride and bought an iPad or iPhone then we would all be happy!

[KeithS]

If you just sucked in you pride and bought an iPad or iPhone then we would all be happy!

LOL! I have the tech, but without the free wifi, international data roaming rates get very expensive...

Anyway, here is today's photo of the day - Solvang.

[KeithS]

Hi everyone. What are you doing this Sunday morning?

It is Saturday afternoon here and we are on the Disneyland Express Bus heading down the freeway to Anaheim!!!

Another beautiful afternoon here, think I'll go and check out Carsland this evening