And on San Francisco

Just a few more photos again.
On the way in from the airport, South San Francisco advertises themselves as an industrial city. Hmmmmmmm


SF has a dubious claim to fame having a prison on a rock in the ocean.


A closed prison.


The world famous steep Lombard street with gardens.
Impressive looking civic centre


And opera house


Victorian houses galore


Golden Gate Bridge trying to emerge below the fog


Some good looking buildings - just forgot what this one was.


Beautiful flower boxes at Pier 39


And nice views


But i didnt leave my heart in San Francisco.
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DisneyWorld

There are four parks in Disneyworld. I have already talked a bit about them but as internet was not great have decided to add a few more pics.


The third day we visited the Hollywood Studio park which has an Art Deco theme going on. The 20s, 30s 40s and 50s are represented in the building styles and the dining. Here is one of the shops.


This popcorn booth was typical.


Pastel colour was big here too.


Hunter went in the Tower of Terror but found it pretty scary.


My dad had a breakdown truck similar to this.


And this old Chevy was popular with the men in our party.


The rides were appropriately themed for entertainment.


Great looking roller coaster.


And so was the dining.


This place was hilarious. The waiters treated you like naughty kids and growled if you had elbows on the table or left anything on the plate.


They called out "Bye kids" when you left. The whole park was about entertaining so very good.


Indiana Jones and stuntmen centered show was great.


All kept Hunter entertained. Muppets in 3D, along with Beauty and the Beast, and American Idol shows.


We got to vote on 3 of the contestants but my favorite did not go through.


This park was a lot of fun but it was very hot the day we were there. And the show at the end of the day was as exciting as the fireworks from the previous two nights. Mickey was the hero.


My favorite park may well have been animal kingdom which we visited on the fourth day but I really am unsure.


The safari experience was very well staged.


Animals all looked in natural looking environments.


The tiger was placed in Asian temple ruins.


The jungle looked very natural along with the ruins



There were all sorts of birds and wildlife on display - loved these huge gorillas


Even the backside


Entertainment a la Africa.


Flamingoes


Fish


Mt Everest roller coaster was very exciting even just watching it - this one was the one Hunter and Dan got stuck on.


And the it was on to Downtown Disney..... A shopping extravaganza along with Disney Quest which I mentioned in a previous blog. So this is just a small taste of the experiences we had. Have never been to Disneyland but they say DisneyWorld is bigger and better.

Home - no pictures

Made it home! Raining here oh boy! But not too cold. A good day to spend inside unpacking. The house looks tidy and well looked after by the house sitters so that's a good thing. The dishwasher is not installed and so is sitting in the lounge. Maybe we can try that today too. Swollen feet last night so I just lay down and went to sleep on the sofa. Spring has sprung here which doesn't mean warm temps but the cherry blossom and the magnolia have started to show colour and there are a few camellias out so that is cheering. I am happy to be home after all my adventures - need time to reflect on and enjoy the memories. The pets are happy to see us, or so it seems. I miss Hunter!



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Location:Wembley Pl,Taupo,New Zealand

From Florida to San Francisco

We left tropical Florida at 7am after an early morning start. Tired travellers. It seemed we suddenly became tired after we left Disneyworld at Epcot one more time.


It is a 6 hour flight from that side of the country to San Francisco. Three valiums was enough to make the flight bearable. Slept through the first three hours. The flight was relatively smooth sailing. The landscape below was wild and dry.


Travel arrangements needed to be sorted out when we arrived (why would you put three people who booked together in different places on the plane, especially when one is a child?) but the AirNZ office was not open until 6.30 do we decided to head to town so Hunter could have a look around the city. We took the open air bus for a two hour tour but out of the city it was freezing cold and I didnt enjoy it even with the blanket provided by the bus driver. Everyone that I speak to says they love SF but I find it a cold dirty city with homeless people (and too many tourists) on every corner in some areas. This city is good to its homeless but maybe too good. There are 17000 homeless people that are supported by the city. In a city where it is so expensive to live, I guess that some of them don't have the choice. Where else can they go? Where have they come from? That's someone else's question to answer I guess.

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Disneyworld

Well, I can certainly recommend DisneyWorld!




They are masters of marketing, the whole place runs like a well oiled clock




there is something for every age - rides, educational tours, plenty of good restaurants and watering holes and of course everybody is so dang happy.




The staff in DW dont just do their job. They look out for ways they can help you even of it is not their job from cleaners to cooks to bell hops to maitre de's.




The dreaded queues are so well managed with entertainment and Fast -passes so you can pass the time away quickly. The longest we waited for anything was advertised as 30 minutes but in fact was less than that.
I need to mention Disney Quest in downtown DisneyWorld. This is like a big fun arcade where you can play virtual games and other activities.





You get cool looking headgear and you can go chasing bad guys and destroying them. Great evening time activities and also a very entertaining shopping area! Could have spent a lot of time there if we had more. We took a little boat ride for 20 minutes along the river to get there and back. Very nice!


The paradoxical moment of our trip was a breakdown of the Mt Everest roller coaster which left Dan and Hunter marooned inside the mountain for half an hour.



Although there was a nervous wait for me on the outside, it became a great adventure for Hunter who was given a fast pass to get on it again. It was her third go at it because it was pretty exciting!




We ran out of time to make use of it but it will make a great feature in her scrapbook titled the day I got stuck on a roller coaster inside a mountain.
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DisneyWorld

Well this place is immense. Yesterday we did Epcot until 10.30 at night after the fireworks display at 9 - encroyable!


Fabulous and beautiful. It is quite emotional being here which is unexpected and not really like me but everyone is so happy to be here and enjoying themselves so much you get swept up in it all.


Hunter has had a photo with many of the characters but as Internet hasn't been good in our bedroom I have not uploaded many photos yet.


While I wait for Hunter and Dan to do a roller coaster ride, I am making use of the better Internet. I am not looking forward to going back to Nz where Internet is only available in a few places. It is nearly universally available here for free. Some connections are a bit dodgy but who is complaining? Posted in the happiest kingdom of them all!


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Location:Tommorrowland,Orlando,United States