Day 7 - to Monterey

A moving day today, starting with checking out in Santa Barbara and walking the 50 yards or so up the road to iHop for a slap up breakfast before starting the long leg of our north-bound journey. Apparently the coast road (Highway 1) is closed somewhere around Big Sur, so we stuck to the 101 for this leg of the journey. It was probably a wise move anyway given how far we were travelling. Not sure exactly how far we came today, but we joined the 101 around exit 100, and left it around exit 330, and our total mileage must have been close to 200. Lots of impressive Californian scenery on the way, as well as many miles of agriculture, including lots of vines!

Before coming to Monterey we stopped off in Carmel for a look around. Looks like an affluent and expensive area. Came up to Monterey via a drive along 17-mile drive past the golf courses and nice houses.

The Clement at Monterey is as lovely as last time. We are in a large room in the corner of the main building this time (still with zen garden!). This evening we've been next door to Bubba Gump's for dinner, and even managed to do well at the waitress's film trivia quiz.

(Our room is the second one up on the left of the main building in the first photo below.)

Day 6 - Viva la Fiesta

It turns out that we came to Santa Barbara at the right time. August 2-6 is the 'Old Spanish Days Fiesta', which includes lots of entertainment and parades. This morning it was the children's parade, and we had lots of fun watching it. It seemed like a really community-spirited event, with groups in the parade from lots of local schools, clubs and other community groups.

For the rest of the day we have been enjoying taking in the sights and sounds of Santa Barbara - mostly based around State Street or down by the sea front an pier. We had lunch at Joe's, which was considerably busier and louder than last time we were there, and dinner at a restaurant on the pier just after sunset, watching the amphibious party boat go out, and thankfully come back in again.

State Street is a long road, so depending on whether you believe the fitbit or the phone, either 22k or 35k steps today.

Day 5 - WB

Day 5 in outline - to be completed more fully later - bit tired here!

• Warner Bros Studio Tour - excellent - lots of highlights - lots of photos - will have to download from camera and upload for posting to share here
• Late lunch at the Smokehouse Restaurant next door. As was mentioned by our tour guide as a favourite of George Clooney!
• Quick trip to a shoe store for Jake for a look at expensive trainers
• A stroll along Santa Monica pier and the beach
• Drive from LA to Santa Barbara to check in at La Quinta.

Day 4 - LA moving

Started the day today by packing up at The Grand Californian. Well actually I dodged the packing by having a telephone board meeting, which nicely meant that I subcontracted the suitcase bit! Once meetings and cases had been sorted out, we left our luggage with bell services and headed into the California Adventure, and for the third time in four days went to Flo's V8 cafe in Radiator Springs for their french toast breakfast. Whilst in Cars Land we were lucky enough to see Lightning McQueen himself (!), and so many photos were taken.


The wait for Radiator Springs racers was just too long, so we went over to Paradise Pier. Unfortunately Toy Story was out of commission, and so Jake and I went on California Screamin'. Now, clearly something of a role reversal has taken place since our last visit to the West Coast in 2010. Back then, Jake was too timid to come on the roller coaster, and I distinctly remember enjoying it. This time around, Jake whooped it up all the way around, and the word I would use for my experience would be more 'endure' than 'enjoy'.


Once ridden and reunited with Nicky we decided that it was just too hot for more park activity and so headed to Downtown for some shopping and relaxation, which included:

• new sunglasses for Nicky and Jake - they both look very cool now;
• a cool drink (I am developing a particular fondness for the caramel frappucino) at Starbucks;
• an Earl of Sandwich sandwich;
• some souvenir shopping at World of Disney, including much FaceTime consultation with Izzy over some big yellow slippers.

By now it was time to say farewell to Disney and to head across to the other side of LA and to hotel number two of this holiday, 'The Garland' which seems very nice. We are only here for one night, and it turns out that they have have a free shuttle bus to Universal.

We are not going to the studios park on this holiday, but we took the opportunity to take the shuttle this afternoon and go to City Walk, and have a look at the shopping and dining opportunities there. Jake got himself a couple of basketball tops, and we went to a very nice Chinese restaurant for dinner.

Day 3 - Parks

One thing that I've been discovering on this holiday that I meant to include yesterday: there seems to be quite a wide variance between the fitbit and the phone on counting steps. Taking today as an example, the fitbit says 15,000 and the phone says 25,000. Weird.

As for today we've been enjoying time in and around the parks. Nicky and Jake went on the Jungle Cruise and the Haunted Mansion whilst I sorted out a work thing this morning. We had some lunch at the pizza place in Downtown, and had a good look around the shops there.

Back to the parks this evening, and it seems like Jake and I have ended up with a new mountain triple - the Matterhorn (first ever ride), Big Thunder, and then Grizzly River (which Nicky joined us for).

Nicky and I finished off the evening with a rather nice glass of wine in the Napa lounge at the hotel.

Day 2 - Grove, Caltech, Angels

Things that I learned on day 2 of our holiday:

• LA traffic is a nightmare
• The Grove is a very pleasant shopping centre
• I like cakes from Laduree, they are rather indulgent
• When it comes right down to it, Jake probably doesn't want Yeezy trainers enough to spend the amount of money they cost on them
• A smaller lunch choice and a share of a cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory is still a very large meal
• LA traffic is a nightmare
• Caltech seems like a nice place, even if the architecture is a little concrete-inspired in places
• Jake doesn't want to go there anyway
• LA traffic is a nightmare
• The LA Angels baseball team's star player is called Trout
• Thanks to a giveaway this evening we all now own a pair of socks with his name and face on them
• Baseball takes a long time to play, and for a lot of the time, the crowd don't seem to be giving the action their undivided attention
• Once the result looks pretty clear (in this case at the bottom of the 7th) lots of people go home.

Day 1 - California Adventure

The California Adventure is underway properly, and as is becoming common, by the time we got to the end of our day of arrival, it was suddenly time for sleep yesterday, and so no blogging took place. Our journey here was straightforward - we made it to Heathrow in plenty of time, parked, and had no queue at check-in. Straight through security and the traditional airport breakfast was enjoyed. Our gate was displayed on time, and we didn't have to wait at the gate, but boarded straight away, meaning that there wasn't the usual faff of sitting around and getting called by row number. Flight was a smooth ride - Netflix subscription definitely did well with both of my travel companions watching downloaded shows. I read three books (Michael Lewis's 'Home Game', 'Detective Cross' (bookshot), and 'The Sunshine Cruise Company' by John Niven). The captain did a good job of sounding breezy about some malfunction or other in one of the engines, but it didn't seem to matter, and the flashing lights kept a respectable distance away when we touched down at LAX! Orlando could learn a thing or two from the immigration team here, and it wasn't long before we were on the shuttle bus to the car hire. Annoyingly the hire desk put the optional extra on our hire so we had to argue briefly to get that removed ($110ish) before taking the car. The old sat nav, having been loaded up with US road info, worked fine, and we were at the hotel after about 45 mins.

We decided to get park tickets for each day, and so after a brief rest headed in to Disneyland, via a stroll through California Adventure. First stop was something to eat, which was at the Carnation Cafe on Main Street, and then a quick go on Buzz Lightyear, so that we could say we'd done a ride on the day of arrival. (And, even better, I got top score!)

That was about all we were going to manage before jet lag kicked in, so we headed back to our room to call it a day.

Some of us slept better than others, but we were up and out by about 7.30 this morning, and first stop was to have a look at Cars Land, as it was still being built last time we were here. We went straight on the Radiator Springs Racers, which were lots of fun, followed by breakfast at Flo's V8 cafe - some mighty fine (and not small) pieces of banana bread.

After breakfast, a stroll back over to Paradise Pier, and to Toy Story Mania. I was unable to repeat my scoring success of yesterday (Jake won this time) but still lots of fun. A quick roll-a-ball horse race (Jake again) and then on to the big wheel, where we decided to go for the moving/rocking option. This seemed fine as we did our first loop, when the ride was still in load mode. Then, the second, non-stop loop was a slightly different experience. Wow do they rock a lot!

To calm the nerves, Nicky and I went on a few rides aimed for small people (Golden Zephyrs, The Little Mermaid), before meeting up with Jake and going on the Monsters Inc ride and Soarin'.

Having declared that sufficient park success, we headed back to the hotel and Nicky and I relaxed by the pool for a while, before we made our way over to the nearby outlet shops, and had a late Johnny Rockets lunch. Outlet was ok, but not Florida standard. Jake got some tops in Ralph Lauren but that was about it.

This evening we've been back into the park for tea and to watch the World of Color water show, and now it is time to turn in again.

To finish, two photos, one taken today, and one taken seven years ago!