Universal Studios Hollywood

Today we visited Universal Studios and got a tour of the back lot. I don't think we liked it as much as we did Disneyland but it was fun.

The Bates Motel from Hitchcock's Psycho, behind it is Whoville from The Grinch who stole Christmas.

Here is a shot of one of the Sets from the film War of the Worlds.

Mom, Dad and the girls decided to dare the House of Horrors. I was the smart one and sat this one out. Evidently they had ghosts, ghouls and all manner of creepy things chasing them as they wondered the black corridors. The gang also went on the Revenge of the mommy ride and our German friends decided to go on the Jurassic Park ride. Boy where they socked!

The Girls are in the second row, the two on the far right

We had lunch and left the park by about seven. We then entered their shopping district and proceeded to explore the shops. I spotted a familiar sight along the way….

We all had ice cream and went back to the hotel. Tomorrow we are planning to visit SeaWorld!

Adventure in California

We have been having lots of fun. Today we visited Disney's newest attraction; California Adventure! It's not as popular as Disneyland so the lines were way down and waiting in line was no big deal. My favorite ride over on this side was the Toy Story ride or rather game. On this ride you were put into a cart with cannons. The idea of the game was to hit all of the objects, such as dishes and cows…. All in a 3-D environment. Pretty cool! :)

This was pretty cool. Mr. Potato Head sang and danced for us while we were in line.

We all wore these stylish 3-D Glasses!

At the Golden Gate

Inside California Adventure felt more like a fair than an amusement park.

Later that afternoon it was back to Disneyland for a great southern Lunch at the Blue Bayou. It is located in the New Orleans section of Disneyland inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It is perhaps one of the hardest places to get into. Reservations were booked until nine that night. Thankfully we were able to get a reservation for two o'clock that afternoon.

Here we ate our meal by candle light and by the serinating paper lamps. They made it look as if we were really down south, outside at night. The crickets were chirping and the fireflies were dancing in the moonlight as a shooting star streaked the night sky. It was very hard to take picture in there so here are some of my best ones….

The very classy menu

If you are ever in Disneyland don't miss out on this dining experience. It's not one you will soon forget. But be prepared to pay this restaurant isn't cheap.

The food was excellent I had a Portobello mushroom boiled in vinaigrette with sautéed spinach and some other southern spices that I have no idea the name for. Everyone else had chicken, fish and ribs but they were not as interesting.

The Girls and their suckers

We then proceeded back over to California Adventure using the parks monorail system taking a detour through downtown Disney. Back in California Adventure we decided to go for a ride on the Grizzly river ride. We got socked! Lots of fun. Later that night after drying off at the hotel the Girls and I went back to Disneyland for the spectacular firework show. Boy what a day!

Hollywood & Santa Monica

Boy what a busy day! We walked the Walk of Fame and visited the Chinese Theater. We were not very impressed like some…..

This is a cement slab with the foot pints/ tire prints of some of the actors of Hollywood. It was fun to walk around and see names you recognized. The locals were very insistent on having their picture taken with you. Some perhaps overly aggressive…..

Our German Friends with Darth Vader

Is that really Johnny? He seemed slightly bemused with his captives.

We then traveled further south to the sandy beaches of Santa Monica. It has been very hot so we thought we might as well take it all in. Some of us dealt with the heat better than others. I did OK today. Yesterday it reached 105.

The Dad and the Gals had fun swimming and jumping the waves at this popular beach town. Mom and I watched the bags while I took some neat shots of the beach. It was really crowded.

Mom the Beach babe! :)

The Sand was everywhere

Sail boats were out in full force. Socking up the sweet rays and taking in that salty sea breeze.

For more pictures check out my Pictures located to the right of this blog. You can also view them at: http://picasaweb.google.com/JRRaymond.06

First Day in California

We arrived in Anaheim safely. The flight was good. We landed in LAX ten minutes ahead of schedule around 5:30 PM and proceeded to pick up the rented car. We then got on the highway. Dad drove and with the help of a GPS system. The Highway was very confusing and we got lost. We kept taking the wrong turn or taking the wrong entrance ramp. We finally reached our destination around 8:00 PM. It took us a while to get used to the GPS. :)

We spent today going on a lot of the rides. Our German Friends enjoyed Space Mountain. The rest of us enjoyed an old time favorite Pirates of the Caribbean.

Here are the Gals awaiting our rental car.

The Girls on the train

More Pictures to come!

Grab your German Dictionaries, your Suitcases and your traveling Spirit!

Well, here we go again! :) We are not going to Deutschland, but we are bringing a few of our German friends along. This time we are heading for California; Disneyland to be exact. I will be posting pictures and letting you know how we are doing over the next couple of days. Please stay tuned for pictures and follow up information.

Jeremy