Hello again!
Be prepared for many, many pictures in this post.
You probably haven't noticed, but for the last month, I've been in America. I say 'America', because we didn't just visit one part of the immensely vast country, no, we visited in total 5 states, and so many tourist attractions!
We flew via Dublin to LAX, a measly 11 hours in a tin can hovering above water, which could have been a worse flight in all honesty. I had a wealth of entertainment sources, including the same colouring book I had last year, more Leonardo DiCaprio movies and a limited supply of food. I must add though, that in Dublin Airport, I managed to get a 9 chicken nugget meal with 10 chicken nuggets! Little things…
Pretty much as soon as we landed in California we were travelling away from North Hollywood to Anaheim, to the original and teeny tiny Disneyland. Granted there is also California Adventure, which I think has to be my favourite theme park. So little yet so pretty and well designed…
Next day it was the original Disneyland park.
Main Street feels very similar to that at Disney World, yet its so much shorter, but somehow nicer that way, I feel.
We had a great few days in Anaheim :) There was a particular Disneyland tie dyed t-shirt that it seemed everybody had. I had to have it!! It was exactly my kind of thing, and it's a really fabulous top hahaha.
We took a walk down Venice Beach too, which felt fairly familiar after all the YouTube videos I used to watch when I was younger haha.
Aaaand of course we did all of the Hollywood touristy things:
Turns out Leonardo DiCaprio doesn't have a star on the Walk of Fame, and after searching for it, we eventually googled it and were outraged! Can this man not catch a break?!
Next up, Six Flags Magic Mountain!
This is an intense park. There are lots of world (and Jordan) firsts in this park, including a rare standing coaster! That was a strange one…
Superman was a particular highlight, at 104 mph, as well as drop tower, Lux Luthor, which is 120m high. Incidentally, these two rides are tied to the same tower.
And then our time in California was drawing to a close, as we then spent the next few days in another state. We drove from LA to Las Vegas, stopping on the way at the Hoover Dam.
And then we did a plant tour of the Hoover Dam, going down into the turbine rooms within the dam itself.
It was literally like stepping into an oven at this place, it was just insanely hot.
This was just a short stop off on our way to Las Vegas. Not entirely sure what I was expecting, but it was 100 times better than I had ever imagined.
Excalibur was recommended to us as a good, cheap yet decent hotel to stay in in Vegas, and it was very interesting! Themed as a medieval castle, it is allowed to feel dated.
We rode the rollercoaster at New York New York, of course. This is actually quite a good ride, despite how expensive it is.
We also saw the Cirque du Soleil show 'O' at the Bellagio too, which was once again, mind-blowing. Very funny in a Cirque kind of way, and yet still so precise and artistic. However, there was a small incident on board a ship-looking piece of equipment. The nets all went up and the sequence started, but seconds afterwards, the acrobat fell onto another person also on the ship, and seemingly injured themselves fairly badly. The music carried on yet nobody was performing. After about a minute, the performance was stopped, the acrobats were cleared to jump into the water and it became clear that the artist who had fallen needed some attention, as the house lights were turned on and an announcement was made by the stage manager that they were to be taken down from the apparatus and taken care of. So back went the ship, and for about 10 to 15 minutes, the next scene had to be set, and we then shortly resumed.
I couldn't find out if they were alright. It had previously been easy-ish, to find members of the team on Instagram, yet I couldn't find anyone from this show, so I hope their foot was alright!
We also found the holy grail of burgers whilst in Vegas too. I bet any American's reading this will turn their nose up at what we found, but there was a 24hr burger chain in our hotel called Johnny Rockets, and their bbq burgers are the nicest things we've ever tasted haha. Especially at half one in the hotel room starving, taking a bite of this was a slice of heaven.
The next day was an early one, as we headed out to Arizona, and the Grand Canyon. It took about 4 hours to get there (and another 4 home!) but it was so worth it.
Oh, we took a detour onto Route 66 too, for about an hours driving at 55mph instead of 75. It's a good route though, with plenty of interesting roadside attractions. Particularly interesting to pass through Native American territory, and to see such natural landscape.
I had no previous concept of the size of this place, which is almost incomprehensible. It's immensely vast, and still and quiet and just amazing. It's very strange to be able to sit on the edge like that, and have no barriers or railings to keep you from falling off. It's also so high up, the temperature was a lot cooler, so it was lovely to walk around and see it.
I must point out that we drove an extra two hours to the South Rim, rather than the closer West Rim, as it is known to be less touristy, and also much cheaper to get in.
We dropped a random pin here on Google Maps before we even got to America, and were amazed to have dropped it at such a strange location, with all these pillars of coloured rocks. Turns out it's a piece of art called Seven Magic Mountains, and we found it on our way to Vegas so took a detour on our way home to California.
On our very last day in California, we visited the Griffith Observatory, which was good, but it was sohazy smoggy in LA.
Time for our first internal flight to Texas!
Texas was such an adventure! So many doggies and animals!
We also had a very nice Tex Mex meal in San Antonio, which was so cool to experience the 'authentic taste' rather than what we get in packets over here haha.
And then we visited Six Flags Fiesta Texas, for some more rollercoasters haha.
It rained for about an hour when we first got there.
And then that appears to be the end of all of my Texan pictures. As the next lot are from Florida!
We did Universal too, and although I went here last year, it was such a rush around I barely went on any rides. So this year, I finally did it all properly, and I am so glad I went on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. What an amazing ride.
All over the Harry Potter land's in both parks at Universal are so well done, and I was particularly impressed by the Gringotts Bank in the queue line. So finely detailed with scarily realistic goblins.
We also went back to the Be Our Guest restaurant, but this time for dinner instead of breakfast. The food was delicious but I must admit I was slightly disappointed with the experience. After experiencing breakfast, and being able to sit wherever we like, and for our food to find us, this doesn't seem to happen at dinner time. Although I was perhaps given false information, I was also expecting some kind of entertainment during dinner. A dance maybe? The slight dimming of the lights and lifting of the music whilst the Beast provided some dinner time entertainment through the hall? For some reason I was expecting this.
And then it was time for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party! A cute alternative to Universal's Halloween Horror Nights. It's full of dressing up, sweets, parades, shows and rides in the dark.
Below is a parade that featured a headless horseman, who's horse wore metal shoes. On a concrete ground, and if we were further up, these metal shoes would have sparked on the ground, making it extra spooky. I think in the past it used to go faster, but trying to stop a horse on metal shoes on a concrete ground is probably very difficult in an emergency…
The pitmen in the parade below had spades, that when scraped along the ground, created an impressive wave of sparks.
We also did a Keys to the Kingdom tour, which featured a lot of backstage access, including an extended tour of the utilidors, underneath Main Street. It was a really good tour, and was an opportunity to ask any questions you had about the behind the scenes workings of Walt Disney World. Obviously I have no pictures of down any tunnels or anything, or I think I would actually have been deported haha.
Also, Epcot's Food and Wine festival is amazing! I haven't honestly been to that many food festivals, but Epcot's should be the model for food festivals everywhere! Unfortunately, we didn't get on the Frozen ride, since it was a 90 minute queue most days, and when we were stood in the queue, it shut!
So overall a fantastic holiday, that I will never do again but will always remember! A month away is such a long time and although I really enjoyed myself, I was looking forward to getting back home. I love the UK and there were so many things that were done so differently to the way it's done in the UK and although by the end of the month I was beginning to accept and embrace several American traditions, I still missed the UK, and Newcastle!
Favourite part of the whole holiday was Vegas, and it's non-stop atmosphere. It was great to have visited both Disneyland and Disney World in one holiday, and also to have gone on soooo many rollercoasters. It turns out though, that we walked approximately 126 miles over the 26 days we were away. Crazy.
I hope you all made it this far down!
Jordanavia :)
Be prepared for many, many pictures in this post.
You probably haven't noticed, but for the last month, I've been in America. I say 'America', because we didn't just visit one part of the immensely vast country, no, we visited in total 5 states, and so many tourist attractions!
We flew via Dublin to LAX, a measly 11 hours in a tin can hovering above water, which could have been a worse flight in all honesty. I had a wealth of entertainment sources, including the same colouring book I had last year, more Leonardo DiCaprio movies and a limited supply of food. I must add though, that in Dublin Airport, I managed to get a 9 chicken nugget meal with 10 chicken nuggets! Little things…
Pretty much as soon as we landed in California we were travelling away from North Hollywood to Anaheim, to the original and teeny tiny Disneyland. Granted there is also California Adventure, which I think has to be my favourite theme park. So little yet so pretty and well designed…
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| Mickey's Fun Wheel and California Screamin' |
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| All the fountains beneath the lake for World of Color |
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| Cars Land |
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| Cars Land at night |
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| World of Color is such a fantastic show. We saw it two nights because it was so good! |
Next day it was the original Disneyland park.
Main Street feels very similar to that at Disney World, yet its so much shorter, but somehow nicer that way, I feel.
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| A brick of a brownie for $3… |
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| Some lovely theming. This is another story… |
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| Shplaash Mountain |
We had a great few days in Anaheim :) There was a particular Disneyland tie dyed t-shirt that it seemed everybody had. I had to have it!! It was exactly my kind of thing, and it's a really fabulous top hahaha.
We then took a day trip to Malibu, which I felt was under appreciated by myself, as I had no real concept of the fame Malibu had. I even failed to realise that the Malibu everyone seems to talk about was actually in California. I think I had it in my head that it was in Florida… Nevertheless it was a welcome cool temperature to the rest of California!
We took a walk down Venice Beach too, which felt fairly familiar after all the YouTube videos I used to watch when I was younger haha.
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| Endeavour |
Aaaand of course we did all of the Hollywood touristy things:
Turns out Leonardo DiCaprio doesn't have a star on the Walk of Fame, and after searching for it, we eventually googled it and were outraged! Can this man not catch a break?!
Next up, Six Flags Magic Mountain!
Superman was a particular highlight, at 104 mph, as well as drop tower, Lux Luthor, which is 120m high. Incidentally, these two rides are tied to the same tower.
And then our time in California was drawing to a close, as we then spent the next few days in another state. We drove from LA to Las Vegas, stopping on the way at the Hoover Dam.
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| The entrance to Nevada |
And then we did a plant tour of the Hoover Dam, going down into the turbine rooms within the dam itself.
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| Can't even fit it all in one photo |
It was literally like stepping into an oven at this place, it was just insanely hot.
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| Lake Mead |
This was just a short stop off on our way to Las Vegas. Not entirely sure what I was expecting, but it was 100 times better than I had ever imagined.
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| Our hotel, Excalibur |
Excalibur was recommended to us as a good, cheap yet decent hotel to stay in in Vegas, and it was very interesting! Themed as a medieval castle, it is allowed to feel dated.
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| New York New York's tiny casino |
We rode the rollercoaster at New York New York, of course. This is actually quite a good ride, despite how expensive it is.
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| Fountains at the Bellagio |
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| One of the many entrances to Caesar's Palace |
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| Forum Shops are amazing! |
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| And an interestingly curvy escalator… |
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| This was in the Venetian. It is made to look like the outdoors, but we are intact, inside here. Yes, the river too. |
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| And of course, the famous Las Vegas sign. |
We also saw the Cirque du Soleil show 'O' at the Bellagio too, which was once again, mind-blowing. Very funny in a Cirque kind of way, and yet still so precise and artistic. However, there was a small incident on board a ship-looking piece of equipment. The nets all went up and the sequence started, but seconds afterwards, the acrobat fell onto another person also on the ship, and seemingly injured themselves fairly badly. The music carried on yet nobody was performing. After about a minute, the performance was stopped, the acrobats were cleared to jump into the water and it became clear that the artist who had fallen needed some attention, as the house lights were turned on and an announcement was made by the stage manager that they were to be taken down from the apparatus and taken care of. So back went the ship, and for about 10 to 15 minutes, the next scene had to be set, and we then shortly resumed.
I couldn't find out if they were alright. It had previously been easy-ish, to find members of the team on Instagram, yet I couldn't find anyone from this show, so I hope their foot was alright!
We also found the holy grail of burgers whilst in Vegas too. I bet any American's reading this will turn their nose up at what we found, but there was a 24hr burger chain in our hotel called Johnny Rockets, and their bbq burgers are the nicest things we've ever tasted haha. Especially at half one in the hotel room starving, taking a bite of this was a slice of heaven.
The next day was an early one, as we headed out to Arizona, and the Grand Canyon. It took about 4 hours to get there (and another 4 home!) but it was so worth it.
Oh, we took a detour onto Route 66 too, for about an hours driving at 55mph instead of 75. It's a good route though, with plenty of interesting roadside attractions. Particularly interesting to pass through Native American territory, and to see such natural landscape.
 |
| Our altimeter hahaha LA is sea level, Grand Canyon is 7000ft… |
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| I promise this is real hahaha |
I had no previous concept of the size of this place, which is almost incomprehensible. It's immensely vast, and still and quiet and just amazing. It's very strange to be able to sit on the edge like that, and have no barriers or railings to keep you from falling off. It's also so high up, the temperature was a lot cooler, so it was lovely to walk around and see it.
I must point out that we drove an extra two hours to the South Rim, rather than the closer West Rim, as it is known to be less touristy, and also much cheaper to get in.
We dropped a random pin here on Google Maps before we even got to America, and were amazed to have dropped it at such a strange location, with all these pillars of coloured rocks. Turns out it's a piece of art called Seven Magic Mountains, and we found it on our way to Vegas so took a detour on our way home to California.
On our very last day in California, we visited the Griffith Observatory, which was good, but it was so
Time for our first internal flight to Texas!
Texas was such an adventure! So many doggies and animals!
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| Cool caves called the Natural Bridge Caverns |
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| One doggy |
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| Two doggies |
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| Three doggies |
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| Lots of doggies |
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| The Alamo in San Antonio. Their tourism board needs work… |
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| The River Walk is very pretty |
We also had a very nice Tex Mex meal in San Antonio, which was so cool to experience the 'authentic taste' rather than what we get in packets over here haha.
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| Probs my favourite picture of all time is this kitten |
And then we visited Six Flags Fiesta Texas, for some more rollercoasters haha.
It rained for about an hour when we first got there.
And then that appears to be the end of all of my Texan pictures. As the next lot are from Florida!
Our villa slept 8, and had it's own private pool. So exec. It was a really nice place though, in a nice little area called Davenport.
Florida itself though, is so different to the rest of America. It feels so separate, as though it's not actually America. It just feels like, Florida.
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| Our pool had a tiny snake in it. Turns out it was a Brahminy blind snake, so we called him Brahminy. |
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| Such theming… Shame it's not going to be Tower of Terror for much longer. |
We did Universal too, and although I went here last year, it was such a rush around I barely went on any rides. So this year, I finally did it all properly, and I am so glad I went on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. What an amazing ride.
All over the Harry Potter land's in both parks at Universal are so well done, and I was particularly impressed by the Gringotts Bank in the queue line. So finely detailed with scarily realistic goblins.
 |
| And my first butter beer. Don't like them. |
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| Much bigger castle than Disneyland! |
We also went back to the Be Our Guest restaurant, but this time for dinner instead of breakfast. The food was delicious but I must admit I was slightly disappointed with the experience. After experiencing breakfast, and being able to sit wherever we like, and for our food to find us, this doesn't seem to happen at dinner time. Although I was perhaps given false information, I was also expecting some kind of entertainment during dinner. A dance maybe? The slight dimming of the lights and lifting of the music whilst the Beast provided some dinner time entertainment through the hall? For some reason I was expecting this.
 |
| Potato & leek soup |
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| Steak |
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| The grey stuff! |
And then it was time for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party! A cute alternative to Universal's Halloween Horror Nights. It's full of dressing up, sweets, parades, shows and rides in the dark.
Below is a parade that featured a headless horseman, who's horse wore metal shoes. On a concrete ground, and if we were further up, these metal shoes would have sparked on the ground, making it extra spooky. I think in the past it used to go faster, but trying to stop a horse on metal shoes on a concrete ground is probably very difficult in an emergency…
The pitmen in the parade below had spades, that when scraped along the ground, created an impressive wave of sparks.
We also did a Keys to the Kingdom tour, which featured a lot of backstage access, including an extended tour of the utilidors, underneath Main Street. It was a really good tour, and was an opportunity to ask any questions you had about the behind the scenes workings of Walt Disney World. Obviously I have no pictures of down any tunnels or anything, or I think I would actually have been deported haha.
Also, Epcot's Food and Wine festival is amazing! I haven't honestly been to that many food festivals, but Epcot's should be the model for food festivals everywhere! Unfortunately, we didn't get on the Frozen ride, since it was a 90 minute queue most days, and when we were stood in the queue, it shut!
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| The crane was for Christmas decorations |
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| The only picture I wanted to take at Magic Kingdom! |
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| Oh and one of me… |
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| Our last night at a James Bay concert |
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| And our last supper at our favourite burger joint haha |
So overall a fantastic holiday, that I will never do again but will always remember! A month away is such a long time and although I really enjoyed myself, I was looking forward to getting back home. I love the UK and there were so many things that were done so differently to the way it's done in the UK and although by the end of the month I was beginning to accept and embrace several American traditions, I still missed the UK, and Newcastle!
Favourite part of the whole holiday was Vegas, and it's non-stop atmosphere. It was great to have visited both Disneyland and Disney World in one holiday, and also to have gone on soooo many rollercoasters. It turns out though, that we walked approximately 126 miles over the 26 days we were away. Crazy.
I hope you all made it this far down!
Jordanavia :)
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