Disneyland

Disneyland
I managed to get from Grand Canyon to Vegas then Vegas to LA. All I’ll say about Vegas is I was there for a few days and did stuff, I’m too far behind and unmotivated to recap it here.

Wandered down the road to Disneyland today. It’s a short walk from my hotel (which is nice) and I arrived just as the park opened. I picked up a two day park hopper pass which gives me plenty of time to go through both Disneyland and California Adventure.

Entering Disneyland I decided to navigate the park clockwise starting with Adventureland. There was no noticeable line for the Indiana Jones ride so I went for that first. The scope and size of the ride was pretty impressive even if it was all a bit by the numbers. There are three paths for the ride, when I’m back at the park early I might try it again to see if I get a different one.

After the Jungle Cruise I skipped Tarzan’s Tree House and went on to Pirates of the Caribbean. I never realised that it was all indoors and animatronic,  always figured it would be outdoors with actors. Whilst it’s showing it’s age I had a lot of fun. Jack Sparrow pops up all over the place in a where’s Wally sort of fashion. I took some photos but none really turned out, movement and low light seem to be my camera’s kryptonite unfortunately.

After meandering through Fantasyland and Toontown I moved on to Tomorrowland. There was a Jedi Training show that made me wish I was 10 regardless of the numerous inaccuracies. Star Tours was ok for one of those rides that moves around without actually going anywhere.

After finishing up in Disneyland I headed over to the California Adventure park. I’m not really much of a scary ride person so there wasn’t heaps to for me to do there. I did go to the Muppets 3D show which I enjoyed a lot and the Monsters Inc. ride which I enjoyed less. I wandered around for an hour or so before I decided to check out Downtown Disney.

After a cup of coffee and a little window shopping it was time to head back to Disneyland for the Christmas Parade and fireworks.

The Parade was the same as they have at Movieworld back home just swapped the Warner characters with Disney ones. They played the same Christmas song over and over again for 30 minutes which got pretty annoying. The Disneyland Castle looked pretty spectacular at night and it was decked out with Christmas decoration. I found myself a good spot and waited for the fireworks. They were very well done, I saw a couple of things I hadn’t seen before including the signature Disney shooting star arching over the top of the Castle.

I’ve still got another day at the parks, but I don’t have to do it tomorrow. So I may do some of the Hollywood stuff tomorrow and revisit the parks later in the week.

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North to the Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon
Got away from Phoenix by 8am today. Considering it is a Monday the traffic was pretty light. The drive to Grand Canyon, or Tusayan to be precise would be the longest of the trip so far taking 3 and 1/2 hours to cover the 223 miles.

It was amazing to see the scenery change so much over such a relatively small distance. It started very flat and desolate with lots of cacti, to barren rocky hills, to forested mountains.

Stopped in Flagstaff to stretch the legs and grab some gas. I’ve worked out that if I run it down to a 1/4 full, I can prepay $20 worth and it almost brings it back up to full. This saves me having to leave anything with the cashier while filling it up all the way. I also took the opportunity to nick in to the local Walmart to pickup a new charging cable for my iPod. Walked past a few massive stacks of DVD’s at $5 each. It took everything I had to ignore them, telling myself there will be plenty of time for such splurging when I get to LA.

Arrived in Tusayan just after midday, tried to check in to my hotel but my room wasn’t ready yet. Headed down the main street to the IMAX theatre which also serves as the main visitor centre in these parts.

Picked up my visitors pass for the National Park and grabbed a ticket to the IMAX movie too. The movie was around 45 mins long and jumped around a bit between different time periods. Photography was pretty amazing, especially during the scenes involving rapids.

Nothing I saw in the movie prepared me for the enormity of the Canyon once I actually got out there. It’s a breathtaking sight, taking up your whole field of vision going on for miles in every direction. I was far more impressed than I expected to be. I think I got some pretty good photos but it’s hard to convey the scope in them.

Got back to the hotel and my room was ready. Hotel is pretty nifty, there’s a sports bar downstairs with an arcade and bowling alley next to it. There are also two restaurants upstairs, which seem pretty decent, although the sports bar is more my style. There’s also a coin operated laundry down the hall, which I’ll put to good use tomorrow. My room is pretty big, lot’s of space to spread out.

Tomorrow I’ll be heading to the other viewing points around the Canyon. I’m especially interested to check out Desert View which is home to an old watchtower.

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Lazy Sunday

Phoenix Sunset
I wasn’t feeling particularly motivated after a few big days so I decided to take it easy today. Had a bit of a sleep in then went down to the pool for a morning swim. After a shower I jumped in the car and headed downtown to take a look around.

Parked at the Arizona Center which is sort of a open air mini mall. Wandered around for a little while, grabbed a coffee and browsed the stores. Walked past a big 24 screen cinema and noticed that Quantum of Solace was about to start so I grabbed a ticket. The film is pretty relentless, there’s an action scene about every 10 minutes. Very fun though and a worthy successor to Casino Royale. One this the US cinemas (or at least this chain) do is they have a standard digital projector displaying news, ads and making of’s before the scheduled time so there’s something to see before the trailers start if you’re early. It would be cool if Aussie cinemas adapted something like this.

Stopped off at the local Safeway on the way back to pick up some supplies before returning to the hotel. Had a nice steak for dinner in the hotel restaurant, then headed up to the bar on the roof for a couple of beers while watching the sunset.

Early night tonight, big drive tomorrow to the Grand Canyon.

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The Town Too Tough To Die

Tombstone
Was out the door by 7:30 this morning, ready to see what Tombstone had to offer. Because I needed to be back in Phoenix for the Suns vs Trailblazers I gave myself until 12pm to see as much as possible.

Armed with a map and scribblings from the guy at the hotel I went in search of breakfast first. The OK Cafe was the recommendation so I headed a couple of blocks west and found it on a quiet corner. I ordered the bacon and eggs on toast with some coffee. One thing I’ve noticed over here is that you tend to pay for coffee once then can drink it all day if you want as they keep coming around topping up your cup. Probably not very good for you but still a nice touch.

After breakfast I was a little early for everything to open so I decided to go for a wander around the town to get my bearings and snap a few pics. Walking down the main street I noticed a number of small convertibles gathering. Turns out there was a Pontiac Roadster meet up in town. There were some nice cars there, but not exactly what your looking for when you want to be transported back in time 130 years. Fortunately they kept to a smallish area so they weren’t too much of a disruption.

The Courthouse Museum was the first thing in town to open so I headed over there. The museum did a pretty good job of chronicling the towns early history and was in great shape. A number of rooms (including the main courtroom) had been restored to look as they did in the late 1800’s.

Next stop was the site of the OK Corral. Inside was a Historama exhibit created back in the 60’s when Historama’s were trendy. The guy who created it was mates with Vincent Price and asked him if he’d do the narration for it, which was very cool. This was less about the shootout at the OK Corral and more about the town being totally destroyed by fire over and over then being rebuilt each time. This is why it’s been called “The Town Too Tough To Die”.

Leaving the theatre I moved on next door to the OK Corral museum. Here they detailed pretty much everything there is to know about the famous shootout between the Earp Brothers, Doc Holiday and the Clanton’s and McLaury’s. Set up out the back there were these mannequins in the roughly configuration of the actual gunfighters. When you pressed a button they moved their arms up and down whilst yelling at each other. Very cheesy but highly entertaining.

Running out of time I hit the road and headed for the Boothill Graveyard. There were a lot of well know personalities from the area buried here including the men that didn’t survive the gunfight at the Corral. I was a little disappointed there weren’t more comical headstones. I know graveyards in general aren’t really there for a laugh but I’d always thought this is where all the jokey inscriptions lived that were ripped off back home at Movieworld. Anyway I grabbed a brochure that told a little story about each person buried there which was pretty interesting.

Had no trouble on the drive back to Phoenix and I only needed to stop for gas. Found the hotel easy enough, really nice place. My room is essentially split into two. One is a lounge area with a table, couch and counter. This is there first place I’ve stayed where I could sit upright with a computer which was a real blessing. The second room was the bedroom with a massive comfy bed and a 50 Plasma with HD cable. Outside the room was just as nice with a great pool and a rooftop bar which has great views of the surrounding area.

Stayed at the hotel long enough to grab a shower then it was off to the US Airways Centre to see the Suns vs Trailblazers. Found a park easy enough and had no issues getting my ticket. The stadium is a lot more vertical than Madison Square Garden, with the seating sort of like the nosebleeds at the MCG. My seat whilst a fair way back gave me a very good view of the action because I was looking down at it.

The game itself was a pretty one sided affair with Portland never really looking like they wanted to win it. Nash, Amare and Hill played well and Shaq had a monster night. Whenever Raja Bell nails a shot a bell chimes which I found pretty amusing. For the Blazers it was all Roy, Blake and Aldridge. This was the first time I’d seen Oden and he was ok while Amare was matching up on him but once the Suns moved Shaq onto him he folded like a cheap suit. As big as he is, Shaq is bigger and out muscled him in the post over and over. He ended up with 5 fouls and almost throwing a tantrum before being benched. I know he’s really young but he needs to get his emotions in check because Shaq was thriving on it.

After the game I headed back to the hotel to watch some TV and crash.

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The Drive South to Tombstone

Tombstone
Didn’t sleep as much as intended on the flight from New York to Phoenix, probably only an hour total. It was warm when we landed around 10am but not overly so. Caught the shuttle bus around to the rental car centre. No problems with Dollar, they had a Dodge Charger ready to go for me and no extra money was required.

Entered in the details into the GPS and I was off on the road to Tombstone. About an hour into the 3 hour drive I stopped at a rest stop to grab a bite to eat. After getting back on the road I started feeling really tired. Only sleeping 2 hours in 28 was starting to take it’s toll, so I pulled over again to have a snooze. I was right to go after that and drove on to Tombstone.

Rolled into Tombstone at 4pm and checked into the Larian Motel. The guy at the counter gave me a map of the town and circled all the things I should see in my limited time there, including where to eat.

After having my first shower in 36 hours I headed out to the Longhorn to get some dinner. Their burgers are apparently famous (according to the menu) so I grabbed a “Cowboy Burger” which was very tasty. Finished off a couple of beers then strolled back to the hotel, was in bed by 9pm for the first time in forever.

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