[Silvercat]

DAY 8 – Saturday 15 June

Plan : Disneyland park, Galaxy’s Edge

Actual : After another good night’s sleep, we were up super-early as today was the day we would experience Star Wars land for the first time. The alarm went off at 5.45 a.m., and by 6.45 we were all ready to go. We walked through Downtown Disney to Disneyland park together, as all members of your party have to be present to check in for your reservation to visit Galaxy’s Edge. It was weird being up and about at that time of the morning, everywhere was pretty deserted!

We arrived at the Star Wars Launch Bay in Tomorrowland, which was the check-in point, and joined a fairly short queue. We all had to follow Robin, and then show the Cast Member who was checking us in our passports or other photo ID, before we were given a silver-coloured, paper wristband each. We then all split up, as our entrance time began at 8.00 a.m. and everyone wanted to do different things before we explored Galaxy’s Edge; we didn’t have any dining reservations or anything else to do together today, so everyone had different plans. Much as we loved spending time with everyone, it was also fun to find out what others had been doing when we were all apart too, so we looked forward to catching up with everyone later..

We mooched around the Star Wars store just round the corner from the check-in desks, and I picked up a few things. It is my son’s birthday in July and he is a massive Star Wars fan, so I got him an opening day pin, a light-up lanyard with a model of the Millennium Falcon attached to it, and an opening day t-shirt, also picking one of those up for DH as they were really nice. I had all this sent back to our hotel so we didn’t have to carry it round with us all day.

We then exited the Launch Bay and found a nearby coffee cart, where I got us a cup of coffee each, and a cinnamon bun for DH. We sat at some nearby tables and relaxed for 10 minutes, and then just after 8.00 a.m., we made our way round to the Black Spire Outpost. (There are about 3 entrances to Galaxy’s Edge, but only one was open and in use for these preview days). There was a solid line of Cast Members standing across the entranceway, making sure that only people with the correct colour of wristband got in there!

Our first impressions were extremely positive. The whole land is so immersive, and is well hidden from the rest of the park, so once you are in there, you don’t feel like you are in a theme park, you feel like you are on another planet! There are sounds of spacecraft zooming around above you, humorous announcements to listen out for, phone calls going on, etc. It was just incredible! Right down to the trash cans and the pavements you are walking on, everything is themed to within an inch of its life, there is no sign of planet Earth, or Disneyland, anywhere! We were so impressed, and think that anyone who is a die-hard Star Wars fan will have the time of their life there.

We wandered around, just admiring and exploring, and were very pleasantly surprised at the low numbers of people around us. I think Disney did a superb job of keeping admissions quite low for these preview days, so we didn’t feel over-crowded at any time. There were fairly extensive queues for building droids or lightsabres, but they were extremely well managed queues and didn’t intrude on any of the walking areas. We found ourselves near to the only ride that is open at the moment, Smuggler’s Run, and after admiring the Millennium Falcon parked up outside it, we joined the queue to ride. There was a 30 minute standby time for this, but not only were we constantly moving, we were very glad of the wait time because it gave us the opportunity to see and experience everything in the ride queue. The tannoy announcements are really funny! And it was amazing to see the level of detail in the theming of the queue area, particularly as you go up a level (via a sloping metal walkway) and can see out of windows placed over the top of the Millennium Falcon outside – wow!

We were ushered into a large room, where the most believable animatronic I have ever seen in my life gave us a lecture about flying the Millennium Falcon without crashing or damaging it, and told us how we would be able to earn ‘credits’ if our mission was successful. There was one final room just before boarding, and we really wanted to pose for some photos in there, it was just incredible, with a bench seat around a table, and droids in the walls, but there wasn’t time for photos as we were called forward to be assigned our positions on the team. Teams are in sets of 6, so we were placed with a family of parents and 2 kids, who unfortunately didn’t interact with us one bit, they didn’t even acknowledge our presence, which was a shame.

We were assigned the posts of Engineers, and directed to walk down a long corridor, round a corner, and then through a doorway into the flight room. The ride itself is a sort of cross between Mission Space at Walt Disney World, and Star Tours. However, the big difference is that each flight pod only seats 6 people, (although it is quite big and spacious, it doesn’t feel at all claustrophobic), and the pathway you follow to get there takes you straight into a room without you seeing anywhere else, so you feel like you are the only ones going in to pilot the Millennium Falcon, it is very cleverly done. We were seated behind the pilots and gunners, and thought the ride was AWESOME! We loved it! The only downside was that we thought it would be a lot more fun if everyone in the team worked together and interacted with each other. The family we were placed with were rubbish, they didn’t push buttons or flick switches when they should have done, (causing both myself and DH to have to lean forward and push buttons for them, we didn’t want to be held responsible for crashing such an iconic spaceship and risk being shouted at by a droid afterwards!), didn’t laugh or talk to each other, and the kids, who were both pilots, couldn’t have steered their way out of a paper bag! I’m amazed that the mission was a success and we didn’t crash, to be honest!

We came out of the ride having had a huge amount of fun, though, and would definitely do this one again. We found a really good angle for a photo outside, and asked a passing guest if he would mind taking a picture with DH’s camera for us, which he kindly did. The ride wait time had gone up considerably by now, and we wanted to explore the rest of the land, otherwise we would have ridden again.

We had a look around the Marketplace, this was a great area, lots of very small stores set out like a real marketplace, with some very cool merchandise. DH tried on a Jedi robe, ($120, which wasn’t bad for the quality), and it really suited him as he is very tall, but we didn’t buy it as we had no idea when he would wear it at home! We also briefly looked at the dining options there, but didn’t really fancy anything on offer at the time. The whole place is very photogenic, there are lots of really cool things to take pictures of, and some of the abandoned old droids talk to you as well. I think the land is also a lot more interactive than we found it to be, but as we didn’t have our phones turned on at that point, we didn’t take advantage of this at the time.

We bumped into one or two of our friends, at a couple of points, but I was surprised not to see more of them, more often, as we didn’t think the land was that large. We knew that Larry was going to spend some of his birthday money building a droid, but didn’t actually see him doing this.

After just over 2.5 hours, we had explored everywhere we wanted to, so the last thing on my list for today was to pick up some bottles of soda and water from within Galaxy’s Edge. These bottles are specifically produced for this land, and are Star Wars themed, although they contain regular soda and water. Disney have put a limit of only 3 bottles per person, per purchase – I guess this is to stop people from buying up loads of stock in order to sell them on eBay or something. So I gave DH some money and got him to pick up a bottle of water and a bottle of Sprite, while I got the Coke and the Diet Coke, all of which have different bottles. These cost $5.50 each. We knew we would have to drink the contents and just bring back the empty bottles due to weight limits on our luggage, but I was really keen on getting a full set of bottles for my son, which we duly did.

As we had to now carry these, we decided to pick up some shopping from the Emporium, and then take the lot back to our hotel. This included some more spirit jerseys for both of us, and more pins for DH.

We hauled this lot back to the Grand Californian, then DH took all the bags and went to the smoking area, while I picked up some coffee from White Water Snacks. We arranged to meet in the lobby, and when we met up, I left DH with the bags and went for a quick look around the small hotel store. I found another spirit jersey that I loved, it is themed to the American flag, so I bought it. When I got back to DH and showed it to him, he loved it too, so I had to go back and get him one as well! We went up to the villa after this, and DH went for a nap while I grabbed some breakfast. I had a small bowl of Reece’s Puffs, (yum!), and a couple of slices of toast. Then I also had a small bag of Cheetos, I hadn’t realised how hungry I was.

DH got up again after about an hour’s nap, drank his (now cold) coffee, and we headed back out to the Disneyland Park again. We decided to ride the railroad train all the way round the park, so after about a 20 minute wait we boarded the train and set off. It is a lovely way to see the perimeter of Disneyland! We really like the little scenes you pass through along the way.

We disembarked back on Main Street, and then walked to Adventureland. The Jungle Cruise was next, which I enjoyed more than usual today as our tour guide was very easy to understand – sometimes, they talk so quickly that you can’t follow what they are saying. DH said he was a bit Jungle Cruise-d out by that point though.

DH was hungry by now as he had only had a cinnamon bun so far today, and that had been hours ago, so we went to the nearby Stage Door Café and I got him a chicken fried steak sandwich with fries. I wasn’t going to have anything myself, having had cereal and toast a couple of hours before, but spotted the corn dog on the menu, so took the opportunity to have corn dog and fries! I also got us both some coffee.

After lunch, we walked just around the corner to Pirates of the Caribbean, and had lots of fun sailing the seven seas. We quite liked the new version without the auction of the women, but did feel that scene was now lacking in something a bit, we weren’t sure what this was, but it just seemed a bit random without the auction.

We carried on round the park and checked out the wait time for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but as this was at 40 minutes we carried on walking! The park was very crowded today. We went and explored Toontown, as we hadn’t done that yet, and as Roger Rabbit had a short wait time (15 mins) we did that, which was fun.

We were quite tired by now, so decided we had had enough for the day. We had wanted to explore Tomorrowland, but everywhere had very long queues and we were a bit fed up with the crowds today. We had to fight our way out past the parade and associated crowds, so it wasn’t exactly a slow stroll back to the hotel! When we got back to our villa, everyone else was still out. We found a heap of photos on the dining table that yesterday’s tour guides had arranged to have printed out for us and mounted in card frames, from the ones that the Photopass photographer had taken of us all by the Matterhorn, so I picked one up for us to keep. The same photo was also mounted in a beautiful glass frame for Larry and Robin to keep, plus they both had a replica Cast Member badge with their names on, and a tiny picture of the Yeti printed on them!

We helped ourselves to a slice of Matterhorn cake, and sat and watched TV for half an hour. After a while, Greg arrived with a sleeping Eilidh in his arms, so we moved upstairs so he could set up the sofa bed for her. He said we were welcome to come back in a little while when she was settled, but we thanked him and opted to stay in our room, as we wanted to watch World of Colour from our balcony. We could see the whole show quite clearly, it was lovely! Bed, for the final time in this wonderful, wonderful villa.

DAY 9 – Sunday 16 June

Plan : Move to Best Western

Actual : Today was Paula’s birthday, but it was also moving day. We were sad to be leaving, but without Robin we would never have been able to experience this amazing villa, and so we were just happy to have had a few days there. We got up with the alarm at 7.30 a.m., got dressed, then because it was Father’s Day in the UK, I WhatsApped my Dad for half an hour, which was fun – I panned the camera around from our balcony and showed him Mickey’s Fun Wheel! All was good at home, which was reassuring (Dad is in his early 80’s and has had a few health issues recently).

(While I was on the balcony, I noticed a huge group of Cast Members having what looked like an early morning briefing in the Lion King backstage area, before they all dispersed off in different directions – interesting to watch!)

We then packed up our room, not that I had unpacked much apart from toiletries, and went downstairs to see if we could help with packing up anything in the kitchen. Robin had taken the things that she wanted to take home with her, and said that anything that was left in the fridge or cupboard, we were welcome to take. I had to be careful what I selected, as I knew we would be on the road a lot over the next 2 weeks and so anything I took would have to be able to withstand being left in the car for hours in the heat. We ended up with a case of 24 bottles of water, two thirds of a box of Reece’s Puffs cereal, cans of pink lemonade and Fanta Pineapple, a loaf of Wonderloaf bread, and a tub of spreadable butter, (I wasn’t sure how long this would survive, but thought we’d give it a go). Robin seemed pleased that at least these things wouldn’t be going to waste, but no-one else had room in their luggage or cars for them, and I thought we would find them useful during our upcoming road trip. I packed the water and the cans of soda into our empty case-within-a-case, for ease of transporting everything around.

I rang Bell Services to come and collect our bags, then we gave Paula her birthday card and the gifts I had made for her – I had knitted her a Christmas-themed snood, and a sparkly, pull-on hat. (I had also knitted Robin a snood, in lovely soft grey and lilac coloured wool, so I gave that to her). Everyone else had had a piece of Paula’s birthday cake last night, but we didn’t know that at the time, so we just sadly regarded the huge cake in the fridge that we knew we couldn’t take with us, and wished we could have eaten a slice.

Everyone else left to go to the Plaza Gardens in Disneyland, as we all had a reservation there for Paula’s birthday breakfast, but we were still waiting for Bell Services to collect our luggage, so we said we’d catch them up. Thirty minutes later we were still waiting, so I called them again as we were in danger of missing our breakfast reservation, only to be told that they thought it had been a duplicate order so they had cancelled the call! I was livid, and told them that there were multiple families staying in the villa and they all had their own luggage, so they should not have just assumed anything! They were a little apologetic, although not as sorry as I thought they should be, given the inconvenience to us. DH told me to set off and he would wait with the luggage and catch up when he could. Robin had left $20 and a note for housekeeping, so I added another $5 to that from us and then set out for the Disneyland park.

When I arrived at the Plaza Gardens, huffing and puffing as I had rushed to get there, the guys were all siting outside waiting for us. I felt terrible, although technically it hadn’t been my fault - Robin said she had kept telling the Cast Members that they were still waiting for members of their party. We went to check in, and were seated straight away, given that we were now 30 minutes late for our reservation. I felt really guilty!

Everyone else began going up to get food, (this was a character buffet), but I wanted to wait for DH to get there before I got anything. He arrived about 10 minutes after me, and said that he was beginning to think that Bell Services were never going to get there, he had had to wait another 30 minutes after I rang them! Anyway, we got coffee and orange juice, then I got a plate of “loaded” scrambled eggs with bits of bacon, sausage, and cheese in, lots of lovely crispy bacon, and a biscuit. DH got the same as me, but added some country gravy to his biscuit, and also got some sausage. He was developing a real liking for country gravy! I also picked up a plate of Mickey waffles and a couple of pastries, which DH and I shared, although we were too full for the last waffle so I just wrapped it in a napkin and popped it into my bag for later.

It was all really good, and as we ate we were visited by Minnie Mouse, the Fairy Godmother, Perla the mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Chip, and Tigger. It seemed like a fairly random assortment of characters to us, but we had fun with them all. I interacted with Tigger the most, as he is my favourite character, and he was quite excited when I pointed out my tattoo of him on my back! He was miming to indicate he should get one of me on his back, which was quite funny! He gave me a huge hug, and I had my photo taken with him, although his handler was indicating it was time for him to leave at that point. Then Rafiki arrived, and Robin was singing Lion King songs to him, which he was laughing at and loving. As he went to walk away from us, DH, who wasn’t really paying much attention to what was going on, began to quietly sing the opening words from the Circle of Life to himself, (although he does tend to sing “Arsene Wenger!”, who is a French football manager, but the name seems to fit the opening line!), and Rafiki stopped dead, looked around above his head to see if he could see where the music was coming from in a really comical way, and then thrust his arms upwards as if he was holding up Simba on Pride Rock – it was really funny, especially when DH realised what was happening and laughingly apologised to Rafiki! We had so much fun with the characters.

After this, we all began to slowly leave, and I asked Robin how we were going to pay for our meal. She told me she had paid when she checked us all in, which I hadn’t even noticed, and then wouldn’t let me give her any money for our breakfast, which was very kind of her. We had had a lovely time with everyone, and it was a bit sad now to say goodbye. Some people were leaving straightaway, and others were going to spend a little more time in the parks before they left, but basically this was the end of our happy little group. Greg and Eilidh had already left, but we hugged everyone else and bade them all safe journeys. It would be so lovely to meet up with everyone again at some point in the future.

All alone, we headed round to Tomorrowland to check out Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear. Buzz had a 25 minute standby time, but I looked at the FastPass times and it was showing as being for now, so I picked up a couple of FastPasses and we immediately went down that queue line and were straight in! We passed John and Stephanie in the standby queue, and told them what we were doing – they felt a bit daft for not checking that out first, before standing in line! Anyway, we had a great ride, and DH beat me again (he always wins on this ride!).

We walked round to Hyper-Space Mountain, but couldn’t see a single rider queue, although I was sure there was one somewhere. In the end, I asked a Cast Member (the standby line was showing 40 mins), and he told us to go into the exit. I took DH’s bag from him, found a bench to sit on, and sent him into the exit, where he did indeed find the single rider queue. He had loads of fun, and almost came out skipping! So I told him to go and ride it again, as the single rider queue was very short indeed and he was basically straight onto the ride. Off he skipped!

We then went to Frontierland so we could pick up FastPasses for Big Thunder Mountain. On the way, we bumped into Robin, Larry, Greg & Eilidh, and Ed, so we got to say goodbye to them again! The FastPass time for Big Thunder was 30 minutes away, so we picked up FastPasses, rode using the standby line (20 mins), and then rode again with our FastPasses. Great fun!

We needed a break from the heat and crowds now, so went into the Red Rose Taverne for a break. DH had coffee and I got a Minute Maid Lemonade. It was cool and quiet in there, and we were able to rest for about 15 minutes.

After some discussion, we decided to do a couple of the dark rides in Fantasyland, so Snow White’s Scary Adventures was next. This is a very odd ride, it is extremely scary in places, and made us wonder how small children coped with it. Towards the end of the ride it gets very sinister, with dark and frightening scenery and the horrible hag leering towards Snow White, then suddenly you are out of the darkness and there is Snow White on a horse, with her Prince, and a big sign saying, “And they lived happily ever after” – it didn’t make sense, or flow at all. Very odd.

Anyway, we walked round to the Alice in Wonderland ride, as I really wanted to ride this. I had heard that it is a lovely ride, and last time we were here, (in 2014), I just kept forgetting about it. However, the ride was down at this time, so we decided to go on the Story Book Canal Boats ride instead. The park was very crowded and everywhere had long wait times, which I guess was to be expected on a Sunday, and this ride was showing a 30 minute wait time. We walked slowly through the ride queue for about 20 minutes, but wished we hadn’t bothered in the end – the Cast Member doing the narration on the boat was rubbish! We were sat side by side, but she kept pointing out things behind us, so no-one on our side of the boat could see anything as it was too far and we were too closely packed in to be able to turn around. Plus she garbled her words, she had obviously said them a thousand times before and was just speaking them on automatic mode, without thinking about what she was saying, so nobody could understand a word she said! The boat also rocked a lot, and the bench seating is very low down, making the whole thing really uncomfortable. We genuinely regretted the decision to ride this, it wasn’t worth the wait at all. A complete contrast to the exact same ride in Disneyland Paris, which has automated narration and is a fun little ride.

We wandered back over to Alice in Wonderland, which was now running. It was showing a 30 minute standby, which due to the fact that everywhere was showing long wait times, plus my absolute desire to try this ride, meant that we ditched our usual “nothing longer than 20 minutes” rule when at a Disney park, and joined the queue. In all fairness, we were aboard our own cute little caterpillar in 20 minutes! We loved this ride, it was really sweet and actually quite a lengthy ride, and we were glad we had finally got to experience it.

People were starting to stand around in waiting for the parade, but we managed to escape from the hoards lining the walkways and got over to Adventureland. I wanted DH to ride the Indiana Jones Adventure ride, which for some reason I thought was similar to the small rollercoaster in Disneyland Paris. Standby was 45 mins, but he was able to go in the single rider line. I wanted for him on a bench opposite the ride, and observed lots of pairs of Cast Members in training wandering around together. It was quite amusing to watch, they were clearly on “interaction with guests” training, as they would spot a guest, head for them with determination, and make the same observation each time about them, such as “that’s a nice dress!”, or “ooh, cute child, what’s his/her name?” I had 3 different pairs approach me on my bench, and each pair told me how nicely dressed I was! So sweet to watch them learning how to interact. Anyway, DH returned to me after about 20 minutes and said he had enjoyed the ride, but it wasn’t a rollercoaster, it was more like the jeep ride of Dinosaur in Walt Disney World. I would have given it a go with him had the queue not been so long today!

In need of another break and some refreshments, we headed for Tropical Hideaway, where I knew we could get Dole whips. DH isn’t a massive fan of the pineapple flavour, but I had read online that there is a raspberry flavoured whip available here, so I talked him into taking a break here, sent him to find a seat, and surprised him with a cup of raspberry Dole whip – he loved it! I knew he would. I had a pineapple and orange swirl Dole whip, which was really delicious.

We felt quite refreshed after this, but were still tired, plus we knew we had to move to our other hotel for the next 2 nights, so we took a slow walk out of the park, stopping in the Emporium to get a lovely Belle baby doll we had seen and wanted to get for our granddaughter, a new t-shirt each, and yet more pins for DH. We walked out of the park entrance and towards Downtown Disney, and spotted a magnificent sparrow-hawk swooping about nearby. Uh-oh, I don’t think this is going to end well …… And right there, on Disney property, we watched in horror as Mother Nature did what she does best and the Circle of Life unfolded before our very eyes. Small cute sparrow, hopping about on Disney property, SWOOP! GULP! Cue us staring at small, damp patch left on concrete and trying hard not to cry.

We made our way back to the Grand Californian, and in an effort to delay our departure from there, I left DH in the foyer with the shopping and popped back to White Water Snacks for one last coffee each, which we sat in the foyer and drank.
Eventually, we knew we had to make a move, so we went to Bell Services and collected the luggage, before heading outside and asking for our car from the valet parking guy. While we were waiting for our car, we watched a huge limo drive in, and a bunch of what looked like aging rock stars got out of it, to be welcomed noisily and enthusiastically by Cast Members. We didn’t recognise any of them, though!

Once our car arrived, I waited to be asked to pay for valet parking, but the Cast Member just handed our car over and walked away, so I wasn’t sure how we were supposed to pay for this. Anyway, we loaded up our luggage and left the hotel, turning left several times until we found our way back to the Best Western Plus Suites again, parked up, and went into Reception to check in. We were given room 165, on the ground floor, but around the other side of the building, so we drove round there, parked up, and unloaded the two cases and our hand luggage. We were starting to gather quite a collection of bags of stuff now, but just left them in the car alongside the two (almost) empty cases. The car windows were quite dark and everything was well hidden, so we figured everything there would be safe. I also grabbed the bags of food we had so I could put the butter and some water in the fridge. (We got into the habit of just taking 4 bottles of water into each hotel, leaving the rest in the car each day).

We settled in, unpacked toiletries and other bits, and then discussed options for dinner. I remembered there being a McDonalds not far from where we had stayed in 2014, which was a few minutes away from the Best Western, so we agreed to go and look for it. We set out, and only walked for about 3 or 4 minutes before finding it. I got some chicken nuggets, fries, and an iced mocha, while DH got a Big Bacon Burger, fries, and coffee. We took our feast back to our room, where we ate, relaxed, watched TV, and then finally fell into our lovely, King-sized bed.

DAY 10 – Monday 17 June

Plan : Disneyland

Actual : After a great night’s sleep, we were up at 8.00 a.m. After dressing, we went next door to a restaurant called Pirate Cove which was where complimentary breakfast was served for Best Western guests. We had to go upstairs there, and it was all very budget – Styrofoam plates and plastic cutlery! The food was basic, but was okay. I had a waffle, scrambled eggs, ham, (no bacon though), and a turkey sausage, although one bite made me realise this was too spicy for me, and I gave it to DH. He had fried eggs, ham, sausage, and breakfast potatoes. I was watching the pastry counter; the waitress would put out some doughnuts and they would be gone within a matter of minutes, so I managed to swipe the last chocolate one for DH and got myself a cinnamon doughnut. We also had coffee and orange juice. The hot food was a bit cold, but it was free breakfast, so we weren’t complaining!

From there, we walked over the road and to Disney’s Californian Adventure. The weather was a bit cooler today, and was quite cloudy. It was only 70 degrees, plus there were a couple of spots of rain as we walked, but that didn’t really amount to anything and then disappeared for the rest of the day.

DH was quite keen to ride the Tower of Terror, which had been overlaid with a Guardians of the Galaxy theme, so that was our first destination today. I looked after his bag and sat on a wall, while he went into the single rider queue. 20 minutes later he was back, and he said it was fab! Really good fun, and the theming was brilliantly done.

From there we walked to Mickey’s Philharmagic, which had only been open for about 7 weeks. However, there was barely anyone in the queue or in the theatre once we got in there, (about 20 people in total), which is a shame as we think this is a great little show. We really enjoyed it, and made sure to look round at Donald Duck’s rear end as he was shot out of the tuba at the end, in a very exaggerated fashion just in case anyone else in the theatre missed it! The film is digital, and is very crisp and clear with no spots on the screen.

We wandered round to Ghirardelli’s but didn’t buy anything, as we knew that if we bought chocolate we had no way of keeping it cool during the road trip. However, we did have a good look around and happily accepted a free fudge caramel square each.

We walked to Pixar Pier as I was keen to try a “lemon” snow-cone from the Adorable Snowman Treats stand. DH agreed to have one too, which surprised me as he isn’t normally a fan of anything lemon flavoured, but I duly bought us both one, although nine was topped with white chocolate “snow”, (a complete waste of the extra few dollars it cost for that though, as it was completely tasteless and a very small, thin layer of chocolate). The lemon Dole whip is absolutely delicious, really sharp and lemony, not too sweet at all. DH seemed to enjoy it, too. We stood on the nearby bridge and watched the Incredicoaster while we ate our snow-cones.

Once we had finished our treats, we carried on around Pixar Pier. I asked DH if he wanted to ride the Incredicoaster as it has a single rider option, but he decided not to today. We checked out Toy Story Midway Mania, but there was a 55 minute standby line, so we backtracked slightly and picked up some FastPasses for it, with a 2 hour return time. We continued around the park, just enjoying being there, until we were back near the Grizzly Peak area, where it dawned on us that we hadn’t followed our original plan, which had been to ride the white water rafts there while we were still staying in the Grand Californian, so we could then go back to our room and dry off. Neither of us particularly wanted to get soaking wet today either, so I guess that is a ride that will have to go on the list for ‘next tine’.

DH was in need of a smoking break, so we exited the park into the Grand Californian, and he went outside while I picked us up some coffee from White Water Snacks. We sat in the hotel lobby for a bit of a rest and to enjoy our coffee, and managed to sit there without being pounced on by DVC Cast Members, which was nice!

After this, we headed back into California Adventure. We had a look at Soarin’, but the standby was 50 minutes and FastPasses were still blocked on our tickets for another 30 minutes, so we walked round to Cars Land and rode Radiator Springs Racers twice using the single rider line. We were only a few cars apart each time, and both times we got the same ending – new tyres, then new paint. The rides were great fun, we do love this one.

After a bit of a planning discussion, DH then walked back to Soarin’ as we were now able to get more FastPasses, so he went and picked some up for us while I went into Flo’s V8 Café to get us some lunch. I got DH a Ka-Cheeseburger with fries and coffee, and I had Chicken Fenders with fries and chocolate milk. Lunch was delicious, and we found that by going into the room right at the back of the restaurant, it was much quieter with more choice of seating.

It was then time for our FastPasses for Toy Story Midway Mania, so we walked back round there after lunch, and had a blast trying to beat each other! I won – yay! I scored just over 120k vs DH’s 109k, oh how I bragged!

Once again we carried on all the way round Pixar Pier, hesitated at the Lion King outdoor stage show, but remembered that Larry had told us he had seen it and it was a bit pants, so carried on and rode Ariel’s Undersea Adventure with no wait at all. Under the sea, under the sea …..

Earlier in the day I had spotted a hat I really liked, in the small hat store in Hollywoodland, so we went back there now so I could buy it. After a quick restroom break, I left DH on a bench and headed into the hat store, picking up a gorgeous pink baseball cap-style hat, with rose gold spots and pale pink, fluffy Minnie ears on it!

I collected DH again, and we walked round to Soarin’ as it was time for our FastPasses, although it took an absolute age to get through the queue, for some reason. However, we got row 1, so it was worth the wait! We do love this ride, in all its incarnations.

DH then exited the park to go to the smoking area, and I went into a Starbucks near Soarin’ that I hadn’t spotted before, to see if I could get some Disney’s California Adventure “you are here” mugs. They did indeed have the mugs, so I got two. DH came back and we went into Clarabelle’s for 3 scoops of mocha almond fudge ice-cream in a Minnie Mouse-themed kitchen sink – we had bought the Mickey Mouse one in 2014 and were delighted to see that a matching Minnie Mouse sink was now available! The ice-cream was yummy, and we discovered that the sink had a hard-shell plastic liner, meaning that we could just throw that away afterwards and we weren’t left with a sticky sink to carry round with us!

We left California Adventure after this, and walked across to the Disneyland park. We were starting to get weighed down with shopping, but I had a cunning plan. I went into Starbucks at the top of Main Street, which was absolutely heaving with people, and joined the huge queue. About 20 minutes later, I was the proud owner of another pair of “you are here” mugs, this time for Disneyland park. Then we went to an area behind Starbucks and rented a locker – this was my cunning plan, and it meant we didn’t have to carry everything around with us any more, but also we wouldn’t have to take everything back to our hotel and then walk back to the park again. Genius! It cost me $7 to rent a medium sized locker, and everything fitted into it really easily. DH decided to leave his bag in there as well, and just carry his camera around. We got locker number 1787 and had to select a PIN number for it, so I picked one we tend to use for situations like this and is easy for us to remember.

Free of bags, we headed over to ride Pirates of the Caribbean, which had a 20 minute standby, but was extremely quick to get through the line and to load. Lots of fun, as usual. Haunted Mansion was next, 35 mins but only took us 25, and that went quickly as we got chatting to a group of young grad students in front of us. They were taking lots of selfies, and as we were bored, we amused ourselves by trying to sneakily photobomb them. Eventually, they spotted us and laughed, and then we got talking to them, they were really sweet! The ride was brilliant, again.

It was getting dark by now, and I really wanted to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad as I love this ride anyway, but particularly in the dark. Round we went, but the ride was closed as Fantasmic was starting soon, which was a really big disappointment to me. Instead, we walked through the hub and into Tomorrowland, collected FastPasses for Buzz Lightyear, (although standby was only 35 mins at this point), and then DH went on Hyper-Space Mountain as a single rider. We discussed walking back across to Big Thunder once Fantasmic was over, but decided we were just too tired, as we had been on the go all day, and we were pretty wiped out. Our FastPass for Buzz was now ready, so we happily shot everything in sight that had a Z on it, and DH won by a very small margin. Very small. Miniscule. Okay, he won by a huge amount again. Once we had been spat out into the obligatory merchandise store, DH picked up a couple of pins and I bought a lovely Pixar ball for our granddaughter.

Before we had flown out to the States, I had seen a report on a Disney food website showing a new item available at the Jolly Holiday Bakery, and I really wanted to try this, so we battled our way past the HUGE crowds getting ready for the fireworks, (not an easy or un-stressful task!), and I left DH hovering outside while I went into the Bakery. I joined quite a big queue, and when it was my turn to be served, was really annoyed, (in that way that you are when you have just fought your way past a large and determined crowd only to be thwarted in your task!), to find that they had sold out of the Chocolate Peanut Butter Hand Bar – grrr! It was a shortbread bar with a layer of peanut butter and then the whole thing covered in chocolate, and I was so desperate to try one! I had to settle for 2 Matterhorn Macaroons instead.

I got back to DH who was dodging about, trying to avoid Cast Members who were determined to either keep people moving out of the park, or join the crowds waiting to see the fireworks – there was no room for “just waiting for the wife to come out of the bakery” in their eyes! We were dreading trying to fight out way down Main Street, but were pleasantly surprised at how effectively the walkways were rope-controlled by Cast Members, and it was quite a clear walk down. However, despite our best intentions, just as we got level with the area where the lockers were located, the lights dimmed for the fireworks, and DH and I just looked at each other, and gave in to temptation. Luckily, as we were about halfway down Main Street by this time, there was still space to stand and watch the fireworks, and a friendly Cast Member, watching our resolve crumble like a stomped-on digestive biscuit, helpfully held up a rope so we could duck under it off the walkway and into the viewing area, right in the middle of the street. So we watched the fireworks. I was really surprised that all the buildings on Main Street had projections onto them as part of the show, and also they had big inflatable things on the roofs that inflated when relevant. And it snowed during the Frozen section! It was a beautiful show, we really loved it, and were glad we had seen it from that location.

When the show was over, we turned around and went back to our locker to retrieve the bags we had left there earlier, before saying a sad goodbye to Disneyland, and making our way slowly back to our hotel. We suddenly realised at this point that we hadn’t seen the parade in full, we had seen bits of it several times but hadn’t made the effort to stand and watch it at all. Ah well, it wasn’t one that we were really keen to see, anyway.

Back in our hotel room I made some coffee, (slipping the spare pods into the food bag), and we had a look at the maps ready for our next destination tomorrow, finally falling into bed utterly exhausted.

DAY 11 – Tuesday 18 June

Plan : Redondo Beach

Actual : So, ROAD TRIP day! We were up at 8.30 a.m., and this morning the breakfast options were a lot better than yesterday. There were pancakes and bacon, for a start! Plus I had a strawberry yoghurt, a toasted bagel with cream cheese, a powdered sugar doughnut, and a tiny apricot pastry, although I was too full to actually eat the doughnut and pastry, so I wrapped them in napkins and took them with me.

We went back to our room, packed up, and were checking out of there within about 20 minutes. We finally managed to get the Satnav working properly, with a voice and everything, and programmed in our next destination – the Redondo Beach Hotel. In honour of Patti Smith, we named the Satnav “Patti”.

A very easy 35 mile journey later, and we were pulling up at our hotel – it looked really nice, but when we got inside, we thought it was REALLY nice! Very light and airy, a sort of modern Art Deco style. I checked us in, and the very friendly receptionist told us that there would be complimentary drinks and snacks in the lounge at 6.00 p.m. Our room was really large! We hauled the cases inside, (leaving the cases of shopping in the car, which was where they stayed until the end of the trip), made some coffee, and DH napped while I relaxed catching up with emails etc. I was pleased to see that the coffee machine used coffee pods, the same as we had had at the Best Western, so that meant we could have extra cups of coffee!

At 2.30 p.m. DH woke up, and we decided to go out for a walk to the beach. The hotel was quite literally just over the road from the coastline. We strolled along the boardwalk, it was so beautiful. We felt really relaxed and happy, the sun was shining, we were comfortably warm but not too hot, and all was well with the world. We sat on a bench overlooking the sea, and DH spotted a large pelican stretching out his wings and sunbathing, so we watched him for a while. Then we carried on round the walkway, aiming for a sandy beach we could see not too far away. As we approached the beach area, the boardwalk became a sort of pier that curved out a little, and lots of people were fishing from this pier. We heard a strange noise, and DH asked me what it was – I could tell it was a sea-lion, from the distinctive barking sound, but had no idea where he was. Then we saw a group of people looking over the side of the pier, so we joined them, and just below us in the sea was indeed a sea-lion! He was making a tremendous racket, and looked like he was trying to steal the fish from the fishing lines around him! We watched him for quite a while, and were saddened to see that he looked like he had a fishing hook caught in his upper lip – maybe this was the cause of the amount of noise he was making. We would have loved to have been able to help him, but this not being the UK, we couldn’t exactly call for the coastguard or the RSPCA, so in the end we had to leave him be.

We walked round to the beach, which turned out to be a bit gritty and not the soft sand we were expecting, but I was still keen to have a paddle. That was a bit of a mistake, the water was FREEZING! Plus the waves were bigger and faster than I was expecting, and the bottom of my skirt, which I was trying to hold up out of the water, ended up getting a bit wet! It was lovely to be there, though, and we enjoyed about an hour on the beach.

Eventually, we sat on the low sea wall to let the sun dry our feet off. We watched a couple of very large helicopters fly quite low over the coastline, they looked like they were maybe mapping it. When we felt dry enough, we put our shoes back on and took a slow stroll back to our hotel, taking a slightly different route back. We got back to the hotel just in time for free refreshments! We had a glass of Tiki Bar IPA beer each, which was really refreshing and delicious, and then a couple of bowls of assorted nuts, cheese, crackers, triangles of warm, toasted pitta bread, and trail mix. DH added some hummus (yuck!) and some salami. It was really nice, a lovely way to end the day, and ended up being our dinner as we weren’t very hungry so didn’t feel the need to go out and dine after that. We thought this was such a lovely thing for the hotel to offer, and there were quite a few people there, just relaxing and enjoying themselves, it was a lovely atmosphere. There was red and white wine, tea and coffee, hot chocolate, and lots of different nibbles to choose from.

We went back to our room, I made some coffee and we shared some Lays chips and a few Cheetos, before showers, relaxing, and bed. What a lovely day!

DAY 3 – Wednesday 12 June

Plan : Drive to Long Beach, Queen Mary

Actual : We slept well again, and were up early. Breakfast was included in our package, so we went to the dining room and had a delicious breakfast of omelette, crispy bacon, toast, coffee, and orange juice. We went back to our room, packed up, and were checking out within 10 minutes! Bye-bye, Redondo Beach.

We then drove to Long Beach, which was an easy 30 minute drive. We found the Queen Mary ship/hotel, it was breathtakingly beautiful! So big and majestic. We were surprised to see a Russian submarine alongside the ship, which looked so tiny next to her!

The interior décor of the Queen Mary has been kept as true to the original fittings and décor as possible, and we were amazed at how lovely it all was inside. We checked in, and to our surprise, our room was ready. I had purchased a bed & breakfast package, but the receptionist told me that the restaurant would probably try to charge us for breakfast, so we were to pay for this but then it would be automatically refunded 7-10 days after our stay. I wasn’t overly happy with this, but trusted it would work like this. (Spoiler alert – it didn’t, we were not automatically refunded, and after 3 emails to customer services to chase the refund were completely ignored over an 8 week period, I eventually had to contact the Better Business Bureau, which is sort of like a Chamber of Commerce for companies in the USA. They contacted someone for me, who immediately emailed me to apologise and offer me a partial refund of the breakfast cost. I responded that we had not been told there would be a limit on what we could order for breakfast, and insisted on a full breakfast cost refund, which I eventually received. We were told that we had been given the wrong information at check-in, and should have been told to charge breakfast to our room, at which point it would have been refunded.)

We went to find our room, which was quite near reception, and was room number A113. It was amazing inside, all old wood and glorious. Art Deco-style fittings. We had a porthole which looked out across the sea, to the curving shore of the bay further round Long Beach. Looking at the size of the room and the King sized bed, we reckoned this would have been classed as a First Class stateroom. We went back to the car and collected our cases, bringing them back to the room. I unpacked the toiletries, and then we began to explore the ship.

According to the research I had done beforehand, there are a lot of allegedly haunted rooms and areas on the ship. I knew that one of the most haunted staterooms was on deck B, room number B340, so we set off to find it. However, the room had no number plaque on the door, we only found it by checking the door numbers either side of it! We both gently touched the door to see if we could feel anything, and we both got an icy-cold feeling up our arms. We tested this by touching the surrounding walls, and the door next door, and didn’t get this feeling anywhere else. I tried to open my mind up to see if I could sense anything, and immediately began to feel very light-headed and weird, so we decided to leave!

We went up to the promenade deck, which was really beautiful. There were huge, framed photos all around of famous people who had stayed on the ship in her hey-day, one of which was Walt Disney! There didn’t seem to be many people around today, I don’t know whether the hotel was particularly quiet at this time. We found a small Starbucks, or so we thought, but it turned out to be just a coffee shop that also sold Starbucks coffee, so they didn’t have any of the ‘you are here’ mugs. I got DH a coffee and I had a mocha Frappuccino, which we sat out on the promenade deck to drink.

We went out onto the Sun Deck, and found some tables and chairs near the deck railing, so sat and enjoyed the sunshine for a little while. Then we explored some more, finding the various exhibitions and photos that were around. We found ourselves near the infirmary, which was a really fascinating place, with lists of names of travellers who had fallen ill and died, along with their causes of death. The whole place felt haunted to me, although I was trying not to be influenced by the knowledge of where we were or what had previously taken place there. I began to feel quite sick in one area, and dizzy in another, it was really odd. Despite this, we found the infirmary and morgue to be fascinating places, and we were very interested to read the list of stowaways over the years. Lots of people had died on the ship, both passengers and crew members.

We went to the centre of the deck where there were several stores, and picked up some souvenirs. We got the obligatory pins for DH, plus a tiny trinket plate that I am going to use as a spoon rest in my kitchen. We looked at the t-shirts, but couldn’t find any we liked, so went to the very small shop near the reception desk, as I had spotted a couple of nice t-shirts in there was we checked in earlier. We were able to find both long and short-sleeved t-shirts that we liked there, so we got them.

We were a bit peckish, but there didn’t seem to be many dining options on the ship or around it, so we went back to our room and I made us some honey sandwiches, using the bread and butter from the Grand Californian villa, plus some packets of honey I had appropriated from the Redondo Beach Hotel at breakfast there, (and using a plastic knife I had also, um, ‘borrowed’ from there!). There wasn’t a coffee maker in the room, which to us was the only downside of this beautiful ship!

After our makeshift dinner, we went out again to do some more exploring – there was so much to see on the ship. However, it turns out that all the exhibits and historical areas close at 6.00 p.m., so we sat out on the Sun Deck for a little while, and then went back to our room to rest and wait for sunset. We watched some TV and relaxed. The complimentary Wi-Fi was a bit rubbish, it kept dropping out, but we reckoned that was probably due to the thickness of the steel hull of the ship, and there probably wasn’t much that could be done about it.

Once the sun started to set, we went back out and to the rear of the ship to watch the sun go down and look at all the lights on shore. It was absolutely beautiful out there, so peaceful and pretty. When we got back to our stateroom, I took a photo with the porthole framing the lights of the city across the bay, which was really lovely. We finally settled down to sleep at 11.30 p.m., happy and relaxed.

DAY 13 – Thursday 20 June

Plan : Drive to Indio

Actual : We got up quite early, as before we left today there was still quite a lot of the Queen Mary we wanted to explore! We had slept really well, the bed was extremely comfortable, but we dragged ourselves out and off to breakfast. The restaurant was very posh, and the crockery on the tables was beautiful. A very upmarket waiter approached us, and asked us which breakfast option we would like. After perusing the menu, whilst he brought us the most amazing coffee, we decided to go with the breakfast buffet which was $25 per person. We had bacon, scrambled eggs, a toasted bagel, and breakfast pastries, plus orange juice. It was all very delicious, and very high quality food. As requested at check-in, I paid for this using my credit card, and then left the waiter a cash tip. (Luckily, I also kept my receipt, which turned out to be most useful in the struggle to get this money back!) There had been a letter pushed under our door overnight staying that we had been given express check-out and could therefore just leave our room key card in a box near reception.

After breakfast we went back to our room, and packed up, taking the cases out to the car and then walking down the outside of the ship to have a proper look at the old Russian submarine. It looked like you used to be able to explore the submarine, but the doors were all locked up and it didn’t look like they had been opened for quite a while, so after taking a few photos, we went back onto the Queen Mary.

We were very keen to have a look at the old swimming pool, and as all the exhibits opened at 10.00 a.m. this morning, we went there next, as it was at the opposite end of the ship to all the other exhibits we still needed to see. However, at 10:15 a.m. it was still closed, with no signs of anyone being around to open it. We were really disappointed, having read lots of interesting facts around the entrance to the pool, we had been really looking forward to seeing it. We didn’t have time to hang around for long, and also wouldn’t have time to come back again, so we reluctantly left and went to the back of the ship.

We explored the engine room, which was absolutely fascinating, (and extremely haunted!). There were walkways on different levels, and lots of signage giving really interesting information about the engines and the people who used to operate and maintain them. We also saw an exhibition telling us the history of the ship and her operators, the Cunard Line, and also her connection to other ships in their fleet. We went into the propeller exhibit, where there is an actual hole cut in the side of the ship that you can walk through, into a temperature-controlled viewing room where you can see one of the huge propellers still attached to the ship inside a special box that was built around it, and there is also lots of information there about the anchors, too.

Then we walked around the Winston Churchill film set exhibition, from the recent film. This was really good, there were rooms set up as they had been recreated for the film, and it was fascinating to see so much detail in close-up. We watched a short film about this exhibition, and then we saw the last remaining lifeboat from Cunard’s White Star Line, which was in a very delicate but perfectly preserved state.

We would have loved to have had time to watch the 4D film about the history of the Queen Mary, (although there was an Ł8 charge per person for this), but we were now running out of time. It was 1.30 p.m. and we still had quite a long drive ahead of us, so we reluctantly left. We really felt as though we could have done with about 3 full days to explore everything that this beautiful and historic ship had to offer.

We got back to our car and set up the Satnav for the next part of our adventure. We were driving to a town called Indio, which was the closest town I could find to the Joshua Tree National Park, our next port of call. The Satnav said this was a journey of 138 miles, and would take us approximately 2 hours. We set off and the journey looked like it was going to be really easy, it was basically only 3 long roads. However, whilst it was indeed an easy and straightforward route, there was masses of traffic, which did the annoying thing of slowing right down until we were all at a standstill, and then speeding up again for no apparent reason, with no accidents or roadworks that we could see which could have caused this. We did have a very interesting section of road where we drove past hundreds of wind turbines, far more than we have ever seen in the UK in any one place. In the end, the journey took us 3 hours due to the slow traffic. About 30 miles from our destination we needed to make a stop to get some gas and some iced coffee. When we were almost in sight of our hotel, I spotted a small Walmart just off the freeway, and made a note of its location as we hadn’t been able to find a supermarket yet and really needed to, (I was rapidly running out of deodorant!).

Eventually, the Satnav told us we had reached our destination, and we were really surprised to see the Holiday Inn Express that was to be our home for the next couple of nights, in the middle of nowhere! It was just off the freeway, but there was quite literally nothing around it – no homes, shops, other roads, nothing! It looked like a fairly new hotel, too.

We pulled into the car park, and hopped out. The first thing we noticed was the heat – it was way warmer here than it had been at the coast, (107 degrees), and there was also a vague hazy sandstorm going on around us; we assumed this was due to a strong wind. As we knew we had 2 nights in this location, we decided to fetch all of the luggage and shopping into our hotel room so we could properly pack, so first of all we just took our hand luggage bags and checked in, being given a lovely, large room just down the corridor from reception. We went back outside for the rest of the bags, and were surprised to see a small patch of burning ground over the road from us, at the nearside of the freeway – there was a fair bit of smoke and we could see actual flames! This was very odd, as it wasn’t there a few moments before. Suddenly, a fire engine came screaming down the freeway, pulled off at the exit, and hurtled round to the site of the fire. It came to a halt and about 8 firemen leapt out and began to hose the fire down. Within minutes they had it controlled and out, so we gathered up the rest of our luggage and all the shopping bags, and left them to it.

We were a bit peckish so I made DH a couple of crisp sandwiches using the leftover bread and butter, and I had about half a large tube of salt & vinegar Pringles. I was pleased to see that the coffee machine was the same brand as we had previously encountered, so I was able to use the coffee pods I had brought with us from Redondo Beach. After coffee and snacks, we decided to go swimming so got changed and hunted around for the swimming pool. DH went outside for a smoke, whilst I asked the guy at reception for some extra towels for the pool. As I walked towards reception, I could see the guy lounging back on two legs of a chair, industriously picking his nose! When he spotted me, he shot off that chair like it had just been plugged in, and hastened to assist me – I just had to hope he didn’t transfer anything from his fingers onto the towels he handed me!

When we got out to the pool area, the wind kept trying to blow away our towels, t-shirts etc. In the end, we resorted to dumping our stuff into the empty used-towel bin, which was quite deep and sturdy. We were the only people in the pool, which was lovely! It was a really nice pool area, quite private at the back of the hotel with a high fence around it. The water was quite warm, but was cooling rapidly as the sun only shone on it for part of the day. We pottered about for around an hour, just relaxing and enjoying being there, it was great and a really good way to end the day.

Eventually, we realised we were quite tired, so left the pool and went back to our room for showers, TV, hot drinks (coffee, hot chocolate), and bed.

DAY 14 – Friday 21 June

Plan : Explore Joshua Tree National Park

Actual : We got up at 7.45 a.m., dressed, and went to the small breakfast area near the pool. I was a bit surprised at the rather poor quality and choice of the breakfast items, I had expected better from this particular hotel chain. We had scrambled eggs, and a biscuit. There was no bacon or ham, but DH had sausages, and sausage gravy. There was a fresh pancake making machine, so I decided to make us both some pancakes, but they tasted awful – as though a cleaner had wiped the machine down with a cloth covered in some kind of cleaning fluid. They were also quite chewy. DH finished his, but I only ate half a pancake. We had coffee, and orange juice (DH) and cranberry juice (me). I also picked up a strawberry yoghurt to take back to the room with me, for later.

After breakfast, we collected our bags and some bottled water, and set off to find the Joshua Tree National Park, which was about 30 miles further down the freeway. We arrived at the East entrance, and stopped to take some photos. DH offered to take pictures for a very nice extended family in an RV who had stopped for the same reason as us, and so then the father took some pictures for us, too. Then we drove to the Cottonwood Visitor Centre, stopping to explore there and also to use the restrooms. It was a lovely place, spotlessly clean and with lots of interesting information boards around. We learnt that we would see some places called Washes as we travelled, and they were a natural sand ‘river’ running through the mountains. They are called a Wash because if it rains, all the rainwater gathers in these ‘rivers’ and kind of washes through the valleys.

In the Visitor Centre we paid our $30 entrance fee to the park, collected a map of the park, and bought a few gifts, too – a lovely messenger bag each, pins for DH, and a cuddly mountain goat for our granddaughter!

Back in the car, we drove on a bit further, but then did something we should have done earlier in the day – we looked at the fuel gauge of the car and realised we were down to a quarter of a tank of fuel. We felt really stupid, the National Park is huge and we knew we would be driving round it for most of the day, so we should really have stopped and got fuel as we left our hotel. After a bit of debate, we decided that the idea of running out of fuel in the middle of this massive National Park, and without working mobile phones on us, was a really scary thought, so we turned the car around and drove back towards Indio as we were convinced we had passed a gas station not too far back. However, we had to go almost all the way back to Indio to find a gas station! Anyway, we fuelled up the car, and I also picked up some bags of Cheezits, Cheetos and Lays so we had snacks in the car.

We drove back to Joshua Tree, and began to drive North towards the top of the park. We followed the map so we could see where the points of interest would be, but in a very helpful manner there were also lots of signposts showing different things to stop and look at along the way. We did indeed pass several Washes, all of which had different names, although we hoped it wouldn’t rain today as we drove past Porcupine Wash – gulp!

We stopped at a Cholla cactus garden for a look around. There was a little pathway you could take through the garden, with lots of warning signs saying not to get too close to the cacti as they have a habit of hurling very sharp, painful spikes at anyone who gets too close. We were about a third of the way round the pathway, with very few other people around us, when DH picks this moment to have another funny turn! I was frantically trying to support him on one side, whilst trying to keep us both away from the Cholla! I managed to guide him and we slowly walked back down the pathway and back to the car, where after taking some deep breaths, drinking some water, and resting for a few moments, he was soon back to normal. His timing couldn’t have been worse though, I had visions of him ending up looking like a porcupine as the cacti gleefully stabbed him to their heart’s content!

Anyway, he convinced me he was okay to carry on, so we took a leisurely drive further through the park, marvelling at the changing landscape and rock formations as we went. It was so lovely there. DH saw a lizard run across the road at one point, and then a bit later I saw a small Sidewinder snake slither across the road in front of us. We saw some beautiful Joshua trees, and stopped a couple of times to get some photos of them. They weren’t all over the park, just near the very top of it. We stopped at the Oasis Visitor Centre at the North end, but were disappointed to find that the coffee shop there had closed about 15 minutes earlier than they advertised, so on the advice of the rangers in the visitor centre, we drove out of the park and over to the far side of the road, finding a café called “Pies for the People”, which was an independent pizza and salad place. We ordered a slice of margarita pizza for DH, and I had a lemon slice, which was like lemon meringue but without the meringue topping, and was absolutely delicious. Unfortunately though, they only sold beer and soft drinks, no coffee, but they directed us to a tiny coffee bar behind their place called The Joshua Tree Coffee Bar, so once we had finished eating, we went out the back and round to the coffee bar. We ordered a couple of cups of Americanos to go, and were astonished at the quality of this coffee – it was full-bodied but in no way bitter, with a beautiful roast to it. It was without a doubt the best cup of coffee we had had in the USA! The coffee shop was another independent, and they roast and grind their own coffee blends. We loved the store and the coffee, and the lady who served us was super-friendly, too.

Back in the car, we turned around and re-entered the National Park, taking a slow drive through some of the most beautiful scenery we have ever seen. The wildlife was lovely, we had already seen a lizard and a snake, and now we saw a bunny run across the road too, although we hadn’t seen any of the infamous mountain goats that we were hoping to see. We stopped at a place called Skull Rock, so called because of the shape of a huge rock at the side of the road, and explored a bit, climbing over some beautiful and massive pieces of rock with sand inbetween them. We chatted briefly to a family with young children who were also having fun there.

We had had the most amazing day at the Park, the weather had been VERY hot and with a glorious, deep blue sky, and we had really enjoyed our time there, but it was late afternoon by now and we were aware that the Park closed at 5 p.m., so we eventually made our way out. My plan was to try and find the Walmart that we had driven past just outside Indio, so we headed back towards our hotel, drove past it, and about 2 miles further on I spotted the supermarket. Excellent! We parked up, and went in. I was delighted to find my favourite deodorant in stock, I had already run out of this at home, and was also on the verge of finishing off the stick I had brought with me on holiday, so I stocked up! We got Dove deodorant, Secret deodorant, some cinnamon toothpaste for my sister, a loaf of bread, a big box of assorted doughnut holes, several boxes of drinks powders in different flavours, and a couple of the infamous Walmart fruit pies – only 50c each and they are delicious! We got cherry, lemon, and apple. Yum. DH spotted some very nice, extendible walking sticks, and we discussed getting one for him as this would be useful in case of funny turns again. We chose a lovely dark red stick, it was just under $20 and extended enough for him to use comfortably. I then headed for the baking aisle as I wanted to get some shredded coconut – I like to make Mickey’s Magic Bars which are super-sweet and sticky but delicious, but in the UK we can only get desiccated coconut, and the recipe, which is American, calls for shredded coconut. I picked up a couple of bags of this, and also got a couple of tubs of pumpkin spice, some peanut butter-flavoured baking chips, carrot cake and red velvet Oreos, and 2 bags of the new M&Ms that we had seen advertised on TV – hazelnut spread! Some of the food was to take home with us, and some of it was in preparation for the Flagstaff leg of the holiday where we would be in a location with no food outlets.

Back to the hotel we went, and hauled this lot inside. We decided to go swimming for an hour, but the water felt a bit cold and we were very tired, so we only lasted about half an hour in the end. There was a large extended family in the pool area, which was fine, but there were about 8 or 9 kids ranging in age from very small to teenagers, and they took up the whole of the hot tub, despite there being signs around saying that under-14s weren’t allowed in there. They just splashed around and had fun, but this meant that no-one else could use it, unfortunately. Their parents were either sitting around the pool on the loungers or in the hot tub themselves, and clearly weren’t bothered about any other people being able to use the hot tub. So we pottered about in the main pool till we felt cold and hungry, and then went back to our room for warm showers and snacks. After this, we completely repacked the orange suitcases with everything we had bought so far, so they were ready to go home and wouldn’t have to be packed again. Feeling very happy with how the day had gone, we retired to bed.

DAY 15 – Saturday 22 June

Plan : Drive to Prescott

Actual : After a good night’s sleep, we were up fairly early and headed out for breakfast. This was much better today, there was bacon! We filled up on bacon, scrambled eggs, biscuits, and DH had sausage with sausage gravy again. All was really good, much better than yesterday, and we topped this off with coffee and fruit juices.

Back in our room, we packed up (which didn’t take long), and checked out of the hotel. Car loaded up, we started the next leg of the adventure! We had a 4-hour drive ahead of us, which we intended to split into 2 halves, so on we went for 2 hours. At one point we passed a sign to the state prison that stated, “Do not pick up hitchhikers” – as if anyone would! We drove past lots of very tall, straight cacti, and mountains that had very strange-looking, flat tops, as though they had been sliced off. At one point, we drive through a town called “Hope” that consisted of nothing except a very small, white church. Then we saw a sign that said, “You are now beyond Hope”, which we thought was very funny.

After a couple of hours we stopped, in a tiny town called Salome, as I had spotted a sign for the Cactus Barn Café. It looked very run down, but inside it was surprisingly nice! We used the restrooms, and then went to the bar to order coffee. There were a handful of customers in there, and the lady who served us was really nice. She brought us our coffee, and some iced water as she said we looked like we needed it! We relaxed and stretched our legs for a while, and the lovely lady topped up our coffee without us asking for it. The bill came to just over Ł3 in total, so I gave her $5 and we left. We saw a bunny hopping around as we got back into the car!

Nearby there was a sign for a 9-11 memorial for the firefighters, so we drove round till we found it. It turned out to be a piece of steel beam mounted on a plinth, and was placed here as apparently the steel used in construction of the towers had been mined around Arizona. It was a very moving tribute, so lovely, so we respectfully took some photos before moving on.

We drove on for another 2 hours, along very long, straight, cactus-lined roads. We loved the desolation and gorgeous scenery, we would drive for miles and miles without seeing a town or any buildings at all. The last 10 miles of the journey was up and around very steep, twisty mountain roads, almost like a mountain pass. DH kept saying to me, “look at the view!”, but the view on my side of the car was of a humungous, sheer drop down the mountain, so I sort of whimpered, “ooh, yes, lovely!” whilst trying not to look.

We finally got to Prescott, and easily found our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express, and checked in. Our room had recently been refurbished, and it was gorgeous! The shower area was huge, and I looked forward to using that later. We unpacked a little, and relaxed.

The reason for this stop in Prescott was that DH’s Uncle used to live here for many years before he died, and DH wanted to try and find his house just to see it from the outside, as he had never visited his Uncle here. We had asked the hotel receptionist about directions to Copper Creek Road, and she had given us a small map, so we found the road quite easily. It was about a 10 minute drive from where we were now, so we agreed to go there tomorrow morning on our way out of Prescott.

We realised that we hadn’t really eaten much since breakfast this morning, and it was now late afternoon, so I left DH relaxing on the bed and watching TV, and I walked back up to the main road where I had seen a few small stores as we drove in. There was a 5 Guys there, and we do love a 5 Guys burger, so I went there. I got us both a bacon cheeseburger, although, (and this is what I love about 5 Guys), I was able to have a small one, whilst getting DH the regular size, plus a couple of portions of fries. With hindsight, I should have just got us one portion to share, there were masses and masses of fries! I took this back to the hotel and we had a room picnic. The coffee machine was the same as we were encountering everywhere now, so we had spare coffee pods again!

After dinner, DH had a nap, and I went back over the road to the stores, as I had spotted a small supermarket there earlier – I do so love American supermarkets and I wanted to see what they had; also, I wanted to stock up a bit as our next destination would be based in the middle of nowhere. However, it turned out to be an independent, organic store called Trader Joe’s. I still went in for a look around, and was pleasantly surprised by what they had. I picked up a couple of boxes of Key Lime cookies for us and my dad, some fig biscuits for DH, and a box of tiny, cheese-filled crackers.

I returned to our hotel and was going to suggest that we went for a swim, but as I walked past the pool, which was indoors here, I could see it was full of kids splashing about and neither of us fancied this, so we just relaxed in the room before having a shower in that huge bathroom, (not at the same time!), and then bed.

DAY 16 – Sunday 23 June

Plan : Drive to Flagstaff via Sedona

Actual : We commented to each other this morning how nice everyone that we have spoken to so far this holiday, has been! Every area we have visited has had such nice, friendly people in. DH has encountered some lovely folk during his smoking breaks, and anyone we have asked for directions or information has just been so friendly.

Anyway, we had a superb breakfast this morning, there was a much better selection at this particular Holiday Inn Express than the one in Indio. We did the usual bacon, eggs etc., but I noticed something here I’d never seen before – little pots of strawberry cream cheese! I had one spread on a bagel, and it was really delicious! It doesn’t look like we can get this in the UK, sadly, as I really liked it. I gave DH a small taste and he hated it, but he isn’t really a fan of strawberry-flavoured items.

After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and then loaded up the car, before putting DH’s late Uncle’s address into the Satnav. About 10 minutes later we were pulling up on Copper Creek Road, but try as we might, we couldn’t find his Uncle’s house number. We tried several side streets, but were unsuccessful, unfortunately.

Eventually, we had to give up on this, and so we drove to the downtown area of Prescott to have a look around. It’s a fairly small area, one large square of parkland as a hub with four crossroads that meet in the middle. We found a parking space on the road, and began to explore the stores. Whisky Row had been recommended to us by a couple of people, so we looked around several small, independent stores, mostly selling upmarket gifts or souvenirs. It was a lovely place! We browsed a store that sold metal signs, and had to laugh at the one with a picture of Confucius on saying, “I didn’t say half of that!” There was a slightly larger store called the Trading Company that we looked around, and we bought DH a t-shirt and some pins, some cactus-printed socks for my daughter, and a really cute little cactus Christmas tree decoration!

There was a bluegrass festival going on in the park, with lots of stalls around and a small stage for bands to play on. The atmosphere was so lovely, really relaxed and friendly, and lots of people were smiling at us or nodding acknowledgement as we walked past them, it was so nice. We found some restrooms so used those, then took lots of photos of the town square and stores.

After a couple of hours we had seen everything we wanted to, so walked back to the car. We really enjoyed our visit to Prescott, but were a bit sad that we couldn’t find DH’s Uncle’s house.

Back on the road again, we began the next drive, about a 2.5 hr journey to Flagstaff. We had originally intended to stop off at a town called Sedona on the way, but had spent more time in Prescott than we had thought we would, so decided to visit Sedona another day and just headed for Flagstaff. About 60 miles from there, we spotted a Denny’s just off the highway, so pulled over for coffee. I was quite keen on a piece of pie from there, I remember years ago that Denny’s used to have the best pies and cakes! We parked up, and were just about to walk over to the entrance, when the people in the next car to us, (two couples), asked DH how long we had had our Acadia for. DH explained that it was a rental car, and then we got chatting to them about the Acadia – they had owned theirs for a while and really loved it. We talked to them for a good few minutes, as they asked where we were from, and where we were going, etc. They were really nice, and told us that if we wanted to live in America, (I think we mentioned that we would love to live there one day), that they thought we ought to explore ways to make it happen!

Anyway, eventually we bade our goodbyes and headed into Denny’s. We ordered coffee, and I was horrified to discover they don’t have pie or cakes any longer! To be fair, the more I thought about it, the more I realised it had been a very long time since I had seen either pie or cake in Denny’s, apart from hush puppies. So I ordered a strawberry sundae, and DH had a caramel apple pie crisp with ice-cream. Both were very delicious and exactly what we needed.

Quick restroom visit, and back on the road, we passed Sedona and made a mental note of where the turn-off was so we could visit at some point over the next few days. Less than an hour later, and a mile before we actually got to Flagstaff, I suddenly spotted a sign for the Arizona Mountain Inn & Cabins, our next destination. The satnav was trying to take us further on down the road, but we turned her off, turned around and went back to the Cabins sign, turning off the road and following a trail that took us into the middle of the woods. Wow! These looked amazing! There is an inn that has bed & breakfast, and 17 cabins, all tucked away on 13 secluded acres of ponderosa pines (according to the brochure!). The cabins sleep from 2 to 16 people, depending on size of cabin, and are fully furnished complete with towels and bed linen, and fully stocked kitchens (apart from food, obviously!). I had picked cabin number 19 for us, which sleeps 2.

We drove round to reception, which is based at the small inn, and I checked us in. We were given a site map and a key to the cabin. There is a laundry room at the inn, and a small selection of vending machines that sell snacks and drinks, although we were well prepared and had our own snacks and plenty of bottles of water. Then we drove a short distance to our cabin, which we had spotted on our way to reception. It looked really beautiful! There was an outside porch with a small table and a couple of chairs, raised off the ground and fenced in.

We opened the door and went inside. It was lovely! Very small, but perfect for us, and we could get settled a little as we would be there for 3 nights, with only a few plans for exploring. There was a lovely bathroom, and the kitchen, although tiny, was stocked with crockery, cutlery, a toaster, and a coffee machine. There was a cooker, and a large fridge/freezer, although no dishwasher. However, there was washing up liquid, a sponge, and tea-towels. My only concern was the bed – the bedroom wasn’t so much a room, as a mezzanine floor above the bathroom, accessed via a loft ladder in the lounge area. This ladder was almost vertical, and then once up there, you had to crawl to the mattress in the middle of a small floor area, as you could only stand up right in the middle of the floor – the A-frame roof came down either side of the floor. I ventured up the ladder and managed that okay, and the mattress felt very comfortable. There was a quilt and pillows, and the bed was made up with bedding, plus there was a tiny window at the head of the mattress – it all looked really cosy and comfy! Then I tried to get down the ladder again. You have to approach it backwards, on your knees, as there is no way of going down it forwards. I was kneeling on the top rung, waving one leg blindly and frantically around trying to find the next step down, and gripping onto the tiny bits of wood (about a foot high) at the top of the ladder with a Vulcan death-grip, terrified out of my wits. DH, meanwhile, was at the foot of the ladder trying to coax me down without actually laughing out loud at the sight of me. In the end, after I began to really panic and said I couldn’t get down, he grabbed my foot and guided it to the next rung down, and I was able to descend. Oh my, I was really looking forward to having to go back up there to sleep later! I even privately debated with myself as to whether I should ask for a different cabin, one that only had one storey, but I loved this one so much that I just had to hope I could learn to cope with the ladder. I didn’t mention any of this to DH, though.

DH relaxed for a little bit, discovering that even though we had been told there was no TV and no Wi-Fi in the cabin, there WAS actually Wi-Fi, while I unpacked the food we had and put some bottled water in the fridge. The various hotels we had stayed in had either had packets of coffee bags, or the coffee pods, and I had diligently collected up what we hadn’t used along the way, so we had an adequate supply of coffee bags to use in the filter coffee machine here, (there was a supply of filter papers in the cupboard above the sink). We also had a supply of packets of coffee creamer, plus in a couple of the hotels I had swiped some tiny tubs of honey at breakfast. The butter we had brought with us from the Grand Californian was lasting really well, considering the heat of the car that it was travelling in frequently! Anyway, I was able to keep it refrigerated here, thankfully.

I made us some coffee, and we sat out on the porch for a while, just enjoying the view. It was so lovely there, so peaceful, and we just chatted quietly whilst DH surfed the internet and I did some arrow-word puzzles. Eventually, we felt a bit hungry and discussed going out in the car to find somewhere to eat, but decided we couldn’t be bothered going out again, so I made us some honey sandwiches and we also had some Lays potato chips, and Cheezits.

We waited for dusk to fall as I had taken my electronic bat detector with me, reckoning that being in the woods we would be bound to find some bats around, but I was very disappointed to find that the brand new pack of batteries I had taken with me were all flat! That will teach me to get a cheap, generic pack, rather than branded batteries, although they normally work fine at home. I hadn’t checked them in advance as I’ve never had a brand new pack of batteries fail before! We tried looking around in case we could actually see bats, but failed to see any at all, so gave up and went back into the cabin for a little while, until it was completely dark outside. Then we went back out to do some stargazing, and saw some amazing views – because there wasn’t any residual street or town lighting, we could see lots of visible stars and galaxies, and we were also able to see Jupiter quite clearly, too. We spent about half an hour picking out different clusters of stars, it was great fun. Eventually though, we realised we were very tired, so had a relatively early night and retired to our loft bed. Gulp.

DAY 17 – Monday 24 June

Plan : No fixed plan for today

Actual : Well, that was an interesting night! The mattress was indeed very comfortable, and we were really cosy up there, it was lovely. However, I was so terrified I would need to get up during the night for a restroom break, that I barely slept! DH had said that if I needed help getting down, to wake him up, but I didn’t like to disturb him. I talked myself into having to get up at about 3.00 a.m., and shuffled backwards to the edge, but was so scared that with no-one downstairs to help me down I was going to fall down the ladder, that I just went back to bed and tried to sleep. I hadn’t really needed to get up that badly, but had psychologically talked myself into it. Anyway, when the sun was well and truly up at 8.00 a.m., I realised I really DID need to go, so made myself get up. I gave myself a good, stern talking to, and then managed to find a way to minimise the fear by working out what felt like a safer way to descend. By not shuffling right up to the edge of the platform but kneeling slightly more inwards towards the mattress, then wrapping one arm tightly around each of the post supports of the ladder, I was able to then lean backwards a bit with one leg straightened downwards until my foot touched the 3rd step down of the ladder, (a comfortable reach for my leg). At this point, I was still secured by my arms around the posts and with one foot firmly on this step, that gave me the confidence to lower my other foot to the next step down, then I could let go of the post supports one at a time and wrap each arm tightly around the sides of the ladder, thus allowing me to descend one step at a time. It sounds more complicated than it was, but it worked for me! I was able to make quite a rapid descent whilst feeling completely safely secured to the ladder.

Bathroom break attended to, I felt confident enough that I could get back down again to actually go back to bed for another couple of hours! We were both quite tired, having spent the last 17 days almost constantly on the go. That plus all the travelling we had been doing had left us both a bit wiped out. Eventually we got up around 10.00 a.m., and I explained to DH my newly formulated technique for getting down the ladder! Bless him, he didn’t laugh (to my face).

I made us some coffee and toast, and we discussed what we wanted to do today. We juggled our plans around for the next few days, and decided that today we would do absolutely nothing – it was a blissful idea that we could afford to spend an entire day just relaxing and enjoying our holiday! So DH alternated between sitting out on the porch reading a book, and then lying on the sofa inside and napping. I dragged one of the porch chairs out into the trail in front of our cabin to where there was uninterrupted sunshine, dressed in a short sundress, and sat out there all day reading books on my Kindle. (I didn’t notice DH take a surreptitious photo of me at one point when I was star-fishing my arms and legs out to get maximum rays possible, but actually looked like a dead body, until I noticed it on Facebook later that night! ) I read one complete novel, and 2 short stories by the time the sun went behind the trees, so I transferred me and my chair to the porch, to get a third of the way through a second novel before it got too dark and I had to go inside. I made us the odd jug of coffee, and we nibbled on crisps and biscuits all day, but were never really hungry enough to want a proper meal. I didn’t become aware that I was subconsciously restricting my liquid intake though, still slightly concerned about the ladder situation, until a few days later.

After more star-gazing, we finally turned in at 11.00 p.m., completely relaxed and happy.

DAY 18 – Tuesday 25 June

Plan : Meteor Crater, Sedona

Actual : Today’s plan was only organised yesterday. DH had read about a massive meteor crater about 40 miles away from where we were staying, which is a tourist attraction, and only told me about it yesterday! Being a bit of a space nut, I was really keen to visit this, so we got up quite early, I gleefully negotiated the ladder, and we had toast and coffee before setting out.

We drove to the crater, with the help of our trusty satnav, and it turned out to be 38 miles away. We parked up and approached the visitor centre. There is a charge to get into the site, but it is run like a charity so a lot of the fees are used for the maintenance of the centre and the site itself. There are free walking tours out to the crater (about Ľ of a mile) every hour, and in the visitor centre there are a couple of films, a restaurant, and the usual gift shop. Apparently, this is the largest best preserved meteor crater in the world!

We were very impressed by the attraction entrance, after you exit the fee payment area you walk past an Apollo mission capsule (it was built for one of the missions but never actually used), through a very attractive garden area with gravel paths, before entering the visitor centre building. We were conned into buying extra tickets to watch an “awesome 4D film” which turned out to be a bit rubbish really, very much aimed at small children and about 10 minutes long – a complete waste of money in our opinion. It was about blasting off into space in a spaceship piloted by the world’s most irritating cartoon rabbit, in order to divert a meteor heading for our planet. Truly dreadful stuff.

Anyway, after this we went into another theatre to watch a 10 minute film about the meteor crater, which was really interesting and very informative. There were large pieces of the meteor on display in a couple of places outside the theatre, which you could touch – this was really cool! The tour guide gathered up everyone for the midday tour, which included us, and checked that everyone would be okay walking for about a quarter of a mile out to the rim, which we all were, and we set off. The tour guide was really good, he told us lots of really interesting information as we walked. The walk was slightly uphill and we were puffing a bit by the time we got to the top!

We learnt that bits of rock from the meteor were found 7 miles away from the impact crater, such was the strength of the impact. The guide touched the ground randomly near the crater rim with a magnet on a pole, and collected bits of iron ore dust from the meteorite, and bear in mind that this crater is about 50,000 years old - wow! Fascinating.

We all posed for photos, which the tour guide took with our own cameras, on a flat spot near the edge of the crater rim, and there was a family who posed after us whose mother lost her hat – she was wearing a rather nice, navy blue, floppy-brimmed hat, and the wind caught it and blew it over the edge! We could see it about 10 feet down, but no-one volunteered to get it back for her and she was happy to leave it there, given the depth of the crater and the slidey nature of the crater walls! After a really interesting 20 minute talk, we began to make our way back to the visitor centre, and a really cute little chipmunk ran across our path in front of us – aw!

Back in the visitor centre, we had a look around the museum, before climbing up a very steep slope to the observatory space, which had telescopes set up so you could look at the bottom of the crater. After this, we went into the little café for a cup of coffee, and then finally we explored the gift shop, where we picked up pins and a t-shirt for DH (no surprise there!), some socks for my daughter, and a couple of really lovely, polished pieces of gemstone to put in our Bearded Dragon’s vivarium.

After a quick restroom break, we finally left the crater, having had a really fun few hours, and drove back to Sedona. As we wound down on the narrow mountain road from 6k to 4k elevation, we drove through some stunning mountain views, with lush forests all around us, the views were just amazing. We found a small car park behind some stores just off the main road, and walked up and down a really beautiful street, filled with tiny arts & crafts shops. We managed to find a store selling tourist gifts, which wasn’t easy, and got a pin for DH and a really cute little teddy bear for our granddaughter. DH had been told that there was a McDonald’s somewhere here that was a bit unusual, (a work colleague had visited here and told him about it), so I popped into the tourist information office to ask them how to get there. They were really helpful, and gave me a very detailed map of the town, directing me to carry on further down the road for about 5 miles. We picked up the car again and drove to the only McDonald’s in the world without “golden arches” – they are turquoise! The story goes that the colour of the golden arches was felt by the town council to be too garish for the area, and it would have clashed with the natural beauty and wonder of the surroundings, so it was agreed to make them turquoise instead! It was quite quiet in there, and DH went off to secure a table while I ordered. DH had a bacon double quarter-pounder and fries, with coffee, and I had some chicken tenders, fries, and an iced coffee. The server asked which sauce I wanted with my tenders, and when she listed the choices, she said “honey”. I assumed she meant honey mustard sauce, and asked for that. However, she gave me two tubs of actual honey, so I thought, “why not?” and tried dipping my tenders in it. Oh wow, it was amazing! So delicious! I’m definitely putting honey on fried chicken next time I have it, yum! While I was waiting to be served, an elderly couple sitting nearby asked what part of California I was from. I looked at them in a puzzled way, and politely replied I was from England! They were confused by the California plate on our car, apparently!

After dinner, we took a leisurely drive back to our cabin, very tired but also very happy, having had a thoroughly splendid day of exploration. Relaxed, coffee, bed.

DAY 19 – Wednesday 26 June

Plan : Drive to Williams

Actual : We were up quite early this morning, had toast and coffee, packed up and said goodbye to our lovely cabin, checked out, and drove to Flagstaff for a look around Downtown. It was quite hard to find a car park here, all the street parking was full, but we finally found a tiny car park (that was shockingly expensive to park in!), parked up, and paid. I was a bit hassled by the experience as the ticket machine only took credit or debit cards, and not having a credit card with a registered USA address I was worried that the machine wouldn’t accept my card; luckily, I only had to put in the car reg no. and not a zip code.

Anyway, we found a bistro nearby called Market and called in there for coffee, before exploring the fabulous, “arty” stores around. There were some lovely shops, one in particular caught our eye – it appeared to sell a lot of locally made crafts, and the Christmas section was amazing! Had we not been flying home, I would have bought the biggest Christmas wreath I’d ever seen, it was so beautiful but was about 5’ across! I did get myself a tiny, rose-gold coloured cactus necklace, and a pin for DH.

We left there after a couple of hours, and drove for about 5 minutes to Lowell Observatory. This was a place I didn’t even know existed, but DH had found it in our guidebook and planned a visit there, as a surprise for me. We parked up, paid $17 each to get in, and walked through the tiny visitor centre to the buildings at the back. A guide had set up a telescope with a special filter on it, and we were able to look directly at the sun through it – absolutely amazing! I could see a solar flare at one point, I loved doing this, it was a brilliant experience! DH got a great photo through the telescope, it was awesome.

Next we had a look around the Putnam Collection Centre, where there was a display of lots of moon landing preparation memorabilia. The Lowell centre was responsible for mapping the moon before the Apollo landings in 1969, so the astronauts would be able to make a safe landing, and the exhibition had lots of original copies of the maps, signing-in books, etc. After this we made our way back into a small room in the visitor centre where we listened to a presentation of the history of the Observatory, then went on a brief tour of the site. The next presentation we saw was a history of the discovery of Pluto, which was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory. It was all absolutely fascinating, plus we were able to go into the observatory dome and see the original telescope that he had used during the discovery. Finally, we browsed the obligatory museum shop and got pins, t-shirts, and DH bought me a cuddly Mars – it is really cute, has eyes and a smiley face, and has a tuft of white hair on the top to represent the polar ice-cap! They had a cuddly toy of each of the planets, but as Mars is my favourite planet, I picked that one.

We had been fascinated by the story of Percy Lowell, the founder of the observatory, and the fact that on his death, his unhappy wife, who had been left very little money by her husband as he left the vast majority of his wealth to the observatory for its upkeep and maintenance, had insisted that the observatory trust build (and pay for!) a vast, imported stone memorial tomb for Percy. This was something that would have horrified him during his lifetime, due to the extensive waste of money, but she was insistent and it is said that this was her final act of revenge against him! We saw the tomb, it was breathtakingly ostentatious, although beautifully maintained.

We had had a great time there, but eventually had to leave to get to our next destination. We drove a short way down Route 66, promising ourselves to do the route properly one day, and stopped at a Jack in the Box for some food as we had barely eaten all day. DH had a bacon Ultimate Cheeseburger, fries & coffee, and I got 4 crispy chicken strips, fries, and an iced coffee. As we sat enjoying our late lunch/early dinner, we got to talking about something that one of the tour guides had casually mentioned when we were at the Observatory, about to walk uphill to the Pluto discovery building. He had said that it was only a couple of hundred yards’ walk, but that it would probably feel further due to the fact that we were at almost 7,000 miles above sea level. We had a ‘ping’ moment of realisation – although neither of us are super-fit, we are not such lazy slobs that we can’t walk around for a few hours without feeling exhausted. However, over the last few days, we had really struggled to walk any distance or up hills without being very breathless and feeling shattered. It only just dawned on us that this was most likely due to the higher elevation we had been at for the last week and a half! I had also had a vague, niggling headache for about the last week, which could also have been due to the constant increased elevation, a sort of altitude sickness.

Anyway, once we had finished our food, we got back into the car and drove 35 miles to a small town called Williams, easily finding our next hotel – The Grand Canyon Railway Hotel. It looked lovely from the outside, so we parked up and went in. We were given room number 2134, and we took our cases up to the room. It was beautiful, really spacious and so well themed to an old 1800’s railway. I unpacked a bit, and then left DH in his usual position – on the bed, clutching the TV remote – whilst I went back down to reception to book us some train tickets for the next day. We were planning on visiting the Grand Canyon by train, which was exciting! I had looked through the leaflet we were given on checking in, and decided to splash out a bit and get us 1st class tickets. This would mean no small children running about, (only over-14s were allowed in this carriage), but would also get us some light refreshments on the journey there and back, as we didn’t have breakfast included in our hotel package. I booked and paid for the tickets, ($159 each), but was given a receipt to use to collect them from the ticket office near the train station in the morning.

I went back to the room, made coffee (coffee pods again!), and we relaxed before bed. I was asleep within seconds of getting into bed, but DH stayed awake and watched Jurassic World on TV, a film we had already seen once but he swore he couldn’t remember watching before!

DAY 20 – Thursday 27 June

Plan : Visit the Grand Canyon

Actual : I was up early and left DH to snooze while I popped out to the ticket office, which was located in the gift shop behind the hotel, to collect our train tickets for today’s journey to the Grand Canyon. The gift shop looked awesome, I had to stop myself from browsing it and get back to the room as we had a Wild West show to get to!

I dragged DH out of bed, and while he got ready, I made us some coffee. By just after 9.00 a.m. we were heading out to a small stage arena near the train tracks, where we found spaces on the tiered bleachers and watched a really funny and entertaining Old Wild West gunfight show. It was so much fun. Carousing and horse stealing had got their ma locked up in prison last night, and when the gunslingers had first realised their ma was in prison, they wanted to go to McDonald’s for breakfast, but they realised they didn’t have any money, so they began to look around the audience to see if they could spot someone rich! When that failed, they picked some tourist at random and made him play Cowboy poker with them – rules are, there are no rules. Then they caught one of their own gang cheating at the game, so they shot him and then blamed the tourist, telling the Sheriff he had held them all up with a HUGE gun, and insisted it was hidden in his tiny backpack! It was a brilliant show, so funny, it lasted about 10 minutes, and then afterwards we could take photos with the actors and their horses. We were really glad we had got up in time to catch this show today.

After this, we found our train carriage, the name of which was printed on our tickets – her name was Bright Angel. We boarded and sat in our designated seats, although the carriage was only about half full. A very sweet and funny gentleman called Tom was our Carriage Conductor for the day, he was retired and had only been doing the job for a few months, but he was very good at it! He prepped the breakfast items and set everything out for us to help ourselves, and as the train journey went on, he kept us very entertained with some really interesting history of the areas we were passing through, as well as some fascinating facts about the Grand Canyon, throughout the 2.5 hour journey.

The train set off, we waved to some people on the station who were waving us off, and then I went up to get us some coffee, Sprite, pastries, and tiny doughnuts, all of which was very fresh and tasty. .A travelling musician came through the coach at one point, just a lone cowboy with his guitar, and he sang a few country songs, encouraging everyone to join in with the choruses. People were giving him a few dollars as a tip, as he passed through.

The journey was lovely, we saw some beautiful countryside, and the carriage was really comfortable – we had very comfy seats with little, fold-down tables in front of us. All the drinks and snacks were included in our ticket price, and we could help ourselves or ask Tom to fetch things for us. There were also hand-made cocktails for sale too, as well as beer, all of which was $7 a drink, but we were happy to settle for soft drinks and coffee.

The time went really quickly, and before long we were pulling up in the Grand Canyon station. We left some bits and pieces on the coach, as it would be locked up when we left and we would be returning to the same seats for the return journey. After a quick restroom stop in the station, we then climbed up some steps and there in front of us was one of the Seven Wonders of the World – the Grand Canyon. It was breathtaking, and we had 3.5 hours to explore here.

We wandered along the rim trail for a while, taking lots of photos and admiring the way that the view of the Canyon changed with the changes in the light of the day. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing, it was just so beautiful. We went into a couple of different visitor centres, and also watched a Navajo Indian doing a traditional dance, before having our photo taken with him. His traditional costume was absolutely amazing, (although he did smell a bit sweaty, urgh, but it was a very hot and sunny day, to be fair!). We must have walked for about a mile along the rim towards the East, and were just standing staring at the Canyon, when we heard a funny noise in one of the trees behind us. We tracked it down to a HUGE cricket or locust type creature, high up in the branches. Because it was so high, I was standing in front of DH and staring upwards at it, whilst he put his hands on my shoulders to stop me from falling over. As we started to walk away, a woman stopped us and said that she had thought we made such a sweet couple, that she had had to take a photo of us! She showed us the picture, and it did indeed look lovely, so we explained what we had been looking at in the tree. She offered to email the photo to me, so I gave her my email address, and a few hours later she did indeed send us the picture! What a lovely lady.

We wandered around a couple of lovely arty shops, and as to be expected, got a couple of t-shirts and some pins for DH. We were a bit hungry, but didn’t really want to waste sight-seeing time by going into a sit-down restaurant, so I joined a HUGE queue (that, thankfully, moved quickly) in a tiny sandwich bar and got DH a cheese & ham sandwich, and grabbed a corn dog for myself, plus coffees. We sat on a low wall to eat these, watching an interesting array of tourists around us.

After a bit more looking out at the Canyon from the rim trail, it was finally time for us to return to our train, so we took a slow stroll back, making one last restroom visit before we boarded. We found our carriage and saw Tom, the Carriage Conductor, waiting at the door to welcome everyone back, so we paused to get some photos taken with him and to thank him for a lovely journey out there, before boarding and finding our seats again.

We left the Grand Canyon bang on time, and settled down for the return journey. Tom announced the buffet was open, so we had some hummus (DH only, I loathe the stuff!), cubes of cheese, crackers, sliced tomato and cucumber. Like this morning, this was all very fresh and delicious. Tom had also made his “famous” cherry lemonade, which was absolutely gorgeous! I had two glasses, it was so full of flavour and refreshing. DH had one glass, then had some more coffee. After a little while, a different strolling guitarist came through the train and played a couple of songs for us, and then Tom announced that he wouldn’t be surprised if the train got involved in a little incident, as we were passing through cowboy country – shortly after this, the train slowed to a stop and the same cowboys that we had seen that morning came galloping past us on their horses, before boarding the train to hold up all the tourists! (We were told that participation in the holdup was optional, though). I folded up a dollar bill and stuck it in the shoulder strap of my dress, before looking around innocently and pretending to be horrified and scared when we were held up at gunpoint, it was so much fun! The robbers ran off into the next carriage once they had “robbed” us all, and the Sheriff appeared. He asked how many gunmen had come through, and I told him ten – he frowned at me and said he didn’t believe me! (There were 4, in fact). It was really fun to take part in this.

The train carried on back to the hotel station, and we disembarked, having had a thoroughly wonderful day. We had a good look around the hotel store, picking up some socks for my daughter and the usual pins for DH.

Back to our room, snacks, showers, bed. What a fabulous day.

DAY 21 – Friday 28 June

Plan : Drive to the Hoover Dam

Actual : We had a good night’s sleep, and were up, packed, and out of our room by 9.00 a.m. We checked out of the hotel, and got back on the road for the final part of this wonderful adventure. Our destination was the Hoover Dam, which wasn’t too far away, about a 3 hour drive.

At around 10.30 a.m., we stopped at a small town called Kingman for breakfast, finding a Denny’s. DH got a Lumberjack Slam and I opted for the Build Your Own Slam – bacon x 2, hash browns, scrambled eggs with cheese, and two biscuits. Plus coffee. It was all very yummy! We got some coffee to go, and visited the restroom, although with hindsight, (a wonderful thing!), I should have spent a little more time in there than I did, shall we say. My Irritable Bowel Syndrome had been rumbling for the last couple of days, I think because we weren’t eating very much but then we were having the odd large meal, which doesn’t suit my digestive system. We set off again but after about half an hour I realised I really should have spent more time in the restroom, and I also realised I wasn’t going to be able to hang on until we reached our destination! We were driving along a very long, straight freeway, and didn’t seem to be passing through many towns. I seriously began to consider asking DH to just pull over at the side of the road and I would take my chances behind a cactus! Suddenly, I saw a road-sign that pointed to a town called Chloride, 4 miles away to the right, so I asked DH to take this turnoff as I said I was going to have to stop there for a restroom break– it was fast turning into an emergency situation!

That was the longest 4 miles of my life. I was squirming in my seat as we arrived in this tiny, one-horse town, and I frantically looked for a restaurant or hotel or something. I spotted a sign for “Tourist Information” and told DH to park up in front of it, which he did, before I shot out of the car like a scalded cat, and into the store. The place was deserted, not a soul in sight. I began a panicky search for either someone to ask, or for a restroom, and very soon spotted a restroom round a corner. As I approached it, a lady came out and said, “ooh, sorry honey, can I help you?” I muttered something about using the restroom and dashed in there.

Phew. The relief at finally managing to find a restroom was unbelievable. I tried to slink out of the store afterwards, hoping not to bump into the lady that worked there again, as I was a bit embarrassed that I hadn’t wanted to buy anything from her, just use her facilities. I had almost got out of the door when, from behind the counter, her head suddenly popped up and she said, “thank you for visiting!” I gave a small shriek, mumbled an apology and left as fast as I could!

Anyway, back on the road again, we were soon heading (much more comfortably!) towards the Hoover Dam. Once we got within a couple of miles of the dam, the views were amazing, and we followed the signs for the car park. We were charged $10 to park, and then were surprised to find that we would be charged a further $10 each to enter the visitor centre, although I felt a bit better about this when I realised the building also contained a museum.

We parked up, grabbed some bottled water from the boot, and set off to explore. The weather was glorious, hot and sunny, without a cloud in the sky! But the heat had increased a lot since we had moved back out towards the coast, and the temperature was back up to over 100 degrees F again today.

We looked around the museum, which was small but interesting, and then the visitor centre. I began to feel quite unwell during this, I felt a bit sick and lightheaded, and my legs felt shaky. I took the opportunity to sit down where I could, on random benches, but by the time we went outside to look at the Winged Figures of the Republic statuary, I was feeling worse. I sat behind the sculpture on a shady bench, and drank two bottles of water, as I think I was suffering from dehydration and heatstroke. Discussing the situation with DH, we realised that since we had stayed in the cabins in the woods, I had been drinking very little – in an effort not to have to get up during the night to use the loo, and thereby having to climb down that ladder, I had deliberately reduced my fluid intake, but then had never really increased the fluids after that. Anyway, after a little rest in the shade and the water I drank, I began to feel a lot better. We went into a small building that contained a 3D model of the dam, which was constructed before the actual dam was, and watched a video about the planning process for construction. We had a look around a souvenir store, which was all a bit “Vegas” in feel, with a lot of overpriced tat for sale, to be honest. We got DH a pin but didn’t buy anything else. Then we walked across the dam on one side, looking over towards Lake Mead, and back on the other side of the road, to look out at the scenery that side.

We were very hot and also quite tired by now, and we had seen everything at the dam that we wanted to. Despite my feeling a bit ill, we had really enjoyed our visit to the Hoover Dam, but now felt ready to go and find our hotel and rest up a bit.

We retrieved the car, and followed the Satnav directions to find our hotel, the Hoover Dam Lodge & Casino. It turned out to be a 5 minute drive from the dam! We spotted it quite easily from the road as it was HUGE! The only building on the road, it was a massive, tower building with a matching massive sign for it. But it did look gorgeous, and so we parked up and went inside to check in. DH was outside in the smoking area, and I got chatting to the receptionist, who was lovely and really friendly. She commented on my suntan, and I told her about our adventures over the last 3 weeks. It always pays to be nice to receptionists, as she ended up upgrading our room from a standard King bed room, to a deluxe King bed room with a preferred view. We went up to the room, which was on the top floor (11th), and it was enormous! It had two King-sized beds, a view of the pool and Lake Mead, complimentary bottled water and snacks, it was gorgeous! We could see the boat dock where we had begun our holiday, almost 3 weeks ago, from our bedroom window.

We went back out to the car and collected all the luggage on a trolley, bringing it back up to the room so we could reorganise and do a final pack before leaving tomorrow. However, for now, our priority was some relaxation and also some cooling down, so we decided to go to the pool for an hour. Once again, there was an extended family, including about 7 kids, in the hot tub and taking up the entire tub, so we couldn’t go in there. So we just stayed in the main pool, pottering about and relaxing, it was really lovely and exactly what we needed.

After an hour, we decided we were a bit hungry, as we hadn’t eaten since Denny’s that morning, so we went back up to our room and showered. Directly opposite the windows of our room was a helicopter landing pad, and we watched a small, red helicopter taking off and landing there. We think it was doing tours of the dam and maybe the Grand Canyon too, as we watched people parking in the lower car park, getting into a limo that drove up a steep and winding hill to the helipad, boarding the helicopter, and then disappearing off for about an hour at a time. It was really interesting to watch it take off and land, DH got some great photos of this.

We finished off the bread, butter and honey that we had, (the butter was on its last legs and was a bit separated, but still tasted okay!), plus some Lays and Cheetos, then we demolished the complimentary basket of fun-sized candy bars and peanuts! I made some coffee and put the bottles of water in the fridge, and we repacked the cases completely, just leaving out our clothes for tomorrow. We watched some TV before turning in, (I also checked us in online for our flight tomorrow), and decided to have one bed each, just because we could! What a fabulous last day of our holiday.

DAY 22 – Saturday 29 June

Plan : Drive to Las Vegas, fly home

Actual : We got up at 8.00 a.m., had some coffee and finished off the box of doughnut holes that we had bought a few days ago. I realised that I hadn’t had to get up during the night to visit the bathroom, and that this morning my liquid output had been fairly minimal, despite the amount of water I had drunk yesterday. This further strengthened my belief that I had been suffering from dehydration, but I certainly felt loads better today.

We checked out of the hotel, having a quick look around the foyer of the hotel, which was a casino – we hadn’t had the time or the inclination to do this the evening before! I gave our last 12 or so bottles of water to the receptionist, telling her to put them in their break room, but she told me that they give donated items to a local homeless charity, which I thought was a wonderful idea.

We loaded up the car, and began the drive back to the car rental return place, which was only about 30 miles away and very easy to find. The car was returned with no problems at all, although the guy that checked the car in told us that we would probably be charged for not returning the car full of fuel. I tried to explain that we had agreed when we collected the car that we could return it empty if needed, but he just shrugged his shoulders and didn’t say anything else.

We went outside with our luggage and found the bus stop for the bus to our terminal, waiting for about 10 minutes for a bus as we had just missed one. All too soon we were back at Las Vegas airport, where we found the Virgin Atlantic desk and dropped off our luggage, collected our boarding passes, and then made our sorry-to-be-leaving way through border control. DH had visited the smoking area outside the airport doors before we went in, but then he spotted a smoking room just before we got to our gate so he went in there, leaving me on my own near a small, duty-free kiosk! I browsed there to pass the time, and soon spotted some bottles of flavoured Bailey’s Irish Cream liqueur that I hadn’t seen before, plus there was an offer on if you bought two bottles, so I picked up a bottle of coffee cream flavour for myself, and one of vanilla cinnamon flavour for my sister as a Christmas gift. This would be delivered to the gate for me to collect when we boarded.

We walked a bit further round the terminal, looking for somewhere to pick up some lunch from. There was a small burger place called Carl’s Jr, which looked okay, but it had a huge queue as it was now lunchtime. I sent DH to find a table and I joined the queue, which took about 40 minutes to get through. I ordered a Western Bacon Cheeseburger and fries for DH, with coffee, and I just got a side of fries. I also got us both a box of Fruit Loop mini doughnuts, which were lurid colours but looked delicious, to take on the plane with us.

After lunch, we headed for Gate E and we soon seated comfortably, waiting to board. We put our flight socks on and passed the time online. We were a little late boarding, and luckily I remembered to collect my duty-free Baileys on the way to the plane!

We took off about half an hour late, and the flight was looooooong and uneventful. It was one of those flights where we weren’t awake enough to watch a film together, but couldn’t really sleep much. I think we managed a couple of hours at one point, and I couldn’t even be bothered to get my Kindle out and read, or do some knitting. Anyway, the time eventually passed and the next morning dawned damp and cold, despite it being June! We collected our luggage, picked up the car, and commenced the drive home.

DAY 23 – Sunday 30 June

Plan : Arrive home

Actual : So the drive home only took just under two hours, including a stop along the way to fuel up with coffee. When we had collected our car, there was a note attached to the keys to say we had had a flat tyre, but obviously it had been blown back up for us as it looked okay.

We got home to half a ton of junk mail, but everything at home was fine. We spent the day trying to stay awake and catch up with recorded TV programmes, whilst climbing over suitcases as we couldn’t be bothered to unpack that day!

FINAL THOUGHTS

This holiday had been much needed, after our failed 2018 trip to Florida, (cut very short due to an unexpected family bereavement), we were desperate for a break, and this was so perfect – lots of sunshine, no rain whatsoever, an adventure to new places, a meet up with old friends and new, and even a bit of Disney, not to mention Elvis! An amazing time was had, this was our first proper road trip in the USA but it will definitely not be our last!

The cross-body bags I had bought us for this trip were perfect, very comfortable with lots of room for essentials in them, and the neoprene water bottle covers were fantastic – even after a full day out, the water in them was still cool enough to be pleasant to drink. I couldn’t believe how good they were, considering I paid less than Ł1 each for them.

About 2 weeks after we returned, I found a charge on my credit card in the sum of Ł35 to Thrifty Car Rentals, so I guess the rental guy had managed to scam me after all, as this was the fuel charge he had glossed over at the time. Another lesson learnt.

So, what’s next? A couple of days at Kennedy Space Centre followed by two weeks at Walt Disney World of course – coming soon!

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed travelling with Tiggerific Travels in 2019!