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Old 30 Jul 08, 05:03 PM  
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ali-s
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California without a car. pre trippie

California without a car

Well,9 days to go and nothing left to do but pack ( and I’m saving that for the weekend ) so I thought I’d fill a few minutes by doing a pre trippie.
We are ME, Ali, obsessive planner , list maker and itinerary queen !
DH, doesn’t want to know the itinerary ‘ I like surprises’ still a miserable git and hypochondriac
(see last trippie )
DS12 Has his list of coasters at the ready, almost as obsessive as me with his lists
DS9 only purpose in life is to wind up his brother, otherwise the sensible, reliable one

This trip was booked at quite short notice for me – only 7 months ! I like to be there , credit card at the ready when the fly drive prices are released 18 months before, so I was cutting it a bit fine ! I started thinking about a West Coast trip last August.I’ve always wanted to visit San Francisco and Monterey, the latter has featured in a lot of books I’ve read so I want to see if the reality fits the image I have. Most places I want to go because I’ve seen a picture or read a paragraph in a book and the idea to go there just takes seed.San Diego got added because I read a dibbers’ trip report and thought ‘ wow, got to go there’ , Anaheim was added cos we’ve got to get a few coasters in and the themeparks were going to be a reward for the boys putting up with all our touristy sightseeing in the cities– but they are actually looking forward to a lot of our activities.

We weren’t sure we could afford it, we don’t have a huge income and our trips so far have been down to luck and hard saving. A mis sold endowment payout funded our first trip, we saved for our 2nd, but DH was made redundant before we went, so half had to go on the credit card, which we were still paying off.We were waiting on an inheritance due to DH– the amount of which was altering almost as fast as the flight prices I was watching, but we decided we would use some of it to pay for flights and save for the accommodation and spends.
By January I had a 3 week itinerary worked out, starting in Las Vegas, then San Francisco, Yosemite, Hollywood, san Diego then Anaheim. The flight prices had increased from £460 to over £680 and I was seriously wondering whether it would be worth it. I promised myself I’d book the flights the day the inheritance cheque arrived.That day arrived on Jan 3rd, I phoned DH at work and gave him the dates he needed to book off, he phoned back an hour later with the plan scuppering news that company policy meant no more than 2 weeks off at a time . There followed several hours of manic replanning- I’d spent 6 months working on my itinerary, now had but hours to do a new one, Las Vegas was scrapped ( DH and I had been there years before ) likewise universal, Yosemite couldn’t be squeezed in , and it was a long drive from san Francisco, so that had to go, we’d done Sea World in Orlando, so scrapped that as well. I changed the flights from mid week to the weekend ( adding on a few hundred in surcharges )and moved the whole holiday a couple of weeks to take in bank holiday Monday – every day counts ! Finally finished, I rang DH and gave him the new holiday dates, which were approved on the spot. I got straight onto the virgin website and booked, but I wasn’t excited like I had been when booking Orlando, I’d made so many changes, it no longer felt like the holiday I’d been planning. Four days later, DH arrived home from work unexpectedly in the middle of the afternoon, his company had decided they needed to make cutbacks, he was last in, so first out- to say I was furious was an understatement. They must have known they were going to make him redundant when they turned down his holiday leave, I’d shortened our holiday and paid £320 extra needlessly,history seemed to be repeating itself and I was beginning to wish I’d never booked.

Once he’d got over the shock of the redundancy, DH picked himself up and decided to have a go at working for himself- it would be tough, but he had his inheritance and at least he couldn’t be made redundant again! We decided to go ahead with the holiday, the flights had already been paid for, but now we couldn’t save for the rest- the inheritance was tapped again, at least we haven’t had to use the credit card again.
It took a couple of months and a lot of visits to trip advisor before I started to feel enthusiastic enough to book our hotels and excursions. We don’t drive in the States- to me it’s not a holiday if I have to drive ( and it certainly wouldn’t be a holiday if I let DH drive ! )so the first hurdle was working out how to get from A-B in a country obsessed with cars and without the help of a friendly forum like dibb, there was some useful advice on tripadvisor, but some of those posters are like vultures- waiting to swoop and take a bite out of unsuspecting ‘stupid question askers’, so I just trawled the net until I found what I was looking for.I always book accommodation with breakfast included, saves time in the mornings as well as money.All the hotels I’ve booked are within walking distance of the tourist attractions. We have so little time in each place I’ve prebooked as many excursions and tours as I can. I’ve found that transport , by train, shuttle bus or plane, is often available, it just takes a lot of looking for.

So,lists have been made,guide books bought,two notebooks filled, new suitcase bought,dogs booked into kennels, cats booked into cattery ( that will be interesting- I don’t see them for days on end )neighbour sorted to feed chickens. We have a taxi booked for Friday8th to the new Travelodge at terminal 5 ,We fly with Virgin to San Francisco on the 9th, on the 12th , we take a bus to Monterey, 15th, fly to San Diego, 18th , Amtrak to Anaheim, we fly home on the 24th, I’m already dreading the return home and the ‘holiday blues’ and we haven’t even gone yet !
All that’s left to do is dibb and pack – it’s gonna be a slow week !
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Old 30 Jul 08, 05:48 PM  
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Sarah84
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Sounds like a great trip you have planned (I'm planning something very simular for next year), really looking forward to reading more about it once you return.
Hope the next 9 days dont go too slow for you.
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Old 30 Jul 08, 05:58 PM  
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kmt
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sounds good. looking forward to reading about your trip as we're planning something similar next year. will love to see pics of the places you are staying and the sights you fit in.
have fun
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Old 30 Jul 08, 06:42 PM  
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Sounds fantastic, we did something similar recently although we didn't visit Monterey.
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Old 31 Jul 08, 04:46 PM  
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It sounds great! Om going to SF in September so id love to hear how yor trip goes. Ive got to agree with you about the vultures on TA!
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