The Fabulous-at-Forty West Coast Trip 2019

[Twiga6]

As I look at my countdown (19 days) I thought I might write a little pre-trippie to get everything straight in my head
So, Welcome's to this Pre-trip!
I'm Kate, and I turn 40 in 9 days 😱

I've done most of the planning for this, as DH is a bit more, laid back, shall we say

This is DH or Chris, he's not technically celebrating anything but we couldn't leave him at home

And this is DS, or Antony. No H He's 11 and is just about to leave primary school and head up to high school! He was nearly 5 last time we went to America, lets say his tastes have got even more expensive!

So our trip starts on July 28th with a nice 2pm flight to San Francisco (We land at 5pm US time, which has puzzled DS nicely!)
We're getting a taxi probably to Hotel Whitcomb, our base for 3 nights.
I've read good and bad things about this hotel, mainly due to the location and the amount of homelessness in the area, but as DH says, its just a bed for 3 nights.
While in San Francisco we're going to Alcatraz, we also have HOHO bus tickets.
We then go back to the airport and pick up our hire car (The hotel charges $51 per night for parking! ) and head to Monterey, where we're staying at the Embassy Suites By Hilton for one night.
I used my Avios points to pay for our tickets to the Aquarium, which DS can't wait to visit, he loved the Blue Planet Live that was filmed there a couple of years ago.
We're not doing whale watching here, we haven't got enough time tbh.
Next we head to Sequoia National Park for 2 nights, staying at Wuksachi Lodge.
We're going to do some star gazing on the second night, the park guides at the hotel organise it, can't wait for this.
Then we head to Anaheim for 7 nights, staying at Holiday Inn Beuna Park.
We've got a Whale watching trip booked at Newport Beach, again thanks Avios!
We're so undecided with Disney as the tickets are hugely expensive, I really want to go to Cars Land though...
We're also going to Burbank to visit West Coast Customs, this is one of DS's favourite programmes, and if he met Ryan I think he might explode!
I want to go and see the Stars on the Walk of Fame, and also go to the Viper Room to take photos for my sister (She loved River Phoenix)
We'll also be visiting the Observatory, heading for the Hollywood Sign, visiting Venice Beach, and probably plenty of other places we haven't decided on yet!
I cannot wait for this holiday, its been a long time coming