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Old 10 Nov 18, 07:43 PM  
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Pumba75
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4 go La La in La La Land - Day 14: Living it up at the Hotel California

Tuesday 14th August 2018

I will start with a word of warning - today is pretty light on content, mainly because we didn’t really do much!

We started the day with a couple of things that had been lacking so far this holiday, firstly a lie-in, and secondly an IHOP breakfast. This is one of Melissa’s favourites so is always on the list for a visit. There was one just a few minutes walk from the hotel, so we headed here. Given it was a Tuesday morning, it was surprisingly pretty busy, and we had a little bit of a wait.








Having been seated we then set about deciding what to have, and settled on the following:

E & M - Crepe Combo (Banana and Nutella Pancakes)




Melissa - Blueberry Pancakes (was never going to be anything else!)




Me - Smokehouse Combo




Ok, so you know what you’re getting with IHOP, but this was a bit….well…meh! I mean, there was nothing particularly wrong with it, but it just didn’t seem quite as good as normal. I think that view was partly coloured by the cost - when did IHOP get so expensive?! With tip, this breakfast cost us $100. That said, it was as filling as ever, so set us up for the rest of the day.

We had no other plans for the morning other than to go back to the hotel and spend some time in the pool. The pool area was a bit smaller than it had looked on the photos, but we had it to ourselves, so we were happy.



In the distance we could see the top of the Guardians of the Galaxy ride.

It was very warm again, except in the pool which was absolutely flipping freezing! As I’ve got older, pool time has become less attractive to me, and the temperature of this pool was not helping me - after a couple of minutes I was done, and retired to the hot tub, which was a lot more acceptable. The girls were happy enough and stayed in the pool. After a few minutes the hot tub was getting too hot, (I don’t why Melissa says I’m difficult to please!) so my water time was done, and I settled myself into one of the soft chairs in the gazebo area in the corner - I may or may not have fallen asleep at this point.




Melissa was happily enjoying the rare luxury of time to sit and read. I noted the book was called “Why Mummy Drinks”, and was also surprised she’d not mentioned she’d written an autobiography….. Whilst I was snoozing, the hotel manager came out and brought us complimentary bottles of cold water, which was a nice touch.

It was a really lovely morning, but we had to call time before the girls turned into shrivelled prunes, and headed back to the room to shower and change.

Once that was done, we got in the car to drive the short distance to Orange County Outlets for a spot of shopping - as it turned out, nothing was really grabbing us and other than some small purchases in Papaya, Old Navy and Aeropostale, we didn’t collect too many bags. The exchange rate was definitely impacting on our willingness to spend.




By the time we got back to the hotel, it was getting towards early evening, and we were hungry. We’d decided to go to House of Blues tonight, in the Garden Walk Shopping/Entertainment complex just down the road. In all our visits to Florida, we’d never eaten here before, although Melissa’s Mum and Dad have gone to the Gospel Brunch on the couple of occasions they have been on holiday with us.

We chose our drinks and perused the menu on the iPad on the table.






We then decided to share the Family Style Fried Chicken Dinner - this was really really good, but, if i’m picky, it could have had more mash on it!




Whilst we eating, there was a singer performing live, he was really good. There was a young family sat on a table next to us and as the singer finished one of his songs, their toddler son launched into a rendition of “Happy Birthday” - when he’d finished there was a great interaction between the singer and the child - very cute, and the singer was brilliant with the boy.




After dinner we decided to walk to Downtown Disney - we still had a few presents to buy, so thought we’d spend the evening there. We like to look at the licence plates of cars to see how many plates from different states we can spot - however, we felt that this effort wasn’t really in the spirit of the game!




We wandered through Downtown Disney, making more purchases at World of Disney, Marceline’s Confectionary, Disney Home and Wonderground Gallery, where Melissa spent some of her birthday money. This picture is now up at home.




Purchases included a mix of presents for others and treats for ourselves, including the traditional purchase of a mug that we have absolutely no room for in the kitchen cupboard! The girls also bought some new pins.

As we hadn’t had any dessert at House of Blues, we popped into La Brea Bakery for some cakes.






Shopping done, and dessert eaten, we strolled back to the hotel.




It had been a lovely relaxed day, and was just what we needed, before we headed into the final couple of days of the holiday and some more full-on park fun.


Tomorrow: California Adventure
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Old 11 Nov 18, 09:02 AM  
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A nice lazy day, a shame that IHOP didn't quite live up to expectations. All that chicken at dinner looked tasty.
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Old 11 Nov 18, 04:03 PM  
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Lovely relaxed day. Love the UP! art
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Old 15 Nov 18, 09:09 PM  
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What a lovely slower paced day... definitely needed I bet after all the theme park fun you had been having the days previous!

Absolutely love the Up picture!
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Old 16 Nov 18, 02:31 PM  
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seems like a nice relaxing day. cheers!

How's the weather in LA?
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Old 17 Nov 18, 01:39 PM  
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Lovely relaxing day!

We have that Up picture in postcard form up in our bedroom

Agree re: mash stingyness - that portion looked like it was for one!

Jo xx
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Old 18 Nov 18, 05:38 PM  
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Originally Posted by Goldia View Post
A nice lazy day, a shame that IHOP didn't quite live up to expectations. All that chicken at dinner looked tasty.
I may have been a little harsh on IHOP, its just that it cost a lot, for an IHOP!

Originally Posted by i love jack View Post
Lovely relaxed day. Love the UP! art
It was a great day - I loved my nap on the pool gazebo

Originally Posted by Lisa_Lollipop View Post
What a lovely slower paced day... definitely needed I bet after all the theme park fun you had been having the days previous!

Absolutely love the Up picture!
We were in the art shop for quite some time - there was loads of great pieces in there and we could easily have spent a LOT of money

Originally Posted by jamesdisney View Post
seems like a nice relaxing day. cheers!

How's the weather in LA?
It was really hot by their standards - Humidity similar to Florida at times.

Originally Posted by slow.jo View Post
Lovely relaxing day!

We have that Up picture in postcard form up in our bedroom

Agree re: mash stingyness - that portion looked like it was for one!

Jo xx
Melissa has put ours up in the downstairs loo

Yep, way too little mash, I think me and M might have ended up fighting for it in the end!

Thanks for reading all
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Old 24 Dec 18, 06:41 PM  
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This day is more my pace of day than yesterday! It sounds like the location of the hotel was good with plenty of places to walk to.
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Old 2 Jan 19, 10:58 PM  
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Originally Posted by mrsdjh View Post
This day is more my pace of day than yesterday! It sounds like the location of the hotel was good with plenty of places to walk to.
It was a lovely relaxed day. Just what we needed.

M x
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Old 7 Feb 19, 04:56 PM  
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What a lovely relaxed day you all had x
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