The Watson's went West, highs and lows

The Watsons went west

Well we are home booooo! We had a great trip. Some places I loved and can't wait to go back to, some not so much. Disneyland. Hmm. I guess as a die hard WDW fan it had a lot to live up to. Anyway, here's a run down of our highs and lows though technically I wouldn't call them lows exactly, more like little niggles or observations.

Starting with....

San Francisco
I loved it. I REALLY loved it. I have to go back there.
Walt Disney museum was amazing! We spent 2&1/2 hours in there. (Though I think jane was a bit bored lol)
We drove the 49 mile drive which was really cool, we saw things we probably wouldn't have otherwise.
Japanese tea garden - so pretty!
Sausalito, wow! I want to live there!! I really felt at home there.
Alcatraz tour was surprisingly interesting. I was kinda just doing it for Sy but I really enjoyed it.
Martuni's gay piano bar, we had such a blast that evening with me even getting up to sing! Even a chest infection couldn't stop me (though I think it probably should have done when I listened to Jane's recording haha).
Some great food, ike's for sandwiches (menage et trois on Dutch crunch please)
B patisserie, omg the croissant things (kouign amann), we had to get another each to take away!
The condo was beautiful and bigger than my house! It was right by the coast too so we went past the beautiful beach a few times.
Sadly though the fire alarm went off at 2:30am due to low battery (Same that happened to us in AKL last year, what are the chances?!). Luckily the owner lived downstairs but she was out on the town at first so it was going off a while before she came back and changed the battery.
I was shocked to see just how much homelessness there was in SF though I guess it's like any major city. Some areas I really didn't feel safe in at night. Martuni's was in a not so great area, it was okay in one direction but the other direction there were cars with smashed windows :-/

Vegas
I dunno, I was just expecting well, more. We aren't big drinkers or gamblers so we didn't partake in that part which I guess is some of the appeal.
The trump hotel however was AMAZING and I actually loved that it was ever so slightly set back from the strip and had no casino.
Flight to Vegas with Virgin America, can see why the airline is so highly rated, really nice flight.
The hotels were great to look around but full of unaffordable shops.
Zumanity cirque du soleil, amazing! And very naughty too Sy enjoyed the boobies haha
Cakes from Jean Phillippe patisserie inside the bellagio.
Drinks up at MiX in the Mandalay Bay. The view was amazing however the bar tender really took the shine off when he came back to remind us that we needed to tip him, he had just handed over the check and was about to walk away when he turned around to tell us that we needed to tip him. I know British people get a bad name for being bad tippers (we don't really tip here in the UK for anything so people either don't know or do know but are cheap) but he just assumed we didn't know and needed reminding.
Bellagio fountains were of course wonderful.
The dolphin exhibit at the mirage. Beautiful creatures! We also got to meet Siegfried while we were there as he was out walking around the animals and chatting to guests, he was a lovely guy.
I feel like I've kinda done Vegas now. I'd go back if going away with others who wanted to go there but otherwise I'm in no great rush.

Los Angeles
I didn't love it. Specifically the walk of fame/Chinese theatre area. I knew it would be a tourist trap but I didn't really realise how much. It got to the stage where I had to be almost rude to the people trying to shove their CD's in my hand and then want money from me. We took to saying it was our last day and we had spent all our cash lol
The Weather. Whoever said it never rains and was always warm in Southern California, lied! I took warmer clothing for San Francisco but I ended up having to wear it in LA too. We spent the day in Disney in the pouring rain, Jane's only Disney day! (She was leaving the next day too so we couldn't change the day). I wasn't expecting to be cold for most of the trip.
I wasn't keen on Venice beach, we were told it was somewhere we had to go see... I just felt like I needed a good wash once we left haha
Instead we headed up the road to Santa Monica, much more up my street I also loved Malibu too.
Universal studios, way better than universal Orlando! We rode the backlot tour twice in the hope we might see town square for Sy (where they filmed back to the future) but it was out of the tour due to filming. We watched Mario Lopez filming some sort of gossip show, he was really sweet chatting to the crowd in between takes.
LA traffic, yes it's bad. We knew that going into it, if anything we expected worse. It was annoying though.

Palm Springs
I loved it! Almost as much as SF! I loved the laid back approach, the tram up the mountain (yeah I got a bit ill at the top, such a wuss!!) wow it was so beautiful up there.
The HEAT! Finally we were somewhere HOT!
Food, omg the food! Thai smile and birba for dinner and cheekys for breakfast. The sandwich shop for sandwiches (twice it was that good) Dinah without avocado for me
Hotel was lovely but the air con was so loud it sounded like a hair dryer being used in the room, I'm not even exaggerating! I can sleep through a lot (well I gotta be able to sleep through the planes taking off in my bedroom AKA Sy snoring) but this was actually keeping me awake. That was the only down side. Staff there were so sweet and nice, it was a shame cause I probably wouldn't go back there unless they sorted out the air con situation.
We drove around looking at the pretty houses, Sy studied architecture so he loves looking at different styles and we both particularly love modern housing. We found Elvis's honeymoon house of course, Liberace's old house, the Kaufmann house.

Disney
As I said, I think Disney had a lot to live up to, but we just didn't feel the same magic. It almost reminded me a bit of Disneyland Paris. We talked at length over why we thought that could be and decided that it was nothing that Disney could do, WDW has people coming from all over the world to work there, DL all (apart from 1) name tags said the CM were from CA. There were a lot of teen groups and lots of locals in the parks. WDW is more of a resort so that just gives it a different feel. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it and I'd go back but it just didn't have the magic WDW has for me.
Grand California. I just wasn't wowed. It didn't feel overly Disney. Nice enough hotel, it just didn't wow me.
We had a not so great CM experience in California Adventure. We went to get a DAS for me and the guy just said no, they offer nothing to help me, it's only for children with cognitive behaviour problems. Point blank. Nothing they could do. Ending with me fighting back the tears as we left. We went over to DL (where they have a wheelchair pass which works in the same way) and later in the day went into guest services there to ask them about the DAS for CA and was given one no bother at all. I know people take advantage and lie which makes it hard for the CM's but the guy in the morning could clearly see me getting distressed, and I had the WDW DAS card with my picture on so he could see I wasn't just trying it on. It didn't get our stay off to the best start.
The new washing machines in GC leaving stains all over 1 load of washing. Disney did their best and sent the washing out to be dry cleaned (well Sy's shirts, I wasn't bothered by my pjs or underwear) but they didn't come out. Disney then credited our account with $200 to cover them as they were 4 Ralph Lauren polo shirts which more than made up for it. They bent over backwards to get it sorted so absolutely couldn't fault Disney, just a shame it happened and had to spend a good 2 hours trying to get it sorted.
World of colour. O.M.G. Wow! We were lucky to catch the old version and then the new 60th anniversary version with Neil Patrick Harris. Wow. To both! Though I have to admin I liked the new one the best
The parades in both of the parks, though I did like the countdown to fun one just a smigde more 5,4,3,2,1!
The 60th fireworks in DL, of course they could never match up to wishes however we watched them over the fantastic viewing area where they projected onto the water and set off low fireworks over the water right there, really clever way to get people off Main Street.
Mickeys magical map show, amazing! I loved it. Aladdin was very good too.
The new night time parade paint the night. OMG!! Wow! Nothing can describe it. Wow. Please please bring something similar to WDW, retire that sad old msep.
Being there for the 24hr event, we made it to 3am, by the time we got into bed it was 21 hours after we got up. I'll take that. The park was at stage 4 from about lunchtime however it didn't even feel as busy as a moderately busy day in WDW! Ride wait times were still only 30-60 mins. 35 mins on big thunder for most of the day.
Thunder ranch BBQ, it was very like hoop de doo food but without the fried chicken (it was grilled) or the mash. It was okay and a great place to sit down but I probably wouldn't do it again as all I ate were 2 mini corn on the Cobbs and 2 bits of chicken breast.
Radiator springs, it's every bit as good as people say, ride it at night
Naples in DTD, owned by the same people as via Napoli, pizza was gooooooood!
Trader Sam's, really fun! Though there was no playing with the drinks, they are set up in a mix already so you can't ask for it weak or without a certain spirit so I had to go for a non alcoholic one.
Meeting Oswold! He was so fun and playful.
I had read that the food in DL was so much better than WDW, mainly cause there's no DDP there, I didn't find the food any better, possibly worse - but then I knew the best places to eat in WDW now I've eaten in my fair share of rubbish food in WDW too.

A few other observations of the trip.
We had a great time with Jane and were really sad when it came time for her to leave, though as she said, it was nice for us to spend some time the 2 of us as well, best of both worlds
We spent the 60th with our friend Steve who was on a solo trip of the west coast, we met up with him in Orlando on our honeymoon when he was on a solo trip then too. It was really nice to spend the day with him (we had met for a couple of hours a few days before too), he's such a sweetie.
We really noticed how much more expensive stuff was on the west coast compared to Florida. We didn't really shop at all and still went wayyy over budget :-/
Booking next year's cruise at 4am California time! October 17th here we come!
We flew home delta airline on a codeshare with Virgin. We both found the seats really uncomfortable, we had numb bums within half an hour of take off. Sy managed to sleep almost all of the way back but I only managed a few hours of broken sleep, which meant me going to bed at 10:30pm UK time and waking up and forcing myself to get up at 1pm UK time! I was awake for an hour or so at about 4/5am. I guess I must have needed it lol
Tink didn't seem too bothered when we got to my mums house where she was staying, and she was REALLY unimpressed at the car journey but as soon as she walked into her own house she purred her head off and hasn't left me alone since, sleeping under the covers with me all night.

Final thoughts.

Well I've always wanted to go to the West coast, it's been on the bucket list for years, would I go back? Hell yeah! I'll know which parts to go back to and where not to bother. Next on the bucket list is either Hawaii (which we will twin with some more west coast exploring) or a tour of New England. I've wanted to go to Hawaii since I was 6 years old when we did a school project on it, so I have a feeling that it could have the edge... But for now we have WDW this year to see the Christmas decorations and next year for the big meet up with the cruise too. So I think 2017 will see us visiting somewhere new.