TheFreshEffect
09-26-2008, 05:09 PM
Unless you've been living under a rock or just don't plain care your beloved scoundrel, TheFreshEffect has been causing trouble over in the lovely state of California! If you've read this far then you're gonna have to read the rest of it or you're not getting invited into Rhys' house party and trust me you don't want to miss it, there's gonna be girls, boys, ladyboys and lots of juice!
Ahem..
Flying out on 9/11 was not nearly as bad as most would think, security was normal and due to our 'British Airways' fame we got upgraded from economy to a nicer section where I enjoyed watching 'The Orphanage' in luxury.
Anyways back to Cali, landing down at lunch we didn't do much that day except hit the local IHOP, got an early night for the next day we hit 'Disney' with the force of a thousand dead.
------------------------
Disney's California Adventure and Disneyland
Arriving on time I was shocked to see how busy it all was! Getting the park hopper tickets we made our way to DCA where we did everything we wanted to do, Screamin', Muppets, you catch my drift. One thing I didn't remember from last time was the 'wetness' of the rapids which caught us all by surprise, damn thing ruined my fringe! Oh, on TOT I supposedly had a dodgy seatbelt so we had to wait for the next lift which was fine as there were some loud mouth girls on the one we should've been on.
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/3921/63881483bn1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Leaving DCA and making our way to Disneyland we made a b-line for Indy but catching a quick ride on 'Jungle Cruise'. Back to Indy, if you haven't ridden it you ride in jeeps and while I didn't have the drivers seat this 'over enthusiastic' matey did and boy was he fun!! In all the turns and twists he over dramatized turning the wheel and what not and by the end of the ride he turned round and took a head count. Needless to say he had me in tears, wiping them away we hit the rest of the park including the dream parade.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/7862/19909851gs1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Once again with the tears, my sister hates 'Star Tours' while I adore it, after displaying her hate for the ride and the robot we got on.
"You'd think after 15 years the bloody robot would know the bloody way"
As soon as the little bugger of a robot appeared I bursted into tears and laughter, did this for about half of the ride too. Overall queue times weren't that bad, the longest wait was for the new Toy Story ride but when driving away I'll admit it. I was a little upset, I had such a nice time that for the rest of the holiday I kept pleaing to go back, the magic lives on, or I'm just childish, you decide.
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/5761/45812546wv6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
------------------------
Malibu
Our father has an old school friend who lives about an hours drive north of LA so on the Saturday we drove up to see him and his son. They showed us round and through some of the mountains leading into Malibu, he also showed us how good a meal you can get at 'Sharky's', my nanco like pizza was damn sexy <3
Malibu on the other hand was nothing special, it just looked like any coastal town with no celebrities in sight!
------------------------
Six Flags Magic Mountain
Ah ha, what I was really looking forward to!! We hit this badboy on the Sunday and I had visions of it being buzzing (busy), but it did put a smile on my face seeing 'X2' and 'Tatsu' taking a test run. Pulling up 10 minutes before the park opened I was glad to see the park wasn't nearly as full as I expected it to be. Of course everyone, including ourselves after seeing it run made a fast paced walk to 'X2'.
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/4028/s73f1955ft1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
I've never come off a ride with such a shocked yet exhilarated feeling, I loved every second of that red sexy beast, a must for anyone. Such an odd feeling, from boarding to falling to the ground face first, too bad we only did it once. With a strong day planned in mind I encouraged us to head to the back of the park. Good thing we did too as all of the rides (except De-Ja-Vu) were walk-ons, managing to do the big ones numerous times which included; 'Riddler', 'Batman', 'Goliath', 'Colossus' and 'Scream' we settled down to have some lunch.
Pift my 'Johnny Rocket's' wasn't nearly as nice as the one I had back in CP, same goes for the toilets and staff. Most of the attendants were younger than I and insisted on talking to their off-duty friends while we had to wait. Moving on swiftly we did 'Tatsu', 'Ninja' them rapids and 'Superman' before catching the 'Batman Begins' stunt show which was pretty meh.
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/9946/s73f2006zj5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
To wrap up the day we did 'Viper' numerous times as well as 'Tatsu' and hopped in line to make 'X2' our last ride of the day. Sadly it was not meant to be as it broke down so we did 'Viper' one more time. To add insult to injury as we were driving away we witnessed 'X2' running, with guests, grr! On a whole it was fun, the weather and the lack of queues made it better than we assumed it would normally be on a typical sunny Summers day.
------------------------
Manhattan Beach
Our hotel was near Manhattan beach so on the quiet Monday we drove down to check it out before doing some shopping. On the pier we found a squashed squid, those fisherman bastards, but it didn't ruin the view of the girls beach volleyball team.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/6316/s73f2027il2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
That night we had a 'Red Robins' and after getting addicted to their seasoning we went to see that 'Righteous Kill' film, to be honest I'd give it a miss.
------------------------
Universal Studios
Not really much to say here as it's your typical Studios park and you all know what to expect, we did everything we wanted to do, mainly the tram tour, the Mummy ride (which is ace!) and finally 'The Simpsons'. A massive shout out to 'Jurassic Park' too, love that ride. The highlight of the day was the crashed plane scene out of 'The War of the Worlds', it did look pretty realistic., you be the judge:
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/4793/s73f2105pa9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/6114/s73f2107eg2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
In the Citywalk they had this iflyhollywood which basically recreates skydiving but in a giant glass funnel, fun to watch but we didn't do it sadly. At the end of the day we ended up missing the pet show and 'Waterworld' but we had seen both before, what really worked me up was that they didn't sell this 'JAWS' shirt I saw inside the park out of it!
------------------------
Griffiths Park
For another quiet day we hit Griffiths Park in which we walked round the Cowboy museum, mainly because my dad wanted us to. It was pretty informative and went into some detail about the discrimination and violence that the goldrush bestowed upon a few unlucky indiviuals. The best bit was that my sister and I dressed up as cowboys and cowgirls and posed on a shiny plastic horse (not gay, trust me)
To finish the day we drove to Venice beach and took a long walk up and down the boulevard and came across many interesting people. One of which was covered in pieces of gold topped off with golden wings, he fitted in well with the fake disabled homeless people who used wheelchairs to PUMP their EXTREME needs. Between tackiness and nastiness we found 159s dog house.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/7830/s73f2177zr3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
------------------------
Knotts Berry Farm
Our last park to visit and I'm glad we saved it. Not only did we do every single ride there but we also had the most enjoyable day here, why, well the park was near deserted. What can I say, look up the park map and list every thrill ride and coaster, they're the ones we rode.
http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/6991/s73f2236nt0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
'Xcelerator' had no queues all day so we just stayed in the train for numerous re-rides, same goes for 'Silver Bullet' and 'Ghostrider' which I'd advise not to ride in the back. Between all the riding we managed to catch three shows and yet we went at a leisurely pace taking in all the Halloween bits and pops and mazes, if only we were there a little longer.
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/7429/s73f2213sm8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
------------------------
The Getty Center plus 'Dodgers vs The Giants'
What a lovely sunny Friday it was, but what a shame that it was our last full day in LA. To finish the week off we finally went to the 'Getty Center' after driving past it several times. It sits upon the mountains and is a modern museum of art and crafts from over the years all in one giant collection with the money from a rich Sir called 'Getty'. Consisting of fancy French furniture to pre-Gold rush photos of California, it was a photographers dream, not mentioning the views you bestowed upon.
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/663/s73f2313yw8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Classy place.
Meeting up with my dad's friend again we went to the 'LA Dodgers' match against up the road rivals, 'San Francisco Giants' and even though the Dodgers lost it was fun to relive the baseball atmosphere we had two years before. The following night the Dodgers got their revenge in a most satisfying way.
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/9545/s73f2388hh1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
------------------------
San Francisco
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/4281/s73f2402ii4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
By luck my sisters boyfriend who is the tour manager for the upcoming Scottish singer 'Amy MacDonald' were having a show up in San Francisco so we got a flight up North for the weekend, such a shame we couldn't stay longer, or in downtown. We ended up staying in a hotel near the airport which meant we had to get the bus shuttle to the airport then the BART out of it to get into downtown. The whole process clocked in at about 2 hours, damn computer convention nerds taking all the rooms!
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/3752/s73f2420dm3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Such a lovely city it is, in the short period we had there we got a boat tour around the Golden Gate bridge and Alcatra, followed by a bus tour around town finishing with a scenic, but long walk through the wharf and what not passing a venue which one of my favourite bands were playing at to get to this Amy MacDonald gig. It was ok though as Amy is quite attractive and their live show was pretty good, much better than I assumed.
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/1488/s73f2494lb1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/6420/s73f2508nc5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Following day we flew back down to LA then from LAX flew back home, our flight back was terrible compared to the one coming over but as a result our dad agreed that we'll never fly economy again.
------------------------
What have I learnt from this holiday well:
I want to move to San Francisco
I'm a size 00
People are so fat they use wheelchairs
X2 is a sexy red beast
Southwestern Airlines are rubbish
Girls called 'Porscha' are idiots
Now everyone head to Rhy's house for A GIANT HOUSE PARTY, while the straighteners are heating up POST IN THIS VERY THREAD so I can post MORE BEAUTIFUL PHOTOS.
Much love
TFE
x
Ahem..
Flying out on 9/11 was not nearly as bad as most would think, security was normal and due to our 'British Airways' fame we got upgraded from economy to a nicer section where I enjoyed watching 'The Orphanage' in luxury.
Anyways back to Cali, landing down at lunch we didn't do much that day except hit the local IHOP, got an early night for the next day we hit 'Disney' with the force of a thousand dead.
------------------------
Disney's California Adventure and Disneyland
Arriving on time I was shocked to see how busy it all was! Getting the park hopper tickets we made our way to DCA where we did everything we wanted to do, Screamin', Muppets, you catch my drift. One thing I didn't remember from last time was the 'wetness' of the rapids which caught us all by surprise, damn thing ruined my fringe! Oh, on TOT I supposedly had a dodgy seatbelt so we had to wait for the next lift which was fine as there were some loud mouth girls on the one we should've been on.
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/3921/63881483bn1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Leaving DCA and making our way to Disneyland we made a b-line for Indy but catching a quick ride on 'Jungle Cruise'. Back to Indy, if you haven't ridden it you ride in jeeps and while I didn't have the drivers seat this 'over enthusiastic' matey did and boy was he fun!! In all the turns and twists he over dramatized turning the wheel and what not and by the end of the ride he turned round and took a head count. Needless to say he had me in tears, wiping them away we hit the rest of the park including the dream parade.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/7862/19909851gs1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Once again with the tears, my sister hates 'Star Tours' while I adore it, after displaying her hate for the ride and the robot we got on.
"You'd think after 15 years the bloody robot would know the bloody way"
As soon as the little bugger of a robot appeared I bursted into tears and laughter, did this for about half of the ride too. Overall queue times weren't that bad, the longest wait was for the new Toy Story ride but when driving away I'll admit it. I was a little upset, I had such a nice time that for the rest of the holiday I kept pleaing to go back, the magic lives on, or I'm just childish, you decide.
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/5761/45812546wv6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
------------------------
Malibu
Our father has an old school friend who lives about an hours drive north of LA so on the Saturday we drove up to see him and his son. They showed us round and through some of the mountains leading into Malibu, he also showed us how good a meal you can get at 'Sharky's', my nanco like pizza was damn sexy <3
Malibu on the other hand was nothing special, it just looked like any coastal town with no celebrities in sight!
------------------------
Six Flags Magic Mountain
Ah ha, what I was really looking forward to!! We hit this badboy on the Sunday and I had visions of it being buzzing (busy), but it did put a smile on my face seeing 'X2' and 'Tatsu' taking a test run. Pulling up 10 minutes before the park opened I was glad to see the park wasn't nearly as full as I expected it to be. Of course everyone, including ourselves after seeing it run made a fast paced walk to 'X2'.
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/4028/s73f1955ft1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
I've never come off a ride with such a shocked yet exhilarated feeling, I loved every second of that red sexy beast, a must for anyone. Such an odd feeling, from boarding to falling to the ground face first, too bad we only did it once. With a strong day planned in mind I encouraged us to head to the back of the park. Good thing we did too as all of the rides (except De-Ja-Vu) were walk-ons, managing to do the big ones numerous times which included; 'Riddler', 'Batman', 'Goliath', 'Colossus' and 'Scream' we settled down to have some lunch.
Pift my 'Johnny Rocket's' wasn't nearly as nice as the one I had back in CP, same goes for the toilets and staff. Most of the attendants were younger than I and insisted on talking to their off-duty friends while we had to wait. Moving on swiftly we did 'Tatsu', 'Ninja' them rapids and 'Superman' before catching the 'Batman Begins' stunt show which was pretty meh.
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/9946/s73f2006zj5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
To wrap up the day we did 'Viper' numerous times as well as 'Tatsu' and hopped in line to make 'X2' our last ride of the day. Sadly it was not meant to be as it broke down so we did 'Viper' one more time. To add insult to injury as we were driving away we witnessed 'X2' running, with guests, grr! On a whole it was fun, the weather and the lack of queues made it better than we assumed it would normally be on a typical sunny Summers day.
------------------------
Manhattan Beach
Our hotel was near Manhattan beach so on the quiet Monday we drove down to check it out before doing some shopping. On the pier we found a squashed squid, those fisherman bastards, but it didn't ruin the view of the girls beach volleyball team.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/6316/s73f2027il2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
That night we had a 'Red Robins' and after getting addicted to their seasoning we went to see that 'Righteous Kill' film, to be honest I'd give it a miss.
------------------------
Universal Studios
Not really much to say here as it's your typical Studios park and you all know what to expect, we did everything we wanted to do, mainly the tram tour, the Mummy ride (which is ace!) and finally 'The Simpsons'. A massive shout out to 'Jurassic Park' too, love that ride. The highlight of the day was the crashed plane scene out of 'The War of the Worlds', it did look pretty realistic., you be the judge:
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/4793/s73f2105pa9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/6114/s73f2107eg2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
In the Citywalk they had this iflyhollywood which basically recreates skydiving but in a giant glass funnel, fun to watch but we didn't do it sadly. At the end of the day we ended up missing the pet show and 'Waterworld' but we had seen both before, what really worked me up was that they didn't sell this 'JAWS' shirt I saw inside the park out of it!
------------------------
Griffiths Park
For another quiet day we hit Griffiths Park in which we walked round the Cowboy museum, mainly because my dad wanted us to. It was pretty informative and went into some detail about the discrimination and violence that the goldrush bestowed upon a few unlucky indiviuals. The best bit was that my sister and I dressed up as cowboys and cowgirls and posed on a shiny plastic horse (not gay, trust me)
To finish the day we drove to Venice beach and took a long walk up and down the boulevard and came across many interesting people. One of which was covered in pieces of gold topped off with golden wings, he fitted in well with the fake disabled homeless people who used wheelchairs to PUMP their EXTREME needs. Between tackiness and nastiness we found 159s dog house.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/7830/s73f2177zr3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
------------------------
Knotts Berry Farm
Our last park to visit and I'm glad we saved it. Not only did we do every single ride there but we also had the most enjoyable day here, why, well the park was near deserted. What can I say, look up the park map and list every thrill ride and coaster, they're the ones we rode.
http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/6991/s73f2236nt0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
'Xcelerator' had no queues all day so we just stayed in the train for numerous re-rides, same goes for 'Silver Bullet' and 'Ghostrider' which I'd advise not to ride in the back. Between all the riding we managed to catch three shows and yet we went at a leisurely pace taking in all the Halloween bits and pops and mazes, if only we were there a little longer.
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/7429/s73f2213sm8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
------------------------
The Getty Center plus 'Dodgers vs The Giants'
What a lovely sunny Friday it was, but what a shame that it was our last full day in LA. To finish the week off we finally went to the 'Getty Center' after driving past it several times. It sits upon the mountains and is a modern museum of art and crafts from over the years all in one giant collection with the money from a rich Sir called 'Getty'. Consisting of fancy French furniture to pre-Gold rush photos of California, it was a photographers dream, not mentioning the views you bestowed upon.
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/663/s73f2313yw8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Classy place.
Meeting up with my dad's friend again we went to the 'LA Dodgers' match against up the road rivals, 'San Francisco Giants' and even though the Dodgers lost it was fun to relive the baseball atmosphere we had two years before. The following night the Dodgers got their revenge in a most satisfying way.
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/9545/s73f2388hh1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
------------------------
San Francisco
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/4281/s73f2402ii4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
By luck my sisters boyfriend who is the tour manager for the upcoming Scottish singer 'Amy MacDonald' were having a show up in San Francisco so we got a flight up North for the weekend, such a shame we couldn't stay longer, or in downtown. We ended up staying in a hotel near the airport which meant we had to get the bus shuttle to the airport then the BART out of it to get into downtown. The whole process clocked in at about 2 hours, damn computer convention nerds taking all the rooms!
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/3752/s73f2420dm3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Such a lovely city it is, in the short period we had there we got a boat tour around the Golden Gate bridge and Alcatra, followed by a bus tour around town finishing with a scenic, but long walk through the wharf and what not passing a venue which one of my favourite bands were playing at to get to this Amy MacDonald gig. It was ok though as Amy is quite attractive and their live show was pretty good, much better than I assumed.
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/1488/s73f2494lb1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/6420/s73f2508nc5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Following day we flew back down to LA then from LAX flew back home, our flight back was terrible compared to the one coming over but as a result our dad agreed that we'll never fly economy again.
------------------------
What have I learnt from this holiday well:
I want to move to San Francisco
I'm a size 00
People are so fat they use wheelchairs
X2 is a sexy red beast
Southwestern Airlines are rubbish
Girls called 'Porscha' are idiots
Now everyone head to Rhy's house for A GIANT HOUSE PARTY, while the straighteners are heating up POST IN THIS VERY THREAD so I can post MORE BEAUTIFUL PHOTOS.
Much love
TFE
x