California Dreamin' - I'm back & TR started - UPDATED 14TH OCT

:banana: :banana: 28 Days to go wooohooo :banana: :banana:

I can't believe in 4 weeks today we'll be on our way to the hotel at Heathrow and it will be the night before our flight to LA :) It feels like so long ago that i first started planning this trip, well it was about a year ago and now it seems it's coming around pretty quickly. We have nothing left really to do now apart from wait for the days to tick by.
Infact i've just today booked the last two things that needed doing, and last friday finally got around to purchasing my insurance which i can't believe only cost me £86 for an annual policy espcially as that covers all my pre exsisting medical conditions, so that's great.

Well this evening I booked the Holiday Inn Heathrow with parking from Holiday Extras for £118 not bad i guess as we needed parking for almost 3 weeks. I know we live in London so might seem a bit pointless staying at the airport the night before but parking alone cost more which is strange, and a taxi from ours to the airport and back home again would probably cost around £100 plus I like to know that I don't have to travel to the aiport the morning of the flight and risk getting stuck in traffic or anything else and it means the holidays starts a day early :D


Holiday Inn at Heathrow
(which is about 1.4miles from the airport)

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I also booked our final hotel for the trip, so now I can relax knowing we have somewhere to stay in San Diego.
I was watching Hotwire rates for 4* hotels in the Gaslamp/Downtown area for the last couple of weeks and they have stayed at around $119 per night and I was planning on leaving it a bit longer to see if they would drop anymore but I thought I'd pop onto Priceline and just decided to be brave and bid a price (i wanted to use Hotwire instead of Priceline as you can usually figure out your hotel with the amenities) and ended up bidding $75 per night for a 4* downtown/Gaslamp area which was rejected but i entered another zone which i had researched that didn't have any 4* hotels so I didn't have to wait the 24 hours before rebidding put in $80 per night and it was accepted and I got the Manchester Grand Hyatt http://manchestergrand.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/ . Pretty pleased the rooms don't seem as modern as somewhere like the Omni hotel which i was hoping to get but it seems in a good location, nice views, nice pool and good reviews and I just checked the rates on their website and for my dates it was $259 per night so I got a bargin!


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You're going to be there so soon! You must be so excited. :yay: The Hyatt looks REALLY nice. You really lucked out! :thumbsup2
 
You're going to be there so soon! You must be so excited. :yay: The Hyatt looks REALLY nice. You really lucked out! :thumbsup2

I am getting so excited now, I can't believe i'm going to California & Vegas for the first time in a month, and i can't believe it has come around so quickly now.
I can't stop thinking about what we'll be doing, seeing the places i've seen on tv shows & films and actually being there for real :) and i'm just so happy to be going back to the USA :woohoo:

You must be starting to get excited to be going back to Disneyworld now and your trip to Universal
 
I am getting so excited now, I can't believe i'm going to California & Vegas for the first time in a month, and i can't believe it has come around so quickly now.
I can't stop thinking about what we'll be doing, seeing the places i've seen on tv shows & films and actually being there for real :) and i'm just so happy to be going back to the USA :woohoo:

You must be starting to get excited to be going back to Disneyworld now and your trip to Universal

Where are you staying in Las Vegas? I think you may have told me but I forgot!

Yes! I have 48 days to go til Disney. Universal I'm excited about but my DBf won't be with me so that's a little bit of a bummer.
 

Where are you staying in Las Vegas? I think you may have told me but I forgot!

Yes! I have 48 days to go til Disney. Universal I'm excited about but my DBf won't be with me so that's a little bit of a bummer.

We are staying at the Mirage in Vegas :)
 
We are staying at the Mirage in Vegas :)

Oh awesome! It's beautiful there, the lobby especially and it's a great location. Make sure you see the volcano! My mom somehow missed it even though it erupts every 15 minutes!
 
How can it be that I haven't checked in over here? Total D'oh! moment for me right there. I'm going to catch up on everything today.
 
Woo hoo, you're getting so close! :cool1:
 
I can't believe how close it is for your trip. I am so excited for you.
 
WOW!
:yay: I can't believe i'm almost at 3 weeks now :yay:

(And even Darrens start to get a bit excited, which means it must be getting real close :goodvibes)​

So with a holiday just around the corner to a new destination, i figured a new toy was in need to bring along and I've been thinking about getting a new camera since i spotted the new Canon IXUS (Powershot SD i think they are called in the USA) models were released back in March.
I used to have an IXUS40 which i found fantastic but with it only being 4megapixel i thought it was time for an upgrade a couple of years back and Darren brought me a gorgeous pink Fujifilm finepix z10fd for my birthday last year, now iam happy with the camera, do like it and with 7 megapixel it was an upgrade to my Canon however when i spotted the new Canons back in Tescos direct book back in march it reminded me how great my old IXUS was and that i wouldn't mind getting another one if i had a spare £220 at some point after all it wasn't a necessity and my camera was perfectly fine but I wouldn't of minded a new one ;)
I had my eye on the IXUS 95IS (Powershot SD1200IS for my American readers :) ) which is 10megapixel so 3 more than my current camera and it had image stabiliazation feature and came in pink, PERFECT!
The last month i've been looking about for th best price and lowest is £199.99 but i checked the Walmart website and they are priced $199.99 so about a £70 saving unfortunately they only do them online, so I need to order it online and use the ship to store feature they have i'll then pick it up from the Anaheim store on the day/night we arrive :)

So yay a nice, pretty new camera for this holiday. I love having new toys :)


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Yay! for new cameras. I just love the excitement of new camers. I hope you enjoy this one as much as your old IXUS.

And of course :cool1::cool1: for being just over 3 weeks away!! Very, very exciting times.
 
:cool1::cool1: 16 days to go :cool1::cool1:

New camera

Well I had been keeping an eye on the Walmart site to see when the estimated delievery dates for the Camera to arrive t the store sometime the week before we arrive and on thursday it finally gave me an estimated delievery date of tue 25th Aug - mon 31st Aug which is perfect as we arrive Tue 1st Sep so I went ahead and ordered it in pink and I'm hoping it will arrive during the dates stated and it will be ready to pick up the day we arrive :)



LA Kings

Since I first started planning this trip I was looking for things I could plan to do that Darren would enjoy espcially as i'm dragging him against he's will to Disney and I really couldn't find much, he isn't really into any Amercian sports apart from Ice Hockey which I noticed that unfortunately we'd be there just before the start of the new season so had to tell Darren that sadly that wouldn't happen but then I was told by someone on here, sorry I cannot remember who it was :blush: that sometimes there are pre season games during september and I was really hoping that there would be one in one of the places we are visiting at the right dates and have been waiting for the pre season games/dates to be announced. I just looked tonight and noticed the LA Kings were playing Sep 15th which is perfect as we'll be staying in Hollywood during that date :woohoo: so iam now the ownder of two tickets for one of LA Kings pre season games. Darren doesn't know yet and I don't think i'll tell him, will be nice to surpirce him on the trip :)
 
LA Ducks

Since I first started planning this trip I was looking for things I could plan to do that Darren would enjoy espcially as i'm dragging him against he's will to Disney and I really couldn't find much, he isn't really into any Amercian sports apart from Ice Hockey which I noticed that unfortunately we'd be there just before the start of the new season so had to tell Darren that sadly that wouldn't happen but then I was told by someone on here, sorry I cannot remember who it was :blush: that sometimes there are pre season games during september and I was really hoping that there would be one in one of the places we are visiting at the right dates and have been waiting for the pre season games/dates to be announced. I just looked tonight and noticed the LA Ducks were playing Sep 15th which is perfect as we'll be staying in Hollywood during that date :woohoo: so iam now the ownder of two tickets for one of LA Ducks pre season games. Darren doesn't know yet and I don't think i'll tell him, will be nice to surpirce him on the trip :)

My oh my, he's got good taste in sports :lmao: I'm glad you were able to get tickets for a preseason game. Do you know who it's against? BTW, is it the Ducks or the Kings? Los Angeles is the Kings, Anaheim is the ducks (2 NHL teams in SoCal). Oh, how I would kill for them to start the preseason 3 days earlier and my Sharks be playing down in SoCal for their first game. I would have been such a happy camper.

Man, now you're making me itch to get some hockey tickets.
 
Oh how much fun your trip is gonna be. You guys should drop in and see Richard Simmons at Slimmons his exercise studio. He is great fun and so are his exercise classes.
 
Awesome news about the hockey tickets! I'm a huge hockey fan but I root for the Rangers since I'm from the east coast. ;) I've always had a special place in my heart for the Ducks though because of the movies! You guys are going to have such a great time!
 
My oh my, he's got good taste in sports :lmao: I'm glad you were able to get tickets for a preseason game. Do you know who it's against? BTW, is it the Ducks or the Kings? Los Angeles is the Kings, Anaheim is the ducks (2 NHL teams in SoCal). Oh, how I would kill for them to start the preseason 3 days earlier and my Sharks be playing down in SoCal for their first game. I would have been such a happy camper.

Man, now you're making me itch to get some hockey tickets.


Im so glad too, he's going to be really pleased :)
Oops corrected the mistake, I was getting all confussed as at the time I was looking at either tickets for the Kings or Ducks and they are playing Phoenix Coyotes. Ooh i think when I was looking at the games I remember the Sharks being mentioned.
Come to think of it, it could of possibly been you who mentioned the pre season games to me, so thanks :)
 
Im so glad too, he's going to be really pleased :)
Oops corrected the mistake, I was getting all confussed as at the time I was looking at either tickets for the Kings or Ducks and they are playing Phoenix Coyotes. Ooh i think when I was looking at the games I remember the Sharks being mentioned.
Come to think of it, it could of possibly been you who mentioned the pre season games to me, so thanks :)

I think it was ;) I remember mentioning it to someone so it must have been you.
 
Wow, only 3 weeks! You are getting so close. I love the camera you chose...so cute!
 













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