Finally made it to Yosemite

So we left LA to go the bus stop at 9.30ish as the bus was at 10.45. We got to the bus stop super early and waited for the bus, and waited and waited..... It never showed up. So we called Amtrak to discover we were at the wrong bus stop...... 

We ordered an Uber cab to take us to Union Station, as the kind lady on he phone changed our ticket to the 1.05 bus. 

We finally got our bus at 1.05 to Bakersfield. The journey was about 2 hours. We arrived at Bakersfield and changed onto our train to take us to Merced. The train was so nice and comfortable and also had free wifi! The journey was 3 hours and we finally arrived at Merced at 6.30ish.

A kind man got our bags off the train for us and it was now we discovered we had missed the last bus into Yosemite. It left at 5.30..... We were stranded at Merced Amtrak station.......

The kind station master called around some of his connections to try and get us a room but everyone was on vacation - it is Labour Day Weekend after all....... 

We sat down on the floor outside the station for over an hour looking up hostels and hotels nearby that were cheap. We finally found Americas Best Value Inn which was only $50 for both of us for the night. We booked it right away and jumped in a cab to the motel. 

We got to the motel and checked the bed for cockroaches and bed bugs as the reviews said it was common here - uh oh!!!

We had a super early night and fell asleep at 8.30pm, there was nothing else to do!!! 

We got up at 8ish, showered and headed out. We enjoyed the delightful free breakfast, which included toast, bagels and waffles!! Haha! I cooked us both a waffle each using some cool waffle maker!!

We got a cab back to Merced station to take the 9.15 YART bus into Yosemite. The bus took over an hour to get there but we finally arrived at Yosemite Rustic Bug Ranch. 

We checked into our tent cabin which was nicer than we thought and then headed back to the bus stop to grab the YART at 12.10 to Curry Village which is in the centre of Yosemite National Park. 

The bus took longer than meant to due to labour day weekend traffic, everyone seemed to be heading to the park!

We grabbed the tastiest pizza from Curry Village then went to the river and chilled there. 

Whilst there we saw a huge brown bear. A couple we were waking along the path behind where we were chilling and the lady pointed to the trees on the otherwise of the river bank and said she saw a bear. Her husband thought she was joking and so did we. But as I looked closer you could see a large brown object slower moving and it definitely wasn't a human! The best than ran across the river to the side we were on and into the forest. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture fast enough :( 

However saw my first Yosemite bear!!! 

We then went for a short walk around the edge of the river before grabbing the largest ice cream ever from Curry Village!

We hopped back onto the YART for our first night in out little tent cabin!

Another day in LA

Yesterday we were going to hire bikes and cycle to thr Griffiths Observatory to see the Hollywood sign. However we soon discovered to get to the place to hire the bikes was over an hour walk away, but to walk to Griffiths Observatory was exactly the same distance.

We decided to brave it and walk to the observatory. It was super hot and the walk to Griffiths Park was okay as it was all residential.

Griffiths Park was beautiful, it was all covered in trees and very popular with dog walkers and runners. We walked through the park to the top and then it all opened out and was like the desert. The sun was beaming down and we had to walk up hill. It was a struggle but I perserveered and made it to the top. 

The sign was actually still pretty far away, and kinda disappointing. I think we would need to hire a car to get closer to it. However the views if LA were stunning. You felt on top of the world looking at the vast city of LA. I loved it.

We stopped in the cafe for the tastiest burrito, which we shared as it was huge. We definitely enjoyed lunch with a view!

We also explored above the observatory to get a better view which was beauts.

We also looked inside which was a museum about space and saw this cool pendulum which knocks over pegs with the tilt of the earth.

We them headed back down the mountain to go home. It was hot but so worth it. We also discovered there was a short cut home! Typical us!!

We got back made an early tea and got ready for the a baseball game. Los Angeles Angels vs Oakland Athletics.

We got the metro to Union Station, where we then got a special Angels train to the Anaheim Stadium. It was a good 30 mins away!

When we arrived we were both shocked at how big the stadium was! We entered the stadium and felt so out if place not wearing red or an Angels top so we went to the store to buy Angels tshirts. We bought youth ones so only cost us $7, bargain!

We then found our seats and got ready for the the start at 7.05pm.

Nessan and his two mates then joined us at 8.30ish as it took them 1h40 in a cab.

The game was amazing!! Both teams were really good and the oppersition were a tough team to beat. It was a draw throughout and all down to the 10th game, but Hewie managed it and the Los Angeles Angels WON!!!

We didn't really understand the rules, but with the help of some friendly Americans around us who thought all us Brits were hilarious, and by trying to work the rules out ourselves with kinda managed to understand what was going in! 

The atmosphere was amazing!

We paid only $8 for our tickers so were quite high up but not at the top. However many people started to leave towards the end of the game so we decided to move down to the bottom for a better view!

Another brilliant day in Los Angeles!! 

Fabulous day exploring LA - Day 1

We woke up early Tuesday morning as the hostel was soooo noisy, showered and headed out into LA.

The hostel called PodShare, is in such an amazing location, you walk a couple of steps up the street and you are on the walk of fame by the stars in the ground. 

We grabbed a croissant and drink from a cute cafe and walked along Hollywood Boulevard to the Chinese theatre where we were to by tickets for the Hop on Hop off Bus. We bought a two day pass. We got on the red route first and headed around Hollywood then onto Beverly Hills. We got off at stop 7, which was ideal to explore Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive.

We took pictures at the Beverly Hills sign then walked to Rodeo Drive. The whole area was amazing, posh shops, beautiful houses and lots of wealthy well dressed people. We looked out of place but ah well we are tourists after all.

I absolutely loved it here, and would love to own a house in this area - a girl can dream!

At stop 7, we then transferred to the yellow route and got the bus all the way to Santa Monica Pier. The busses are amazing as they have ear plugs and give a running commentary. The commentary is so interesting and we found out lots of things about LA we otherwise wouldn't have known about. 

The bus took about an hour it get to the beach. Santa Monica Pier and Beach is simply amazing. The pier is where Forest Gump walks to the end of and then turns around. On the Pier is a Bubba Gump restaurant so we took a few cheeky pics.

The pier is also where the Route 66 ends, so we took pics at the sign also!

The pier is amazing, there is arcades, restaurants and shops. We walked all the way to the end of the pier and chilled on a bench admiring the view. I could've spent all day there!

We then headed back to the bus stop to jump back on the bus. The bus took us through some more super rice rasas such as a place called Brentwood where lotsa celebs have houses. It was all soooo pretty with tree liked roads and huge houses! 

We then got back off at stop 7 and transferred back to the red route to head home. We took a quick detour ake got off at stop 11, to visit the farmers market. Here were lots of street food stands, bakeries and fruit stalks. We went to a Turkish/Greek stand and shared a whole rotisserie chicken with Pitta bread! It was so tasty!! We also bought some fruit from the fruit stall. We shall be retuning here as there is so much food to try and it was such a cute place.

We got back on the red route to head back to Hollywood, passing the famous Hollywood sign on the way.

We got off at the Chinese Thestre, where the tour began!

Included in our ticket price was free entry to Madame Tussaud's so se decided to venture there. It was hilarious and we took far to ,ant pictures but we had a blast!

We them headed back to the hostel to cook pasta for tea followed by raspberries for pudding! We chilled in our Pod and then got an early night!

Grand Canyon

When in vegas you have to do the day tour to the Grand Canyon, it's a long long day but so worth it!

We looked at tour prices on the strip and people were offering it for $140, we looked online and it was $80 so we booked that. We got picked up from our hotel at 5.45am!!

The bus took us to the tour depot place where we checked in and stuff. Here we found out that we were on the same tour as people who had paid the $140, so we were lucky to have found it online for much cheaper!

At 7.20 we left the depot and were on our way to the first stop, the Hoover Dam. This was about 40mins outside of Vegas. The dam was pretty cool and we took some pics, we were only given 15 mins here so had to be quick!!

We hopped back on the bus and on route to the Grand Canyon. At 9 ish we stopped at a maccies for 15 mins for people to grab breakfast then back on the bus it was.

We finally made it to our lunch stop at 1.30. We were given lunch tokens and I chose the pizza :)

At 1.30 it was back on the bus for the final drive to the canyon. We got off and were given 1 hour to explore. It was simply breathtaking. The views were unreal and nothing writing, speaking or even photos can do justice - you just have to go there!

We then got back on the bus for a short drive to a lodge place. Here was where people can stay in the canyon, I would love to stay one day it would be so peaceful and chilled. Could do long beautiful walks and take some pretty pictures. Unfortunately all the pics I took here were on my camera so can't upload them to my blog!

We explored here, looked in the gift shops and then treated ourselves to some yummy ice cream. Again we were given an hour to explore here. At 4.15pm we were on our way home. A fab 5 hour bus journey ahead of us!!!

Literally had the best day ever, i can tick the Grand Canyon off my bucket list and would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to go and visit if they can!

Maybe next time I will do the helicopter ride as well!!

Miami

We checked out of Patterson on Friday 15th august and got a cab at 8.30 to the megabus stop in downtown orlando. Although you can't really call it a bus stop, it was more like a marquee in a parking lot!

The megabus was supposed to take 4 hours to get to miami, however horrendous rain and traffic meant we were sat on the bus for nearly 6 hours! We were dropped off in another car park, fab! We borrowed another Disney CPs american phone and called for a cab! We arrived at our Appartment and first impressions were good, it was modern and perfect for us! However this all changes! Haha!

We were all knackered so headed to five guys for dinner. It was my first ever five guys and well worth the wait! I had the bacon cheeseburger with BBQ sauce! We them went to the grocery store. Chelsea and I bought some Ben and Jerrys for dessert and a box of pop tarts for breakfast.

The next morning we got up and headed to the beach. South Beach is honestly one of the nicest beaches I've been to. The golden sand, palm treas and sea :) the sea was really warm as well which was nice! We sunbathed from 9 til about 2, when it was getting a little but too hot!

We went on the hunt for this ice cream shop called The Freize which was located on the Lincoln Road Mall. The ice cream was yum, I had the salted caramel and cappuccino chip!

We went home to shower before heading back to the Lincoln Road Mall. This is basically a long street of shops and restaurants and is really nice. There are shops including, Victoria secret, Zara, forever 21 and H&M. I bought some nail polish and sunglasses from forever 21.

We then headed up to Collins avenue as we had noticed a shop that sold suitcases. Lily and Amy wanted carry on suitcases and I wanted a large suitcase as my rucksack was breaking and not practical at all. I could not carry it at all, it was bigger than me and made me fall over! Ahaha!!

We were planing on cooking enchiladas of fajitas for tea however Walgreens was rubbish and has no ingredients, not even packets of chicken!! So we went to a pizza place called Groovy Pizza instead. We got a large meat feast to share for $20. It was humungous!!

We walked back to the Appartment, made cheesy nachos and ate the pizza whilst watching Bridesmaids and drinking beer! Perfect evening!!

On Sunday we decided to walk down south beach to 5th street as this was where the lifeguard hut with 'Miami beach' written on it was!

We chilled by the beach all morning then Chelsea and I wandered to get frozen yogurt from Pinkberry.

We sunbathed a bit longer then went back to the Appartment to chill.

We then had a disaster with the toilet and it broke and leaked everywhere and the shower was blocked too. We texted the owner who said he would send someone over. We waited for 3 hours before the lady who checked us in arrived. She looked at it and realised it was serious so called the owner. I spoke to him on the phone and he was extremely rude but then agreed to drive over and see it. He lived 40 mins Away. He arrived and agreed it needed an expert to fix. He said he would move us to another appartment, however it was far away and Chelsea and I were getting picked up from outside the Appartment the next day so needed to stay.
However he gave us 1 days rent back.

The next day we had to check out at 11.30 so we went for a walk along ocean drive and grabbed a Starbucks.

We said goodbye to lily and Amy and them waited on seats outside the front of the Appartment chilling for 2 hours as Chelsea wasn't getting her airport transfer til 2pm.

We then said goodbye and I went to the nicest Italian on Espanola Way and enjoyed the nicest homemade pasta I have eaten since visiting Italy 4 years ago!

I then waited outside for my airport transfer at 4pm.

I flew from Fort Lauderdale to Las Vegas! Woooooo!!

Miami was a blast and I loved south beach so much, it was one of the nicest beaches I have visited! :)

Farewell Disney

My last shift at the boutique was on wednesday. I had the closing shift with my fave Kelley Jo.

Ever since working together we had wanted to go on the hot air balloon at DTD, so we decided to do it before work. Before 10am it's $10 for cast members so we arrived just before 10! The ride was cool and you could pick out certain landmarks, such as Everest at AK, Tower of Terror at HS, blizzard beach, typhoon lagoon, the boardwalk and the ugly building that is the Contemporary Hotel. We couldn't see the castle at MK at all!!

Afterwards we went to Starbucks and got some breakfast then wandered the shops, before getting a famous Earl of Sandwich. This time I went for the BBQ chicken which was yum!!

It was then time to head to work for my final shift! I was pleased it was Kelley Jo and I closing as we work so well together (the dream team/#bibbidibobbidibabes) and we always have lots of fun working together! The highlight of the day was serving Jamie Lynn Spears, her husband and daughter Maddie, although it wasn't until afterwards that we were told it was them! They stood out as guests to me however, as I remember thinking to myself that she was really pretty and I commented to Kelley Jo, that I thought the ladies husband had 'a sexy voice' HAHA!!

We got a visit from Heidi and pixie dusted her and took cute pics! I had booked Paradiso for 9pm for all the FGITs to go to after work for a farewell meal. However Kelley Jo and I ended up getting extended by 45 mins as we were so busy

The meal was lovely and I shared it with my faves :)

The next day was our last full day and flat 16305 decided to go to IHOP (international house of pancakes) for breakfast. We got the bus to vista and endured a long walk in the heat to the restaurant, but it was worth it! I had the chocolate chip pancakes and mango lemonade!

Amy, Steph and I headed to Magic Kingdom. We watched mickey's philarmagic for the last time and also rode big thunder mountain before watching the parade at 3!! We were very lucky they did not cancel the parade as it was raining slightly, phewww!

Afterwards we watched, monsters laugh floor. It's the most hilarious show where members in the audience get picked on. This lady was a target in ours and absolutely hated it, which made them pick on her more! It was brilliant!

We then got the bus to animal Kingdom lodge for dinner at Boma. This was an African buffet, which was tasty but far to over priced for what you get. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone and would not return. It felt like a food court and for $40 per person was not the atmosphere I expected. However was nice for all the girls to be together :)

We got the bus back to MK it watch wishes, which was beautiful as per usual!

I can't believe the program is over, there have been high and lows (and I shall be doing an honest post of the program in the near future), but it has been an experience. If I hadn't done the program I would never have made such great friends, friends that I will keep in touch with and be friends with forever. I hope to see all the american gals in the future, our paths will most likely cross!

Would like to make a shout out to my bestest ever roomie Chelsea, I am gonna miss seeing you everyday, coming home to see you and moan to each other or have some amusing story to tell! I have never laughed so much and I thank you for that!

Also a shout out to Heidi and Kelley Jo, I loved working with both of you and will miss you a lot!!


Xxxxxx