From Airport to Anaheim...Thursday 1 Nov '12

To-day we rearranged our schedule and decided to follow the original one as today was when we would have arrived in LA had there been no Cyclone Sandy anyways!

Bought a $5 full day metro ticket and found our way out here to Disneyland. It took an hour and 20 mins from the other hotel we were at. We were reluctant to leave that place and with checkout at 12mday, it made it too easy to stay another day...very tempting I must add. It was so homey, such fun, so comfy, had everything I needed...WiFi, cups of tea anytime, free everything except area maps!

Such a fun place, the Tradewinds Hotel...

 Just found the $2 Margaritas before we left too, so we sat around the pool for a few hours eating free popcorn and drinking the gi-normously big and very strong cocktail. The bar attendant saw I was taking photos so she said she'd go get me the proper Margarita glass to serve it in, as they aren't allowed glass around a pool area. How nice of her.

All packed and ready to head to Disneyland...

Her eyes never left me for the 30 mins it took to take a few photos with my broken camera and drink the cocktail, as it was a risky thing she did, but ever so thoughtful and nice of her...

The full to the brim Margarita!

Couldn't stay any longer...3 nights, so much fun...

We left about 2.30 pm, arriving here at Disneyland at 5.30pm, as we walked the kilometer or so from the bus stop to here.

Disneyland at last!

 Then we bolted down the road to Target and spent an hour "umming and arrring" over cameras and what I should buy versus what I could afford and what I could operate easily. I found one I was happy with at $139 and was about to buy it when customer walked in with a brochure showing the very camera on special for $99!
How serendipitous was that!!!

Our twin bed hotel room at the hacienda. $34 plus tax, for the room

Then we realized we'd only had an egg for breakfast, with nothing else, (as I don't eat the toast or never ending free blueberry home made muffins they make) a cup of tea, a cocktail and cup of fresh popcorn all day.

We found this amazing restaurant called COCO'S and had the best meal ever there. $12, with tax, 8 oz steak, brocoli, cauli, big baked potato in the skin with sour cream and a beautiful red wine jus. Yummo!
The food actually presented better on our plates than the pictures in their brochures and menus examples!

Arrived just on sunset and look what I saw from the balcony...the setting sun...

Then we walked the 50 meters or so back to the Hacienda hotel, which has 2 queen beds, a walk-in robe and luggage store room, en-suite with bath, TV, table, dressing table, chest of drawers and a few chairs, just looked up and saw a microwave, air con and a fridge too!  All for $30 a night for the room, plus tax...about $8 or so. That equates to under $20 each for accom outside of Disneyland.

Very surprised at how cheap good restaurant food is over here. Will post some pics tomorrow night of the food as I will have pics from my new camera which I just bought this evening at the Target shop about 200 meters from our hotel outside Disneyland.

Val is having a ball and is amazed we can do so much on next to nothing and see so much, eat well, sleep in really comfy, clean well equipped accom and travel so cheaply here.
So now, trusty computer mouse in hand, we found a fabulous deal on the trip to the Queen Mary for when we go next week...

We can actually stay on board for a night, see the Princess Diana clothing and jewels collection, have a royal afternoon tea and dinner and breakfast...all for $90 for a 2 double beds suite, (that's $45 each) $12 for a beautiful dinner, afternoon tea is $30, but as it's cakes, petite fours and sandwiches, Val will have that while I chomp away on a banana and sip my tea out of a gold rimmed china cup on the Queen Mary!