Ninja Days: WE ARE BACK!!!!!

Thursday

WE ARE BACK!!!!!

What a trip! Disneyland for NYE, a shared experience with a total of 75000 patrons that night. It was some party!
My favourite ride was 'Indiana Jones', where I was fortunate enough to drive the Jeep... kind of... FUN in capital letters!

Our hearts were with our loved ones when the countdown to the midnight fireworks became a highlight of the trip. Then, suddenly we became the very first guests at Disneyland in the year 2007. Surrounded by a mass of bopping black and gold top hats, rimmed with the HAPPY NEW YEAR 2007 message, we danced on the spot to a medley of Disney songs...what else?!

We had great expectations. Teenagers were talking about a Dance Party; Americans must know how to party! But although there was some excitement, the most action was coming from our group. As we were waiting by the main exit route, thousands passed like a herd of cattle.

Every now and then one of our kids called out
.......................HAAAAPPY NEW YEEEAAAR!!!

Some answered with tired smiles and slow responses and then they quickly moved along. The kids tried hard to cheer the American crowd up and every now and then they even chanted our good old
......................AUSSIE, AUSSIE, AUSSIEEEE... Oi, Oi, Oi!!!!!

We earned a lot of vacant stares.

At 1:30 in the morning of New Years Day the streets were EMPTY! There was almost nobody on the move! We asked a young lady waitress the next day what she got up to last night and she said that she had stayed home. When asked why? She replied that it is just too dangerous to go out. WHAT???? Are they for real?!

In disbelief we told her about Sydney and how EVERYONE is out and about and parties until the early hours. People hugging and calling out to each other and everybody is just in the best mood and, and, and...

The few people walking the streets were those that were exercising or taking their dogs for a walk.

San Diego was a little bit like that too. Especially on the Sunday when I went to see 'Legends' with Linda Evans and Joan Collins at the San Diego Civic Theatre. The Gaslight district was alive and kicking, but any other road was dead. So dead, it was scary! So scary that I decided to get us chauffeured back to the car parking garage by a fit bike peddling dude, who returned us safely at considerable speed... for a pushbikie cab.

Coronado was one of our sightseeing trips in San Diego. It was a crisp morning when we were loaded unto the ferry and took the half hour trip back to the city of San Diego. The bridge was built with a slight curve because it makes it longer that way.

Why make it longer than it needs to be? The city does not have to pay for it if it exceeds a certain length...

I loved San Francisco.

I wished the man could have been there with me. The coffee shops, the cute homes and fresh, crisp air, the harbour with its seals and haunting foghorns sounding from the ocean. Twin peaks in clouds and cable cars and the steepest and windiest road in the world (which also seems to be the shortest!), the trip to Alcatraz, the Golden Gate walk...with my camera's fresh battery left on the bus and the old set dying right after my picture was taken upon aproach. Too Bad!!! But it was not wasted. It turned out ok.