Day 13 - Los Angeles

Today the team is going to Disneyland. That monumental tribute to the great Walt Disney and part of his legacy to not just the States, but us as well. Don’t know what to expect really, like you I grew up with the Disney movies. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, followed by Aladdin, Atlantis, and Nemo to name just a very small selection.

Our day started early again at 6:30 am for breakfast, unfortunately for us, no one had told the chef that we needed an early start, so breakfast wasn’t until after 7am.

Then the team headed to the bus where our driver Jackson was ready to take us to the magic kingdom. It wasn’t a long trip along Los Angeles’ freeway and we soon pulled up to what has to be the world’s largest car parking building. You can see the size below, where the van was is about halfway along.

From there we departed the bus and boarded a tram, I guess because the car parking building was so big we needed the tram to get to the gates. Before the tram moved anywhere we listened to the safest safe safety message that anyone could ever safely listen to, no kidding, it made me afraid to blink, and we were only going 15 kmh.

Arriving at the gates we discovered that the car parking building was only one of several, as other trams were pulling up and disgorging literally thousands of people everywhere. Inside, it was a whole new world, a fantastic point of view, no one to tell us…wait, that’s Aladdin. We entered the famous gates, off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz…wait, that’s The Wizard of Oz. Aahh, so many childhood memories come flooding back, as they must have to the rest of the team, because as soon as Mike said ok, you can go, they all made like a tree and vamoosed! Only the stragglers were left standing. Me, Bex, Jeremy, Gary F, Doug, and Mr B.

(That’s Bex and Gary below, you can see she is leading.)

Quickly we appointed Bex in charge, and yes it did occur to us that a bunch of guys had appointed a woman in charge of the map, and yes we managed to be comfortable about that. And she did such an excellent job, navigating us to the Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, and Splash Mountain. All of which were great fun.

Do you all remember being told as children that one day you would be taken to Disneyland, well today, us adults were kids again. What an awesome place. There is no way anyone can be unhappy in that place, even when the temperature reached 38, I kid you not. Thank goodness for the Americans and air conditioned shops. We continually bumped into other members of the group, especially the boys as they ran from one ride to another, trying to do them all.

Around lunchtime we ended up in this ice cream parlour called ‘Gibson Girls’, where the lovely ladies at the counter don’t say ‘next please’, no, they say ‘next guest please’.

After lunch it hit 38 degrees, and I was reminded of that saying that only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun. It was stiflingly hot.

Heading down the queue to Splash Mountain, we wisely had previously gotten the fast pass, which is where you get a ticket to the ride you want, which doesn’t cost anything, and then the machine gives you a time to come back and go on the ride, and you simply walk past everyone else in your very own line. Brilliant! Well as we walked past everyone else, I was in the front, with Bex behind me, listening to Zippeedee doda. I turned to her and she was grinning from ear to ear at the tune and passing all the crowds, well, it really did make you feel like skipping along.

There were lots of things to see, the finishing standard on all the rides and even just the way the trees were planted and the neatly trimmed grass was neatly trimmed was amazing. So were the people there, and it soon filled up with thousands and thousands and thousands of them, our estimates kept getting bigger and bigger. One shopkeeper I spoke to said it was a slow day due to the heat, you could have fooled me.

I shopped some, as you do, although this time you could get in the door without guns being waved in my face. Honduras, great memories!

And this is another one of them. This sign blew me away. It was on the counter where I brought my grandson a present. (yes, I checked)

I think Walt would be turning in his grave…

Anyway, a fantastic day was had by all. It was simply the best way to unwind, see something new and just be kids again…all of us!

Arriving back at the hotel, we had a few hours to chill out in the pool, which most did, before our evening out. Some even threw the adults that were stupid enough to venture close, in, which didn’t go down well so I heard from my window!

Well. Let me tell you, this evening was full of more surprises that were quite unexpected.

Management had booked us into a place called Medieval Times for dinner, and like you reading this, you know about as much as we did at the time. Arriving at the venue, we saw that it was a large plain building, but nothing prepared us for the inside.

Imagine if you will, a bunch of kids going through 7 foot castle doors, with real suits of armour, swords, jousting lances, and serving wenches leading the way. Inside we were led into a large room full of more armour for sale, for between $4,000 to $8,000 US no less. We were led straight to another large set of doors that led through to a huge indoor arena, just like the coliseum, only smaller. Probably measured 50 by 100 metres and was surrounded by seating for an estimated 500 – 700 people in 3-4 rows high.

We were blown away, and were directed to our seats. On the benches in front of us was a large metal plate, and a metal bowl (on the back, made in Taiwan, but it didn’t detract from the atmosphere).

The lights dimmed, the candles on each place mat glowed like some huge rock concert, and dry ice filled the arena. Then the music started, and if you can imagine every medieval film you have ever watched about castles, knights, and dragons, the theme music to it was played tonight.

And then, the doors opened at the end, and out came the knights, in full armour, on horseback, complete with swords, jousting poles, squires walking beside them, and horses beautifully prancing. We just cheered and clapped ourselves silly.

What followed over the next 1 ½ hours was a theme dinner with entertainment galore. Dinner consisted of beer for the adults, and coke for the kids. Then a soup was dished into the bowl, which we drank from as there were no knives or forks, real medieval style. Then the main course arrived, roasted potatoes, lamb ribs, and half a roasted chicken each. All were eaten with hands, which were more than a little greasy I can tell you.

During this, we were treated to an unfolding story about kings, princesses, knights, and magic. There was a huge showmanship of horse riding, jousting competitions complete with exploding jousts, sword fighting, and flower throwing to the audience. We cheered, booed, clapped, and ate ourselves stupid. Although I do have to say that the kids thought they could have done a more realistic job with the fighting scenes, especially our silver medallists David and Jess!

Arriving back at the hotel, we had a meeting. This was the last night the team was going to be together, and a number of things happened…none of which I am going to say here. The reason being is that it was special for the team, kind of a personal and private moment for them, if you know what I mean. I hope you will forgive me for not saying anymore about it, but if you want to know what it was like, you will have to ask someone else who was there, or trial for the next team yourself.

I will say one thing though. It inspired me to be a better practitioner of TKD.

Right, off to bed. Tomorrow breakfast is at 8 am, and then we are spending the last day packing up, getting sorted, and hopefully some last minute sightseeing or shopping.