Sea World San Diego

Sea World today! We got ourselves ready and headed to the park just after opening at 10am. Ready for some coasters we headed for Emperor, a dive coaster, no queues, which we all loved.  

Next up was artic rescue a three launch smallish coaster which was fun to ride. Leaving the ride you are in with beluga, harbour seals and walruses.  Next up was manta, a mac multi launch which we rode a couple of times.  

Our first show of the day, sealions Clyde and Seamore and the otter, Opi. After the show, we stopped for a snack of loaded fries.  

Electric Eel was the next coaster, another launched coaster.  Keith and Stephen went first and came off giving vibes that I wasn't going to enjoy it with its twisty compact track andslow hang at the top! With trepidation sarah and I set off! Very fast back and forwards through the station before climbing the loop, twisting as we went. I loved it! Got off and Keith jokingly said, going again?  Oh yeah! He and Stephen were both shocked. 

The kids went on journey to Atlantis and didnt get too wet, before we re rode emperor. 

We also watched the dolphin show and the Orca show.

We also today made time to see the flamingoes, Shark encounter, turtle reef, penguins and otters.

Weather has been much more "doable" today, started cool and cloudy, then the cloud lifted and we had some sunshine before the clouds built a bit again and took the edge off the heat.  Still managed to catch the sun!

Good day all round but achy feet again!

A look around the shops before we headed out.  we might be back in the morning for a couple of extra rides and some shopping when are feet are recovered!!

Back at the house we had a couple of hours to relax before we went out for dinner.  Choice tonight was Phil's bbq. Soo much food! We had a family meal which included full rack of ribs, whole chicken, sausage links plus sides of fries and coleslaw, also came with a garden salad, corn bread with maple butter and 6 cookies!

Griffith Observatory and universal studios

Note form only will tidy and add photos another day!

Sun 

K and I walked to a local bakers and picked up some pastries, 2 choc almond croissants, 1 pistachio croissant and a raisin pastry ($25), along with some orange juice. 

We headed for the Griffith Observatory today up in the Hollywood Hills. Not too far from hotel, about 7 miles. We parked up and planned to walk up to the Observatory as we thought there wouldn't be any car parking spaces at the top. We set of walking but the heat and looking at the climb up soon had us returning to the car to give the car park a try. Windy road up a just a couple of minutes wait before a caf pulled out and we had our space! No way we'd have made the walk up there! Views were incredible!  Slightly hazy but wow, what a huge city lay out before you! Plus the added views of the Hollywood Sign. Spent a while looking at the views before heafing into the Observatory first to see the telescope and then inside the main building to see the science displays.  Loads of intersection things to see and nice to be out of the sun for a while!

Back to the car and we headed down the hill back towards Hollywood. With Sarah's navigation we drove along Hollywood boulevard to the the stars on the walk of Fame, along with sights like the dolby theatre and the Chinese theatre. We carried on all the way to the end then took the winding roads up the mountains to Mulholland Drive, to see some of the homes of the rich and famous! We stopped at a couple of view points to take in the city, the first high above universal studios, the second giving another view of the Hollywood Sign.

The road ends just a short distance from our hotel. We headed back to have a rest and a cool down for a while. 

Phone call with mum

Headed out to late lunch/early dinner at Dennys.

Onto universal. Parked in curious George 4, walked through city walk to park. About 5 o'clock, park was still busy and hot! Didn't really have a plan for this evening other than to get our a feel of the park and maybe do a couple of rides.  Wandered  round the upper lot and 3 of us decided to try Harry Potter which said 30 min wait.  Brilliant ride, and we noted they were using single ride access as well! We were off the ride and back with Stephen in just under 30 mins.  We took the 4 long escalators to the lower lot where 3 if us did Transformers. Stephen was quite happy soaking up the atmosphere and wandering around.  Back together we went into Nintendo World, queues for browsers ride had been showing at around 60-80 mins so we decided not to bother.  The mummy was now showing 15 mins so we all decided to ride, Stephen was very excited for this ride as he'd been young and terrified on this ride in Orlando.  Very good although i felt it wasn't as long as the orlando version, but that might be my memory!  Will have to look up the differences.  Stephen decided to keep wandering the park while we headed back to the upper lot and did the hr long back lot tour which was showing no queue.  Was an incredible ride with at least 4 rider "ineractive" sections. Miles better than any orlando back ride tour!  Back together and Stephen and Sarah decided to do HP as single riders. Area was busy as there were light shows at the castle, Keith and I set ourselves a viewing spot where we could also catch the kids as they came out. They were out within about 10 mins, no queues in the ride at all, so we stood and watched the light show at 8.50.

Many people were now leaving the park, but with an hr still left and the rides queues quiet we decided to do more.  Simpsons was completed in about 25 mins, the s+s decided to head back to the lower lot where they rerode Transformers and The Mummy. K and I were shattered so sat with an ice-cream (24 degrees at 9.30!).  Message from the kids informed us that Jurassic World had opened (it had been showing as closed for refurb since we arrived) so we quickly grabbed out bags and bottles and walked down the escalators as quick as we could and joined the very short queue.  Were quickly on the ride.  Brilliant, again I think I prefer this one to the orlando version! It was now past park closing so we set of on the long slow return to the car (feet were really aching by now) up the 4 escalators, through the park, through city walk and back to the car park.  Thank goodness the hotel is just a 4 min drive away.  Quick wash, cup of tea and we were all soon asleep!  

What a day!  Thoroughly enjoyed our morning and achieved far more than we expected at universal this evening.  Spirits were high even if our feet were screaming with tiredness! 

Southern California Coasters - pre trip!

So, it appears we are having another "family" holiday!  Options for a trip this year included resurrecting our covid cancelled Canada trip for 2, a road trip from Denver covering Colorado and Utah with a possible extension to Florida with Sarah and Stephen joining us for the last bit, or a road trip for 4 of us from Las Vegas to San Diego.  With Stephen having started a new job this year and his annual leave being a bit tight, we eventually decided on another coaster trip, 10 nights, taking in Southern California.  It might be the last 'coaster tour" for Keith and I, we're not getting any younger!!!  For us this will be a small road trip covering between 300-500 miles.

Six Flags Magic Mountain was always going to be the main draw for this trip.  Keith and I visited in 2018 and said how great it would be to do it with the 'kids'!  As Six Flags MM is the only one of the parks we are doing that is due to close some days from mid August onwards, date wise, it was a case of fitting it around that, so we have finally settled on:    

3 nights Comfort Suites, Stevenson Ranch with 2 days set aside for Six Flags - so many rides to do - X2, Wonderwoman, Tatsu, Full Throttle, Superman, Twisted Colossus - this park is home to 20 coasters, lets see how many we can do!  Two days will hopefully mean we don't have to rush, and give us plenty of time for re-rides.

2 nights Tilt Hotel near Hollywood and Universal Studios.  As this will be over a weekend and the parks tend to busier, the plan is to spend Saturday and Sunday morning doing some sightseeing to hopefully include the Griffith Observatory, Hollywood Sign, Hollywood Walk of Fame or the beach!  Sunday Afternoon/Evening and Monday will be Universal Studios.

2 nights Clementine Suites at Anaheim. Although we will be staying close to Disneyland we will probably only have time for a quick Disney fix at Downtown Disney one evening. We are not planning to visit their parks on this trip.  Main reason for the stop here is Knotts Berry Farm.

3 nights San Diego.  No hotel for this one, we have a house booked close to Sea World.  Seaworld rides have always been a favourite and we thought it would be nice to visit a different one.  If we have time we would love to visit USS Midway and maybe Belmont Park at Mission Beach.

Lots to do and, I fear, little time but we will see.