Friday, January 21, 2000 3:46 PM
Subject:    RTWW2K: Update from LA

Ah, Los Angeles, that huge, sprawling metripolis in sourthern California.
Home of huge beaches, sunshine, cars, freeways, smog, and lots of people.

We've been staying with some gracious hosts, Bonnie's cousins Ron and
Donna Davis, along with their wonderful 5 year old daughter, Micah.  They
live
in the beautiful city of Newport Beach, in Orange County.  This was a short
stopover for us, just less than a week.

How does one fill 6 days of vacation in LA?
1: Buy a 3 day pass to Disneyland.
2: Go to Disney 3 of 4 consecutive days.
3: Spend the rest of the time recovering.

This was our first trip to Disneyland.  Snippets:
* If you have kids, bring or rent strollers.
* Early morning is best time to avoid lines
* Favorite attraction:
Bonnie: "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" show
Ky:  Splash Mountain
Jessica: Everything, and buying a big candy sucker
Nathan: Rocket ride in Tomorrowland
* Curretly there is a lot of construction.  The monorail and portions of
tomorrowland are shut down. Lots of new
and fantastic rides coming on line over the next couple
of years
* We rode nearly every possible ride, and it took nearly all of 3 days
to do it!
* Fun, fun, fun.  Lines, lines, lines.


Observations of LA:
* lots of high end, detailed cars.
* no shortage of plastic surgeons and personal trainers.
* Lots of people list their name in the phonebook with last name and only
the first initial.  There are LOTS of J. Lee's and R.Smiths.
* Huge, long, wide beaches (Huntington Beach, for example).
* It is very cool to pick oranges and tangerines from your
backyard trees for breakfast.
* A mucher nicer place than previously thought (based on negative biases
from living in the San Francisco bay area)
Tonight we catch a red eye flight from LAX to Nadi, Fiji.  I'd like to add
more to this message, but it's time to finish packing, get rid of our US
coins, and head for the airport.

Next update will be from Fiji (providing we can find an internet cafe!).
Ky (for Bonnie, Jessica, and Nathan)