Saturday, May 30, 2009

America Photos, Part 4

After Knotts Berry Farm, the next day we performed at Disneyland!

Here's the sign announcing our performance. We thought we had made it when we saw this!




A close-up:


We were the only dance group to perform that day, so we felt pretty awesome!

We got to tour the backlot, as we had to get ready literally "behind the scenes". Our dressing room (waaaay better than the one at Knotts Berry Farm, but that wouldn't have been hard!) was part of the backlot. We felt pretty cool getting lead behind the scenes. I would've taken pictures, but we were told that there was strictly no photos.

We saw "characters" getting into costumes, and cast members rehearsing. Even behind the scenes, it was still very "Disney". Lots of energy and fun, but always very professional.


We got changed and had a quick photo session with a photographer before getting whisked around to our dressing room off to the side of the stage.

Here's Claryse & I in our "stage makeup"





And then it was show time!










This photo is from our finale... we danced to "I Still Call Australia Home" and the little kids came on at the end, waving Australian flags!




Most of the time, this was our audience:


(all Sally K- Dance parents or family members, haha! But our audiences did get bigger once the music came on and we started dancing.)





After our perfomance (which was in the morning), we were free to explore the park.

This is Haylee, Claryse & I right out the front of Disneyland after our performance.




Here we are outside the castle.




Disneyland was really SO.MUCH.FUN. There's no other word for it; it was just FUN!!!

Because there were so many of us, we tended to hang out in groups of 3 or 4, but occasionally we'd see another group and go on rides together.

Here are a few of us dancers having just been on the big carousel:




Here's us on the Teacup ride.






and me in the pink teacup! (Of course)







We would stay at the park until dark. That's when the lines for the rides got shorter! Here I am on the Dumbo ride at night:






Why the Dumbo ride, you might ask?

This is why:






Oh yes. My favourite fiddle player, Martie from the Dixie Chicks, went on the exact same ride with her daughters. When I first got to Disneyland, this was the one ride I knew I must go on. Having seen the photos, I was sure she went on the blue Dumbo. So, naturally, I went on the blue dumbo too.

But have a closer look at the photo:


She's not on the blue one, although that features in the photo. She's riding in the orange Dumbo! And I didn't realise until I got home and looked through the photos. Actually, my friend Claryse pointed it out after I posted these photos on Facebook. Whoops.




Anyway, Disneyland was just plain awesome. Our first night there was on a Friday, and we stayed to watch the fireworks somewhere between Adventureland and Frontierland. We thought we had a pretty good view, but that spot was nothing compared to where we watched them the next night! The entire group gathered in front of the Disney castle an hour early to secure a good vantage spot, and it was so worth the wait!


The Disneyland fireworks were spectacular. These photos don't even do them justice. I've never seen anything like it, even though Sydney is renowned for having the best New Year's Eve fireworks in the world.

The fireworks show went for nearly an hour. I took millions of photos.
Here are some of the best shots:

Mickey with Tinkerbell flying over the castle!


The Disney castle lit up


Every 5 minutes or so, the castle would change to a different colour and a new theme. They had music to go with each firework 'theme'. This is the "Spooky Mansion" theme:







Our Disneyland tickets allowed us entry into both the Disneyland and the California Adventure parks for 5 consecutive days, so we could come and go as much as we wanted.

Here's Jordan & I on the "It's a Small World" ride... we went twice in a row!




Claryse & I at the "It's a Bug's Life" show



and me in line for the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride



We watched the parades






and of course we got our own "Mickey ears"















and generally had a good time enjoying America (and it's weird foods)!
Here we are with a churro each... like a long cinnamon donut!








One morning, we had breakfast with Minnie & friends






and we took photos with all the characters




Another afternoon, we had lunch with the Disney princesses to celebrate Ally's 15th birthday. Snow White, Belle, Sleeping Beauty & Cinderella all joined us.








We all dressed up for the day as our favourite princess!

Here's the little girls...





and the big girls (right before we got told to get changed by Disney staff because we were confusing the little kids with our look-a-like costumes!)





Claryse (Doc from the Seven Dwarfs) & Me (Sleeping Beauty... see?)




Zachary (who I babysit regularly) went as Woody from Toy Story! So cute!



I can't say how awesome Disneyland was. Everyone just had fun, no matter how old they were. It was magical. We had great weather, and apart from a little illness that spread through the group, everyone had a fantastic time.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

America Photos, Part 3

After San Diego, we travelled to Anaheim. I can't say that I remember much about the bus ride from San Diego to Anaheim, because pretty much the whole bus conked out for the entire 2 hour trip! I guess the jet lag kinda caught up on us.


Once we got to Anaheim, the first thing I remember seeing is the Disneyland sign. Disneyland has it's own road signs! Finally we pulled up to our hotel, and it was literally across the road from Disneyland! That night, Haylee, Claryse & I went across to Downtown Disneyland, which is basically the place you go when you want to shop Disney-style. It's still in the park complex, but not actually in Disneyland park, so you can go in and out as much as you want without your ticket.






The next day was a free day in Anaheim. We spent the afternoon at Build-a-Bear in Downtown Disney, celebrating two of the little girls' birthdays.

Here's me with my build-a-bear (I only acquired it because Jordan, one of the birthday girls, chose it and stuffed it with fluff before rejecting it and picking another one! Hence it's name, "The Jordy Reject"! )



That night, we had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, also in Downtown Disney.



The next day was our first performance. We performed at Knott's Berry Farm at 11.30am.







That performance was particularly interesting. Our backstage "area" consisted of a dusty backstage area with a concrete path outside that had a drain right in the middle of it. It was dirty. Literally. There was dirt everywhere, since it was wide open with no roof.

But that wasn't the worst of it. Apparently moments before we came on stage, the parents in the audience were asking the staff if they could please hammer in those nails sticking out of the stage so we didn't get caught on them! How professional.


After our performance, we were free to explore the park. I have to say, I wasn't particularly impressed by it, but I guess that's because I'm not much of a "scary rides" person and they were the main kind of rides that KBF had.

I was also going to post some photos of us from our performance, but I can't find any good ones. We're all collating our photos onto one CD, so I'll post some when I get that.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

America Photos, Part 2

More photos from California...



The best thing about San Diego was the shopping!
We went to Macy's, Bloomingdales, Bergdorfs, Nordstrom, H&M... if there was a department store nearby, we were there!

Here we are in the hat department at Macy's:



Then we discovered The Gap! LOVE The Gap. And we found Old Navy.



Here's Claryse, Haylee & I at Old Navy, pretending to be mannequins:




It was also really easy to travel around. Our hotel was right near a train station, and the public transport system was really good and easy to use.

Here we are on the train to Fashion Valley (a shopping centre that had it's own train station!)



On our last night in San Diego, Claryse, Haylee & I found The Cheesecake Factory near a shopping centre we were at. I LOVE cheesecake. So I was adamant that we get some to take back to our hotel with us. Well, we walked in and there was a line out the door! Finally we asked if they did takeaway orders, and they said yes, so we got to push to the front of the queue!



To celebrate, we had a cheesecake party!




Our last day in San Diego was spent at San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park.
The thing I remember most about this day was how cold it was! It may look sunny, but it was freezing!!



There weren't many rides, but Claryse & I took Felicia on the carousel: