I was out at the bus stop almost 40 minutes early cos I did not want to miss the bus. There were four benches and three of the four had homeless people sleeping on them. So I stood next to the sign, a little way away.
The bus stop was across the drive from the hotel, which was the second hotel after the lights to the road to Disneyland, so the location was brilliant.
The bus stop cleaners came along to clean up the stop and woke the homeless up. They're obviously used to it because they just gathered their meagre possessions and shuffled off.
As they were heading off, a woman came towards the bus stop. She was nicely dressed and with a little suitcase and had that look of 'fellow traveller' about her. I was happy to meet someone to pass the time with, make sure it was the right stop, etc, etc. I asked her if she was catching the shuttle and she replied that she was homeless at the moment and did I have at change. Yep... My travel-dar is not as good as my gaydar.
The shuttle arrives - thankfully, cos I had visions of it not arriving and me having to take a $100 taxi ride - and it's goodbye to Disneyland. A couple of stops, then we're off to the airport. There's a lot of traffic (it is 7:00am so,that's to be expected). And then it's raining! Which it doesn't do much of in California, I've been told.
So it's a good day to leave the mainland.
To the airport and to Hawaiian Airlines. When I arrived here two months ago, I had come down this way accidentally. The woman I spoke to then to get directions to,get back to where I should be said this is where I'd be coming to in the way home and now here it is! And it feels like an eternity ago and just two minutes ago at the same time.
Breakfast, coffee and onto the plane.
It's a bigger plane than I've had on the internal flights - two, four and two across. We get lunch on this one - a little garden salad, mushroom and spinach pasta and a macadamia cookie. All very nice.
One of the ladies I was sitting with last night before the parade told me that Anaheim is not a very nice area, high crime. And I'm glad I didn't know that when I was walking along the night before. Though I had sensed a bit of a seedy feel to it. The taxi driver who picked me up was really surprised there were no taxis when I got off the train. And thank goodness I got the early train - imagine doing that walk at dusk!! Though maybe there would have been taxis meeting the later train.
Anyway... Couple of random thoughts as I sit on the plane...
There are quite a few couples here who dress the same. You can tell it's not an accident, it's planned. I have seen many where they're both wearing khaki pants and green shirts or cream pants and purple polo shirts. The best one was at the San Diego Zoo where I saw a couple in blue jeans and yellow T-shirts. As I came up past them, there in the pram was a really little baby - in a yellow T-shirt. I bet the nappy - sorry, diaper - was denim, or at least blue.
At Disney, there were lots of, shall we say kilogram-challenged folk who were in attire that is for the not kilogram-challenged. And lots and lots of little girls dressed as princesses. The lady from last night had a daughter in one of these. I asked her who she was. Little girl wanted me to guess. Unfortunately, if it's not Belle, Sleeping Beauty or the Little Mermaid before she loses her tail, I've got no idea. Turns out she was Rapunzal. But without the hair, so how do you guess that?
Sore knee today. Sore elbow and hip. All on the right. And weirdly, sore pinky finger. Not sure what I did to that as I hit the deck yesterday.
Had a sleep for an hour or so, which made the whole flight go a bit quicker. The guy across the aisle and one up has decided he wants to chat to me - why? Leave me alone. He asks how long I'm going to Hawaii for. I say four or five days. He says it's terrible and boring and there's nothing to do but drink. And he offers to take me on a pub crawl. To which I say a polite no.
We land and he's chatting again. Asking where I'm staying. When I say, "A hotel." he leaves me alone, thankfully.
(I like the look of this plane,for some reason) (maybe it's cos I'm off it now)
Now for a 12km hike to baggage claim - that may be an exaggeration.
Get the bag and then purchase a significant item...
This is significant in that it is the last transaction I HAVE to make. The shuttle that will take me to my hotel and, more importantly, it will return me to the airport on Saturday. That's the last of the organising done and it's a nice feeling. The anxious feeling of "how will I get there. Is it all booked." is over!
Onto the shuttle and the benefit of being a party of one is I have always managed to get the front seat next to the driver.
The shuttle drops off a few people and then my hotel.
Check in takes a while cos they want money up front. This is okay but as all the others want it on check out, I hadn't transferred any yet, so that took a bit longer. But now that's done and out of the way too, which is good.
Up to the ninth floor and check out my view!
I think I'll be okay here for a few days...!
I went for a bit of a stroll downstairs - not too far cos I'll do that more thoroughly tomorrow.
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