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Forgetting to celebrate Daniel's Birthday, who was having a party at The Hayling View, as we had a poor experience visiting Six Flags Magic Mountain. Their ‘Funnel Cake’ was only for real fatties!
The day was a mixture of sunny intervals and cloudy periods with the cool mountain air and we were glad to have our British-style coats and jumpers
Awake at 4.00am which was a little later and the "lay in" was due to Diana being a little more reluctant than the rest of us. We got ready and went out to our favourite Coco's only to find them not open until 7.00am at the weekend but we drove over to another 24-hour branch and had a nice meal there. We then set off on the drive across to that part of Southern California north of Los Angeles where we queued up to enter "Six Flags Magic Mountain". I did not think much of the queues and noise of this place. They also had no effective park map at first and few shops or other means of catering for people waiting up to two hours for some of the rides and even the ladies toilets had a fifteen-minute wait.
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After a rainy night, and an early start, we enjoyed a Coco’s breakfast and then drove to Knotts Berry Farm for lunch (a ‘second breakfast’) at Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant where I revisited the sites history by Walter and Cordelia Knott.
Then The Horseshow Saloon show at Ghost Town, The Indian Camp, Camp Snoopy and much more. Tonight the people of Los Angeles were remembering the Rodney King assault as the defendants came on trial.
Another 3.00am morning but this time I had to wake the others to keep them from going back to sleep and changing our body clock time zones. Our routine as normal but then we waited outside Coco's to have breakfast at 6.30am. We had "gone-off" of Denny's and preferred the more hospitable atmosphere (and lower prices!) of Coco's. Back to the hotel before our day out and . there we belatedly met the British Airways representative who had been trying to see me since we arrived in California. He was not, however, able to help us in any way as we were quite settled and experienced in this setting.
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After an early start playing scrabble and having a slightly unsatisfactory breakfast at Denny’s, we stole a march on other guests at Disneyland by waiting in the China shop at the end of Maine Street for them to open the back door so that we had 100 yards start on the main throng of people when the rope barrier dropped!
First to Star Tours and then just around the corner to Space Mountain before we joined the queues for the rest of the usual rides. The dull and cloudy weather was a disappointment to Diana.
All awoke at 3.00am with the girls playing Scrabble and Di and I resting until we got ready to go out to breakfast. Drove to Denny's again but we were not very happy as the news broadcasts told of their company in California discriminating against their black customers and we also found the waitress somewhat sullen. She topped all this by getting our order wrong, but it was probably because she was near the end of an all-night work shift. Back to the hotel to clean our teeth and then we left our car at the hotel and walked the short distance to Disneyland to save the $5 parking fee.
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An early start and meal at Carl Jnrs before driving across LA to spend the day at Universal Studios. There were a few new experiences, but it was mainly the same old tour.
We took in the ET ride, and the experiences of Backdraft and Screen Spectacular before leaving quite tired at 5.30pm. A meal at Coco's on the way back and then to bed at 7.00-7.30pm for an early night
Awake early at 3.00am and rested to prepare ourselves for the first busy day. I updated my journal and then, after sharing the bath water with Della and having a cuddle with Diana, we dressed and set off in the car for a neighbourhood drive and to find somewhere for breakfast. We settled on Carl Jnrs, the only place open at this early hour, and there Della had pancakes and bacon and we all found something that we liked. Disneyland was not open until 9.00am and so I suggested we take the drive across to the other side of Los Angeles to Universal Studios where we still arrived before their opening time.
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