USA cont.

Wow, am I ever behind with this blog! We're actually in Holland at this moment, and had major problems with internet connections at our budget hotel in London, but now in this civilised country we have high speed internet in our hotel room, so it's time to catch up. Buckle your seatbelts....
16 June
We invaded Disneyland, starting our day at 5:30 am! Our obliging hosts drove us all the way there and went off to do some work on their geneologies. We joined our first queue (US = 'line') around 8:45, and took a mere 20 minutes to get through the entrance. Upon picking up our map, our first destination was to have breakfast, then onto the Jumgle Boat Ride - not in the least bit scary, but lots of fun. Tarzan's Tree House was next, then a sedate ride on the steamboat. By this time, we were ready to take a load off our feet, so enjoyed a train ride around the outside of the complex. The tour thru' Sleeping Beauty's castle was really lame, then it was back to Main Street, where we both had icecreams so large we could only eat half of them.
While we were traipsing around taking in the sights, I spied a tall mountain-type structure, from which screams emitted, so I foolishly conclded that would be the one 'scary 'ride I'd take. It was the Matterhorn Bobsled.Gordon took one look at the queue and decided he couldn't be bothered waiting that long, so I stood in that slowly-moving queue for 35 minutes. As I closer to the beginning of the ride, the screams got louder, and I could see where the bobsleds dived down into a black tunnel, I began to have misgivings. I looked around, but there was no obvious means of escape, aside from launching myself, plus backpack, over a fence, so it seemd I would have to follow through on my commitment. I reminded myself that if my mother could do this (a number of years ago), so could I. The time came when I gingerly stepped into the front of the second section of the bobsled. A man (who had two kids with him) in the section in front of me turned and asked how I was. I told him I was a bit nervous (understatement of the year!) and it must have shown on my face, because, as we lurched into the blackness of the mountainside, he reached his hand back, so I took hold of it and held on for dear life. A few moments later, he had to let go, and he needed both hands to hold on - so it was just me and Jesus. I did not enjoy a moment of the ride which tossed me around like a rag doll, and I prayed the whole way. Fortunately the whole thing did not last too long, and with my stomach contents miraculously still intact, I stepped out of the torture machine.
The problem I next encountered was that Gordon was nowhere to be seen. We had arranged to meet up at the entrance should we ever get separated, so I tootled off there, but still no Gordon. I remembered that he'd said he wanted to have a look at something called "Innoventions", so I went through that, and then back to the entrance, where I waited another 30 minutes before a thoroughly hacked-off hubby appeared. Some time the next day Gordon got over it! Apparently he'd waited at the START of the bobsled queue for me to come out - for 1 3/4 hours.
Apart from the dampener at the end of the day, Disneyland struck me as being an amazingly imaginative and creative place - just a shame that tens of thousands of other people happened to want to be there on the same day.