Day 3 - San Diego Safari Park
On day 3 we went to the San Diego Safari Park. We had a great day, and many of the staff/volunteers were quite surprised, but happy that we chose the Safari Park over the Zoo.
Check out the full sized one here
This is one of my favourite shots of our trip. The baby was 7months old. We stood and talked to one of the park volunteers and taking shots for a good 1/2 hour, waiting for a good one of the baby. The lighting was tough with the black gorillas in the shade the bright dirt in the foreground.
The Baby(not the greatest image, but super cute)
The Cheetah Run -This was super impressive. They had a setup with a toy on a rope that the Cheetah chased. The speed and energy of the gorgeous animals was truly awe inspiring.
Giraffe
Flamingo - Not colour enhanced
Not sure what this bird is...anyone (looks like a peacock, but don't think it is)
Day 5 - Universal Studios & Day 6 - Hollywood
Day 5 and 6 were photographically pretty dull(so I will combine). Partly because we had our only day of rain on the whole trip on the day we went to Universal Studios, and partly because we really were doing the tourist thing.
Driving in LA.
The freeways in San Diego and LA took us a while to get worked out. San Diego only has a population about the same and where we live, but the traffic volumes were 5 times as much. With this I was trying to convey the enormity of LA Freeways.
Back lot tour at Universal
The Simpson's Ride at Universal was a real surprise.
Cool Sign
Kodak Theatre(where they hold the Oscars)
The iconic Hollywood sign. This one I set up on my little gorilla tripod, which is why it appears a little low and lacking a little headroom. I am in the 2nd row on the right.
Day 7, 8 & 9 - Anaheim Disney.
So the next 3 days of our trip were spent at Disneyland, and I have to admit it was bigger and more fun than I was expecting. I think we were there at a pretty good time so that the crowds weren't huge. "The Happiest Place on Earth" certainly was joyous the week before Christmas, with carols playing everywhere.
A number of these shots were taken with my Canon s100 which I had finally managed to get my hands on the night before, after a week of struggling to find a store that had not sold out. At some point I'll do a full review, but it was handy to be able to have such a capable camera in such a small package.
The Toy Soldiers in the daily parade.
Our kids managed to get a call up to fight Darth Vader :)
These guys bailed up a friend of ours and the kids all jumped to her rescue.
The iconic castle all lit up.
The "Its a Small World" ride
The Mickey Wheel at night
Evening Day 12 The Polar Express & Day 13 - Hoover Dam.
OK time to catch up on a few more pics from my holiday.
After we left the Grand Canyon, we stay at Williams where the do a Polar Express Train ride where kids ride a train to the North Pole wearing pyjamas (Those of you with kids will understand :) )
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7065/6...ee5ac35d85.jpg
Polar Express by ~AntZ~, on Flickr
Some how this guy got on board.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7198/7...4b668565e7.jpg
Santa on the Polar Express by ~AntZ~, on Flickr
The next day was a short drive to the Hoover Dam
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7134/6...fdbdddf105.jpg
P1080003.jpg by ~AntZ~, on Flickr
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7088/6...cbddd94114.jpg
Hoover Wall by ~AntZ~, on Flickr
This is where the power is generated.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5349/6...5827b92dc3.jpg
Turbines of The Hoover Dam by ~AntZ~, on Flickr
...and I just had to post this one. This is my youngest and its very hard to get a non posed pic of him, but then again some of his poses are classic.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7043/6...a42363b7c9.jpg
I'm a Charmer, Just Like My Dad :) by ~AntZ~, on Flickr
Day 17 - Wolf Creek and Powder Mountain
So we spent Christmas day in Wolf Creek with a pickup American Christmas Lunch. Keeping in mind that in Australia we are sweating our tails off and usually have cold meats, seafood and salads for for lunch it was a big change. Our Lunch fed 2 families for 3 meals.
This was one I took when I went out for a drive with my youngest to take some pics and get a coffee. There is something about it I quite like.
A view from the top of the learner ski slops looking back towards Ogden. Yes it is HDR in case anyone is wondering.
Panorama from the highest part that was accessible when we were there. View the full size
Another example of why its great to have a ultra portable like the s100.
Day 23 - Drive from Wolf Creek to Reno.
OK, we're nearly there :)
This was another day of driving. We headed to San Francisco, with a stop off in Reno. Not too much to see other than the Bonneville Salt Flats which were quite impressive.
There is some slight banding, which is beyond me(or my monitor) to fix. The full panorama on this is 39000 pixels wide. You can see a 4000 pixel version here.
Here is another couple of fun shots at Bonneville.
This was one of those shot, that I knew I had to take
This one to some extent typified out holiday with a 5 year old who was often quite "difficult"
Being a transit day, there were lots of shots out of the car window as things whizzed by.
Again this was one that I had seen at various times and knew I had to shoot it, so I waited until next time I saw some power lines on the horizon and made sure I was ready.
This one represented another aspect of our holiday...driving.
Next Stop, San Francisco!
