last trips of US visit.. part 1

The weekend just gone by was special for us in more than one way. First of all, this was my last weekend here in US before me and my parents fly back to India. Secondly, I got to visit places I had only heard before of how incredible they are and never really imagined that I will get to see them in my lifetime. What I am referring to are the most visited place in US - disneyland and Las Vegas.
Our hotel booking in LA and Vegas was done in advance. In LA, we booked a room in Radisson Suites Hotel and in Vegas, Stratosphere Hotel and Casino. We packed our bags and headed south towards Los Angeles - Orange County on friday afternoon. The road trip took us about six and a half hours in traversing a distance of about 400 miles. On the go, we listened to latest hindi songs on youtube as well as hummed to the tunes of oldies like Kishore Kumar album on the CD player.
We reached the hotel at around 9 pm. The location of hotel was great given that disneyland was located at a 10 min drive from the hotel. Our room on the fourth floor was awesome too. Our room had infact two rooms - one with beds, almirah and all and the other with sofas and dinner table. Both the rooms had big LCD TVs. Moreover, our room faced the front side of swimming pool. We made reservations for the shuttle service to disneyland provided by the hotel. We had to be ready by 8:30 in the morning so that night, I watched some TV and went to sleep.
In the morning, we got ready and went for breakfast in the hall. I ate muffin, some fruits, bread with butter and jam and drank orange juice. After the breakfast, we took the shuttle service to Disneyland.Disneyland has two parks- Disney's California Adventure Park and Disneyland Park. We bought tickets for the disneyland park. The tickets were expensive - 72$$ per person for one park. There was a big rush of visitors waiting in lines. The park opened at 9 am and after some waiting, we went inside the park. The theme park entrance lead onto a path after which one could take any of the many routes for roaming and seeing things around. Entrance to a castle was visible from a distance but we decided to check out the map first. The park had more than 60 attractions and plenty of places to dine. The map had areas marked into categories- Main Street,USA; New Orleans Square; Adventureland; Fantasyland; Tomorrowland and so on.Each area had its own attractions given properly in the map. We went into the Adventureland first which lay on our left. We took the Jungle Cruise in which the visitors set sail on a large boat and taken through the jungle waters. All kinds of animals like elephant , chimpanzee , lion etc could be seen doing some stuff or the other. Of course, the animals were artificial but if seen in a flash, they look really real. The person who took us through this ride made us laugh throughout with his jokes and tricks. We felt really good as this was our first experience of disneyland attraction and had turned out to be awesome. We moved on and saw many more attractions of the park but I will point out those which really stood out. These were "Pirates of the Carribean", "Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage", "Indiana Jones adventure", "Innoventions","Splash Mountain", "Honey,I Shrunk the Audience" and "Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters". In "Finding Nemo...." we travelled in a submarine, in "Pirates ...." we went on a boat and in "Buzz Lightyear .." we travelled on a spaceship, on a journey similar to that in Star Wars movie. We went on a roller coaster ride on the mountain in "Splash Mountain" and had 4-D experience in "Honey,I shrunk the Audience". In Innoventions, we saw some amazing gadgets and played some cool virtual games. The parade with dance, music and cartoon characters in "Celebrate! A Street Party" was real fun too. The fireworks show in front of the castle was to begin at 9:25 pm. We had our last ride "Indiana Jones Adventure" at around 8:15 pm after which we went straight for our dinner at one of the diners. The crowd for the show had gathered, approximately 10000 people waited on the road for the show to begin. The show began on time and was a real entertainer with amazing fireworks on display in full throttle and synchronised with the music played in full volume.
After the show, we went to our hotel with memories of how wonderful the day had gone by.
We checked out of the hotel the next morning and departed for our next and last spot, Las Vegas.