ONE WEEK TO GO!

After more than a year of waiting and planning it is now only one week until I fly out with my mum and dad for our holiday. It seems to be going so slow this past few weeks and I can't wait for the day to come.

I have arranged to meet Casey in LA and Elauren in San Antonio, I just wish I could have met some of my other penpals, but I will try to in the future.

We saw a story on San Diego last night on TV and Seaworld and the Wild Animal park look amazing. I wasn't too excited about our 3 days in San Diego before, but now it looks like it might be one of the best parts of the trip!

THIS IS L.A.

After a two and a half hour drive to the airport, followed by another two and a half hour wait for the plane, we finally got on board the Qantas flight to Los Angeles. Thirteen hours later we landed at LAX and were met by my California pal, Casey, and Ann, her mum. We knew who they were straight away because they were holding a sign that said "DONUT" in huge letters.

They took us to our Hotel and then we went and played "Glow in the Dark" Putt Putt and had Pizza at a Rock ' N' Roll Diner. Then we went back to their house and had a great swim in the pool. After that we went to the Hotel early because mum was still a bit sick from the flight.

On Sunday they picked us up really early because Casey had to be in the Cheer squad for a Peewee Football team, the Chargers. It was great to watch them do all the different cheers but it was really hot even though it was only 9 o'clock in the morning. After that we went to the Los Angeles County Fair, it is like the Sydney show but much bigger. We had a fantastic time there and I got a pink Cowboy hat which I wear everywhere now.

After the Fair we all went to see Ann's boyfriends' house. He lives on a farm in the mountains and we saw some wild deer on the side of the mountain. The three dogs where great and I played with them a lot. Casey gave me some fantastic gifts and then we went back to the hotel for a swim in the pool. It was way after dark when we got out and Casey and Ann had to leave because it was a school night. I hope to see Casey again one day because we had a fantastic time together and will be great friends forever.

I SAID "A" "L" "B" "U" ....... QUERQUE....... ALBUQUERQUE!

We got to sleep in a bit on Monday morning before the shuttle came to take us to Albuquerque. Dad and I have been singing the Weird Al song about Albuquerque the whole time on the flight. The airport was amazing and the most beautiful we have seen. We spent so much time in the souvenir shops that Security was looking at us funny when we finally got our luggage from the carousel. We had 2 of the last 3 bags there.

Next we picked up our car and I got to choose which one. I picked a Jeep Grand Cherokee and we were soon on our way. As soon as dad drove out of the driveway he went on the left side of the road until mum yelled out that he was on the wrong side. From then on we kept saying "right is right" to make dad stay on the proper side. It was strange seeing all the cars on the opposite side to us and dad driving from the left seat.

We got a bit lost on the way to our Bed and Breakfast but we finally got there. Dad kept trying to look at all the adobe houses but mum was telling him to watch the road! We stayed in a Casita, it is a small Adobe building and it was awesome with the bright coloured walls. Sue was the name of our host and she was very nice. There was a pot of M&Ms in every room that you could eat any time. We had a chat to the other guests and then went to bed because we had a big day traveling.

Tuesday was our first real day as tourists. Dad did a good job remembering to drive on the wrong side of the road all day. We had a lovely breakfast, a quick chat with Sue and the other guests, I played with the two cute dogs, and then we drove into Old Town Albuquerque for a look around.

The "Old Town" was a really nice place, with lots of nice adobe buildings, really interesting shops and thousands of ristras (long strings of red chilies drying in the sun. We walked around for about 5 hours and bought some really cool souvenirs and lots of t-shirts. Late in the afternoon we took the Trolley into the main part of Albuquerque and walked along the famous Route 66, which is the main street in the city. After catching the trolley back to Old Town, we had a nice Mexican meal and drove back to our Casita for the night.

We decided that Wednesday would be the day that Dad got to visit the place he was most looking forward to.... Santa Fe. Instead on going straight there on the Freeway, we decided to take another way called the "Turquoise Trail" which takes a bit longer but has some great scenery and passes through some nice little towns as well. We stopped for a few minutes in a nice place called Madrid which only had about 20 buildings and most of them were art galleries! Just as we were getting in to Santa Fe we stopped at a cool shop named Jackalope which has lots of Mexican imports and had a pen full of cute Prairie Dogs.

Santa Fe was a really nice city. Dad reckons he would be happy to live there for a year and just paint stuff. He said it was the most beautiful city he has visited. We went on an open trolley tour around town and saw heaps of beautiful buildings and amazing art galleries. We took so many photos and so much video that dad had a sore neck at the end of the tour from turning side to side so often! After the tour we had a delicious meal. Mum ordered the ribs and 4 of the biggest, meatiest ribs ever came out. They were as big as my arm each and there was no way she could eat them all. We drove back to Albuquerque on the freeway and had our last night at the Cinnamon Morning Casita.

On Thursday morning we had our third and final delicious breakfast at Cinnamon Morning. Mum and Dad had said they would love to return and stay there again in a few years but Sue told them that she was retiring next year and closing the Bed and Breakfast. I'm glad we got to stay there though, the room, the food, and the people were all excellent and it was a great 3 days.

REMEMBER THE ALAMO ...... SAN ANTONIO.

After finding our way to the airport, then two more plane trips we touched down in Texas. Home of the Alamo and my penpal, Elauren. It was much hotter there than in the other cities. The taxi driver said it was about 95F (35C) and that was quite OK. The day before had been 114F (46C) !!! Finally to the Hotel and only a few hours until I meet my penpal.

At about 6pm Elauren and her family arrived and took us to the beautiful Riverwalk for dinner. The whole family are wonderful people and they did everything to help us enjoy our visit. I got on great from the first minute with Elauren and her older sister Alexis. We handed out Aussie gifts for everyone and had a lovely dinner. When we were talking about our time in Albuquerque, their little brother thought it was Albu-COOKIE! We all laughed and now I will always call it that. After dinner we went on a boat ride around the river. It is beautiful with all of the lights, shops and restaurants along the sides. Then back to the Hotel for some much needed rest for a big day tomorrow.

On Friday morning the Balagtas family came to pick us up at our Hotel and we went to a real Mexican restaurant for breakfast! We all had Mexican foor and then we to the Mercado, the biggest Mexican market outside of Mexico. We bought lots more souvenirs and saw lots of awesome stuff in the shops. Then we went to see the Alamo. It is a famous fort where Davy Crockett had a huge battle hundreds of years ago. It was really interesting and had lots of squirrels running around in the gardens. It is built right in the middle of the city which was a bit strange.

In the afternoon we went to the San Antonio Zoo. It was pretty big and had a lot of interesting animals. When we were feeding some Aussie Lorikeets (birds) one of them started biting dad's neck and made him bleed! I saw a squirrel annoying a huge elephant and the elephant almost ppohed on it! That was pretty funny. After the zoo closed we went to Walmart, it's a huge department store and they have nearly anything you can imagine. At night we went on a horse and carriage ride around the city. It was really nice but a bird poohed on mum. The cowboy driving the horses tried to tell her that it was good luck when that happened. We went to get one of Elauren's favourite giant pizzas but the restaurant had a two hour wait! After the ride it was back to the Hotel for another much needed rest.

I was having a great time with Elauren and Alexis and Saturday was our last full day together. They took us to Six Flags Fiesta Texas, a big them park in San Antonio, and we got to meet their oldest brother, Eric. It was really hot but we had a fantastic day and I had some amazing photos with Bugs Bunny and Tweety. They were having a fight over me and it was very funny. Eric was really nice and he made sure I got to do whatever I wanted to at the park. We went on some rides and I won a giant fluffy snake at one of the games. The park was closing early so they could get ready for Halloween, so we left and went to an All-you-can-eat Pizza place which had a great games room. Then we went back to the Hotel for the final night of a fantastic visit with Elauren and her great family.

The next morning they picked us up again and we just drove around a bit and had another delicious Mexican breakfast before they dropped us at the airport for the trip to Las Vegas. I was sad to leave because the Balagtas family were so nice and we were all having such a great time together. I definately want to meet up with them again one day and I think we will be great friends for life. Just like the necklaces we got for Elauren, Alexis and me that say "BEST " FRIENDS" and "FOREVER" on the 3 peices. We have one piece each and I can't wait until we put them all back together again.

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