Day 8

Disneyland is an exciting, wondrous and magical place. And I've had my fill.

You CAN have too much of a good thing, and at the end of a 6-day pass, the sheer decadence has worn me down. Even the California Screamin' rollercoaster, over so many rides has progressed from thrilling, to exciting, to enjoyable, to somewhat dull, and finally to a little annoying. It's like gorging on block after block of chocolate. It's like seeing a great comedian perform the same routine time and again.

I don't mean that I now regret our time at Disneyland - only that I don't need any more for a little while.

And so I've left the family there for their final hours, and headed back to the motel to catch-up on a couple of days blogging. Tomorrow, we leave for San Diego by bus.

I won't run through the rides of the day - suffice it to say that we explored some of the less thrilling adventures with shorter queues that hadn't really been on our to-do-list. Though we did coax Suzy onto the Hollywood Tower of Terror early in the day - which was great.

To take a few steps back, the day started with the girls' final dance performance at California Adventure Park. Yet again we parents were a little emotional and a lot proud.

Today was also our farewell dinner - at the Rainforest Cafe. This is a little different to the Hot Spot in Traralgon - and even a little better than the Royal Exchange. It's a themed restaurant, with as much attention to detail as any of the Disney rides. Modelled on ancient ruins overgrown by rainforest, it includes a number of wall height fishtanks, and a few animatronic animals (including a couple of sizeable elephants). It was a great way to finish the official dance tour. Awards were awarded and speeches were spoken.

It turns out we'll be crossing paths with at least a couple of the other families who have overlapping further travel plans. In fact, our bus to San Diego is thanks to the Fleming family.

In closing, let me assure you that this was the eighth straight day of perfect blue skies, and after a couple of warmer days, was back to something in the mid twenties.

I realise that this post is out of order, but I thought I'd get it out of the way while it's fresh in my head. Now, onto Day 7 ...