After having sent, early January 2011, all the paperwork for Wai Leng to get her Swiss passport, and waited almost a year and a half the final decision of the city of residence (Lausanne), the county (Valais) and the Swiss confederation, we got the confirmation that her facilitated naturalisation was approved...YEAH!!!
So as we relocate, since then, to the US, it is truly amazing that the entire process did continue over here... The only Swiss representation in the area is located in Los Angeles...so we had no choice but to go there to finalise the paperworks (a photo portrait and 5 fingerprints).
We then decided to combine business and pleasure and decided to spend a few days in Los Angeles.
Flight @ 07:00AM from DIA (we were so in a rush...amazing, we almost missed our plane!!) and after about 2h in a SouthWest plane, we arrived in LA. Rented a car and drove straight to the Swiss Embassy. LA is a nightmare to drive and it took us about an hour to drive to the Embassy. I think we spent about 12.5 minutes in there...no comments.
We then decided to go around a little...direction VENICE BEACH!!!
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| Venice Beach, California!! |
...and what is so famous in Venice Beach? The outdoor heavy weight centres:
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| K-1 body building outdoor centre |
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| Wai Leng & Mila, ready to practice ;-) |
Beside the body building centres, there is of course the gorgeous beach:
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| Mila on Venice Beach, LA |
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| Wai Leng and Mila playing on the beach by a beautiful day!! |
The area is really nice and some houses, along Ocean Front Walk, are really...really nice!
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| Ocean Front Walk, Venice Beach |
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| Interesting architecture on Ocean Front Walk |
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| Stretch of houses beside Venice Beach |
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| Palm trees on the beach...NICE!!! |
...ok, a last one before moving on:
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| This one is for the ladies... ;-) |
We spent a few hours on Venice Beach, but frankly speaking, there is not much around there. So we decided to drive a little South towards Anaheim.
It took us 3.5 hours to drive there and I was so tired that I had to pull the car and sleep for a while. The traffic jams are simply a nightmare...I hate LA just for that!!!
Disneyland Park:
In Anaheim, there are the best amusement parks for kids: "Disneyland" and the "Disney California Adventure". Both are great and specially for a 3-4 years old!
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| The main entrance |
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| Mila and Wai Leng on the main square |
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| Follow the arrow... |
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| Gigantic flowers... |
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| Mila sitting on a mushroom |
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| Mila and a very famous fairy: Tinker Bell ("fée clochette") |
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| Mila and Nemo |
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| Alice in Wonderland was a great attraction |
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| The tea cups too, really cool!! |
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| ...extra cool!!! |
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| Wai Leng hand Mila having fun! |
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| In ToonTown... |
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| Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland in Anaheim, California |
We even had the chance to see the fireworks which happened every single night!!! Crazy isn't???
SeaWorld:
The next day, we went to SeaWorld which is about an hour and a half from Anaheim, South, in San Diego. We had very few traffic on that day (yeah!)
SeaWorld is really nice and Mila loved it. We had so much fin to see the great whales, the dolphins, the penguins and all sort of amazing creatures.
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| Dolphins ride |
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| Killer whales |
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| Mila sitting on her friend "Crush" the green see turtle |
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| Yeah!! What a great day I had @ SeaWorld |
Disney California Adventure Park:
On the third day, we decided to spend the day at the Disney California Adventure Park. What you need to know is the the entrance fees of these parks are really expensive: Adult: USD 89.- and Kid: USD 81.-, so overall and including accommodation, food, amusement park, etc..., you spend easily USD 500.- a day!!!
Adventure Park was also really nice despite most of the activities are for kids I would 6-7 years old and up. Yet, Mila had great fun too and there are still some very nice attractions for younger ones.
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| Bugs Land was really cool!!! |
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| Thank you Mummy for riding with me in a nut shell!!! |
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| Can you spot "Slim" the proscopid? |
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| The (new) Cars Land is AMAZING!!! |
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| The landscape is quite real isn't? These are racing cars (set. 5h in queue to ride!!!) |
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| Mila climbing on the mini tractor, next to the "Mater's Junkyard Jamboree" ride, which was really funny! |
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| Mila... |
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| ...and Wai Leng eating a Turkey leg...HUGE!!! |
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| Portrait of Mila |
After having spent about 14 hours in the park, seen the laser show and the fireworks (again), we went back to our hotel for a good night sleep...
Overall, we spent 5 truly amazing days in LA and area. Parks are highly recommended and we only did a few...which will give us the opportunity to go back when Mila will be a little older.
