Los Angeles
The flight from Vegas left on time and I think in time too.
The sky was starting to look very threatening and the turbulence we
flew into on the way up seemed to be a warning of what Vegas could expect
overnight. Mind you, I know a threat is only a threat when it comes
to the weather, it's very rarely a promise.
Just a bit of useless information for you - in Perth we Ask Ted, in the states they Fly Ted.
The descent wasn't much better but landing at night it's hard to tell what the weather may be like. I did see a few black clouds saunter past the plane window but they could have been on their way to Vegas to catch up with the ones I'd left behind.
At all the airports I have been standing on the wrong side of the luggage carousel so I'm at the end of the run instead of the beginning, but like the water down the plug hole, I realized they all went round clockwise, so here I am, at LAX, standing far enough down the carousel to be able to recognize Mack and MM before they get to me when the bloody thing starts up going anti-clockwise. Luckily there weren't many people waiting around this one, so, moving quickly before the bags started coming round I got a good spot on the right side.
I'm really beginning to feel like a push-me-pull-you with these bags, but I've got it down to a fine art, I'm not doing 3 point turns any more.
Outside I join the queue for the shuttle bus to the Holiday Inn where I am now sitting back, relaxing, watching CSI and typing this short story.
Thanks to Gigi and Deidra I can now make a cup of tea in a coffee maker, although it did take a fair bit of washing to get the smell of coffee out of the machine. Filling up the sink I heard a sound of water running elsewhere, oops, the pipe's leaking. Bit odd really though considering the plug was in but when I opened the plug up it stopped leaking. There's definitely something different about LA, and they call us the upside down country.
Friday morning sees down in the restaurant for breakfast, reasonably early as I have to sort out my Universal Studio tour. As I was leaving the restaurant a guy at the table behind me called me back, I'd left my jacket on the back of the chair. He asked which part of Oz I was from and he told me he was a Kiwi, just moved here for a year with work. We went through the places we'd been, he'd also been to South Carolina. Can you see where I'm going with this? I told him about the group of Aussie's that were wandering around looking for beer in the early hours of the morning, he said it could have been his group. There were 3 Kiwi's, about 13-15 Aussies and a few Poms there for a golf convention.
Back in my room I try to get hold of the tour group but don't have any luck, so armed with all my paperwork I go see the concierge to see if he can help. He asked me if I'd been here before as he recognized my last name. Dad and Iris were here last year, that's what rang the bell for him. Joe says hi to you both. Joe was everything you said he was, a really happy and helpful guy. He got me on the tour bus at 10.30 which, after picking other people up, dropping one couple at the Getty Museum, got us to Universal Studios at 12 noon.
I had a blast of an afternoon, and took heaps of photo's. When you go through them, see if you recognize any of the sets from movies and tv shows. I took the studio tour which was really interesting. Two of the studios we passed were shooting, Criminal Minds and Desperate Housewives, so we had to keep quiet. Unfortunately we didn't get to see any of the actors, just buildings. We went through a few movie sets that were a bit of a shock, we got squirted by scarabs, caught in a flood and an earthquake and went through a section where the walls turned making you feel that the tram was turning over. We saw a helicopter fall out of the sky, the road cave in the earthquake where a truck rolled towards us and a train crash. Once again though, everything I experienced today would have to be experienced by you to appreciate the buzz I got from it.
The first section I came to was the Blues Brothers show. They were great, and they got the audience involved in some of their acts. The whole audience had to get up when they did Shake Your Tail Feather.
I went for a ride in an 8 seater DeLorian chasing Biff through time. (No photo's allowed)
Saw Shrek 4D where the seats shook and water squirts out of the back of the seat in front. (No photo's allowed again)
I also did a tour of the Backdraft set. When the fire started it seemed like we were in the movie, the scenery around us started collapsing and the heat was pretty intense.
I went through the special effects studio, again no photo's, but watching how they do things is interesting.
There were some interesting characters also wandering around that you could have your photo taken with. Some I knew but some I didn't have a clue who they were but I'm sure you or your kids will know them.
After touring around what is called the Upper Lot where there are streets that you may recognize from some movies, lots of shops and food outlets, I took the numerous escalators required to get down to the Lower Lot, where the Jurassic Park ride is. The bus driver told us that was a ride we must do but be careful as we will get wet. Just my luck, it was closed for refurbishment. Oh well, I'll just have to come back here again too and hopefully it will be reopened by then.
During my travels there have been times when I've thought "I wish the grandkids were here to see this". Today was another time that I think they would really have loved it. Universal is a kids dream playground, there is so much for little ones to do without feeling left out when they are too small for some of the rides, and I am sure they would have loved the Shrek 4D show.
You will be glad to know that the only time I took my purse out of my bag was to buy lunch. Although I would normally buy a souvenir of where I've been, there is no way I can justify $6.00+ for a fridge magnet or $25.00+ for a t-shirt, just because it had Universal Studio printed on it. At least that's still left some room in the bags for some Lego.
6.30pm and it's back on the bus for the trip back to the hotel. First stop is Santa Monica. On one corner the driver pointed out that it's from the movie It's a mad mad mad mad world. I'm going to have to see that movie again to see the part he was talking about. The pier looked like a fun place to visit, and that is where Route 66 ends after wending it's way from Chicago.
It's an early night for me tonight. I have a 7.30 bus ride booked to San Diego, so I'll say goodnight to you all now and I'll see you sometime in the next few days with some more stories.
Just a bit of useless information for you - in Perth we Ask Ted, in the states they Fly Ted.
The descent wasn't much better but landing at night it's hard to tell what the weather may be like. I did see a few black clouds saunter past the plane window but they could have been on their way to Vegas to catch up with the ones I'd left behind.
At all the airports I have been standing on the wrong side of the luggage carousel so I'm at the end of the run instead of the beginning, but like the water down the plug hole, I realized they all went round clockwise, so here I am, at LAX, standing far enough down the carousel to be able to recognize Mack and MM before they get to me when the bloody thing starts up going anti-clockwise. Luckily there weren't many people waiting around this one, so, moving quickly before the bags started coming round I got a good spot on the right side.
I'm really beginning to feel like a push-me-pull-you with these bags, but I've got it down to a fine art, I'm not doing 3 point turns any more.
Outside I join the queue for the shuttle bus to the Holiday Inn where I am now sitting back, relaxing, watching CSI and typing this short story.
Thanks to Gigi and Deidra I can now make a cup of tea in a coffee maker, although it did take a fair bit of washing to get the smell of coffee out of the machine. Filling up the sink I heard a sound of water running elsewhere, oops, the pipe's leaking. Bit odd really though considering the plug was in but when I opened the plug up it stopped leaking. There's definitely something different about LA, and they call us the upside down country.
Friday morning sees down in the restaurant for breakfast, reasonably early as I have to sort out my Universal Studio tour. As I was leaving the restaurant a guy at the table behind me called me back, I'd left my jacket on the back of the chair. He asked which part of Oz I was from and he told me he was a Kiwi, just moved here for a year with work. We went through the places we'd been, he'd also been to South Carolina. Can you see where I'm going with this? I told him about the group of Aussie's that were wandering around looking for beer in the early hours of the morning, he said it could have been his group. There were 3 Kiwi's, about 13-15 Aussies and a few Poms there for a golf convention.
Back in my room I try to get hold of the tour group but don't have any luck, so armed with all my paperwork I go see the concierge to see if he can help. He asked me if I'd been here before as he recognized my last name. Dad and Iris were here last year, that's what rang the bell for him. Joe says hi to you both. Joe was everything you said he was, a really happy and helpful guy. He got me on the tour bus at 10.30 which, after picking other people up, dropping one couple at the Getty Museum, got us to Universal Studios at 12 noon.
I had a blast of an afternoon, and took heaps of photo's. When you go through them, see if you recognize any of the sets from movies and tv shows. I took the studio tour which was really interesting. Two of the studios we passed were shooting, Criminal Minds and Desperate Housewives, so we had to keep quiet. Unfortunately we didn't get to see any of the actors, just buildings. We went through a few movie sets that were a bit of a shock, we got squirted by scarabs, caught in a flood and an earthquake and went through a section where the walls turned making you feel that the tram was turning over. We saw a helicopter fall out of the sky, the road cave in the earthquake where a truck rolled towards us and a train crash. Once again though, everything I experienced today would have to be experienced by you to appreciate the buzz I got from it.
The first section I came to was the Blues Brothers show. They were great, and they got the audience involved in some of their acts. The whole audience had to get up when they did Shake Your Tail Feather.
I went for a ride in an 8 seater DeLorian chasing Biff through time. (No photo's allowed)
Saw Shrek 4D where the seats shook and water squirts out of the back of the seat in front. (No photo's allowed again)
I also did a tour of the Backdraft set. When the fire started it seemed like we were in the movie, the scenery around us started collapsing and the heat was pretty intense.
I went through the special effects studio, again no photo's, but watching how they do things is interesting.
There were some interesting characters also wandering around that you could have your photo taken with. Some I knew but some I didn't have a clue who they were but I'm sure you or your kids will know them.
After touring around what is called the Upper Lot where there are streets that you may recognize from some movies, lots of shops and food outlets, I took the numerous escalators required to get down to the Lower Lot, where the Jurassic Park ride is. The bus driver told us that was a ride we must do but be careful as we will get wet. Just my luck, it was closed for refurbishment. Oh well, I'll just have to come back here again too and hopefully it will be reopened by then.
During my travels there have been times when I've thought "I wish the grandkids were here to see this". Today was another time that I think they would really have loved it. Universal is a kids dream playground, there is so much for little ones to do without feeling left out when they are too small for some of the rides, and I am sure they would have loved the Shrek 4D show.
You will be glad to know that the only time I took my purse out of my bag was to buy lunch. Although I would normally buy a souvenir of where I've been, there is no way I can justify $6.00+ for a fridge magnet or $25.00+ for a t-shirt, just because it had Universal Studio printed on it. At least that's still left some room in the bags for some Lego.
6.30pm and it's back on the bus for the trip back to the hotel. First stop is Santa Monica. On one corner the driver pointed out that it's from the movie It's a mad mad mad mad world. I'm going to have to see that movie again to see the part he was talking about. The pier looked like a fun place to visit, and that is where Route 66 ends after wending it's way from Chicago.
It's an early night for me tonight. I have a 7.30 bus ride booked to San Diego, so I'll say goodnight to you all now and I'll see you sometime in the next few days with some more stories.