Act 1
11 August 2008 – 13 August 2008
11/08/08
NO MORE SLEEPS LEFT NOW
5am – Brisbane Time
Wow the day has finally arrived and we were up and ready
early. No sleep ins for us today
much too excited. Neither of us
slept very well last night but we did expect that to happen seeing as how
excited we are to be going.
The last few things are in the bag and the bags are in the car and
we are ready to head off. Shaz
popped over a bit after six to wish us Bon Voyage and we have both had a tear in
our eyes. It will be nearly 3
months before we see them again and they have been very good and dear friends
for a long time now.
6.20am
Kim (my
daughter) has wandered out to take us to the Airport so we are off and on our
way. The run down the Gateway
Motorway is really good for this time of morning and we are at the airport in
around 25minutes. It is sad to be
saying goodbye to her for so long and I will miss her and also miss the rest of
the family too.
After unloading we head into the terminal and find the aisle we
need to use to check in and one of the security people lets us know that we
should be able to check in around 4 hours before (7.05am) so we head off to have
a cup of tea and coffee.
7.15am
We arrive back
for check in at the Business Counter and it all goes well then off for all the
customs clearances. She gave us an
express card so we were able to bypass the worst of the queues waiting to be
processed.
All goes smoothly then ‘low and behold’ a lady calls Reg aside for
some further searching. No it was not his lucky day. LOL. They are do a sniffer test on him and
the bags he has plus a pat down. No
the lady did not pat his down either. LOL.
Then
off for the final counter and we are finally inside the departure area. We
make our way to the Business Lounge. Oh how nice this is comfy chairs and
a place to relax and just enjoy the excitement of the moment. I tried to eat a little bit of breakfast
but Reg doesn’t worry. We only have
about 2 hours and we will be able to board.
Of
course Reg heads down and gets our Duty Free for the trip – 2 large bottles of
OP Bundy Rum. Yes we were entitled
to another 2 bottles but we had not room to put it in our carryon and not enough
hands to carry stuff as it was. We
will make up for it on the return journey.
A
little before 10am we make our way down to the boarding lounge which was at the
other end of the terminal to the Business Lounge, of course. They were around half and hour late to
board everyone but the flight only ended up leaving about 20minutes late which
was good.
Those
seats we chose with your help Maurice were perfect thank you. Although not much
sleep was had by has during the flight it was still so much more comfortable
than being in cattle class. The
food was excellent and the service was spot on.
As
I said I had a couple of glasses of bubbles for you both.
We
arrived in LA at 7.20am Monday 11 August and had our bags and were through
customs in an hour which we thought was great. Then to find the shuttle bus for the
Avis pick up area.
Now
comes the difficult part driving.
Yes I have lucked out as the first one to drive in LA, possibly due to
past experience. But Reg that was
21 years ago now. Anyway with
a few small hiccups and a GPS that didn’t want to work at first. Yep Reg did something wrong he was
putting in and L instead of and I as they look the same on the keypad. So we had a bit of chuckle about that
one and we are finally out of the Avis area and on the
road.
The
GPS works well now that the initial problem is solved and we head on our way
towards Santa Monica. After missing
a few turns and “Alice” (we have called the GPS Alice) keeps saying
“recalculating” in a voice that does sound as if she is saying “oh dear can’t
you get it right” we find ourselves at Santa Monica.
Oh
what a wide beach and not too many on it today. We park the car in the Pier parking lot
($US8 thank you very much) and head up to look around the pier. Lovely views back along the beach and
the pier was interesting. We had
lunch at “Bubba Gumps Shrimp Company” on the pier. This is just the start of these huge
meals but it was very enjoyable.
From
the pier we head to our hotel in Hollywood with the aid of Alice and lots more
wrong turns and recalculating.
Arriving a little before 1pm (LA time 11 August) we were unable to check
in till around 2.30pm so did a stroll through the Hollywood & Highland Mall
then went back and sat in the foyer (snoozing) till our room was ready. We just could not have lasted any longer
and needed some well earned sleep.
After a couple of hours nap we cleaned up and changed and headed for a walk through a little of Hollywood and had dinner at the Pig N Whistle a couple of blocks from the mall. Food was good and we ended up having a drink at the bar and a great chat to the lovely barmaid (barperson) who served us.
12/08/08
After a sleep in this morning, which was good, we are both feeling great
with no after effects of jet lag, hopefully.
Breakfast was at Mel’s Diner which is only a few minutes from
where we are staying. Reg had OJ
and the meatloaf with scrambled eggs, potatoes and toast whilst I had OJ, a
banana ($US3.50 for one banana), a poached egg and toast. All in all not a bad breaky and it did
start the day out well for both of us.
We then headed off to Citadel Outlets for some shopping. After quite a bit of confusion with
“Alice” (yes our name for the GPS) we finally arrived at our
destination.
Both of us are having some difficulty with the concept of being
able to turn right at a “Red Light’ so long as the coast is clear. I am sure we will get there in the
end.
The shops were good but really not much different to what we have
in Brissie at the DFO. Pricing is
comparable. We did find a Nautica
Polo shirt for Reg at the XL shop (LOL) for a reasonable price. Also looked for some dress shoes for Reg
but we need a shop which caters for wide feet.
Whilst at the shops we stopped in at Ruby’s Diner for a cold drink
and something very light to tide us over till dinner tonight. Oh boy it is hard to get used to the
tipping and how it works but it is early days and we should be adept hands at it
all after 6 weeks.
From the shops we headed back to the Orchid Suites and while there
is still confusion with ‘Alice’ and getting the right exits etc we did arrive
eventually and saw quite a bit of downtown LA in the
process.
No more driving today we are going to have a short rest and then
head out on foot again.
When we headed off again we finally found a market where we got
some bread, butter and a couple of bananas for our breaky tomorrow. We have noticed, at least here in
Hollywood that there are small markets like our corner stores but nothing that
we would say came close to a supermarket.
Coming back from the market there was a Jazz Concert happening in
the centre of the Highland/Hollywood Mall so we enjoyed that for a little
while. Then we headed up the
Hollywood Boulevard in the opposite direction to last
night.
It was very busy and there were a lot of street performers around
as well from Batman, Catwoman, Marilyn Monroe, The Joker and lots more.
A short way up the street we found a Fresh and Easy market. As this was the first market of any real
size, that we had seen, we wandered in for a look around. Yeah I know crazy isn’t it? After finishing there we started to head
back to go and have something to eat.
Then we noticed that there were police everywhere and half the
road was shut off and lots of people on the other side of the road. Yes we were definitely curious so while
Reg dropped some things back to our room I stayed and watched what was going
on.
I finally worked out that across the road from the Mall at the El
Capitan Theatre there was the worldwide screening of The Cheetah Girls. As people were leaving there were many
screams etc from the waiting fans.
This was a little bit of Hollywood in
action.
Dinner was at the Pig N Whistle again tonight but it was very busy
and noisy and definitely not as enjoyable as last night. The food was good
though.
Now bed time is near as it is nudging towards 11pm and we are planning our trip to Disneyland tomorrow.
13/08/08
Well we both woke early this morning (4am) so obviously the body clocks
are not quite in tune with the time zone.
After about an hour up and some tea and toast we headed back to bed and
woke well after 9am. Oh how good was that sleep.
At around 11am we headed off to Disneyland. I was not sure if I was ready to brave
the LA traffic again but I did offer it to Reg and there was a resounding
refusal and so many compliments of how well I was doing. Mmmmmm gee I better remember that we he
keeps telling me to move over your hugging the right hand side of the lane. LOL.
It took about an hour to get there and only one recalculating
moment for “Alice” and that was not our fault as we took the correct road but
there was a detour sign.
We parked our car, in the Timon carpark area, and caught the
shuttle tram to the main entrance.
Oh boy how has that changed since I was last here (21 years ago
now). After hopping off the tram we
head to the security section, where they check everything you are carrying on
you. Understandable in this day and
age but something we Aussies are just not used to and I hope we never have to
get used to it. Then to the
ticketing counter and for about $US12 short of $US200 we are in with a park
hopper pass for the day. By the way
the extra $US12 was taken up by the cost to park the car for the day. We certainly hoped it would still be
there when we got back.
This was the best day.
Reg thoroughly enjoyed himself and we obviously need more than a day to
see it all. Unfortunately my ‘dodgy’ knee was pretty much stuffed by 7pm so we
opted to hire a wheelchair and this made everything so much easier. We were able to go where we wanted to as
quick as Reg could push and we did see a lot more of what we had
missed.
We had dinner in California Disney and enjoyed some local brewery
ale. They were very good too. Then we had a quick look at the rides
area before the Electric Light Parade.
Hopefully the film we took of this will turn out ok. Reg did enjoy it and then after that it
was a mad rush to get back to Disneyland for the fireworks
spectacular.
Thank goodness we made it in time as I know Reg was getting a
little agitated about missing the display.
He thought it was fantastic and again filmed it so we are hoping it turns
out good. We left after this and
then waited awhile till the queues subsided at the tram shuttles before we
headed home. If we had not waited
the traffic would have been terrible trying to leave the
park.
It took a bit under and hour for our return journey and with
little or no problems from ‘Alice’.
Obviously we understand the directions so much better
now.
What can I say but this was just a great day.
