On Thursday, 2nd January, we started Teacher Exchange Year to Ontario in Canada. We caught our flight from Perth to Singapore, then Tokyo and finally Los Angeles. It took a little over 26 hours but it all went well, with Liam thoroughly enjoying the flight. He got several hours sleep during the flight which was good for him but very tiring for Rosie and I.
Getting from LAX to the hotel was easy since the Hertz airport bus took us most of the way. Bruce then kept everyone moving around until a respectable time. Off to sleep at 7pm and none of us woke up until 9am the next morning.
On Friday we followed our Google map directions to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and followed the stars along Vine and Hollywood. We then followed the directions to a viewing point to see the HOLLYWOOD sign. This was really interesting as it took us on a very narrow (1 lane) winding road to the top of a hill through some very presteges houses. Great views when we got there though. We then decided to follow our own directions and try to find Beverley Hills, which we did very successfully. A nice drive down Rodeo Drive and a bit of stroll to do our clothes shopping (unfortunately they had nothing in our size so couldn’t buy anything)
Rosie wanted to take a photo(on the left) that Barbara would appreciate, the boys didn’t really understand it though.
We went out to dinner in a really nice Italian Pizza and Persian restaurant, we have decided to try to go to restaurants as much as possible so that we enjoy our eating experiences. We went back to this place a couple of time since we liked it so much.
On Sunday (4th Jan) we went to our first theme park, visiting Universal Studios. This was part of our California Experience ticket into 4 theme parks. Liam was extremely excited about today and planned out his day, starting with the Simpson ride.
We all went on this ride, much to Bruce’s regret. He sat there for the whole ride with his eyes closed so that he wouldn’t throw up. Liam and Rosie loved it and we returned to this ride on several occasions over the next two days, Bruce never went on it again.
Since Bruce visited 18 years ago, they have built a huge shopping theme area outside the park, which incorporates all the parking areas. This is obviously a major entertainment area in its own right and Liam loved the Alien themed shop and of course the Video games store, where we took this photo of him with Master Chief from Halo.
We also visiting the Jurassic Park ride, the Shrek 4-D experience and finished off with the Terminator 3D experience. The crowds weren’t too bad so we could get into most things straight away. It was a bit dark when we left and we got our first real feel of heavy traffic since everyone slowed down in the dark and we came to a complete halt on the 6 lane freeway.
On Monday we left a bit later to avoid the morning commuters and the trip still took twice as long but wasn’t too bad. On Monday we went to all the attractions that we didn’t see the first day. Really enjoyed the Water World show and the Backdraft experience.
The Universal Studios tour is always good fun and Liam particularly liked the plane crash scene from “War of the Worlds”. I liked the Wisteria Lane section since it was interesting to see how they make such a small area look so large. It was also interesting to hear how each of the houses had been used on so many different occasions in other TV shows.
We left early so that we wouldn’t get stuck in the traffic in the evening, but as you can see from the photo, the cars still filled all the lanes, but by now we are getting used to it and managed to negotiate it quite well.
We have quite liked the Howard Johnson, not the cleanest or best hotel but it is very convenient to the airport and has good access to the freeways to take us where we want to go. Rosie loves watching the hundreds of planes fly past our window, though the double glazing means we don’t hear them at all. There is a nice Italian restaurant that we have walked to each night and have had some good meals. Tonight Liam and Bruce went swimming in the outdoor pool, it was about 10°C outside but the pool was warm enough to enjoy our swim and this kept Liam happy. We will book this again for our last night in LA. We are off to Anaheim tomorrow.
January 6th
The drive to Disneyland was pretty easy, though once we were here it was all changed so much that Bruce couldn’t find the cheap hotel strip. We found a cheap hotel after a couple of wrong turns and then took a walk around to orientate ourselves and to find out the procedure for the next day. Managed to tire out Rosie and Liam with my walk, but Bruce enjoyed it.
All the time leading up to our trip Bruce kept telling Liam to look for the castle, it was the first thing we saw when we walked in, which was great.
The plan was to start in Adventure World and do every ride and attraction as we walked around. The first we came to was the Indiana Jones ride, which is new and very enjoyable. It is a roller coaster in a jeep. We then did Tarzan’s Tree house, which surprised us in that Liam loved walking around and playing with all the hands on materials in the area.
