We’d booked the Universal Studios today with a free shuttle bus from the Chinese Theatre. We got on with a small group and then it headed around the corner to another stop. A lady from our group asked when we’d get our entry tickets and the driver said he’d sort it so got off and let another massive group of people on. We drove there crammed in and when we got off, our group went to the driver to ask for our tickets and he looked confused. He thought we had them already. We didn’t. When he realised what had happened [View Full Entry]

---

---

Today we were due to go on a ‘beaches and shopping’ tour so had to get up at the crack of dawn. It didn’t matter as we’ve been waking up at 5am since arriving in LA and today was no different. We grabbed a McDonalds breakfast as there wasn't time for anything else (which was horrible) and then headed back to the hostel to wait for the coach. When one arrived we went to see if it was ours and the driver (who wasn’t English) told us to get in. We tried asking again if it was the right coach and [View Full Entry]

---

---

Today was another fairly chilled out day. We still had our hop on hop off bus pass so we used it to go to the Universal Studios Citywalk complex which was a range of shops and eateries with an imax at the centre. As we’d skipped breakfast we had a leisurely (massive) lunch at the Hard Rock Café that filled us up for the entire day. Then as it was unbelievably hot we quickly decided to head into the air conned imax to catch The Dark Knight as we’d been trying to see this before we left but ran out of [View Full Entry]

---

---

We didn’t actually sleep as long (or as well ) as we expected and were up and about hunting for a breakfast by 8am. The hostel was a good find - cheap and cheerful and in an excellent spot right off Hollywood Boulevard next to the handprints of the stars. We found a 50s style diner and promptly ordered the most American sounding thing we could find - a ‘lumberjack breakfast’ which consisted of lots of eggs, half a pound of ham, potatoes, pancakes and maple syrup. Lush! Matt ate the lot and I managed to make a reasonable sized dent [View Full Entry]

---

---

We decided to start the trip as we meant to go on; with a long leisurely lunch at TGI Fridays at Heathrow. We’d made it through the rigorous airport security where poor Matt kept getting picked to take his shoes off as he obviously looked a bit like a shifty shoe bomber type (must be the shaved head!) and we’d even made it around the shops without hitting the credit cards which was in itself a reason to celebrate. The flight was on time and not only did we manage to get seats together but we got seats at the front [View Full Entry]

---

---

A slower day in Hollywood Well the Best Western Hollywood Plaza may be a noisy place to sleep but it has the great advantage of being 5 minutes walk from Hollywood Boulevard. So after a slightly interrupted nights sleep due to noisy people/cars/doors etc. we eventually headed out to find the Hollywood and Highland Mall which is situated on the intersection off Highland Avenue (where our hotel is) and Hollywood Boulevard. A late breakfast (okay it was really lunch) of pancakes with strawberries and maple syrup (or nutella for Jack, or chocolate and banana waffles for Mark) we [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hollywood and Universal Studios Probably the quickest checkout so far today - we were packed and ready to roll before the kids had much of a chance to wake up (the best way, as it turns out). We all piled into Igor The Boat and set Twiki to direct us to Universal Studios. By more coincidence than harmony between man and machine, we arrived at Universal Studios around midday without any incident, bar encountering a *very* helpful English woman who felt she needed to impart everything she knew about the States to us on a garage forecourt. That said though, she [View Full Entry]

---

---

Touring the landmarks of LA/Hollywood involved hopping on Johnny's bus. Johnny, a New Yorker living in L.A gave us the run-down on the places people want to see from what they've seen on TV. It takes about 40 minutes from Anaheim to get to Hollywood on a Sunday, the i5 was behaving. Touring during the week would be nightmarish. We started off the tour by driving past the Chateau Marmont (John Belushi's last few hours alive), then the Viper Room (River Phoenix o'd there). But here we were driving past these places and Johnny was upset about their deaths whilst making [View Full Entry]

---

---

Just to update everyone... we made it back alive. While as you all know I only made it to Costa Rica Barton made it as far as Chile, the original goal. So for all of you who doubted us, and understandably many of you did, here is another chance to jump on the bandwagon. The few months I have spent back in the good ole USA have involved painted bookshelves for a free trade market in Evanston, IL, and going to a ridiculous amount of White Sox Baseball games. As for Barton, well he hadn't been back for more than 72 [View Full Entry]

---

---

Sniglet: Words that should appear in the dictionary but don't Exhastment: -adjective- to describe the feeling one has upon leaving the theme park after a very full day. We began our day by catching the shuttle bus from our hotel to Universal Studios at 8:30am this morning. A nice change from all the driving we have been doing! It was an early start after staying out late last night for wicked. Mostly for Christie who skipped her morning coffee. She really was not her perky self this morning. The girls loved the "kids suite" we had at the Holiday Inn we [View Full Entry]

---

---