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Published: January 29th 2012
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It's a long day when you are travelling from Salt Lake City via San Francisco to Los Angeles and then onto Brisbane, Australia. And there is that pesky issue of eight hours to kill in Los Angeles. Aside from the mandatory time spent cooling your heels and passing through more and more security at the airports, we are still left with about six hours to fill in, so we hop in a cab and head to Del Amo fashion centre in Torrance. It is apparently a great place to shop (the Aussie dollar has continued to improve against the greenback) and there is also a restaurant there called Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ. Michael has been on a mission to find the boys a great place to try Pork Ribs American style, and this could be just the ticket.
It takes our nice but messy taxi driver about 5 minutes to clear all the junk, papers, containers off the front passenger seat, so we can all fit into his cab, but he eventually gets himself sorted and we arrive at the Del Amo centre in about 20 mins (and $40 lighter). We are all feeling pretty tired and grubby after two flights
already today and Piper is moaning about needing food. But it isn't too long til dinner time so we silence the grumbling tummy with some left over saltine crackers (still with us after being bought weeks ago in NYC) and we start perusing the shops.
The centre is pretty down at heel looking - there is nothing particularly nice or pleasant about it and the layout across several very separate malls is quite confusing. The boys are keen to find a couple of Turtle Beach X12 headsets and there appears to be none here - it is mainly fashion shops plus Maceys and Sears, so we are directed a few hundred metres away to a nearby Target store and they find what they are looking for. Taylor also takes the opportunity to visit the supermarket next door for a last minute purchase of Reeces chocolate to bring home to share with his friends.
Other than that we take advantage of a good sale going at American Eagle Outfitters and each (excluding Piper who has no interest whatsoever!) pick up a couple of nice T's and Michael and Taylor score a light cotton sweater each at a very good price.
It is now about 6.30 pm so we can walk around the corner to Lucille's for dinner. Once we arrive inside we see that we weren't the only ones with this idea. It is a Sunday night and the place is packed. We are given a beeper and told there will be a 15 minute wait for a table. While we are waiting we peruse the very large menu, which looks like just what Michael had in mind. Southern style BBQ Ribs galore and (for me, the non pork eater) lot's of fish or chicken options. And the decor and ambience are just right too.
Our waitress Deyla is really friendly and helpful and we are served with our individual and quite enormous jars of water while the boys order their bottomless cups of chocolate milk. This is not the place to come if you are on a diet. The serves are enormous, but very very tasty. My BBQ chicken is a full half of a chicken with serves of garlic mashed potatoes and corn on the cob, while the three carnivores order the full racks of ribs each with sides of coleslaw and fries.
Piper is in seventh heaven with this meal. He loves it! It is not cheap (about $110 plus tips for four main courses and two chocolate milks) but the flavours are excellent and we are all left feeling very satiated. Definitely no room nor need for desert after this. Our only concern is how uncomfortable we will be on the flight going home!
And then it is time to head off. Lucille's closes at 9pm on a Sunday and we are due back at the airport. So they book us a taxi and we head back to the grim and unpleasant LAX airport.
At this stage of our journey we just want to get home, see Sharon's smiling face as she meets us at the airport in our car and unpack our bags. But for now, there is one long flight to endure first. Thank goodness for in seat entertainment on Qantas!
We can't believe the places and sights we have seen and the things we have done over the past 9 1/2 weeks. We are so lucky!!!
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