Suntrek Trip Days 10 & 11: Santa Margarita to Malibu and Universal Studios

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I'm going to combine some of these days' entries because there either isn't much to say, or aren't many pictures.

So we started the day with a short stop at the Madonna Inn - not the famous singer but a couple who's surname is Madonna. The reason for this stop was to check out the male toilets (yes Aaron was a little weird!). They toilets were fairly interesting - in place of the usual urinal was a waterfall type thing that would send water down when a guy stood to pee (there was a sensor). Apparently this help them to pee - in case they have stage fright - as well as washes it down so they don't have to flush. Let's face it, how many guys do flush anyway?

Next we drove to a small "Danish Village" that I personally, having been to Denmark thought was very Americanised. But still, another opportunity to buy some European pastries! After our short stop there we drove to Santa Barbara for a shopping stop. It was quite nice there, a nice little Californian surfie type town (althought there's no actual surf). I spent way too much money but I loved the clothes there - reminded me of home... not long to go! We also went for a swim at the beach - the water was freezing, thank God the weather was hot though!

We camped at a campground in Malibu that night and were treated to a most excellent meal of kebabs (meat/vegies on a stick) and corn on the cob. It was my favourite meal almost the whole time I'd been in America (all 21 months)!

The following day we went to Universal Studios for the day. It was a fun day, but I guess my expectations were too high because I wasn't overly impressed. It is just like Movie World where I live in Australia. The only difference was the movie studios occupy more space & there are more of them. We did get to "perform" in a show - we were volunteers to help make sound effects to show how it's done in movies.

After Universal, we drove to Griffith Park - LA's version of Central Park (apparently). Although to me it looked nothing like it, because its desert. We got another view of the Hollywood sign and a view of the LA skyline. Then we drove into Hollywood. Since the 5 of us had already been to Hollywood, it was a short stop. Kel, Fiz & I had gone skydiving together in Vegas so we decided to get T-shirts made up that said "Yeah skydiving". While that was happening we went to get a slice of the largest pizza I have ever seen. Just one slice was the size of half a medium pizza. Also I almost got run over by a car on Hollywood Blvd!

We camped again at the campsite in Malibu.

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Photos

Marina, myself & Fiz creating some sound effects for a film clip
As part of one of the tours at Universal

The "Waterworld" show
Yes I know this movie's about a decade old - but so are all the rides at Universal

Konichiwa Kitty
In memory of the Japs who LOVED Hello Kitty!

Yeah Skydiving
Right after we had our shirts made