Advertisement
Published: June 22nd 2006
Edit Blog Post
Hi folks,
We left San Fran on Thursday afternoon little realising that we were leaving the last of the 'normal' cities we would be seeing for quite a while.
The drive along highway 1, which hugs the Pacific coastline was absolutely amazing, made even more so by the fact that we were given a brand new Mustang convertible (V6) to drive! Woo Hoo - we were stoked! Amazing scenery, winding roads, a couple of stops and about 8 hours later we realised LA was going to take forever if we stayed on 1, so we overnighted in a place called San Louis and then went via Highway 101 to LA the next morning.
And then it began....the suspension of reality that is! The traffic into LA got a bit hairy from about an hour out of the city (that's the outskirts - insane!) but we managed to find our way to the hostel ok. Checked in, not as fab as the San Fran one but still ok, and then tried to find our way (without directions!) to drop the car off. Hmmm - should have asked first! Drove around for a while before realising we needed help, accosted
Mustang Stu-ey
Driving from San Fran to LA in a brand new Mustang (28 miles on the clock!) - brilliant fun! a local and then we were on our way. Drove through Beverly Hills (noice noice) and dropped the car off with literally a minute to spare before we had to pay for another day. Caught a taxi into Rodeo Drive, Stu firmly guarding his wallet but I was too scared to even walk into a store! Good to experience though! Caught a bus back to Hollywood Blvd (where the hostel is near) and crashed.
Day 2 saw us venturing into even less realistic surrounds by going to Universal Studios. Brilliant fun, sore feet, sore backs, sore calves, good rides and a great experience. Next day, because we hadn't done enough walking or experienced enough of 'fantasyland' we took on Disneyland. Even more queues for rides (not too bad though), more sore feet, more sore back, more money for copious amounts of water, but again somethings we will remember, especially the parade to celebrate Disneyland's 50th birthday and the fireworks which were fab. Crashed exhausted once again...it's an ongoing recurrence!
Decided not to drive to Vegas (the thought of navigating our way out of LA combined with Stu's can't be assed attitude) and took the easy option of flying.
Familiar? It's Wisteria Lane!
Visited Wisteria Lane and so many more places at Universal Studios. Before we flew out we got our last taste of crazy LA by doing a movie stars house tour which was cool. Saw where Tom Cruise, Richard Gere, Bill Crosby, Madonna, J Lo's new place being built, and many more. Very cool.
We were pretty excited to get out of LA though. Hollywood is the pits although it's made bearable by the Walk of Fame and pretzel hotdogs on the strip. There are confrontational beggars at every turn and even a trip to McDonalds had us a little scared when a gang of natives rocked up! Ah well...all part of the experience.
So...that brings us to Vegas. We landed after an hour delay at LA at about 7.30pm when the neon lights were just starting to crank up. This place, in one word, UNREAL! In two days we have been to New York, Paris, Venice, Rome, Morocco and later today we're visiting Egypt! We've watched the fountains outside Bellagio and we've still got to watch the Pirate ships outside Treasure Island...So much to see here...NUTS! Our hotel is absolutely INSANE! Gondola's going through the hotel, canals everywhere, painted ceilings a la Sistine Chapel, ornate fountains and light fittings
Quack quack...
M-i-c-k-e-y m-o-u-s-e...except it's DONALD! and that's without mentioning the room. We're loving it....but it will be nice to get to somewhere real! We've just watched lions play with their keepers in MGM Grand and tonite we're heading to a typical Las Vegas showgirls production...the topless variety of course...is there any other sort? Should be awesome.
Tomorrow we're going to do a tour of Hoover Dam and then we're treating ourselves to a helicopter ride along the strip at night to see how amazing it is from the air.
So - that brings you up to date. So far we've only seen one beggar here....far cry from the other cities we've been to and very very welcoming I have to say. Perth looks like the dream city to both of us at the moment.
Am going to attempt to add some pics...hard to pic out the best ones but this should give you a taste of what we've been doing.
Much love to you all, and we are getting your comments so keep them coming! We just can't reply (or haven't worked out how to yet!).
Ky & Stu
xx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.116s; Tpl: 0.033s; cc: 9; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0439s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb