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Published: August 23rd 2012
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Well, after the madness of Vegas comes the rush of LA.
Quite a drive in a hot desert to get across on a Monday morning: we made a decision to stop off at "Calico Ghost Town", an authentic ex-mining town from the silver-rush days of the late 1800's. It was an interesting place, but it has to be said the temperature was again in the 100's, and the best we could do was seek out occasional respite in the "stores" to try to take some cool air on board.
The road continued hot, but as we approached LA the traffic density was noticably increased. We paid a short courtesy stop at the Guitar Centre on Hollywood, a huge store.
I think we were all a bit too hot to be interested, and so we headed to La Brea Tar Pits for the pleasure of seeing a true oddity of LA. We did a lap of the park, admiring the mammouth's & the bubbling tar pond: quite an odd sight!
We finally headed to our lodgings for 3 nights, a beautiful 1930's "arts & craft" style residence in an old neighbourhood.
Our hosts were Georgia and her
son Sterling. The house was chock-full of original features and was quite a delight. We unloaded bags, and headed out to see Santa Monica coastline for sunset.
The pier there marks the end of Route 66, and felt like a chapter closing on our journey: although we still have many miles to go, they are in 3 discrete hops with 2 or 3 nights at each stopping point, and so the road trip will continue in a different vein from here.
The pier was a nice stroll in the warm evening, with a mixture of funfair and weird "artists", and was pleasant enough. We just about caught the sun as it set, but boy did it drop fast !
However, a misunderstanding on parking ("no parking here from sunset to sunrise" being the almost hidden sign that gave away the real likelihood of having our car impounded!) meant we had less than an hour there before we had to move on, and so we ended up grabbing a desperate Arby's burger despite all our healthy good intentions......still, another chain ticked off that list.....
A nice evening back at the home, with chatter keeping us up way
too late.....Georgia is a very interesting lady, not every day you get to chat to someone who was a well travelled forensic art scientist working with the FBI & other agencies !
& so to Tuesday 21st. We decided against racing against the traffic for a ludicrously early start, in contrast to our original plan. We were all tired, and letting the kids enjoy an extra couple of hours in bed whilst we had a relaxed breakfast by the pool made much sense.
In the end, we didn't get them moving until almost noon. A trip to Disneyland beckoned, and Disney was done....despite me having to get the shuttle back to the car to pick up my wallet, ironically left after paying to get in the park.
A long, long day, with almost all rides ticked off: Haunted Mansion (gentle start), Space Mountain (great in spite of it's age), Matterhorn Bobsleds (astonishing given it's age), Pirates of the Caribbean (fun) as well as the obligatory homage to It's a Small World.
Plus as an added bonus: a very unusual Abraham Lincoln animatronic show after an operatic set from "The Voices of Liberty".....inside the Opera
House, many people walk right past this one near the entrance, but I highly recommend it!
Later, the most spectacular evening show on the lake involved amazing fire and water displays, as well as a wicked witch who rose some 50 feet in the air with no visible means of support. Not to mention the fire breathing inflatable dragon that was a wonder to behold: those Disney Imagineers know how to put on a great show !
Then 10 minutes later was their more traditional but still fabulous end of evening firework display.....a tiring day but lots seen & done.
Rounded off by the discovery we needed fuel, and a post-midnight hunt for gas resulted in two stops...the first of which (Alco) would not take credit cards: how bizarre, in this, the land of the credit card !!
Weds 22nd After far too little sleep, we rose early again to try to get to Universal Studios early doors to get through things.
Sterling kindly agreed to join us: he being a veteran of the Studios with a season pass, we hoped to get some short cuts to attractions, and sure enough, before lunch we
had wrapped up the main ones on the lower lot - Transformers 3D (brilliant!), The Mummy (fast & unexpected!) & Jurassic Park (wet wet wet - great on a hot day!)
We left the park to relax for a lunch at the Saddle Rodeo for an hour before heading back in for more. A warm day, but with a breeze which was much more pleasant than the heat of Vegas.
It was interesting to see what had changed on the Studio Lot Tour in the 20+ years since we were last there.....some bits the same, but overall many new pieces made it an interesting ride :-)
We took in Star Tours 3D (another uprated spot since out last visit around *cough* 20 years ago!) & the Water World action adventure spectacular - great fun! After this, Sterling headed back, and we continued along for the last couple of hours - completed the animal set and a bit of Blue Brothers before outselves calling it a day.
Just time for a final trip to the Hard Rock for yet another pin! A simple egg sandwich for tea back at base, and another nice evening chatting with
Georgia before realising the midnight hour was close at hand.
......& here's me wanting to get an early start out towards Yosemite - the biggest driving day of our trip tomorrow ahead !
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