Advertisement
Published: July 10th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Ok before we go on we, have had an inquire about the story of my passport. (Johanna has now taken over the keyboard) Since I ended up going on this trip with two passports with different last names. Well the lady at the check in counter said it was a good thing I had called in advance and that the Reservation agent had entered a note about the US passport having a different name than the reservation. Everything was fine and I got on the flight with my US passport.
US Part 3 West Coast
June 30th:
Hi we are back :-)
Thought we had forgotten about you guys back home did you?
So the next day it was time to leave The Big Apple and head out to the West Coast.
We took the number 7 train out to LGA. (for all of you not in the industry that means La Guardia Airport) one of NY’s three major airports. This subway line actually goes above ground and gives you a magnificent view of Manhattan as you are leaving it. After a quick stop over at Boston Logan airport, we landed 7 hours later at Los Angeles International
airport (LAX). They had some really cute white wooden rocking chairs at BOS airport. Gave us a tiny taste for New England, a part of the country we couldn’t squeeze into this trip.
We got on a shuttle bus to The Embassy Suites htl South and fell asleep after a bit of running around trying to find the long awaited pool.
July 1st:
Next morning we headed back to the airport to pick up the rental car. The pre-booked Ford Expedition turned out to have less luggage space than the Toyota Sienna we rented on the east coast. We wanted to downgrade to a minivan (Toyota Sienna or similar) but the lady at the counter could not understand what we meant and called us hostile. Now the “I am going to get my manager” attitude came out. The Manager was really nice but explained that he was 20 minivans short of what he needed for the day, though he could upgrade us without charge to an even larger car, it still had less luggage space. Since this is not the first time out in the world, I had of course made a backup reservation with another car company for
a minivan. We headed over there and got a Minivan for half the price of the other car. Lucked out. It was a Toyota Sienna our new favourite car. Thinking about how we could import one to Sweden. While waiting for the car, this huge aircraft came flying in over our heads. A new Quantas Airbus 380. Wow, it is big! So after the car pick up taken care of, we headed down to Santa Monica. Took a walk on The Pier, ate some shrimp and dipped our feet in the Pacific Ocean before heading up to Beverly Hills where we drove by Michael Jackson’s home. Lots of people, flowers and security. Beautiful view from Mulholland Drive. We made a short stop on Rodeo drive and watched all the fancy shops before heading to Hollywood Blvd and the walk of fame. Once again lots of flowers and people by Michael Jackson’s star. And that was LA for us. Not impressed. To me it is all just a ton of suburbs that all have grown together. Ok, Beverly Hills is worth seeing and Santa Monica Pier. By now the kids have nagged about the pool about a million times.
July
2nd:
So the next morning we let them dive in the pool for a couple of hours while I did some laundry. In the afternoon we drove down to San Diego for a dip in another pool at the next hotel. On the way we took a small detour along Rt 1 and Newport Beach, a really nice place I could think of coming back to.
July 3rd:
Someone’s birthday.
Time to visit Sea World with all that entails. Killer whales, dolphins, Sharks, Penguins, Stingrays and lots more. James sat on the first bench and got soaked wet when Shamu splashed away. Then we all got soaked riding a raft down a river. Lots of fun. But since it wasn’t that hot we were a bit cold. Towards the end of the day we let the kids go on the Atlantis roller coaster. I think that was one of the highlights for the day. The night ended with fireworks before heading back to the hotel.
July 4th
Someone else’s birthday. Time for another dip in the pool before heading to downtown San Diego. We walked around the Gas light district and had some Ice cream at Ghirardelli’s and
did some shopping. In the late afternoon it was time to head out to the Coronado Beach where we had a pick nick and the kids went for a dip. Crazy! The water was freezing! I sat watching with my sweatshirt on, thinking it was rather could. After sunset we headed back downtown for the 4th of July fireworks. They did two identical shows from two different spots. One of them being the Midway an aircraft carrier museum which Joe had told us was located in San Diego. Into war machines as he is :-)
Then it was time to head back to the hotel again. Another late night. No time for a dip in the pool.
July 5th
We planned for an early start that once again did not turn out to be early. Since we now had a long drive ahead of us to Las Vegas. Now here came the heat. From being quite chilly on the coast we could see the temperature increase by the minute. We started at 70F/22C by the time we hit Vegas it had reached 109F/43C. Talk about sweltering. As soon as we had checked in to the hotel the kids started
looking for the pool, and found it. We had a quick bite to eat and then they had 45minutes in the pool on the 8th floor of the hotel before it closed. The sun had set but it was still 104 degrees outside. We decided to go for a walk along The Strip watching all the lights and the craziness. Hot hot hot. We needed some Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. Back to the hotel and then to bed.
July 6th
This day we had to major attractions on the agenda. Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon.
We got up a bit late as usual and drove East towards Boulder City. We made a quick stop at The Lake Meade Visitors center before heading to The Dam, built in 1935. There is a new bridge being built at the Hoover dam, really spectacular even if it is not finished yet. We had lunch after walking the topside of it, a Dam(n) Burger again
TBC…
Advertisement
Tot: 0.136s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 11; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0515s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb