Studio tour and rides

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Geo: 34.1402, -118.35

Dropped Erin at work then took her car to Hollywood for our Universal Studios visit. The experience has changed a lot since we were last there, and it was still good. Work on a major new "Harry Potter" ride was underway. The "Front-of-Line" tickets were great and we got on all the rides in a few minutes and therefore had time to do everything we wanted.

Unfortunately we timed our return to coincide with peak hour traffic on Halloween Night! A 45min trip turned into 90min as Maps on my iPad took us through the centre of the city. According to the traffic overlay (red for heavy traffic, orange, then blue for clear running) that was as good a route as any other. The freeways in LA are TRULY mind boggling: massive multi-storey structures with ten and more lanes thrust hundreds of feet in the air. They now have separate flyovers for car pool and toll traffic, to cut time off busy interchanges.

Got home in time to have a couple of drinks before catching a Uber "taxi" ride to a local restaurant. Uber is all the rage in LA/USA and the taxi companies are up in arms as people flock to a quicker, cheaper (typically half the price) and better service solution. A great example of private sector innovation, started in San Francisco in 2009 and now a multi-billion dollar international company. Unusually, and because of high Halloween demand, the Uber fare was 3.75 times their standard rate, but this is known up front and the customer can choose to accept or not.

Ate good tacos at Hot's Kitchen on Hermosa Ave, accompanied by a jug of sangria. Flagged a passing cabbie home then E&P changed into fancy dress and went out to a Halloween party.

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Photos

Waterworld Show
About the only attraction that we saw last time, although the action had been updated. The arrival of the plane was still very impressive.

The Waterworld babe
We had a behind-the-scenes look at the attraction after the show, courtesy of our front-of-line tickets.

The Lower Lot (and proof I'm really here too)
With the extensive escalators to the Upper Lot. I forgot to mention that in Las Vegas we saw a spiral escalator in the Forum. Not sure how the stair loop was completed out of view?

Comments

[Carol]

What out for the ketchup!!!