Finally finished work... Left home at about 6:30pm to drive down to our first hotel. Stayed at the Ibis at the Beaconsfield M40 services. Can't really complain for £29. If I was writing a review I would have to say that the room was small, the bed was low, the pillows thin (just one each) the toilet very small, just 2 thin old worn towels, and the shower was in the corner of the room - perhaps not very 'private' if you were sharing the room with anyone except your spouse, but for £29 it was just about right for us!!!!
The journey down the M40 was lovely, traffic light, warm sunny evening... how come we've had 6 weeks of rain and cold and the day we leave home the weather changes. It was a very pleasant evening drive, sky was clear, views of the English countryside were obviously there to make sure we come back!!!! It was a bit cool outside when we had a short walk (very short) a little later from the hotel to the motorway services building, though we discovered that we could have stayed indoors to go from the Hotel to the services.
Saturday 12th May
Made it to the 'Purple Parking' car park at Southall OK, took their mini bus to the airport. British Airways Terminal 5 was a pleasure to check in, it's the second time we've been through the new terminal and again it was a pleasure (thank goodness they've sorted out all the initial 'teething' problems). Had porridge for breakfast at the Giraffe cafe, it was just about as good as I make!!!!
Just as I make a wireless connection in the departure lounge they called our flight so the next check-in will be from LA!!!!
Arrived...!
Good flight with British Airways, nothing to complain about except we overpaid for the seats we pre-booked so I will be claiming a refund when we get back (I've already submitted a complaint form). I think we watched 4 films each on the flight, it certainly helped to while away a good part of the 11 hour flight. The in-flight entertainment system had everything a family would want, including games. Saw some great sights as we flew over Iceland (the country not the store) Greenland (not green) and northern Canada, ice, frozen sea, snow covered mountains, and then we even saw the giant Holywood sign as we flew into LA.
Landed... weather very nice, collected the hire car, negotiated our first 8 lane road (that's 8 lanes both sides!!!!) couldn't believe the amount of traffic on a Saturday afternoon, dread to think what it would be like on a working day (we didn't see any lorries for instance) but I guess we will find out on Monday and Tuesday.
Checked into our hotel then drove to the Temple, it is BIG!!! Very nice visitors centre with a Christos statue; outside there are miniature models of various full size statues that are found on Temple square, at Nauvoo, and other church sites. Lovely grounds, lots of flowering plants, especially loved the 'birds of paradise' flowers (below).
Also visited a 'Westwood' shopping centre to buy some new shirts. Naila (our daughter-in-law) will be envious as Westwood is her favourite mall!!!! They only had one in my size, though I wanted about 10. A few days later we actually ordered them on-line and had them delivered to our last hotel the Crowne Plaza near the airport.
It's nearly 4am and I can't sleep... it's also Sunday and it will be time to get up in a few hours, I don't know how I will be able to stay awake during Sacrament meeting.
Sunday 13th May
Went to Church, met David and Gayla Scolls, friends of the Turleys. Interesting chapel as 3 units meet there!
In the afternoon went to a park called the 'Self Realisation Gardens'. It is for quiet reflection for all faiths, and no faith. They encourage meditation so there are no mobile phones, no music, and low voices. It was very nice, again lots of flowering plants, I loved the 'bottle brush' plants.
Then we drove towards Malibu along Highway 1 for a few miles. We also saw the Getty villa which has (according to the internet) nice gardens that you can visit for free, but they wanted $15 to park so we said no thanks, anyway one of the Getty villa windows was boarded up with chipboard and you would have thought that of all organisations the Getty people could afford to fix it!!!!!
This is a view of the beach near Malibu looking towards Los Angeles.
Monday 14th May
Universal Studios... WOW!!!!!!!
We did the tour of the film sets, saw lots of places that we knew from the films, including the town square and the city hall (minus the clock) from Back to the Future. Saw lots of film cars from all sorts of films. The tour includes being in a crash scene with a burning tanker, then a flash flood. We were in a 3D presentation too. We saw a Shrek 4D film, went through the dinosaurs in Jurrasic Park, saw King Kong, The Simpsons, and loads of other stuff. We saw where Jaws was filmed, Jaws came up out of the water right by the side of our tour bus and made a lot of people scream, and we also saw the sets where shows like Murder she wrote is filmed. One of the highlights was Transformers 3D which is brand new. We also saw a Blues Brothers show, met SpongBob SquarePants, Marilyn Monroe, Scoobydoo and pals, and others. Best of all was that we had purchased 'front of line' passes so we didn't queue for anything.
Just in case Sue tells you I will admit to 'screaming like a girl' on one of the rides as we shot steeply downhill in the dark and then out into the open into a big pool with a huge splash!
We saved the best till last - 'Water World' based on the film. It was fantastic and after the show our front of line passes got us to meet two of the cast to ask questions and get some information on how they did it all. Some of the cast have been in the show for 16 years!!!!
You must see this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RayK1s6jcIw&feature=youtu.be
In the evening we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner... if you ever get the chance to go there it was great, and the desserts even better :)
Tuesday 15th May
Flew to Honolulu. Almost a 6 hour flight, nothing to complain about except the length of the flight. There was an 'incident' as we were going in to land, the wheels were down, we were almost over the runway and we were quite low when the pilot decided to power up and 'go around again' as there was another aircraft on the ground. The pilot said it would have been a bit closer than they would like to be. He was very calm, not a hint of danger or annoyance in his voice, so it was a bit of a 'non-event' really. No passengers screamed or anything so it was quite disappointing really, for a few seconds I was looking forward to getting out of my seat and slapping a couple of hysterical people across their faces!!!!!
Anyway we arrived safely late in the morning - it is hot - well into the 20's. Collected our hire car, then swapped it immediately because the interior rear view mirror was all scratched and looked like it was losing the silver backing (OK I couldn't see myself in it very clearly) and in return got a brand new car with less than 200 miles on it. Turned the Air-con up full!!!!!!
First stop Pearl harbor, very sobering. Did a tour, saw a film, saw a sunken battleship, hundreds of men were killed in it. This is what's left of one of the gun turrets:
Lots of outdoor displays and lots of memorials to those who died on that fateful day. We will go back tomorrow as we didn't see it all.
We also saw a full size aircraft carrier being brought in, it was quite a sight and it ended up docked only a couple of hundred yards from us. You might have seen on films the way they park all the aircraft on deck, and sailors all in their white uniforms lined up all around the perimeter of the deck... it was just like that, it was very impressive. Also a couple of helicopters were circling and watching it not far from us too.
Our Hotel is in Waikiki, we've got a nice room for 2 days. We had a meal out, nothing spectacular, then had a trolley ride through the town (free for certain hotel guests... us included). We can't believe how busy it is. Just as we went to bed there was a lot of bangs outside and saw a free firework display, so an unexpected bonus for us.
Point of interest (for us) this is the closest we've been to the Equator, we've not yet ever crossed the Equator, also if we went much further west we would cross the international date line.
Wednesday 16th May
On the way back to Pearl harbor we stopped at the Bishop museum. Nothing to do with LDS Bishop's!!! It was set up by the wife of a wealthy man (called Bishop) after he died, at one time it was also a school for boys. It was full of Hawaiian artifacts, photos, paintings, and all sort of 'museum' stuff. They also had a science centre where they demonstrated how to make lava which was very interesting.
We stayed so long that by the time we got to Pearl Harbor we only had time to go to the Air Museum, which was quite disappointing really.
In the evening we took the trolley again and went onto Waikiki beach!!!!
Thursday 17th May
Set out for our 4 day stay in a beach view apartment in Hauula (the next small town after Laie where the Temple is).
1st stop was the Dole pineapple farm. Shops of course (must get the tourists money into the tills) but we also took a short train ride round some pineapple fields, then a walk through their botanical gardens. We saw an expert cut up a couple of pineapples, sampled some of course, then had pineapple ice cream with fresh pineapple pieces... delicious!!! Learnt some interesting facts about pineapples, including once they have been picked they don't ripen any more so you need to buy it and eat it, ripeness is determined by the size and shape of the marks around the pineapple, they must be even sizes for the pineapple to be ripe!!!!!
2nd Stop was at Turtle Bay... yes there were real live Turtles in the sea, lots of them, very big ones too. You are not allowed to touch them or feed them, but we were within a couple of feet.
3rd Stop was less of a stop but we did drive to the Temple, round the car park and back out again. Tomorrow we will go there properly.
We then stopped to buy groceries before we went to our apartment (top floor), it is facing the beach, with just the road between us and the beach. Groceries are expensive... if I remember it right we had a couple of carrier bags of just basic foodstuffs and we spent about $50 or £30.
It's been very hot today 84F or 29C.
Friday 18th May
Today we visited the Laie Hawaii Temple. It is beautiful, the long vista leading to the temple is well kept, it is difficult to know who owns part of it, but certainly the church must have paid for it, and maybe even maintains it. From the Temple you can see straight down to the ocean, which must be at least 1/4 of a mile away. There are two chapels at the side of the Temple property, and there was something going on in both buildings, which seemed strange as it was during the day. Inside the Temple is just as beautiful, it was confusing for us as it was not familiar but there were plenty of people to ask directions.
We ended up in the cafeteria for lunch which was 'Egg Drop Soup and bread, large bowl' or 'Egg Drop Soup and bread, small bowl'!!! It was actually very nice. Met a nice young sister in the cafeteria who selected salad 9which you make up yourself) then got to the till and discovered she had no money, so I paid and she sat and eat with us.
The rest of the day was spent sleeping and resting, I haven't slept very well and all of a sudden I couldn't sit down without falling asleep.
Saturday 19th May
Today is the day.... The Polynesian Cultural Centre (or PCC).
I bought the tickets before we left home, which included a tour guide and dinner, followed by the evening show 'Ha, the Breath of Life'.
During the day we visited the park area, there were separate areas for each of the Polynesian countries, we actually didn't have time to see them all but what we did see was very interesting. Local people presented dance, music, crafts, etc from their culture. We saw a young man climb a coconut tree as easily as we would climb a ladder, saw a man start a fire in a few seconds just rubbing a stick onto a piece of wood, we had a canoe ride (we had to paddle) and saw a canoe parade where each of the countries presented dance in their national costume
Dinner was in a huge half-open air buffet restaurant, it was impressive how quickly everyone was served (I wondered if someone had been to the 'Bar J Ranch' in Jackson and copied how they do it?). Dinner included purple bread rolls! This was called taro bread, sometimes called poi bread. It is made with the taro root which gives it its very interesting purple colour. I thought it was very nice but Sue wasn't impressed.
Dinner was accompanied with a stage show of Hawaiian music and dance, they had a number of children performing too which made it quite 'cute'.
7:30pm was the main event 'Ha, the Breath of Life' in their half-outdoor theatre.
This was a fast moving story of birth and life told via music and dance. The seating area was under cover (2,700 seats) and the stage area was open, with a backdrop representing waterfalls, mountains, trees, volcanoes, etc.
At various times during the story cast members were up on top of the 'mountains'. During the second half of the presentation they did some knife and fire dancing. To say this was impressive is an understatement. The fire dancing included walking on fire, sitting in it, and putting it out by sitting in it! They did fire stick twirling with one end of their sticks on fire, then with 2 ends on fire, then one of them did it with 2 fire sticks lit at both ends! The presentation included throwing the fire sticks across the stage to someone else to catch! It was a pity that photography is not allowed but we did buy a DVD afterwards so when we get home we will have to see it all again.
Most of the staff in the park and all the dancers and singers are students at BYU Hawaii, they do this to earn money to pay for their education (plus food and accommodation, etc).
Sunday 20th May
Church today at Hauula (3 miles from the Temple) its only about 400 yards from our apartment, but its too hot to walk!!!! The first ward to meet there is all Tongan, so we are aiming to be at the 2nd ward Sacrament meeting at 12:00
After lunch we went back to see the Turtles... very worth while, saw 3 big ones on the beach sun bathing, and more in the sea. It looked like a couple of them were trying to come ashore but one big fat woman was in the way (despite being asked to move away by the 'Turtle Warden') and the other one seemed to be drawn back out to sea by the waves rather than being able to get a foot hold onto the sand.
On the way back we stopped at Waimea Falls.
Monday 21st May
Time to head back to Honolulu Airport. We carried on going around the island so that by the time we reach the airport we've just about circled the whole island of Oahu. Didn't need any fuel in the car, but as you can circle the island in about 2 hours it isn't really surprising that one tank was sufficient. We stopped at a 'Nut Farm' (not that kind... Sue was worried I might leave her there) Macadamia nuts. Cracked a couple and eat them 'raw' and they were good. Sue did buy a small packet of chocolate covered nuts, needless to say they didn't last us very long.
The flight to the Big Island (Hawaii) is under an hour and when we get off the plane it is even hotter. The airport is at Kona and most of the passenger areas are out of doors!!!!!
Picked up our car... Jeep Wrangler!!!
We found the hotel quite easily, about 9 miles from the airport, it is called The Royal Kona, it is big, it is right on the sea front. Sue left her handbag at the car hire office so after a quick panic and a call from the hotel receptionist it is a trip back to the airport and all is well once again.
view from our room...
view from our room...
this is our view at breakfast...Dinner at Pizza Hut (I wanted 'safe food', or at least something I can recognise!!!!).
Tuesday 22nd May
Breakfast in the hotel restaurant is open to the sea front, we're about 10-12 feet from the surf!
Today it's a boat trip and snorkeling!!! I'm not a good sailor so not really looking forward to the boat trip part but it's the only way to get to one of the best snorkeling bays. The boat was a catamaran. Neither of us have done this before so not quite sure what to expect...!
Arrived at Captain Cook bay... (yes that Captain Cook)! Straight away we saw a school of Dolphins in the bay, a couple of them were leaping and spinning out of the water. The captain said they were probably resting in the shallow water, he said that they can swim and sleep at the same time, but a few are always awake as they 'look after' the rest of the pod while the others rest properly. Anyway we came and they left. Got set up with equipment and into the water. Sue didn't get on with the mask and snorkel so she got a 'view box' and a rubber ring instead, the ring helps you to just float upright and the view box is like a square bucket with a glass bottom and is just like snorkeling only you don't put your face in the water and don't have to breath through a tube! I found the snorkeling quite easy. Some small children were given a body board with a built in view box, so it was easy for a parent to look after them while they watched the fish and looked around the bay.
We bought an underwater camera but won't know what pictures we've got until we get back home and have the film developed.
We were in the water for almost 1.5 hours and it was fascinating and fun once we had got the hang of it. There were loads of brightly coloured fish, and the coral was in all sorts of colours shapes and sizes. The boat captain warned us especially not to touch the black spiny things, and I hope I've got a picture of them, they looked very nice but I'm not sure you would want to 'stroke' one of them! We were not allowed to touch any of it if course, nor were we allowed to stand on the bottom so we also had special 'belly' flotation belts which meant we couldn't have stood up anyway, but in some places the bay was very shallow. It was a protected area and we were not allowed to try and go ashore either.
On the trip back we saw dolphins... at least 7 of them were just under (I mean just a few inches) the water) in front of the catamaran floats/hull, staying either just in front or just under the hull, with one of them popping up every few seconds to breathe. It was fantastic. Unfortunately we played safe with the cameras and didn't take either on the boat trip. Then just before we got back Sue and a few other people saw the tail of a Whale pop out of the sea. It really isn't whale season (ended in April) so it was a surprise bonus.
How did I get on on the boat...? I wasn't sick, but I have got a headache and I feel a bit like I've just got off a roller coaster (and I've only ever done that once!).
Dinner was at Burger King.... OK I wanted 'safe' again... and I haven't been to McDonalds (yet)!!!!
Wednesday 23rd May
Breakfast in the open air by the sea again.... it's a hard life but someones got to do it!!!
Setting off today for Volcanoes National Park. It's about 90 miles away and the top speed on the island seems to be only 55mph, but that frequently drops to 35mph, and 25mph anywhere near a school. In the end (with a couple of little stops on the way to look at the views or to visit the 'bathrooms') it took us nearly 3 hours. Just as we got here it started to rain, it's really funny that its so warm, even in the rain. On and off it hasn't stopped raining completely, but between showers it is quite pleasant. As we've climbed from sea level (On Oahu I think we were more or less at seal level the whole time) to over 4,000 feet it is quite a bit cooler and I found it really pleasant (I would wouldn't I, he who wears short sleeves all year round) though Sue got a bit cold, and most of the other tourists were wearing coats.
Today we have visited just the visitors centre, picked up some leaflets and maps, listened to a Ranger talk, and watched a video.
On the way to our next accommodation (another holiday apartment, but at this one the owner lives downstairs so it might be intersting) we dropped a couple of thousand feet. We stopped to buy groceries and supplies. Food is expensive here... 2 small pizzas, 4 little microwave dinners, milk, cheese slices, butter, bread, 4 cheap bottles of water, 1 pkt biscuits and 2 salad platters for tomorrows lunch was $70 (about £50) I figure this is at least double what we would pay back at home...I told Sue to never complain about Tesco prices ever again!!!!
Arrived... it is quiet... we've got 3 nights here, the owner met us and showed us around, lovely place, quite big, he has bought us fresh milk and bottles of drinking water, he's also given us bananas and fruit from his own garden.
Thursday 24th May
Volcanoes here we come... it's going to be a long day as we want to see the lava after dark...
It has been a long day... we started at the visitors centre with a ranger guided walk with Ranger Rick (yes Ranger Rick was his real name... you couldn't make it up). After a few minutes we saw the volcano for the first time, it was 2 - 3 miles away and you could see quite a lot of steam/smoke coming from it. After Ranger Rick we followed a trail that led us down to the floor of the volcano, the trail was through tropical jungle, so thick in places that you couldn't see into it. When we reached the end of the trail we were on the volcano, this area was plain solidified lava, we could walk on it for a short distance, but the trail was closed from this point onwards because of poisonous gasses from the volcano. The lava was a mixture of smooth solid rock. to broken up areas that I can only describe as being like a load of tarmac from a road that has been stripped of everything and dumped from the back of a lorry. I guess these were areas that had solidified but moving lava under it had forced it up and broken it all up. Here and there in the cracks small plants were sometimes growing, a little moisture collected during rain... a seed blown in on the wind...
We also saw steam vents which were quite strange as the outside temperature was 28 degrees...
There was also the Jagger museum on volcanoes, which is the closest you can get to the volcano.
In the evening we returned to the Jagger museum to see the volcano in the dark, it was quite impressive as the steam/smoke was turned orange/red by the lava lake (which you can't quite see).
Note added Sept 2012 - the BBC did several nights of 'volcano' watching, which was interesting for us because many of the places they filmed and broadcast from were the places we visited.
Friday 25th May
Back to Volcanoes national park for more exploring... we first of all went inside a 'lava tube'.
This is a tunnel which was created by hot lava solidifying on the surface where it is obviously cooler, but still running below the surface, as other parts of the lava cooled it continued to run in its own self made 'tunnel' and eventually when the lava ran out it left a 'tube'. We walked through about 200 yards but the guide said that it ran (or rather meandered) about 40 miles right down to the sea.
Strange looking lava...
The dark area is newer lava... 1970'sWe saw various other smaller craters or calderas, many of which still emit steam.
Eventually the road we traveled on (a dead end 19 miles long) ended because a lava flow covered the road, but it was also right down on the coast so we could walk on the solid lava right down to the sea... no beach just lava cliffs for the waves to beat on.
We also saw petroglyphs cut into the lava.
The temperature at about 4:30pm at sea level was 32 degrees, but about half an hour later when we got back to the Volcanoes Park Entrance (at 4,000 feet) it was just 17 degrees.... We're now heading to the shop to buy ice cream, then back to our apartment to cool off and relax for the evening.
Saturday 26th May
Today heading for a Hotel in Hilo (pronounced like kilo but with a 'H').
Nice gentle drive for today, did a detour to see the Lava Tree State Park. Here trees had been overcome by lava, which may have receded quite quickly, but the lava appears to have risen up the trunk of the tree and solidified so it couldn't recede. Obviously it left the tree dead and burning, but it also left lava standing like it is a tree, some of what we saw was 12-15 feet tall.
Some of them (all are very old) actually have a hollow centre and you can see into them and imagine where the tree trunk would have been, even to see the outline of bark on the inside of the tube (or at least what bark might look like).
Arrived... staying at 'Uncle Billys' on banyan drive, the Banyan trees are amazing.
This is the view from the breakfast area, our room is on the 2nd floor on the right... we can almost touch the trees.
The hotel is a bit different, older, not quite as well maintained as we would like, but the room is OK. We get 'free American style breakfast'... toast, juice (not sure it is juice but it's wet and cold) 'jelly' (not jam), mango, mini muffins and hot chocolate!!!!! Same every day, but the muffin changed to Blueberry once.
Sunday 27th May
Church at 9am. Met a nice Hawaiian man with the name of Moses, and the Bishopric counselor welcomed us, he made a bit of a joke that we didn't bring the fog with us (do they think that England is covered in fog all year round?) but Sue countered with a quip about 'Vog' which is the volcanic gasses that hang around parts of the island, and these are made worse by the sun. To give you an idea how bad it is when we landed at Kona we thought that we were in for a big big storm but the hire car minis bus driver told us all about 'Vog'. Give us fog any day, we know it won't last long, whereas 'Vog' lasts and lasts and sun will not burn it away.
After church we drove a 4 mile scenic drive along the coast and went to a Botanical garden.
We also drove to the Akaka falls. These were about a 440 feet straight drop, which is more than twice the height of Niagara falls, though you couldn't compare the amount of water of course, it was still very very impressive.
Monday 28th May
Breakfast wasn't up to much (again) just toast really, but then we went shopping!!!!! Didn't buy much, just a few trinkets to take home.
Lunch however was amazing..... there is a very famous place here called Kens Pancakes... bacon, eggs, pancakes... mmmmmmm delicious!!!!!
After lunch we set off for Mauna Key and the observatory visitor centre. On the way there we found some caves, but my little travel torch wasn't enough to let me go more than about 50 yards.
The visitor centre wasn't up to much but they did have a couple of really good films, and at 6pm the ranger did a talk, followed by some more great films. Q&A's were followed up by star gazing with another ranger. They had set up some telescopes and during the day you could look at the sun through one special telescope, and after dark they set up several more so we could see the Moon, Jupiter, and other interesting stars. Although this isn't my picture it is exactly how we saw Jupiter through the telescope, though with our natural eyes it appeared to be just black and white and much much smaller than in this picture but the rings were clearly and easily seen:
There are (from memory) about 9 big telescopes right at the top of the mountain (we didn't go up there, they only do tours certain days of the week) and at least one of them is owned and run by the UK!!!!
One of the questions I asked was 'why here in Hawaii' and it is because of the weather, and the fact that they can see 100% of the northern hemisphere, and almost 80% of the southern hemisphere. The telescopes (which are of course each worth millions) are used every night, 365 days (nights) of the year. The scientists who want to use them have to book time months in advance, and if for any reason (weather in particular) it doesn't happen - tough, they need to re-book. The visitor centre is also open 365 days of the year... including Christmas day... I asked why and it appears that Dec 25th is a 'dark night' so it is perfect for star gazing. We had a moon that was less than half size and it was so bright that it was difficult to see some stars clearly.
The ranger showed us a number of stars in the southern hemisphere with their names (which didn't mean much to us) and also he showed us 'shapes' like the bear, which also didn't mean much to us. In the Northern hemisphere he showed us the North Star or the Pole Star so we can always find north (in a clear sky) but the southern hemisphere doesn't have an equivalent star, but he did show us the Southern Cross and if you follow the lines of the 2 North/South stars they will always point you to the South.
Got back late to the hotel as it was about 3/4 of an hour away, on the way back it was foggy and it rained... but up the mountain we were above the clouds, so again another reason for 'why Hawaii'.
Tuesday 29th May
Today it is the drive back to Kona... after a famous (or should it be 'infamous') 'toast' breakfast.
We continued on the route that would eventually take us right round the Big island. More to see of the same stuff, or so we thought. Saw lots of little ravines, some with water, some with waterfalls, some dry, but all interesting. When we originally arrived at Kona airport a week ago it was rather 'desert' looking, but as soon as we got to town and started our journey it was as though the airport area was in an isolated part of the island but as we continued our journey we saw the area change from beautiful homes and colourful gardens into wilderness, then into pasture lands with cows, then into normal looking cultivated forests, then into rain forest, every few miles it seemed to change depending on our elevation. As we got a bit closer to Kona we stopped for lunch in a 'cowboy town' called Waimea and so we saw lots of pasture and horses etc. Then the scenery for the last 20 miles changed to something like dessert, we even saw giant cacti... we had to remind ourselves several times that we were still in Hawaii not Utah!!!!
Got to the airport in plenty of time, flight left at 9:05pm... aiming to sleep on the plane but not holding my breath.......
Wednesday 30th May
Arrived early morning for one full day in LA. Didn't really sleep very well on the plane. Picked up the hire car and went to the hotel, we thought we would be able to just drop the bags and check in later but as I'm a Priority Club member (Platinum) they checked us in which was great so we were able to go to our room and go to bed for 3 hours before we set out for another thrilling adventure. When we eventually got back to the hotel the room had been made up again so it was like getting 2 nights for the price of one.
For lunch we went to a Sizzler... anyone whose been to one will know it is a great meal, one of the best of the whole holiday, and not very expensive!
Today was spent doing the 'tourist' things. We went to the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and used that as our base... we saw lots of interesting places including the Kodak Theatre where the Oscars are now held, and various other famous places. We saw the stars on the pavement, and outside the Chinese theatre were the hand prints of stars in the cement. We didn't realise there were so many stars honored and recognised until we discovered that there are 5 categories and anyone can be listed up to 5 times, but as I recall there is only one person recognised 5 times (Film, TV, Music, Radio, Live Performance).
We took the open top tour bus for a 2 hour ride and so we saw Rodeo Drive, Wilshire Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard, and saw all the places we can't afford to shop in. We also saw the nice (and expensive) places of Hollywood and Beverley Hills. As we went round the tour they kept saying things like 'Elvis stayed there' or 'this is the hotel where Pretty Woman was filmed' we also went down Melrose Place, and everywhere we went they pointed out where parts of various films were filmed... all very interesting (if you're a nerd). This particular tour didn't actually go past the houses of the stars themselves, but many of the other tours did!
We also took a drive right up into the Hollywood Hills and saw the Hollywood sign. Many of the houses were quite fantastic, and the views from them must be spectacular.
We then drove ourselves down to Santa Monica / Venice Beach and now we've also seen the places we see on the movies where the people ride bikes, roller blade, skate board, run, cycle, etc right by the beach/ocean.
The traffic on the freeways was horrendous, 6 or 8 lanes of solid traffic (both ways). Here's an interesting fact... of the top 10 really bad traffic places in the USA one is on Oahu, the roads around Honolulu and Waikiki are bad (and we experienced it more than once). The car is definitely here to stay in the USA!!!!!!
Thursday 31st May
LA for almost 1 whole day, last day of our overseas holiday, but we are still looking forward to a few more days away before we eventually get home.
We need to take the car back at about 6pm as our flight is at 9:20pm. American airports are usually pretty good but we don't want to take any chances being delayed at check-in or security (which has happened to us before).
No special plans for today except to pack our bags for the last time (we are both experts now) and go to the Los Angeles temple just for a last look around the grounds and the visitor centre.
Friday 1st June
Arrive LHR... stay with Paul etc. in Sutton.
Saturday 2nd June
London - Sue couldn't wake up (or wouldn't) so we had a quiet day with the children.
Sunday 3rd June
London - went into London to see the Queens Jubilee flotilla. We couldn't believe the number of people around - so many we couldn't see anything and watched it on the big screens! Just as it was time to leave it rained very very hard and we got wet.
Monday 4th June
London - Barrio Fiesta in Lampton Park, Hounslow. This is an annual Philippines festival that Naila wanted to take us to. We saw on the big stage a group like Il Divo who were very good.
Finally head home... looking forward to our own bed!!!!!!
Tuesday 5th June
Chores... cut the grass, lawnmower broke down 3/4 of the way through, not good when the grass hasn't been cut for almost 4 weeks. Got to get ready for work...
Wednesday 6th June
It's all over... back to work... where to next year????
African Safari?
Mediterranean Cruise?
Egypt?
Weston-Super-Mare?
Who knows... watch this space....
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