Legoland

13/6/10 - Day 3 Carlsbad and San Diego

We were up early on Sunday morning ready to check out and head south. We were aiming to arrive at Legoland at Carlsbad for opening at 10am so we had some time for a little siteseeing first. We headed over to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive which was like a ghost town at 8am Sunday morning!

Emily and I are Project Runway fans so we were excited to see Michael Kors' store!

We arrived at Legoland just before 10am along with a million other people! The cars were backed up almost to the freeway exit so it took us forever just to get into the carpark. By the time we got through the gates the lines for the rides were already huge. We were there for about 5 hours and only did 4 rides and 2 shows. Samuel is a big Lego fan which was the main reason for going. He enjoyed it but I don't think we would bother with it again. I'm glad that we went before Disneyland because the rides were so lame in comparison. In hindsight I wish that we had skipped Legoland and stayed another day in Los Angeles as there was so much more I would have liked to have seen and done there. Oh well, you live and learn and as I said, the kids enjoyed Legoland well enough.

The Lego sculptures were really amazing

When we'd had enough we continued south to San Diego. I had booked the Days Inn Seaworld as we were only staying one night and we wanted to be close to Seaworld. I would not recommend this hotel (motel really). It was in a really seedy part of town and was surrounded by the homeless in their trailers. If I were to go to San Diego again I'd definitely stay downtown in a nicer hotel!

After checking in we headed off to meet some friends at their home for pizza. Our kids and their kids got on really well and everyone had a great night. Until the drive home that is, when dear old Tommy Sue (the gps) got us hopelessly lost. The kids were all asleep but Alex and I were so tired and frustrated, we had no idea where we were and the GPS just had us driving in circles. We eventually got back to the scary neighbourhood and hotel about an hour later then we should have. It was such a relief to get to bed that night as we were totally exhausted.

Universal Studios Hollywood

12/6/10 - Day 2 Hollywood

We woke up early and were first at the restaurant for breakfast when it opened at 6.30am. The HI breakfast was pretty good - coffee, juice, cereals, muffins, bagels, toast, bacon, eggs, sausage, hash brown and some strange lumpy white goo that we stayed well clear of and later discovered was white gravy.

We were headed to Universal Studios for the day and wanted to arrive by 8.30am so we were at the front of the line when the gates opened at 9am. We had some time so we drove up to take some photos of the Hollywood sign first.

Trying to "hold" the sign.

Not quite tall enough!

Too short

Not even close!

We arrived at Universal Studios around 8.30am when the crowds were starting to roll in.

My one complaint about the day would be the ticket booths set up. I had bought the Southern California City Pass from the Universal site as it was the only one that would let me use the print at home option. So we had to collect our City Pass booklets at US but we couldn't do that at the ticket booths at the entrance. We were scanned in with our printed tickets and told to go to Guest Services inside the park to collect our booklets. But we couldn't do that until the park opened at 9am. So even though we got there early, we still had to wait till park opening and then line up for our tickets. Anyway, it wasn't too long a wait and I had our booklets by 9.15am. I had torn out the Universal touring plan from The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland but left it at the hotel. Doh! We had to wing it so decided to do the rides first, starting with The Simpsons.

From there we headed downstairs to the Lower Lot where we rode The Mummy (using child swap as Sammy wouldn't ride) and Jurassic Park. I know that I read somewhere not to sit on the left on JP as you'd get soaked. Well that little tidbit left my mind when we boarded the ride and I sat on the left. I can confirm that those on the left most certainly do get soaked! I had to walk around in sopping jeans for the rest of the day and it wasn't exactly warm!

I had considered buying the Front of Line passes but at $50 each I decided against it and I'm glad I did. By getting there early and doing the 3 major rides first we didn't wait in line at all. We walked onto all 3 and were the only ones on Jurassic Park that early in the morning (everyone else was probably waiting for it to warm up before they got soaked!).

We checked out the rest of the Lower Lot and had fun with the props while we headed back up to do the backlot tour

The backlot tour was so much fun! It has changed since I last went on it in 1996! The trams back then seated around 20 people, now they seat 100s! I was disappointed that there isn't King Kong or Jaws or Hill Valley anymore but the kids really loved what we did see and our tour guide was very entertaining. As soon as we got off they wanted to go again, but the lines were huge by that time so we gave it a miss and went off to explore the rest of the Upper Lot.

The Curious George playground was very tempting but we didn't have a change of clothes or towels so we said we had to skip it. Sammy didn't like that idea though and ran right in fully clothed!

Note that these family dryers are a waste of $5! He came out as wet as he went in.

In the afternoon we couldn't walk 2 feet without bumping into a character

When we'd done all of the rides and shows we decided to head out and check out the CityWalk. We all loved Universal and had a really great day. And when we got back to the hotel and checked the touring plan, we found that we had actually done everything in the exact order anyway!

We decided to have a drive around Toluca Lake Estate on our way back to the hotel. My friend Alyson, who lives in LA had made a Google map with some stars addresses for us to check out, but we didn't have internet access to look at it so we followed the Stars Homes map that I had bought the day previously. We saw the Jonas Brothers old house and Miley Cyrus's front gate (all very exciting for the kids!) and then got caught in really heavy Hollywood Bowl traffic on our way home.

We finally got back to the hotel and headed off on foot back down to the Walk of Fame to get some dinner. I was determined to find In n Out Burger as it had been recommended by so many people. A guy overheard us talking about it and gave us some directions which turned out to be wrong. He sent us the totally wrong way and we wandered the streets of Hollywood for awhile before asking for new directions. We finally found it and the line was out the door! It was late and we were hungry so we decided to give it a miss and ate at IHOP instead. We never did end up eating at In n Out after all.

It was a very quick visit to Hollywood but we loved every minute of it!

Let the adventure begin!

11/6/10 - Day 1 Hollywood

Cast:  Clare (that's me), mother 42 years - Alex, father also 42 (41 at the time of the trip though) and our kids -  Emily, big sister 10 years old  - Harry, middle child 8 years old and Samuel, little brother 6 years old.

We arrived at LAX at 6.30am after a pretty uneventful couple of flights on QF from Perth via Sydney. We cleared customs and immigration without too much hassle and headed outside to jump on the bus to the National Car Rental depot.  We chose our car, set up the GPS (affectionately named Tommy Sue by the kids) and headed off to Hollywood!

We arrived at the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Hollywood Walk of Fame at around 8.30am. I had requested early check in but unfortunately our room was not ready yet. Our room rate included breakfast so we headed to the dining room and ate before changing clothes in the public restroom and heading off to the Hollywood Walk of Fame!

We were very excited to discover the first of many Mickey Mouses right outside our hotel!

We're in Hollywood!!

The hotel was in an excellent location, only a block from the Hollywood and Highland Centre.

Before we left, I'd explained to the kids that the traffic would be on the other side of the road and how important it was to look both ways (which is important anyway, but you know what I mean). Anyway, when we came out of the airport the bus was waiting and Alex ran for it, well all 3 kids just followed him out into the road without looking!! Luckily nothing was coming!We talked about it again but on the walk down to Hollywood & Highland, Sam (aged 6) stepped out after looking the wrong way and had to be pulled out of the path of an oncoming car! We both yelled at him, out of fear more then anger but that was the end of his good mood. We started our tour of the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a very grumpy, sulking little boy who refused to be in any photos. The other two were very happy to pose though!

We wandered up the Graumann's Chinese Theater but it was so crowded it was very hard to see anything or get any good photos.

We came across a display for the new King Kong ride at Universal Studios outside Madame Tussauds

And bumped into Shrek!

Then we discovered a sure fire way to cheer Sammy up - shopping! After popping into a souvenir shop and picking up his first souvenirs for the trip, his mood improved dramatically and he finally started posing for photos!

We wandered up and down the street for awhile and checked out all the stars. We popped into the Disney Soda Fountain Store but didn't order anything due to the copious amount of sugar in everything.

Unfortunately, Harry was diagnosed with diabetes earlier this year and we were really worried about his blood sugar levels. I could feel mine rising just looking at the food! At first we avoided all sweet treats but after a few days and a chat with his diabetic educators back in Perth, we increased his insulin and started letting him have a few treats.

By this stage we were starting to get tired but wanted to stay awake as long as possible and not waste the day sleeping. We stopped at McDonalds for a drink and a rest and talked about what to do with the rest of the day. We decided to head back to the hotel and get the car so that we could drive to an AT&T shop to get our US sim cards sorted out. We were halfway back to the hotel when we realised that we had lost our shopping bag of souvenirs! I knew we must have left it at McDonalds, so Alex turned around and ran back down there while the kids and I continued on to the hotel. The bag was not at the table where we had been sitting but luckily he asked and one of the managers had put it aside for us!

Our room was ready by this stage so we checked in. I'd recommend the Holiday Inn Express & Suites to anyone who wants to stay in Hollywood. The room was nice and a reasonable size and the breakfast was really good. But the location is what made it great for us. I loved being able to walk into the heart of Hollywood in minutes.

We got the car and drove a few blocks to the AT&T store. It was lunchtime so we decided to eat first. The first place we came across was Carl's Jr so we gave it a try. Our first experience of ordering fast food in the US did not go so well! Obviously they expect everyone to know their menu and know how to order from it, so the cashier was getting really frustrated with us reading the board and asking questions! We finally got our food though and it was okay. Not the most memorable meal of the holiday!

By this stage the jetlag had hit hard and we were exhausted. I was trying hard not to pass out while organising the sim cards. At first the girl said they couldn't do a sim for the iPhone but after some persuasion from Alex she figured it out and we eventually got our new US numbers and headed back to the hotel to nap. I had organised to meet a friend for dinner so I only wanted the kids to sleep for a couple of hours. They crashed hard though! We lay down as soon as we got to the room around 2pm and I set the alarm for 4pm. I was still trying to wake them up at 6pm! I finally got them up amidst lots of complaints and we headed down to Hollywood and Highland where we met my friend and her little girl. They had made reservations for us at California Pizza Kitchen where we had a really good night!

After dinner we wandered down to the Walk of Fame again. We stopped and watched the filming of a makeover show and checked out some shops in the Hollywood & Highland Center.

Another Mickey!

We hit the pillows about 9pm and slept well and that was the end of the jetlag!