30th December

We spent our last day in Hollywood today as we head to Anaheim tomorrow, and it was a BIG day! We bought a Hollwood tour book on Friday and still had 3 of the 4 attractions to do from it. We started this morning with a tour of the stars' homes, Rodeo Drive and Beverlly Hills. This was quite fun, but mostly it was on a bus so our feet got a rest. We took lots of photos of the homes lived in by our favourite stars. We then grabbed pizza for lunch and ate it whilst uploading our photos to the computer as we had a half hour to spare before our next tour and were just by the hotel. The aim was to get some of the names to the correct photos before we forgot them. :o)

After lunch we took a tour of the Kodak theatre. We have walked through this building everyday to get to Hollywood Blvd from our hotel, so it was good to see inside. The Kodak thetre is only about 7 years old and is the new home to the Oscars. We got to see the VIP areas, backstage, stand on the stage and sit in the same seats as the likes of Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman on Oscar night.

We had decided to take a trip out to see UCLA in the afternoon, after hearing that it was worth the trip. It was huge and we only saw part of it. The buildings are lovely and mostly quite new; many of the facilities were also used for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. There were lots of people around considering it is the middle of the break; some were locals, others were tourists. Found a great gift shop on the way back down the hill, but Phil is still disappointed that he hasn't managed to find a decent toy shop.

Somehow I managed to misplace our bus/train guide at some point in the afternoon so we were flying blind for the rest of the day. We had passed (unexpectantly) the Tar Pitts on our way to UCLA and so decided to make a stop there on the way back. This was definately worth it and we got some great pictures and avoided being eaten by any sabertooth tigers!

Our next plan was to get ourselves out to Griffith Park. Luckily Phil had commited the bus route to memory and so we headed off. Upon arriving at the bus stop for bus 96 to take us up the hill, we were informed that the bus wasn't running this week, so back on the bus we just got off to go back down the road a few kms. At attempt number 2 we knew we had a 10 minute walk up the hill; of course it is closer to 20 if you follow my advice and take the road past the pretty houses. Upon arriving at the gates to Griffith Park and heading in a bit further we concluded the Observatory was even further up the hill. Lets just say I am a little out of condition and was finding the walk rather difficult. We decided to wait at a shuttle bus stop to get to the top, but after the bus drove straight past us and we had had a 20 minute rest I agreed to finish the walk. It was worth it with great views of the city (coincidently, it was dark by this point, but the view was pretty) and a lovely new observatory, built of course by the Governator - Arnie. The shuttle bus did get us down the hill and infact all the way to the train station, avoiding a whole other bus ride!

We finished the evening with BBQ ribs, coleslaw and maccoroni cheese, a bottle of Merlot and a piece of Pecan pie. This did make up for the big walk!

Highlight for the day: Getting to the top of the hill!

29th December

Went to Universal Studios today. This was so much fun and we are really looking forward to Disneyland now. We are really glad that we went and it is well worth the money. The food is unreal, it is easy to see how so many Americans are overweight. Discovered chilli cheese fries (fries covered with chilli mince and cheese), these could be addictive! Plent of Dippin Dots carts around. All one size and all prepacked, so the bored looking sales people had virtually nothing to do, didn't see more than 1 person at any cart!

Phil managed to get me on almost everything, the scariest being the Jurassic Park ride with the 84ft waterfall at the end of it, I may have screamed just a little. The Shrek 4D experience was cool, especially when Donkey sneezed all over us and we got sprinkled with snot! The tour was cool, even got to visit Wisteria Lane.

We finally found the shopping experience at City Walk alongside Universal studios! I got 2 pairs of shoes, amongst other things; there may not be much room for gifts.... :o)

Highlight of the day: Front of the line pass for Universal studios. This is the best invention ever! We did not have to wait for anything, walked straight past all the massive lines of people who paid $25 less than we did. Saved hours as some places had a 60 minute wait, we walked straight in. A close second is the all you can eat pass for $25 each which lets you have a meal, side and dessert every time you line up. We had lunch and dinner, so certainly got our $$ worth.

28th December

Today was all about walking and shopping! We decided to see some of the shopping areas of LA today, and must admit we are a little disappointed. There is no main street in downtown LA to find shops, so we had a little hunting to do. We started with Macy's in the centre of town, or should I say infront of Macy's as LA does not awaken until 10am, so being there at 9am was a tad premature. After finding a semi reasonable toy/gift shop and nothing in Macy's we headed straight for Santee Alley with high expectations after recommendations from Adam. In turns out that Santee Alley is LA's version of the Queen Victoria Markets in Melbourne, with plenty of crap and a few gems. Phil took a fancy to a shirt and tie combination and plenty of caps, whilst I found a great new handbag. By mid afternoon we had done Santee Alley, the fashion, flower and toy district with minimal success.

After narrowly avoiding heading to the dodgy areas of town, we were directed to the Beverly Centre in our search for a shopping mall. This turned out to be an upmarket version of Westfield with a Macey's and a Bloomingdales. After hunting many stores, Tabitha finally found two pairs of jeans that she liked and covered all things that should be covered - Cuban's (Santee Alley) don't wear highcut jeans apparantly!

This evening we had dinner at the oldest resteraunt in Hollywood. The meal was delicious and filling, especially with the complimentary half loaf of sourdough bread on the table. We finished off the evening by going to the Hollywood wax museum and the Guiness World Records museum.

Today's highlight: LA locals who are extremely friendly and more than ready to offer assistance to anyone who stands still with a map for longer than 25 seconds.

27th December

Hi all!

Well we have now done the 27 of December twice (almost) and are feeling every minute. We left home at 5:40am on Thursday morning to catch our flight to LA. After a short stop over in Melbourne and a delay on the tarmac while a woman and her family were unloaded due to illness, we were finally on our way. There were plenty of good movies to keep us enertained and drown out the noise of the children that were surrounding us (2 directly beside use and 3 directly infron). Neither of us slept much and the flight was absolutley packed (minus one sick person and her family). It was humerous to see one obnoxious woman and her mother, sitting across the aisle from us, try to upgrade to business class after boarding and doing a headcount of passengers under 12 in their direct vicinity.

We made it through customs and immigration with no hastles but got ripped of by our taxi driver who didn't even know how to get to Hollywood Boulevard! A lesson learned no doubt.

We were unable to check into the hotel until 2pm, so we dropped off the bags and went in search of a hot chocolate, which we found, along with a humerous young magician who was up for a chat. We headed off for a walk along the boulevard, discovered that public toilets are not common in town at all, but did find some bargins with Phil managing to purchase 3 suits for an awesome price!!

Finally got back to the hotel for a nap and a shower before checking out the night life. By 4pm, the Boulevard was much more alive and the lights were very cool. Have walked the main strip a couple of times today and so will try further afield tomorrow.

Highlight of the day: Dinner was the most delicious and humongous slice of American Cheese Pizza, eaten whilst wondering the streets. Best flavour and price!

Why blog?

Hi everyone!

I have had thoughts of creating a personal blog for a while now, especially since I have 2 going at school! So many of our friends and families are not in Adelaide and, or even in the same hemisphere, and with such an exciting year ahead, what better time to start.

For anyone not yet up to date, Phil and I got engaged on the 9th of December at Scotts Creek. We are thinking October 3rd 2008 for the wedding, but will look into that more closely in the new year.

Tomorrow (27th of December) we head off on our trip overseas. We start in LA before heading to Canada to see the sights, my uncle and lastly, Phil's cousin's wedding. We shall endevor to post updates and some photos to the blog and keep you up to date with our travels.

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas day and have great plans for New Year's Eve (we will be at Disneyland).

Must go finish packing!

Tabitha