Monday 26/12/2011

After a momentous Xmas eve and Xmas day at Gambo's place we got up early Monday morning to pack and finalize our leaving arrangements. We had all 4 dogs sorted (Max, Mia, Phoenix and Ollie) they were happy together as long as they all realized Mia was the boss and all toys belonged to her.

Gambo drove us to the airport and we were both surprised at how anxious we felt, leaving our life, family and friends for 6 months wasn't as easy as we thought, but still we had to do it, or at least wanted to.

The flight to Sydney was uneventful, our accommodation was simple but adequate and we found the St George Rowing Club a stones through away, so spent the afternoon on their deck watching people fishing and enjoying their boxing day, and having a couple of coldies.

Tuesday 27/12/2011

Our flight on Tuesday left at 10 am, and having many experiences of getting to airports, we got the early shuttle and arrived at 7.00 am, easy, easy check in, then off to the Air New Zealand lounge for some brekky (and a couple of glasses of champagne). We were unfortunate to experience a very ignorant employee at the tax rebate office, amazing to think that Australians can treat foreigners so badly.

We were actually first on the plane (Asiana Airlines) and settled in for the first leg of 10 1/2 hour flight to Incheon (South Korea, thank god it wasn't North Korea). Magnificent food, service, seats and hostesses, best yet. We watched Glee The Movie, so smiled for a good couple of hours. We arrived in Incheon thinking we had 1 1/2 hr layover but as it turned out we walked from one plane straight onto the next plane and the only thing we really noticed was the snow on the ground. Apparently it was minus 9 outside. This flight was a different plane again and probably newer, we had the very front seats, pods of course and the photos will show you the meal service. It was another 10 1/2 hour flight so believe me we we're keen to arrive in LA, although a little anxious about driving the hire car.

Once again we were fed to death with the best quality food, service was also excellent. We slept quite a while on this leg because it was equivalent to early morning our time however Marty did suffer a bit of claustrophobia from the pods.

Loved our arrival in LA, the customs guy was just gorgeous, I had indicated on the customs form that I had food items and he automatically asked if I had Tim Tams or Vegemite, once I replied Vegemite he said "we don't class that as food here". I asked him to make sure he stamped my passport, explaining that my aim was to fill my passport before it was due for renewal in 2018, so he got me to stamp the passport myself, then signed it with a bird (his surname). It was great to be greeted into the country with such friendliness.

Caught the shuttle to "Dollar" and picked up our car (with a firm refusal to not accept the 'extra' insurance I apparently should have, which I had researched and new I didn't need). We chose a Dodge and will show you pics. Fired up the Tom Tom and nearly s*** ourselves when we saw the highway - 7 lanes wide each way. But made it to our motel without a hitch. Then off down the road to see the shops - bought a Cashmere sweater at Bloomingdales for $59, and found the shop to buy the coats we needed.
At this point our happy holiday became a little unhitched as I found a message from Gambo saying max had a paralysis tick and needed vet care possibly up to $5000. I'm sorry if we seem heartless but that was a bit too much money for what we could afford so rang him and explained that we weren't prepared to spend that sort of money, however we were grateful for what he had done for max.

Wednesday 28/12/2011

We both woke feeling totally washed out after a horrible nights sleep, both of us terribly worried about Max. Walked down the road for breakfast, then headed off in search of factory outlets. Marty drove while I navigated, best we don't comment on my navigation skills as I got us into some hairy situations on one of the million highways/motorways/freeways in LA. We did however find the outlets quite easily, and when USA says factory outlet, they aren't joking. Several hundred dollars and a couple of big smiles later, I took my first venture behind the wheel. It was definitely much easier than I thought especially with Marty navigating from the Tom Tom. I think I am a much better driver than navigator.

We unloaded our bags of shopping and through Facebook heard Max was alive and doing well. Thank you Gambo for all you did for him. We then headed off to the Santa Monica pier (see pics) then had a nice Italian dinner to celebrate Max's recovery.

Thursday 29/12/11

We headed off reasonably early to Universal Studios. I didn't have much of a preconceived idea of what to expect and I will admit when I got first got there I thought 'this isn't going to be any better than the Gold Coasts Movieworld', boy, was I wrong. The photos show it all, along with the fact that Marty wasn't keen on going but loved the day.

We did the universal studios tour which was just amazing, the horror set tour, the animal acts show, the water world show, the terminator show. By the time we had finished all that, the place was so full of people you couldn't move, and even though we didn't have to queue for long at any of the shows, we couldn't handle the crowds anymore so decided we had had enough, HOWEVER, Marty wanted something to eat before we left. We struggled to find somewhere that had something that wasn't a heart attack on a plate, but eventually found a place that had a turkey & salad roll. We ordered one then stood back waiting for the order while we watched hundreds of burgers, pizzas, fries, funnel cake (deep fried cake/donut covered in icing sugar, cream out of a bag & strawberry sauce & not a dessert serving but a dinner plate size) handed out to everyone else. After about 20 mins I noticed the solitary turkey & salad roll sitting neglected on the bench and asked for it. In the 1/2 hour we were there we were the only people to order anything that resembled healthy.

Favorite parts
Marty - bus ride through universal studios back blocks and sound studios, seeing the street where Marty McFly & Emmit drove the car into the future, the Horror House (Marty said he would love to work there, scaring people all day long)
Me - THE WHOLE DAY. Wisteria lane, the street and town square from Back To The Future, The fact that Marty enjoyed it so much :)

Friday 30/12/2011
We were at a bit of a quandary as to whether to stay another night so we could do the other couple of things we wanted to do in LA, so asked reception how much for another night - $247, made us realize how well I had done to get the room for $95/night. That solved our problem though, we weren't staying another night. So we headed out to breakfast - $4.99 for 2 eggs (any style), bacon or sausage, toast or muffin, unlimited beautiful coffee all just down the road.

We then went in search of the Apple store to get help with setting up the iPad for Internet (we had used free wifi so far), but they were no help, so found a T Mobile store which got us all set up for Internet use. We then packed and headed to Griffith Park which has an observatory and great view of LA & the Hollywood sign. Unfortunately the fog/smog was so thick you couldn't see LA but had a great view of the sign and look through the observatory.

We then headed off to Santa Barbara for an our next stop, had a few hiccups on the way, we were on another 7 lane freeway when Tom Tom would advise us in her very Irish accent, "in 400 meters get in the right lane then stay left" or " stay left and take the right lane then take the exit on the left". Once you actually do what she said it made sense, but we had a lot of laughs, swearing, panics and wrong turns following her instructions. Try to remember we were driving on the wrong side of the road.

Got into Santa Barbara & found cheap, 2* accommodation run by Mr Wong. Then found a supermarket called Ralph's where if you sign up you can buy Jameson's Scotch for $14 a bottle. Might find it hard to get Marty out of here. We decided to have a rest day and plan our next few days of travel including finding accommodation, spent the day researching, doing my first blog and downloading photos.