Hollywood Sign
The final stop on the trip was Los Angeles, before heading back home to winter in NYC.
The flight was easy we slept, watched movies, and ate the meals/constant snacks from the Qantas aircrew. A good tip is to check-in early to the flight and get your seats squared away, especially internationally. We left Sydney in the afternoon and arrived in LA in the morning (about 7am). They have an area where the buses from the different car rentals pick you up and bring you to the car lot to register and pick up the car. In comparison to Australia it seemed more run down and not as well organized.
This mahogany color of skeletons only comes from the LA tar pits!
The first stop in LA was the La Brea tar pits, which are a treat. They have tours that go around and explain what has been found in which pit, which are active, and how do the pits develop. They also have a small indoor museum, “3D show” (extra cost, a few dollars), and actual scientists working on bones that are found (so you can see the process in real life). We really enjoyed this stop on the trip, and recommend it. If you haven’t gone and are in the LA area, please visit.
Still to be excavated.
Lunch was in El Pollo Loco, which we really enjoyed (even if it is fast-food). The chicken was very tasty and the many sauces/garnishes on the side were cool.
The hotel we stayed in was Mosaic Hotel Beverly Hills. At first they put us in a separate building with rooms that are in an open area and you can hear everything, because only a glass window separates you from the walkway (it was noisy and dark and quite horrible). I asked for a different room, they started to give me excuses (our cleaning staff is away, ect.) I insisted and told them “I’m here to sleep and in the room you gave me it won’t happen.” They finally gave me a room on the top floor (4th or 5th), but I think the problem is that their doors are not insulated enough and sound gets in (but it was much better than the first room). Honestly they should do better, they are a four star hotel and I expected better.
Lights! Camera! Action!
The next stop was the Public Art “Urban Light,” which is cool with all of the different street lights that have been used before (also they filmed a few movies in this area). Right next to the Public Art is the Petersen Automotive Museum, which is a must see. It has many different cars from the very first concept with a motor to famous movie cars, to future designs/concepts. The rest of the day we spent in the museum until closing.
One of the oldest car models
For dinner we went to a close spot to just get a piece of cake and bubble tea.
Goofy Dancing
Next day was Disneyland! Where the magic of Disney started, the first park! It is not as massive as Disney World in Orlando, but the two parks deserve a day each (unfortunately we could only give it a day for both). Both of the parks are unique and interesting, we ended up running from one park to the other for the different activities and attractions. The Adventure park has the night show only once and the smart thing is to find the fast pass ticket machine and reserving a spot in the better viewing area. The main park has it’s show twice, once before the Adventure park and once right after, but it has fireworks only once in the first viewing of the show. In the main park you cannot reserve better spots, you have to find them on your own. Both of the Disney night shows are wonderful and have to be seen. They have the delicious huge turkey legs in this park as well, in designated spots. They are big and it was enough to share one with my husband for lunch. After the last show you have about an hour left in the park at night (I do not recommend it to people that do not see well, it is dark and hard to see anything (the upside, no line on the rides that are open to the very end). The day started at 6am and ended when we drove into our hotel at 2am.
Music float
No first LA trip is complete without doing the overly touristy stops. The Hollywood sign (do not go to the observatory, as the map may tell you, the sign is very small from there and it is very hard to take any pictures). But going to the sign is also forbidden so the happy medium is going to Lake Hollywood Park, it goes through a residential area and you can get a much better picture. The next stop was the Hollywood Walk of Fame and TLC Chinese Theater.
TCL Chinese Theater
We visited the day before the Oscars, so a lot of the area was closed off for the pre-Oscar activities. We found many famous people’s names and also Mickey Mouse’s Hollywood Star (it is right in front of the Chinese Theater). For lunch we stopped by In-N-Out Burger on Sunset Blvd (no LA trip would be complete without this fast food joint), the burgers were great but what got me is the pricing. The burgers were very cheap, and much better quality (even though the wait time was very long) then other fast food places.
Mickey Mouse’s Star
To end the day we drove to The Americana at Brand, which is an outdoor mall with many restaurants, cafes, shops, and a dancing fountain. We went to eat at the Katsuya Glendale and it was not good, I ordered Evian water and the waiter brought me water in a Evian bottle that clearly was not Evian (more like tap). He also started to make excuses, saying that every bottle of Evian is different, and such (I told him I know Evian as I drink it regularly). The food was ok, but nothing to go back to or even for a first time.
Near Venice Beach
On the last day we got our things, and went to visit Venice Beach. The entire walk way smelled of pee, it had a lot of homeless people, and shops. It was ok, but not what I pictured of LA beaches.
No trip to the west coast is complete with out a stop at In-n-out burger!
We drove to the airport, dropped off the car and got to our terminal. Somehow we got the last leg of our journey on American Airlines and not Qantas (the airline where I booked all my tickets). Now, AA is the worst airline in the world. We were trying to check into our flight and check our luggage, there were no humans working the check-in counter, they were all replaced by kiosks. We were trying to check in using the kiosks and kept getting error messages. We asked the only person standing right next the machines for help, all we got was “it’s not our job” (she said while basically staring at the wall. I’m still not sure what her job actually was there). So no one wanted to help. We finally found a “manager” and explained to him that we got there 1.5 hours before our flight (even a bit before that), and the machine wouldn’t let us check in. He said that their policy (which we never experienced with any other airline, especially domestic) is that we have to check in our luggage 1.5 hours before boarding time (so 2 hours before flight). If we get there any time after the cutoff, the machines would not let us check in, and no human employee (not even a “manager”) could make an exception and override it. He finally agreed (just to get rid of us) to gave us our boarding passes, but he still wouldn’t check our luggage, he said we wound have to take it straight down to cargo. So we went all the way down to cargo (which he failed to mention was all the way on the other end of the terminal), and all they told us was “it’s not our job, we don’t do this. Why would they send you to us? Go to lost luggage.” When we went to lost luggage, they were just as confused. At this point it was clear that they gave us the literal runaround, for over an hour, until we missed our flight. When we returned to the terminal, we had to go to the booking counter and try to get on the next flight to New York. There was a line to the booking counter full of people who missed their flight due to AA’s ridiculous policy. When we finally got to the booking counter, we were informed that the next flight to New York will be in 6 hours, so we would have to wait on standby (meaning no guaranteed seat, if there are empty seats after boarding they will give it to you or you will have to wait again until they have a seat available). Thankfully we got on the 9pm flight (original flight was at 3pm). No snacks or food or anything on American, just horrible.
Overall, Australia was fantastic! LA was ok, and American Airlines is the worst airline in the history of air travel. Until next trip Across the Atlantic!
Stormtrooper at Disneyland!