LA Trip Part 3 - Tourism
My swine flu cold is finally going away. At least my voice is finally back to normal!
Seeing as I don’t have costume photos yet, I’ll write about the rest of my LA trip first.
All my photos are up here btw. Weirdly out of order since I wasn’t paying attention when uploading them.
Saturday 4th July
Since we didn’t want to spend all our time at the con, we used this morning to head to Hollywood.
We took the metro there, and the Hollywood and Vine station had nifty decorations
Then was wandered along the Walk of Fame
We ended up having brunch in the Disney Store ice cream parlour/soda fountain
because we hadn’t had enough of Disney yet.
It was opposite the Kodak Theatre.
After eating, we went over to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre
Fought our way past Michael Jackson’s star…
Had a look at the hand prints in front of the theatre….
Went through a nice shopping area and got a good view of the Hollywood sign, then made our way back to the hotel and the con.
Sunday 5th July
Ignored the con completely today. Got the bus out to Venice, which took far longer than expected. LA does have reasonable public transport, if you look into it enough (there’s no bus times actually at the bus stops, if you want to know, you need to have looked it up), but the overwhelming majority drive. If we’d really been focussed on tourism, a car would have almost essential.
The beach was pretty entertaining, with loads of stalls and stuff along the road. After walking a long quite far to explore, we stayed on the beach for a while, which was really nice and relaxing. It wasn’t actually that warm with the breeze coming off the sea, and apparently the water is always pretty cold due to currents, but the sand was nice and cosy, so it was pleasant lying there.
For Net
Lets go hire a kite
A legitimate graffiti areas! Such a good idea.
Since we had a meal with Yaya and Brian to go to that evening, we got taxis back to the hotel, and headed straight off to Little Tokyo. It had some neat shops, and was a nice pedestrianised area. The meal had some silly number, I think there were nearly 20 of us in total 0_O but it still went well. For dessert, we went to a frozen yoghurt place. Not only was there the novelty of frozen yoghurt, but it was in a range of crazy flavours, and it was a self-service thing. It was like a pick-and-mix - put whatever flavours of yoghurt you want in your tub, add any toppings and fruit, then you pay according to how much it weighs.
Downtown at night
On getting back to the hotel, it was room party time! Only time I managed to stay awake for anything like this on the trip, and it was lots of fun. Particularly hilarity was down to Laura’s friend, Soren, and Fish definitely needs to get drunk more often.
A photo of Kat smiling! And nearly looking at the camera! Do I win a prize?
Monday 6th July
Those of us who started out at Disney had yet to see any of Downtown LA, so we went on a walk up to the Disney Concert Hall, which is crazy, yet awesome, then explored the Fashion District
Zee concert hall
Seeing as I promised Net her crazy statues and architecture, I’ll put this here with the concert hall
The Fashion District was incredible, and I thought New York’s was impressive. It was a lot like a market, with fabrics arranged however possible, and totally crammed in in some shops to the point it was difficult to move. There was useful scope to haggle prices too. The amount of fabric, and the low prices, were ridiculous. Also heaps of trims and whatever else too.
Mainly for Nickel :P
We gave up on doing anything in the afternoon since it was so warm, and chilled at the hotel for a bit. Headed out later to get important stuff at the supermarket to take home, like Twizzlers and marshmallow fluff. I made the mistake of trying a bottled iced latte, which tasted of sugar. Clearly the combination of caffeine, sugar and whatever else was powerful, because I was high for the rest of the day.
Spent some time organising shuttles to the airport for the next day, which was definitely not ideal with most of Downtown due to be closed with the Michael Jackson thing, and our hotel right in the middle of it all. Also managed to check-in online for our flights and get some packing done.
Some of the others had gone to Six Flags for the day, so once they were back, we went out for food (it being around 9pm by this time). We ended up in IHOP, but being better prepared for the portion sizes after our previous experience in Anaheim, and also very hungry, it was a bit more suitable this time round!
*shrugs*
The police had started closing roads this evening for the Michael Jackson memorial the next day, and people flogging tacky t-shirts were out in force.
There’s a police cordon round our hotel!
Lots of Portaloos required for events like these
The billboard for people to sign
Headed back to pack up and snooze, and miraculously I did come down off my caffeine high enough to sleep.
Tuesday 7th July
I was intending to sleep in this morning, but was woken up at 7am with music from outside courtesy of some Michael Jackson nonsense. I failed to get back to sleep so just got up early. Spent the morning packing up, having breakfast, gawking at the police and crowds outside.
The mounted police have cowboy hats!
The journey to the airport went off without a hitch, no problems with being picked up at the hotel nor with traffic thankfully, so we were at LAX ridiculously early. LAX is not my favourite airport - I was not happy about the stupidly long queue for “fast” bag-drop, which turned out not to even involve dropping off our bags like at sensible airports - after having the bags weighed and tagged, we had to go elsewhere to actually drop them off 0_o Then time for a third queue to go through security, and in the departure lounge, there was bog all. Wish they’d mention that before we went though security, but the majority of shops and restaurants are actually before security. Yay.
Flight was on time - this time I watched Monsters vs. Aliens, read for a bit, then slept a bit on and off for most of the rest of the time. Luckily the journey back is a lot shorter than going out, with the wind direction. Our flight landed at around 4am LA time, which is midday London time. The connection wasn’t a problem, but our flight up to Glasgow was delayed a bit due to waiting for a few last bags, which were probably ours. One way or another, our luggage did successfully make it to Glasgow along with us. Got the airport bus to the bus station, then I was on a bus to Edinburgh around 5.15, and was picked up from the bus station there. Unpacked a bit, had a very nice bath, and sleeeeeept.
Seeing as I don’t have costume photos yet, I’ll write about the rest of my LA trip first.
All my photos are up here btw. Weirdly out of order since I wasn’t paying attention when uploading them.
Saturday 4th July
Since we didn’t want to spend all our time at the con, we used this morning to head to Hollywood.
We took the metro there, and the Hollywood and Vine station had nifty decorations
Then was wandered along the Walk of Fame
We ended up having brunch in the Disney Store ice cream parlour/soda fountain
because we hadn’t had enough of Disney yet.
It was opposite the Kodak Theatre.
After eating, we went over to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre
Fought our way past Michael Jackson’s star…
Had a look at the hand prints in front of the theatre….
Went through a nice shopping area and got a good view of the Hollywood sign, then made our way back to the hotel and the con.
Sunday 5th July
Ignored the con completely today. Got the bus out to Venice, which took far longer than expected. LA does have reasonable public transport, if you look into it enough (there’s no bus times actually at the bus stops, if you want to know, you need to have looked it up), but the overwhelming majority drive. If we’d really been focussed on tourism, a car would have almost essential.
The beach was pretty entertaining, with loads of stalls and stuff along the road. After walking a long quite far to explore, we stayed on the beach for a while, which was really nice and relaxing. It wasn’t actually that warm with the breeze coming off the sea, and apparently the water is always pretty cold due to currents, but the sand was nice and cosy, so it was pleasant lying there.
For Net
Lets go hire a kite
A legitimate graffiti areas! Such a good idea.
Since we had a meal with Yaya and Brian to go to that evening, we got taxis back to the hotel, and headed straight off to Little Tokyo. It had some neat shops, and was a nice pedestrianised area. The meal had some silly number, I think there were nearly 20 of us in total 0_O but it still went well. For dessert, we went to a frozen yoghurt place. Not only was there the novelty of frozen yoghurt, but it was in a range of crazy flavours, and it was a self-service thing. It was like a pick-and-mix - put whatever flavours of yoghurt you want in your tub, add any toppings and fruit, then you pay according to how much it weighs.
Downtown at night
On getting back to the hotel, it was room party time! Only time I managed to stay awake for anything like this on the trip, and it was lots of fun. Particularly hilarity was down to Laura’s friend, Soren, and Fish definitely needs to get drunk more often.
A photo of Kat smiling! And nearly looking at the camera! Do I win a prize?
Monday 6th July
Those of us who started out at Disney had yet to see any of Downtown LA, so we went on a walk up to the Disney Concert Hall, which is crazy, yet awesome, then explored the Fashion District
Zee concert hall
Seeing as I promised Net her crazy statues and architecture, I’ll put this here with the concert hall
The Fashion District was incredible, and I thought New York’s was impressive. It was a lot like a market, with fabrics arranged however possible, and totally crammed in in some shops to the point it was difficult to move. There was useful scope to haggle prices too. The amount of fabric, and the low prices, were ridiculous. Also heaps of trims and whatever else too.
Mainly for Nickel :P
We gave up on doing anything in the afternoon since it was so warm, and chilled at the hotel for a bit. Headed out later to get important stuff at the supermarket to take home, like Twizzlers and marshmallow fluff. I made the mistake of trying a bottled iced latte, which tasted of sugar. Clearly the combination of caffeine, sugar and whatever else was powerful, because I was high for the rest of the day.
Spent some time organising shuttles to the airport for the next day, which was definitely not ideal with most of Downtown due to be closed with the Michael Jackson thing, and our hotel right in the middle of it all. Also managed to check-in online for our flights and get some packing done.
Some of the others had gone to Six Flags for the day, so once they were back, we went out for food (it being around 9pm by this time). We ended up in IHOP, but being better prepared for the portion sizes after our previous experience in Anaheim, and also very hungry, it was a bit more suitable this time round!
*shrugs*
The police had started closing roads this evening for the Michael Jackson memorial the next day, and people flogging tacky t-shirts were out in force.
There’s a police cordon round our hotel!
Lots of Portaloos required for events like these
The billboard for people to sign
Headed back to pack up and snooze, and miraculously I did come down off my caffeine high enough to sleep.
Tuesday 7th July
I was intending to sleep in this morning, but was woken up at 7am with music from outside courtesy of some Michael Jackson nonsense. I failed to get back to sleep so just got up early. Spent the morning packing up, having breakfast, gawking at the police and crowds outside.
The mounted police have cowboy hats!
The journey to the airport went off without a hitch, no problems with being picked up at the hotel nor with traffic thankfully, so we were at LAX ridiculously early. LAX is not my favourite airport - I was not happy about the stupidly long queue for “fast” bag-drop, which turned out not to even involve dropping off our bags like at sensible airports - after having the bags weighed and tagged, we had to go elsewhere to actually drop them off 0_o Then time for a third queue to go through security, and in the departure lounge, there was bog all. Wish they’d mention that before we went though security, but the majority of shops and restaurants are actually before security. Yay.
Flight was on time - this time I watched Monsters vs. Aliens, read for a bit, then slept a bit on and off for most of the rest of the time. Luckily the journey back is a lot shorter than going out, with the wind direction. Our flight landed at around 4am LA time, which is midday London time. The connection wasn’t a problem, but our flight up to Glasgow was delayed a bit due to waiting for a few last bags, which were probably ours. One way or another, our luggage did successfully make it to Glasgow along with us. Got the airport bus to the bus station, then I was on a bus to Edinburgh around 5.15, and was picked up from the bus station there. Unpacked a bit, had a very nice bath, and sleeeeeept.