Universal Studios Entrance
A final long drive to Los Angeles was nicely broken up by a visit to the Joshua Tree National Park, which looked suspiciously like a Star Trek set, with huge rocks and alien trees.
Passing through the wind farms on the outskirts of LA we hit the rush hour traffic and spent two hours and two milkshakes edging our way towards LAX and our hotel before a great Italian meal in Santa Monica.
—
The next morning, after a late start we went on a city tour of LA, taking in Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive (notable for the chandelier street lights), Sunset Boulevard and Manns Chinese Theatre (with all the stars and handprints in the pavement) and got our first glimpse of the Hollywood sign.
The afternoon was spent in Universal Studios, which was more fun than and certainly not as aimed at younger children as I expected. The rides were great, with Shrek 4D and Jurassic Park being highlights. In the evening it turned into a special Halloween Night, which was even more adult, with the main stars being Freddie, Jason and Leatherface, with mazes of people being bloodily slashed, stabbed and dismembered.
Jurassic Park with the lights out, and the studio tour bus was particularly good in the evening, with the War of the Worlds plane crash set being inhabited by zombies, and the Bates Motel Psycho set really came into its own.
Of note is the food pass…$19.95 for unlimited food all day. Didn’t go for it as was trying to scale back a bit, but the food in the park was both great value and very tasty.
— Next Day
The flight home was delayed for 90 minutes whilst they fitted the plane with a device to allow it to navigate on international flights. Not sure whether this was electronic or just a co-pilot, but it seemed worth waiting for.
— Next Day
Arrived home. It’s cold and wet but 5 new travel brochures have arrived in the post whilst I was away. Time to start thinking about where to go next?
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