7/30

Our third day in America started much the same, waking up late and leaving about 12pm to go to Universal Studios and City Walk with George and Marci.

Originally we were going to go to San Diego to the Zoo there so we could see a real live grizzly bear, but it was too far away to drive to and thats why we ended up at Universal. Anyway after another cooked breakfast, lovingly prepared by George and Marci we set out for Universal. It is about 30mins away (with traffic) and you have to go thru the maze of freeways to get there, but its so nice to be in the car because its so hot outside. A/C is a life saver.

When we got there we walked around for a bit looking at the stalls and restaurants. We talked to donkey from Shrek (a guy in a big costume) and had a picture with him and then we decided to go on the rides before it got too late. The one we chose to go on first was the Studio Tour, which is the longest ride there and you go on the sets in the back lot of the studios which they still use today. The wait to get on the ride took over 75mins! and that was was particularly hot. Luckily they had these mist-er fan things which blew water on you, but Bri and I hadn't put on any sunblock and we burnt a bit in that waiting line (only half of it was under cover)

So we finally got on the tram to take the ride. We saw the bell tower from Back to the Future, some car stunts, water stunts, the Desperate Housewives set and went thru some rides. The rides were like tunnels that the tram (4 carriages long) would drive into and stop then the walls would be projected with images that made it look like you were in another place. The main one was King Kong and you were placed in the middle of  fight between King Kong and Dinosaurs. They would roar at you and water would come in your face as if they were spitting. Pretty cool!!

We were a bit zonked after that long wait in the heat so we had some mexican takeaways from Cantina for lunch. After that we went on the rest of the rides, our favorite being The Simpsons ride - a virtual roller coaster. When we had done all the rides we walk back along City Walk and looked in some shops.

We hadn't eaten since we had some ice-cream between the rides so we decided to get some of the famous In n Out Burger on the way home. Words can't describe how good it was. And CHEAP too! $2.15 for a burger. The staff even wear little paper hats haha. We tried to take a picture of the lady serving us at the window but she was like "no photos" - she wasn't that photogenic anyway.

 

After eating In n Out at home we went to bed - pretty late again!

7/29 Part Deux

Sorry I've been so slack at updating this blog for you all. I'm trying really I am. Can I use sickness as an excuse? No one freak out, I don't mean morning sickness I just have a bit of flu from all the temp changes and aircon.

Anyway on day two after Randys Donuts we went to an outside mall called The Grove. There's heaps of shops and farmers markets there. Supposedly celebrities go to that mall so I was kinda hoping to see one. Haha. Anyway we looked around some shops for a while and bought some things from apple that people had requested then wandered down to the markets. There's lots of knick knacky stuff there so we didn't buy much Briar got a giant size mug and i got a toy combi van for Ngi cos it reminded me of theirs and their bach.

We had made a list of a few sights we wanted to see that day so we had to keep moving but we were hungry so our next stop was to eat at a place called Barney's Beanery

Barney's is like a pub with a few restaurants here and there but we went to the original one where Jim Morrison (The Doors), Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix used to go. They have memorabilia and you can see their names carved in the tables. We ordered one of each appetizer as they were cheap 'cos it was happy hour. We shared mozzarella sticks, buffalo wings, chicken bits and Irish nachos (with potatos not chips).

We weaved up thru some nice streets to get as close as possible to the Hollywood sign. Finally we got there when it was almost dark. We took some pics and headed to a place called Amoeba Music. Its like Real Groovy Records at home. But this store has such a reputation that even Paul McCartney played there live in store. After that we decided to go home cos Miles had to work. He does shifts from 11-3am. We got home and talked some more to George as Marci was already in bed. Another night that we got to sleep about 2am! It's quite hot at night so we sleep with the ceiling fan on and the windows open, but we get to sleep pretty quick cos we are soo tired.

7/29

Adventures with Jack and Miles

So we went to bed pretty late the first night (jetlagged) so we got up around 10am and had breakfast, George and Marci were so kind and made us a huge breakfast with bacon and eggs and Miles and Jack came over while we were eating. (Briar wants you to know we had "Canadian bacon" which is really lean with no fat - it almost looks like luncheon)

After breakfast we set out for the "Randy's Donut" sign. Its quite a way away and we ended up going to Walmart first to find composition books (at Porter Ranch near home)..........

By the way "Home" is George and Marciela Pons' house. The address is 10029 Nevada Ave, Chatsworth, CA 91311.

They live in the San Fernando Valley which is approx 1.3 million people. THATS LIKE THE SIZE OF AUCKLAND. LA county is over 3 mill. THATS LIKE THE SIZE OF NZ

...........anyway Walmart was an experience. Everything is 10 times as big. Instead of 2L milk they have 4L. Everything is just huge. Walmart is like {Kmart+Countdown}

We got a few things at walmart and then drove to Randys donuts. After taking a few photos we each got a donut, which tasted amazing.

7/28

sooo we had the longest thursday of our lives. We had about 10hours of day in NZ, boarded the flight at 7:15pm spent 12 hours on the plane and then stayed up until 1am US time. Thats 34 hours.

Nate and Briar got a little bit of sleep on the plane but it was really hot and stuffy. We were lucky enough to have the special treatment on the plane from Briars uncle Paul.

We landed on time and got thru the scary customs people, after having our finger prints scanned and photo taken. So we got thru and quickly met up with George and Marci who came to pick us up.

We were pretty tired and hungry so we went straight to a mexican restaurant for lunch Sol Y Luna

It was really good food. Nate, George and Marci had burritos and Briar and I shared 2 entrees which consisted of a tamali, taco and fried beans. SO YUM. We got some drinks which were huge and we learned restaurants always give FREE REFILLS. No wonder they are so big!

When we got back to George and Marci's, Miles came over and we went to the mall to get Briars new iphone. Then we rushed back to make it to the meeting. All the brothers and sisters were really nice, and one brother called Jack offere to take us around LA next day.