Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 Well as most of you know against the doctors orders I went off to America for 3 weeks for both business and more than anything pleasure before my next ops. We had a brilliant time although I pushed myself to the max and need another holiday to recover. I am sure you aren't interested in the business side of things so lets jump in to what good things we got up to. We headed off to Vegas once we arrived. I couldn't believe the price of business class there, it was $200 and if you are a virgin velocity member you will be happy to know you score 40 status credits for the flight, that is the same amount as what we got for the flight from Sydney to Lax :no: Vegas - We have never been before so didn't know what to expect, we were told it wasn't a child friendly place so were a little concerned. Unfortunately Rob ended up with flu and spent 4 days in bed, during this time me and the kids went exploring each of the hotels. There are so many hotels on the strip we really didn't know where to stay, plus we still hadn't booked anything until the last minute just in case I had to cancel due to health. The hotels range in price from $25 a night upwards. We short listed it to Circus Circus or the Luxor, in the end we chose the Luxor as it was more central The hotel was huge and it took us a while to find our bearings. When we checked in they offered us the huge suite for an extra $30 a night so we jumped at it. At the Luxor they had two exhibits the titanic and bodies, both were excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed the bodies exhibit. If you get the chance to visit I would highly recommend it http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodies:_The_Exhibition Here are some other photos of Vegas, only taken by my phone as I couldn't carry the big camera. Above are some of the hotels, Paris, Venetian, Excalibur and New York New York. We also visited the stratosphere and once again against Drs orders I went on the Big Shot, the boys went on Insanity but they didn't have the courage to go on X Scream. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 I will post some more updates later Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beach pig Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 Nice pics .the ride which looks like its at the top of somewhere looking over suburbia is one i would give a miss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 After Vegas we flew back to LAX. Rob still wasn't fit to drive and once again against Drs orders I decided we couldn't manage without a car so muggings here drove. We have had nightmares when in Orlando hiring a car, its like a timeshare spiel you get and none of us were fit for that, so we booked with Europcar, the only thing we didn't know was that they had a shuttle that would have taken us to their off airport depot so we hired a taxi, the guy screamed at us for having a taxi and told us we would have to pay him $20 even if the fare was $6 we said that wasn't a problem but he was so nasty and shitty. I was close to telling him what he could do with his taxi but Robs grip on my hand got stronger and stronger. Anyway Europcar share with another hire company and I have to say it was fantastic service, I asked him why he wasn't trying to up sell everything and he said because we were with Europcar everything was already included in the price. This is the best experience we have had in America and I will use Europcar again, they aren't as big over there and may be a little more expensive but it was worth it. They didn't have a sat nav so we bought one which at $95 was cheaper than hiring one at $14 a day. They say LA is the worst place in the world to drive and before we went every thing I read online told me the same, I was absolutely dreading it. To be honest I found it no different to driving in Melbourne, I think if you are a timid driver then it could be very daunting but I'm quite aggressive in my style of driving plus I've lived in Canada so it seemed the norm to me. I must admit the traffic itself was nightmares even going in to the outback and coming back at 6pm was full of traffic jams and that was a Sunday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jac2011 Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 Sounds like you had a lovely time :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MARYROSE02 Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 I stayed at Luxor, looked up and saw no balconies so asked for a top floor room, not realizing that the balconies are on the inside and because the building is pyramid shaped the higher you go, the more you lean out.. Apart from getting used to driving on the 'wrong' side of the road, I find that driving in Sydney equips you for driving anywhere! It's about time I had a US trip as I've not been there since 1996. I was at the airport the other day to see a friend off to Serbia, and noticed the departure board listing 'Honolulu!' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noworriesmate Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 but I'm quite aggressive in my style :yes::wink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 :yes::wink: :tongue: I have had to rush out. One of the kids needed me, will update again when I'm home Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tina0101 Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 Looks fab - I've always wanted to see Vegas. I remember when we went to Los Angeles, my parents hired a car and the guy grabbed a map and marked out the areas we didn't want to drive through during the day and night!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 Looks fab - I've always wanted to see Vegas. I remember when we went to Los Angeles, my parents hired a car and the guy grabbed a map and marked out the areas we didn't want to drive through during the day and night!! Lol we didn't get anything like that but I can believe it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 Ok from the airport we decided to spend 3 nights in Anaheim as we had tickets booked to the Knotts Berry Haunt at night. We stayed at the knotts Berry hotel then we didn't need to drive after the event as they usually stay open until 1am and we weren't sure how long I'd last. The hotel offered us an upgrade for an extra $15 per night to a larger room, it came with two free snoopy cuddly toys and snoopy came by at 20:30 every night to tuck the kids in. I was most disappointed when @Squarepants hid in the bathroom and refused to get tucked in to bed by snoopy :laugh: we had to explain that he was a little too old for that. The Halloween nights are awesome and if ever your in America over Halloween usually end Sept - end of October I highly recommend going, although the minimum age is 13. The park is all decorated in to different halloween scare zones, fog machines take over the park along with zombies etc. They then have mazes that you walk through. If any of you remember the one at Blackpool they are like that except scarier. Here is some info about the 2014 Halloween. The new Voodoo maze takes you through a New Orleans bayou, with multiple paths, each offering a different experience. Halloween Haunt Mazes & Rides: Knotts Scary Farm offers eleven terrifying mazes and rides for Halloween 2014. Mazes with an asterisk (*) include special rooms that can be accessed only with a FrightLane Skeleton Key: *NEW FOR 2014: VOODOO. Take a walk through a mossy Louisiana bayou, with multiple paths. You must choose your way, each possibility leading to a new and different experience. Includes special scenes you can unlock only with a Skeleton Key Fright Pass. - NEW FOR 2014: THE TOOTH FAIRY. Scared of dentists? Then watch out for this malicious imp! - Enlist to shoot zombies! NEW FOR 2014: SPECIAL OPS INFECTED. Set in Camp Snoopy, this unique variation on a scare zone requires visitors to “enlist” – i.e., schedule a time to enter, so that they can avoid waiting in line. Upon entrance, you will be equipped to complete a guided mission, which will require you to earn points by killing zombies. Essentially, this is a paintball/airsoft experience. - *BLACK MAGIC. Houdini’s ghost materializes during a seance, unleashing the spirits of the dead. Includes special scenes you can unlock only with a Skeleton Key Fright Pass. - *THE GUNSLINGER’S GRAVE. Knotts Scary Farm returns to its Western ghost town roots with this tale of a gunslinger, left for dead and out for revenge. Includes special scenes you can unlock only with a Skeleton Key Fright Pass. - *DOMINION OF THE DAMNED. A more refined and subtle scare is offered, courtesy of the aristocracy of the undead. This sounds like a variation on last years Dominion of the Dead, with added special scenes you can unlock only with a Skeleton Key Fright Pass. - *PINOCCHIO UNSTRUNG. Dolls are scary – especially this lying little creep. Includes special scenes you can unlock only with a Skeleton Key Fright Pass. - TRAPPED: LOCK AND KEY. For an extra $60, you and your friends (up to six total) can enter this interactive maze, which requires you to solve puzzle, circumvent obstrutions, and find hidden doors in order to proceed. This year promises more confrontational horrors to overcome, offering a half-hour journey through terror. - TRICK OR TREAT. A traditional-style of Halloween scare, set in a witch’s house offering treats to unwary visitors. - FOREVERMORE. A demented killer dispatches his victims with torture devices imagined in the works of Edgar Allen Poe. - THE WITCH’S KEEP. Once again, the Green Witch haunts the depths of the Calico Mine Ride. The old-fashioned ambiance of the train ride is suitable for a witch, and the character ties in with the Trick or Treat maze and the Hanging Show. Elvira's Big Top in the Charles M. Schultz Theatre, twice nightly. For a small up-charge, you can also meet the Mistress of the Dark in person. Halloween Haunt Shows: Knotts Scary Farm offers half a dozen shows. Most of them are set in theatres, giving you a chance to rest your legs between bouts of standing in line. The outdoor hanging takes place at the gallows near the old Ghost Town: ELVIRA’S BIG TOP. Stand up comedy in the Ghoul Time theatre. Elvira’s Boo-tique will be open throughout the season, offering you a chance to purchase merchandise and have it personally signed by the Mistress of the Dark. - THE HANGING. A new variation on the annual show runs three times nightly. Now I had never heard of Elvira but Rob most certainly had, it seems she is famous for her big chest. :wink: The trapped maze we payed the $60 extra to do and we had a time of 22:30 to go back, it seems they didn't really think this maze through. They put six people through at a time and they had to perform different acts to get to the next room, whilst in the queue we heard people were coming out crying and vomiting and they had to keep stopping. We decided that me and the little one would head back to the room and leave the eldest and Rob to go through it alone. Well they ended up not getting through until 3am, neither of them have told me much apart from a Miss Kitty whipping them :laugh: So who knows what happened that night pmsl. Anyway the next day we did Disney and some shopping Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 Our next accommodation was in Hollywood on the Blvd. we expected it to be a lovely area but how wrong we were. The apartments where we stayed were lovely themselves and had a lot of history behind them, Charlie Chaplain, and some other famous actors lived there, unfortunately these days I would say its claim to fame is ladies of the night and drug dealers. Hollywood Boulevard itself is very seedy. The first night there I went for a walk on my own and someone tried to snatch my bag, a guy kicked a pit bull in to the oncoming traffic, etc It is the only place I have been where I felt unsafe. I expected Hollywood to be a very upmarket place, it was quite the opposite. One good thing was that I ended up on the film set with the guys from NCIS LA. I suppose what I did like about Hollywood was the number of events that were on, there were lots of premieres whilst we were there, Walking Dead, American Horror and two films and lots of famous people who were doing book signings. It is definitely a place where you can see someone famous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 We also visited Calico ghost town although it is more like Sovereign Hill in Ballarat so not a true ghost town :no: It was still a lovely day though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 Thanks to @Bobj we also paid a visit to the La Brea Tar Pits The La Brea Tar Pits and Hancock Park are situated within what was once the Mexican land grant of Rancho La Brea, now part of urban Los Angeles in the Miracle Mile district, adjacent to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Craft and Folk Art Museum. Tar pits are composed of heavy oil fractions called asphaltum, which seeped from the earth as oil. In Hancock Park, crude oil seeps up along the 6th Street Fault from the Salt Lake Oil Field, which underlies much of the Fairfax District north of the park.The oil reaches the surface and forms pools at several locations in the park, becoming asphalt as the lighter fractions of the petroleum biodegrade or evaporate. This seepage has been happening for tens of thousands of years. From time to time, the asphalt would form a deposit thick enough to trap animals, and the surface would be covered with layers of water, dust, or leaves. Animals would wander in, become trapped, and eventually die. Predators would enter to eat the trapped animals and also become stuck. The tar pits visible today are actually from human excavation. The lake pit was originally an asphalt mine. The other pits visible today were produced between 1913 and 1915, when over 100 pits were excavated in search of large mammal bones. Various combinations of asphaltum and water have since filled in these holes. Normally, the asphalt appears in vents, hardening as it oozes out, to form stubby mounds. These can be seen in several areas of the park. As the bones of dead animals sink into the asphalt, it soaks into them, turning them a dark-brown or black color. Lighter fractions of petroleum evaporate from the asphalt, leaving a more solid substance, which encases the bones. Dramatic fossils of large mammals have been extricated from the tar, but the asphalt also preserves microfossils: wood and plant remnants, rodent bones, insects, mollusks, dust, seeds, leaves, and even pollen grains. Examples of some of these are on display in the George C Page museum. Radiometric dating of preserved wood and bones has given an age of 38,000 years for the oldest known material from the La Brea seeps. The pits still ensnare organisms today, so most of the pits are fenced to protect humans and animals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fifi69 Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 Loving your pics and updates.. USA on my list to do...but quite far down, not sure why, but still like seeing it and taking notes for when I do go Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyman Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 Love it ......you have changed my opinion on visiting the USA .........:hug: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobj Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 Cheers, Bobj. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srh82 Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 Thanks for pics loved looking and reading your holiday escapades :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MARYROSE02 Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 I never had any problems on my American trips, some of which I did on my own. California reminds me a little of New South Wales, with the same emphasis on beaches and sunshine. I can remember driving from Newport Beach to LAX on probably the Pacific Highway, which, if I got the name right, could have been its NSW namesake, right down to the horrendous traffic. I like Americans too and I don't exercise the prejudice that so many Poms and Aussies carry with them. Reading and looking at this thread makes me want to get my act together and get on a plane. Actually, the last time I could have gone, with my brother Neil to meet my other brother Mick who lives in the US, I did actually have a great road trip through NSW, Victoria, SA, and back into NSW to the bottom of QLD, then returning to Sydney. I don't like flying, you see, even when I go business class. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 I never had any problems on my American trips, some of which I did on my own. California reminds me a little of New South Wales, with the same emphasis on beaches and sunshine. I can remember driving from Newport Beach to LAX on probably the Pacific Highway, which, if I got the name right, could have been its NSW namesake, right down to the horrendous traffic. I like Americans too and I don't exercise the prejudice that so many Poms and Aussies carry with them. Reading and looking at this thread makes me want to get my act together and get on a plane. Actually, the last time I could have gone, with my brother Neil to meet my other brother Mick who lives in the US, I did actually have a great road trip through NSW, Victoria, SA, and back into NSW to the bottom of QLD, then returning to Sydney. I don't like flying, you see, even when I go business class. I have to be honest I did struggle with the flight, but I was at a low ebb before we left. I think I could have managed ten hours but after that I really did struggle. I do still prefer Australia though and doing road trips. We missed this years with BobJ as they clashed. We did come back saying that we need to replace the 4x4 though so who knows we may be back out on the road sooner than later Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Saldana Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 I have to be honest I did struggle with the flight, but I was at a low ebb before we left. I think I could have managed ten hours but after that I really did struggle. I do still prefer Australia though and doing road trips. We missed this years with BobJ as they clashed. We did come back saying that we need to replace the 4x4 though so who knows we may be back out on the road sooner than later Be very careful what you buy in a 4x4, some are mechanical nightmares Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gee13 Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 What a lovely report PQ. Glad you and family had a great time. We were in California in the early 80s. Nearly settled nearby in Kissimee, Florida..Had great memories of Knots Berry farm et al before it became a massive tourist spot. Ah the good old days and American Macdonald burgers were actually very tasty back then.. and Dr Pepper.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Haudenschild Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 I have to be honest I did struggle with the flight, but I was at a low ebb before we left. I think I could have managed ten hours but after that I really did struggle. I do still prefer Australia though and doing road trips. We missed this years with BobJ as they clashed. We did come back saying that we need to replace the 4x4 though so who knows we may be back out on the road sooner than later Ute or wagon? Towing? New or pre-owned? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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