Adventures in the City of Angels...

Probably about time I updated the blog! What day is it???  :-)

We arrived in LA on Tuesday night local time, and decided to spring for a limo given that the cost wasn't that different to a taxi... Caitlin and Estella were impressed!

Our hotel is in Glendale, on the way to Pasadena in the North East corner of LA. It's a little 2 story place built in 1924... before elevators were widely available by the looks! Oh well... all this climbing up the stairs is probably doing us good. There's a nice little Jazz bar/restaurant underneath the hotel http://www.jaxbarandgrill.com 

Cruisin through the Hollywood hills with the top down!

We've spent the week braving the insanity that is LA traffic... It's not too far to Universal Studios and Hollywood etc from here, but a bit of a hike to Disneyland, as we found out on Friday. We might go down to Anaheim tomorrow night so we can finish our Disney adventures without worrying about night traffic on the freeway.

Yes, that's a chandelier on the street... Glendale (or more specifically The Americana at Glendale) is a bit "Pleasantville"!

Universal Studios was awesome - we all agreed that the Simpsons ride was even better than the high-tech 3-D Transformers one. Between us we managed to make most of the rides... We couldn't face the lines, but worked out a loophole... we could buy 2 front of line passes, and one of us could stay with Estella at the "Kid Check" area, then swap over... so neither adult had to wait, and Caitlin got 2 rides on most of them! Sweet.

Estella has proven to be the biggest wuss we've ever seen... We even had to leave the Shrek 4-D movie with her screaming in horror... Oh well, Caitlin more than makes up in the daring department!

Disneyland was fun, but hard work... temps in the 30s, with bugger all shade, and awful long lines everywhere. At least they let you pick up a "fastpass" on the busiest rides, so you can come back an hour later without waiting. 

I'm quite surprised to find that most of the themepark menu options are reasonably priced and pretty healthy, but even without sugar, Estella managed to pull off a mega-tanty nice and early in the day when I refused to pay double the normal price for a princess dress for her - Oh, and did I mention they don't sell beer at Disneyland! (Well not in the main park)... Screaming kid, hot day, long lines and no relief... it didn't get off to a good start! Still, we had a lot of fun in the end, and are all looking forward to going back for California Adventure Park over the next few days.

Santa Monica Pier

Oh my god... We went to the Getty yesterday... Beautiful place, with an amazing restaurant (best food of the trip so far in my book), and they had a Klimt exhibition... We were all enjoying the gallery until Estella went into absolute meltdown mode... Ended up with security chasing her and Rach out after she tried to handle the artwork... Oooops. The tantrum didn't end there of course... Not before we'd carried the screaming beast out of the gallery and down the steps to the tram (which takes you down the hill to the carpark), and one of the nice ladies who work there came over and somehow defused Estella.

 

Today we took a trip to Downtown LA, and wandered around the fashion district... reminded me of the markets in KL or Singapore a bit... then over to Beverley Hills for a look at the other "fashion district". After lunch on Rodeo Dve, Estella put on her new Princess Rapunzel dress, and hit Hollywood Blvd!

:-) Everyone was very impressed to see a "real" princess out in public!!! Will copy the photos over in a moment and post them tonight.

Will also try to keep up the posting, instead of trying to cram it all in at the end of the week.

Having a great time!

Steve, Rach, Caitlin and Estella