Following the success of last year's overseas trip, we decided to do something different and visit more familiar territory for the boys, so we chose Hollywood, Vegas and Disneyland.
Andrew was in Colorado on business, so Stephanie and the boys flew out of Sydney and headed to San Francisco where Andrew would meet up with them.
We spent a few days in SF visiting places like Alcatraz, Lombard Street (the most crooked street in the world), riding through the streets on trams, Pier 39 - Fisherman's wharf etc.
The Golden Gate Bridge is unmissable and is the SF equivalent to Sydney's Harbour Bridge or Opera House. SF is the most similar city to Sydney that we have seen - mainly due to the harbour and the bridge.
Walking around SF we saw that the hills are very steep and the trams are the best way to get around. They had a Hop on Hop off tram that we utilised.
We took a tour of Alcatraz and it's history was fascinating. It was designed to be hell for the prisoners in that they were confined to the island prison in the middle of SF harbour - they could see paradise but could never get there. Any attempt to leave the island would have the prisoner washed away by the strong currents before they could make land!
In it's time, a total of 36 escape attempts were made, but onlly 3 men were successful.
Lombard Street is featured in many movies and is the most crooked street in the world. It makes it's way down a steep hill and has to jig jag to do so.
Pier 39 - Fisherman's wharf is a popular tourist destination due to it's huge sea lion population, seafood restaurants and shopping. Best seafood chowder Andrew has ever had!
We hired a car and headed south east to Las Vegas. The drive took a whole day, driving through some of the Mojave Desert along the way. It was a long day and we arrived at night, but around 50km out of town, we saw a single white column of light running vertically into the sky. We figured this was from somewhere in Vegas, however, as it turned out, it came from the top of the Luxor Hotel - which is where we were staying!
The first thing that struck us upon arriving into Vegas was the bright lights of the lit-up billboards. The light coming from these massive structures turned night into day!
We pulled up at the Luxor Hotel and checked in. The hotel is pyramid shaped, which means you have sloping walls on one side of your room if you have an external window room!
The hotel had an Egyptian theme with an Obelisk, Sphinx and a replica of Tutankhamun's tomb with all the history and displays.
Vegas is a place that we spent much time walking through. The main street has all the themed hotels and each one of these has it's own particular attractions as well as a casino. The streets are full of people and they all gather outside the hotels to view the shows such as the dancing fountains at the Bellagio, the pirate ship battle at the Treasure Island, walk into New York - New York hotel for a feel of New York, or the Venitian for a gondola ride! No matter what you want to experience, Vegas has it all. you can visit the world without leaving the town!
Though not quite allowed, we took the boys into a casino to have a quick play on a slot machine for a minute - just so they could experience what it was like in a casino - gotta do it while in Vegas, right?!
Vegas was an interesting place and once you visit, you can ubnderstand why it's such a popular tourist destination for Americans.
From Vegas, we headed to San Diego to visit Seaworld. This was a great place to take the boys and we all had a fantastic time. The shows were excellent as were the displays.
The killer whales, flamingos, seals, dolphins, penguins, polar bears, rays and belluga whale were amazing creatures to see and sometimes interact with.
From San Dieo, we headed north to Anaheim in Los Angeles to spend a few days at Disneyland. Disneyland is an amazing place and is a testament to how a person's dream and vision can become a masive entity that is beloved by hundreds of millions of people.
We spent 2 days in Disneyland and a day at the Disney California Adventure Park. We did many of the rides and the queues were not too bad.
We left the car at Anaheim and arranged for a limo to take us to Los Angeles as we were staying at the Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard (opposite Grauman's Chinese Theatre). The car would have been useless due to traffic, and everyone should ride in a limo occassionaly! Our Limo driver took us for a brief tour around LA before dropping us at the hotel.
The Roosevelt Hotel was busy as a movie was being shot there while we were staying. However, we did our thing by walking the streets to explore what was around. We visited Graumans Chinese Theatre where all your favourite Hollywood characters and stars can be found mingling with tourists (well, it's people dressed up as such, but who cares!) We walked along the "Walk of Fame" looking at the stars on the pavement,
We spent a day at Universal Studios, where we saw the movie sets, went on rides and simulators, experienced how hollywood sets worked, saw Jaws (the shark), King Kong, the Bates Motel from Psycho, and so much more. We were even on stage doing voiceovers for the movie "Bruce Almighty" - Andrew was Bruce. Christopher ws also on stage and had a role in the movie! We also caught a show at the El Capitan Theatre, visited Santa Monica and walked along the Santa Monica Pier.
We had a fantastic time and the holiday was a great kids vacation and we adults had a great time being kids too!
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