We took the kids to dine at Sydney Tower Restaurant for a view of Sydney from up high. We made a reservation prior as it was a Saturday and thought it might be busy. It started raining as we were on our way to the lunch, so we had to make alternate parking arrangements to stay undercover.
We were surprised to see the bottom floors of Sydney Tower being renovated. Apparently the renovations started early this year and will take 2 years to complete! The shops have all been relocated temporarily. This must be a major upgrade. It will look similar to the Westfield in Bondi Junction.
The lift to go up to the restaurant is a one minute journey. There are multiple sets of lifts, but for each lift door has 2 lifts on top of each other where there is a video camera and a screen mounted so that you can see and wave to the lift above/below you. On the way up, there was no one below us, just an empty lift. On the way down, Andrew and Hannah had fun waving to strangers.
Once we were up to the restaurant, we were shown to our table. As it’s a revolving restaurant, the outer part where the seats are revolves around and you get a good view. Luckily, by the time we were up there, the rain had stopped and the sky cleared! We helped ourselves to the food. The format of the restaurant has changed since the last time I went (many years ago) and now it’s just self service. The food was mediocre, but it’s the magnificent view that is the attraction point, I suppose. It’s the first time the kids had been to a restaurant that high up and they were not afraid of the height, even though our table was by the floor to ceiling window! We snapped some photos and had an enjoyable time.
Note: Watch this space for photos over the next few days.
We rested up for our return flight home so stayed indoors all day (for the first time in 4 weeks!). We said our goodbyes in the late afternoon. The drive to the airport was much better than anticipated, you can never predict LA commute traffic, so it was better to be early. We returned the car to Inglewood and took a shuttle back to the airport. LA airport was very basic and old. We were surprised by this as it’s one of the busiest airports in the world, so we expected more.
We boarded QF12, the new A380, at 10pm. We strapped Hannah’s car seat on and before long, we were ready to take off. The seats on A380 felt tighter than the 747 that we came on. Andrew and Hannah were quite tired and since it was a late evening flight, they were able to sleep a bit more this time around. The return journey was reasonably smooth. But with the swine flu, we had to fill in an extra form about our health and where we’d been. Once we landed at 6.30am, we were told that the plane had to be quarantined as some passengers on board were showing signs of the swine flu. We were a bit concerned about this. Fortunately, the quarantine process was quick.
After we got off the plane on our way to the customs, we were stopped by an airport/airlines worker who was pushing an elderly Chinese woman in a wheelchair. They could not communicate with each other, but the airport staff needed to find out if the Chinese passenger had completed the necessary customs forms. Once I interpreted for them, the elderly woman told me to tell the airport staff that she had to go to buy duty free cigarettes! Talk about priorities!
We were greeted outside. Funnily enough, Andrew asked for Belinda first! We went home and took a nap. We had a wonderful trip, but there’s nothing like home. We were happy to be sleeping in our own bed. Johnny and I will never forget the great times we had from this trip and treasure it fondly.
We drove from LA to Las Vegas on Tuesday morning arrving 5 hours later. The temperature went from early to mid 20s to 35 degrees. It felt like 40 degrees! Even though it was a Tuesday, typically a quiet day of the week, there were people everywhere. The grandeur of Las Vegas was impressive.
We checked into Excalibur, an English medieval themed castle. Upon arrival, we were swamped by shows tickets people. We hardly had enough time to see the sights! We only managed to see the bigger establishments on the Strip. Each hotel/casino has an attraction point. New York – New York replicates the famous Big Apple landmarks along with a roller coaster. Luxor is shaped as a pyramid guarded by a giant sphinx! MGM Grand has a lion habitat. Bellagio has a magnificent dancing water fountain (we thought that the casino there was the grandest of all. The shops were high end. We’d love to stay there next time!). Paris has a replica of the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe. Caesars Palace has a massive shopping centre with upmarket designer labels. Mirage has its dolphin habitat. Treasure Island has a pirate ship ride. Circus Circus has its circus acts. The Venetian is absolutely gorgeous with its canals and gondolas. You choose to ride on the gondolas inside (yes, they built a canal inside their own shopping complex) or outside the hotel. It’s stunning. We were disappointed not to have enough time to go on a gondola. I guess we now have an excuse to go back to Las Vegas.
At Excalibur, we were given vouchers for the kids to play games in the kids’ gaming area (much like our Time Zone type games arcade). Andrew and Hannah had a go at a game where you throw a ball into some cups. Hannah could barely throw it far enough, but by fluke, her ball landed in a coloured cup which meant she was a winner. That got her a big prize of a teddy bear. We have since named it Excalibur!
I don’t think we will bring Andrew and Hannah back to Vegas. They were young enough on this trip to be oblivious to things that went on in that city, any order might blemish their innocence. Nevertheless, this was a good age to take kids there, if there ever is a good age for kids!
Today we visited the final theme park that we’d planned for – Universal Studios. As we were getting out of the car, Andrew started throwing up, in the car! We cleaned up what we could and rushed to buy him new clothes, luckily they had shops outside Universal Studios. We were greeted by The Simpsons soon after entering the gates. While Johnny and Andrew went to see the Terminator show, Hannah and I waited outside and looked around. It was a quiet day at the park, not many people around. It was obvious that Andrew did not enjoy the show too much. We had lunch at this outlet where they chargrilled chickens. You could see the food being cooked outside and it smelled great. While lining up to order, I noticed a sign warning people about the food from this place containing chemicals which have been known to cause cancer and birth defects in pregnant women. Maybe they were just trying to protect themselves from any possible lawsuits. We bought it anyway.
Next, we lined up for the Studios Backlot Tour. It was a half hour wait. We were driven through stage areas where films and TV shows were made. They provided us with real movie experience like explosions of cars in “Fast and Furious”, floods, shark attack, the bugs in “Return of the Mummy”. We even visited “Wisteria Lane” on the set of “Desparate Housewives”.
We saw Dora the Explorer, Shrek and other characters. We went on The Simpsons ride which made me dizzy.
After Universal Studios, we were determined to see the mansions in Beverly Hills and found them this time.
Note: Watch this space over the next few days for the photos.
We went to Desert Palms Outlets again. We drove to Palms Springs to have a look that their city centre. It’s just amazing how the whole city is built in the middle of the desert, yet if you can see the snow on top of the mountains nearby. We went to see the Palm Springs Tramway. It was in the middle of nowhere. The tram (like our cable car) takes you from the bottom of a mountain to the top. It looked very scarey.
Today we visited Beverly Center. We have noticed that LA is surrounded by movie stars. This time we saw Danny Glover filming a movie at Beverly Center. Since Johnny had his video camera with him, he decided to discreetly tape part of the action, until he received a warning from a security guard to stop filming otherwise he’d have the tape taken. Anyway, the name of the film is “Son of Morning”. So look out for that when it comes out and watch the scene when Danny Glover signs a book at a shopping centre because we were there.
After lunch, we headed to Hollywood Boulevard again. This time we parked the car and did the Walk of Fame. We visited the Grauman’s Theatre and Kodak Theatre. There were a lot of people in fake costumes, like Mickey Mouse, Snoopy, Spider Man, Marilyn Monroe, all looking for “tips” to pose with you in photos.
We then attempted to go to see the mansions in Beverly Hills, but there were none to be found. As it turned out, we were at the right street, just turned the opposite direction. We drove through Rodeo Drive again which was certainly very glamorous.
We made a visit to the Getty Center. We are not great arts people but the views and the gardens were awesome. It gave us a good look into the City of Los Angeles. The kids had a great time wandering around the gardens. Andrew enjoyed the tram ride that got us to the top from the car park.
27th April Monday, 29th April Wednesday, 30th April Thursday
Well it had to happen, today was the start of the Disneyland visits. 3 fun filled days of the Disney experience. The weather was fine and it wasn’t too hot. We didn’t know how tired we would be at the end of the 3 days.
First day was spent just looking around the two parks and seeing what were the must-do’s for us. There was so much detail within the parks. We saw Minnie Mouse as we walked into Disneyland which was great. Hannah was quite comfortable with Minnie and happy to pose with her (unlike most other characters to follow). Andrew had a wonderful time seeing the Cars characters during the Pixar Parade at Disney’s California Adventure Park. Both Andrew and Hannah had a great time chasing the bubbles afterwards. We thought we’d go to see the parade again the next day since the kids had such a good time, but as it turned out, it was the only parade in our 3 days visit. It was also a sight to see the children climbing the letters outside the California Adventure Park.
We came back on Wednesday later in the morning because we were going to finish late as we had booked a dinner at Goofy’s Kitchen – an all you can eat buffet where some of the Disney characters come and sit/play with you during the dinner time. Andrew had a great time especially with Chip (part of the Chip and Dale), Hannah, on the other hand, was scared off by the characters. It was funny how she still insisted to hold on to her dinner even though she was scared.
Thursday was our Magic Morning. A day that you can get into the park 1 hour before its opening time so that you get to go on rides before the rush. We decided to take advantage of that time to go on the most popular ride – Peter Pan’s Flight. Even though we had a head start there was already a queue of 30 minutes, we lined up anyway. We concluded our visit with meeting Mickey (it took us 3 days to find him!) followed by the Disney Street Party.
We went on lots of rides, took plenty of photos, bought lots of merchandise, ate a variety of food and met many Disney characters. All in all a great experience for the kids, the big kids also had great fun!
24th April Friday, 25th April Saturday, 26th April Sunday
On Friday we picked up our new bigger car. We did a quick drive out to Koreatown and it was just amazing to see how big the place was especially compared to Sydney! Linda came home to see us especially flying in from the east coast. Andrew was just so excited to see her even though it was late and he was tired. Andrew had only spoken to her over the phone a number of times and I suppose he remembers anyone who buys him Thomas toys.
On Saturday we all went out to Santa Monica beach, a bit of shopping and a tour of UCLA and USC. UCLA had a festival on so it was jam packed with people and in the end we could only get a quick drive through. At USC I was amazed by the number of bicycles on campus. It is obviously their choice of getting around on campus. In the evening we all went out to the cemetery to pay our respects to the late uncle. On our way back from the cemetery Aaron spoke with Andrew on the phone and let’s just say that Aaron couldn’t get off the phone!
Early Sunday morning Linda flew back. Later that day we all headed off to the Desert Hills Outlet shopping. A 1 hour 30 minute drive where we shopped tilled we dropped. Well for some it was like that
We met up with Bill and Anita for a tour around San Diego. We first headed for the Midway Museum. San Diego has a Naval Base home to many active warships. Midway 41 was retired in 1992 and became a floating museum since last year. Andrew and Hannah had a great time “touching” everything. The realisation for Andrew to be up close and personal to life size toys was his dream come true. I had a great time in pretending to be a pilot as well
During this trip to the US, I learnt that Andrew has this ability to cling onto new people in his life. He is so happy to see and meet new people. This is surprising for me because I always thought of him as being shy. Maybe he knows that they are family and the senses are telling him that they can be trusted. I learnt that Hannah has no fear. One part of the ship had a glass bottom in which you can see about 3-4 floors down. Even when I stepped onto it I was cautious as it was a long way down. In one of the photos you can see that Hannah is just happy to be skating around the glass while Andrew is nervously holding onto the chains. Hannah’s speech is progressing very fast. She is expressing herself with all sorts of things that I have never heard her say. Everyone is cheerfully entertained as she talks.
We had a quick tour of the downtown area, Seaport Village, level 41 of Hyatt Hotel then preceded to the Naval Base itself. Since Bill works at the base he gave us a grand tour. We were able to drive around the base for a closer look. The base was essentially a self sufficient city of its own. It was a busy place with many activities taking place. We later said our goodbyes to Bill, Anita and Andy as we headed back to LA. One interesting note during the drive up was that every north bound car was stopped at a customs check point. Apparently it was there to check for illegal people from south entering USA.
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