Los Angeles - 23rd October to 27th October, 2016

After a short but slow drive from San Diego, we had finally made it to La La Land, otherwise known as Los Angeles. For Adrian it was his first visit to the city of glitz and glamour, however, it was my second visit and I was hopeful that I would like it a lot more the second time round. Last time I was here was in 2002 and overall, I felt LA was just a busy, sprawling and dirty city. This time I hoped that  maybe it might be different.

Instead of staying right in the centre of things, we chose to stay in Venice Beach. Friends had stayed here before and said how fun and cool it was. Our accommodation was nice and we were greeted with free beer. We then went for a walk to get some food and the general area seemed pretty trendy and the restaurants looked nice. So far, LA was off to a good start.

The following day, we picked up our hire car and made our way to a Westfield Shopping Centre so I could spend a little of the birthday money my parents had given me. As much as I would have liked to have shopped on Rodeo Drive, I’m a realist and designer stuff just wouldn’t mesh well with backpacking. So, while Adrian patiently waited in a coffee shop, I went on  a little spree. It was fun, for me at least. Once the shopping spree was done, we made our way back to Venice, had a quiet afternoon and some nice Mexican food by the beach, for dinner.

The next day, Monday, would turn out to be a busy and topsy-turvy kind of day. Our first thing we had to do, was to find the Australian Consulate so Adrian could apply for a new passport. His old one received some water damage and we thought it best to get a new one. We hopped up, bright and early so it would leave us with plenty of time to get the application in and get out to Studio City and CBS studios for the taping of The Late Late Show with James Cordon. So off we went, then crash. We hit the back of a bus.

Long story short, it was a very minor bingle, caused by not being used to crazy LA traffic. No damage was done to the bus, but our hire car wasn’t in the greatest shape. After some arduous time spent with LA bus services, sorting out insurance details and waiting for someone from the bus company to take pictures of non existent damage to the bus, with three different cameras, we made our way back to the hire car company.

Luckily for us, the hire car company was only about 100m down the road. They really did not care about the car. They made sure we were both okay, which other than being frustrated with the situation, we were. Then gave us a newer and better car and we were once again back on the road.

Eventually we made it to the consulate. As suspected, Adrian needed a new passport. However, he also needed a new picture for the passport. This meant we had to find our way from Century City to a whole other part of LA just to get a passport size photo, then make our way back to the consulate once more. Anyway, we managed to get around LA, in crazy traffic, get the passport application in and still have enough time to get to Studio City for the taping of The Late, Late Show. We just didn’t have time to eat!

Unlike the tapings we had previously been to in NYC, it was a relatively short wait before we were ushered in side and placed in our seats, ready for the taping of the show. Adrian and I were lucky and got placed in the middle, second row back from the stage. The celebrity guests for the night included, Ron Howard (if you don’t know who that is, then you should look him up), Nick Offerman, a very funny man who was in Parks and Recreation and who is the husband of Megan Mulally (Karen, from Will and Grace) and Aldus Hodge, who was promoting his role in the latest Tom Cruise film, Jack Reacher. Norah Jones was the musical guest.

James Cordon was very good. His rapport with the guests was fantastic and the whole taping was great. I especially loved Ron Howard. He really seems as lovely as his character from Happy Days, Ritchie Cunningham. The other guests were also highly entertaining and Norah Jones was very good. The only thing was, James Cordon, when compared with other hosts we had seen (Trevor Noah and Steven Colbert) had no real rapport with the audience. In between takes, he didn’t joke around with the crowd, or do a Q&A. He was the most serious of all three hosts and nothing like I had imagined. Anyway, the taping was fun and we had a great time.

Needless to say, when the show was over, we were ravenous. So we made our way over to the famous Grove shopping district and found a Cheesecake Factory to eat at. It was delicious and naturally we had some cheesecake for desert. Finally our Monday was over, it was a loooong day.

Tuesday was also set to be a big day. Upon recommendations from friends, we decided to spend the day at Universal Studios, Hollywood and from the moment we entered the car park, we knew Universal was going to be a huge place! And we were not wrong.

Once we had finally made it through the labyrinth of shops, closed nightclubs, bars and restaurants, we arrived at the ticket booths. Thankfully, I had put aside some birthday money from Adrian’s and my parents, because when we saw the entry fee, we almost choked. It was $105 US each. Then on top of that, the friendly ticket booth operator tried to get us to buy the fast pass, for ‘only’ an additional $65 US each. We politely declined and made our way in. We figured if it was busy we’d just have to wait.

When we got in, we studied the map for a bit and decided to walk down to the bottom level of the park. We figured it would be less busy and also, it had Adrian’s favourite ride, the Jurassic Park ride. As we walked into where the lines were, it had a sign stating there would be a 7 minute wait, which we thought was pretty good. Turns out, there was absolutely no wait and we immediately hopped on the ride. It was amazing. It really felt like you were in the land of the dinosaurs.

There were all different displays, which spat water at you etc, then you ascended up a ramp where a velociraptor dropped from the grates in the ceiling, giving ride goers a minor scare. Then all of a sudden a giant T-Rex lunged at us from the ceiling. Then, just when you thought it was over, you started hurtling down a ramp with another big T-Rex coming for you. It was great, like Movieworld’s Wild West ride meets Jurassic Park.

After another round on the Jurassic Park ride, we then went on the Mummy ride and the Transformers ride. Both were rollercoaster type rides, inside and set to virtual reality type 3D screens. Didn’t go much on the Mummy ride, but the Transformers ride was incredible. Along with the amazing 3D screens and the gyrating car, there was heat and fire and water, making the whole thing seem totally real.

Eventually we made it back to the top of the park and into the land of the Simpsons. It had everything, Moe’s Tavern, The Kwik -E-Mart, The Power Plant, Krusty World, the big guy holding the donut, and much more. For anyone who grew up watching the Simpsons, it was kind of surreal and pretty cool. We of course went on the ride in Krusty World. Another virtual reality, rollercoaster kind of ride. It was pretty fun and probably the longest wait we had for a ride all day. Fifteen minutes and by this stage, we were sure glad we didn’t buy the fast pass.

After we finished the ride, we made our way over to Moe’s Tavern for lunch. Not the healthiest, it was Cletus’ Fried Chicken. We also, of course, had a Duff Beer. Turns out, Duff beer is just crappy Budweiser with a 10 dollar price tag! The whole thing was pretty cool, nonetheless.

Once lunch was finished, we had another turn on the Simpsons ride and then made our way over to the Universal Lot tour ‘ride’. It was three trolley carts which took you on a back lot tour of Universal Studios. On this tour we saw fake NYC, where Jaws was filmed, how they can flood a set without actually flooding a set (which was super impressive), where Stephen Spielberg’s most expensive film War of the World’s was shot, and much more. However, the most impressive set was the interactive one where it feels like the NYC subway is caving in on you. It floods, the ceiling collapses and fire emerges from the wall. Then you continue through the subway to a 3D room. Here they shake and move the trolleybus while king Kong and giant dinosaurs fight around you. It’s so lifelike and fun. Lastly, while still in the tunnel, we got taken to another 3D room where you’re transported into the world of Fast and Furious. Basically you are one of the gang and involved in trying to take down the bad guy. It was pretty cool. Then, the tour is over.

Once we got back from the backlots, we visited my favourite part of Universal, Harry Potter World. It truly was like you imagine Hogwarts and Diagon Alley and all the rest of Harry Potter to be. I loved it. We did forgo the butter beer. It was a butterscotch milky looking drink and just looked gross. But I did get a photo with the conductor and the Hogwarts Express train.

We also had a look through Honeydukes Candy shop where they had Berty Bots Every Flavour Beans, the chocolate frogs and so on. Had the prices been more to our budget, I may have went a little nuts in there. Anyway, there were Harry Potter themed rides to visit.

The first one we went on was my absolute, all time favourite ride. You had to walk through a Hogwarts castle and then sit on a seat and put 3D goggles on. Next thing you were launched into the world of Harry Potter. The seats flew through the air on a rollercoaster and all around you there were dementors, goblins and all creatures and characters from Harry Potter. It was AMAZING. We went on it three times!

I then went on another outdoor rollercoaster. We actually got to go around twice as there were very little lines. It was cool, but more of a littler kids ride.
With some remaining time, we made our way back down to Jurassic Park and Transformers. Here we road the rides a couple more times, before we got notification that the park was closing. So we took a pic in front of the Universal Globe, had a coffee and made our way back, in the crazy LA gridlock, to Venice Beach. It was a fun day and a place we’d highly recommend.

For our last day in LA, we decided to stroll along Venice Beach boardwalk, to Santa Monica Pier. Venice Beach itself was nice enough, with palm trees and piers and restaurants. We stopped in one café for brunch and boy oh boy, it is a great place to people watch. Many magnificent and strange looking people inhabit the boardwalk!
As we continued to move along we saw muscle beach, buskers and then, signs saying Workaholics was filming. Adrian and I are both fans of the show and hoped we would see it’s stars, Adam Devine  (Rebel Wilson’s love interest in Pitch Perfect), Anders Holm and Blake Anderson. We kept our eyes peeled for a while, but we didn’t see them.

   

Eventually we made it to Santa Monica Pier. There were rides, a little like Coney Island yet more modern, restaurants with highly inflated prices, tourists (us included) everywhere, and a crazy man covered in and feeding pigeons. It was quite a sight! There were also great views back towards Venice beach. It was very pretty.
Eventually it was time to make our way back to Venice Beach. Once again we passed where Workaholics was filming. This time, however,  we were lucky enough to see the stars of the show filming a scene. It was pretty cool and a great way to cap off our time in LA.

While we only saw the Hollywood sign from a distance and didn’t visit the usual Hollywood sights like Grauman’s Chinese theatre and the Hollywood walk of fame (I saw them last time and Adrian wasn’t overly interested), we still enjoyed our time in LA. Second time round it had definitely impressed me more, even though our parting gift was a US$75 taxi fee to get us to the Greyhound station on time, albeit with a highly entertaining taxi driver, opinionated on all things LA and Donald Trump.

Holly.

Valley of Fire and San Diego October 17-22, 2016

We left Zion Ponderosa Ranch for the final time and once again crossed through Zion National Park from East to West on our way to the Nevadan border. The terrain was dry and mountainous with only sparse vegetation.

The crossing through the Virgin Mountain range was very scenic and at one stage we passed an enormous solar farm with some gigantic blinding panels. This area always seems to have nothing but cloudless skies, so I imagine the potential power that can be generated is huge.

After around 3 hours on the road we turned off for a visit to the Valley of Fire, a state park around an hour outside of Las Vegas. Here we paid our fees and drove in to the visitors centre to grab a map and plan out our day. The route in was very scenic, with frequent red rock formations rising from the desert on each side of the road. These rock formations ranged in size, but all had interesting looking patterns of holes across them, making for some great photos.

We decided on visiting two or three locations across the park, with the first only being 100 metres away from the centre. It was a smaller rock spire (only around 10 metres tall) but it had a very interesting appearance. Over time erosion had given it the illusion of being a precariously balanced rock defying the laws of gravity.

   

We then jumped back into our trusty hire car and headed out and around the Valley of Fire's very scenic route road. Stop two was at the Mouse's Tank trail. Here we hiked a short distance in amongst the natural rock formations and admired the scrubby desert plains. Tracks of small creatures were everywhere, some leading in to small burrows dotted around the area but sadly due to the heat rising, there was nothing to be seen.

Our last stop was to visit one of the more scenic sections of the park, Rainbow Vista, in order to trek Fire Canyon. This meant a five kilometre round trip through the valley in the rapidly rising heat. It was the early afternoon and the temperature was approaching 100 Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius), not uncommon even for the time of year that we were there, late October.

The trail lead around some more huge rock formations before branching out over large rock plates covered in gravel. After around 40 minutes we reached our destination, the beautiful Fire Wave Rock. Here over millions of years of primarily wind based erosion, the rock had smoothed and shaped into a unique formation somewhat resembling waves in an ocean. Adding to the effect were the bright stripes of colour passing through the rock. There were reds, oranges and whites all causing a rippled kind of effect as it met the eye. We explored the area for a while before heading back to the main road and our car ready, to resume our journey.

   

We exited from the park down the long straight south road, across the expansive flats towards our stop for the night, Las Vegas. We were staying back at Circus Circus again, this time in the cheaper Western tower. After another delicious Vegas pizza for dinner it was an early night, ready for another big day on the road south to San Diego.

As is the case for much of the region, the terrain was very arid and dry with several scenic mountain ranges framing the road. We had originally planned to stop in at Joshua Tree National Park along the way, but decided against it as this would have made an already big day, 6 hours on the road, even bigger!

Instead at one of the small gas stations along the highway, we pulled off to the side and drove out amongst the nearby Joshua trees on a small dirt road. Here we jumped out of the car and did a quick exploration of the area on foot, getting some great photos of these unique looking trees. The Joshua tree is a plant that belongs to the Yucca family that is endemic to the deserts of the United States southwest. Joshua Trees are an important part of the desert ecosystem and a Joshua tree forest is a sign of a healthy environment.

After another quick break for lunch we continued the drive south. Between Los Angeles and San Diego the traffic was pretty hectic, resulting in slow progress for the last couple of hundred kilometres of the trip. As a result we finally arrived to our hostel, in the Point Loma area of San Diego, after dark. We checked in and went out to explore the area looking for a nice place for dinner.

A few hundred metres down Voltaire Street, we came across a small diner named Sessions that offered a great assortment of gourmet pub food and local craft beers. We just happened to be present for the weekly 'boozy bingo' night. This coaxed us to stay out longer than originally planned and resulted in a few more pints in our systems.

The next day due to a combination of a bigger than expected night and the action packed days that proceeded it, we did something that we hadn't done for quite some time, had a day in! This helped restore our energy levels and the following day we were ready to explore the main reason we had come to San Diego, the world famous zoo!

There are actually two zoo sites in San Diego, the original zoo located in the central Balboa Park, and the San Diego Zoo safari park, a bit further north of the city, originally filling the role of a breeding centre for the primary zoo. In 1972 this centre opened its doors to the public as an alternative location and offers a different experience, with larger enclosures and many animals mingling together like they would in the wild.

We bought ourselves a double pass and did the locations on two consecutive days, starting with the safari park. The park was divided into several different habitats, such as the Tundra, Southeast Asia and Africa. There was a huge variety of animals on show and many of the species are involved in breeding programs and conservation efforts aimed at repopulating and building up numbers of endangered species in the wild.

Some highlights included orang-utans, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, the red river hog, binturong, proboscis monkeys, gharials and the okapi, many of which were species that I had never seen before in zoos around the world.

The highlight was the African section of the park, through which you were driven around on a 'safari cart' in order to give you an up close experience. Scattered through several divided paddocks were a variety of species including zebra, wildebeest, rhinos and many types of antelope. In a very positive story we learned that the Safari park had been responsible for the successful births of over 90 white rhinoceros (some of which were out on the range), which had contributed greatly to the species' battle for survival.

The safari park has also done great work in the conservation and repopulation of the Californian condor, a species that became extinct in the wild, but now, thanks to a highly successful breeding program, boasts over 200 members of the species in the skies over California. Another great experience was to watch the mountain gorillas at feeding time. The zoo had a large troupe ranging from Winston, the dominant silverback, to Joanne, the baby of the group at 2 years old.

After a full day of animal watching at the safari park we drive back to the hostel completely satisfied. Even better we still had another full day of zoo activity to look forward to!

We arrived at the world famous San Diego Zoo at opening time in order to somewhat escape the anticipated crowds of people. Much to our surprise, perhaps due to the heat or time of year, for much of the day we hardly had to battle hordes of people at all! San Diego Zoo was established in 1916 and has, over time, built up a reputation for being one of the best zoos in the world, not only for the wildlife on display but also the quality of life offered to these animals as well the zoo's conservation and education programs.

Again the zoo experience we had was amazing, with a huge cross section of animals from all around the world. A particular highlight was the Panda exhibit, with the star of the show being Bai Yun. She is the panda 'super mum' who has given birth to six cubs while in captivity, in a time when world wide, successful panda breeding has proved to be a massive challenge. While both the zoos were excellent, we felt that we probably enjoyed the safari park a little more, as it offered a more unique experience. However, I would happily go back to both zoos for a repeat visit!

For our last morning we had set aside time to explore the famous San Diego beach area, however, sadly for us, the region chose to have one of its occasional banks of fog drift in over the ocean. This meant that at the beach we had visibility of less than a couple of metres in any direction. Certainly not what we were hoping for!

This drew to a close our time in San Diego and we hit the highway for our 2 hour journey north back to LA. Sadly this was the end of our time with our trusty Honda hire car, after close to three weeks and over 5000 miles covered!

We did have a new city ahead of us to look forward to exploring though, Los Angeles, the city of angels.

Adrian