US Tour - Route 66

Today started early... 4.30am to be precise which, quite frankly, shouldn't exist! Still, a quick wash and check of the room and I was on my way back to LAX to drop off the car and jump on my flight to Vegas by 5.30am.
The flight to Vegas only lasted an hour and then it was straight into the new hire car, a Dodge Avenger. Not quite as nice as the Pontiac G6 I was driving in LA but it did the job.
To be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to the drive to the Grand Canyon... but five hours and nearly 300 miles later I'd managed to take in the Hoover Dam, I-93, Route 66 (no less) and finally Route 64, I arrived at the hotel.
The journey was... tedious. The road stretching to the horizon in both directions and very little either side to give you any sense of location. The only 'distraction' being a grotty Wendy's on Route 66.
Exhausted and really only interested in some food before climbing into bed. You can imagine how pleased I was when, just 20 minutes after my arrival, the power cut out.
Thinking it was just the hotel, I headed out looking for somewhere with a working kitchen for some food... except the power cut had actually hit ALL of the shops and restaurants in the area and none of them could offer a hot meal.
Fortunately, by the time I'd got back to the hotel, they were handing out complimentary sandwiches to guests. Nothing like eating sandwiches in the corridor of your hotel (as there was no emergency lighting in the room) without air con in the desert to really finish off a long day :P
A couple of hours later, power was restored... just in time to get some sleep!

US Tour

Another lazy day today. Up a bit later and breakfast at CoCo's again before heading into LA to have a look round.
The first stop was City Walk and the shops surrounding Universal Studios. As you'd expect, they were all larger than life but the highlight for me was definitely the Hard Rock Cafe. Not only was the place completely packed with cool rock memorabilia and playing great music/videos... but the food was fantastic as well (if a little pricey). Probably the best place I'd eaten so far. I even got myself a souvenir T-shirt.
By the time I finally made it down to the gates of Universal Studios, it was already 5pm and it seemed a little foolish to pay $69 for entry to the park when I'd be unlikely to see much of it... especially when I was supposed to be checking out of the hotel at 6am tomorrow morning (at the latest)! So, back to hotel for an early night... tomorrow was going to be a loooong day.

US Tour - Disneyland

Today was Disneyland! After a slightly later than planned start, thanks in part to the REALLY slow service in Starbucks, I jumped on the 10am shuttle bus from the hotel. Barely 15 minutes later I was buying my ticket and strolling through the main gates and into 'City Hall' to pick up my '1st Time Visitor' badge. Already the park was pretty full and it's amazing how crowded it gets, despite how large it is.
Being the SciFi lover I am, I decided that the first zone I wanted to visit was 'Tomorrowland'. Breakfast seemed like an idea before I jumped on any rides, and I stopped at the Tomorrowland Terrace for a quick bite... only to discover that the Jedi Training Academy was right next to it and just starting up. While designed as an activity for children to take part in, the show was rather amusing thanks to the lead Jedi Master who has obviously been doing this for some time.
Once breakfast was out the way, it was time to hit the rides... Star Tours, Matterhorn Bobsled, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones Adventure to name a few. I won't bore you by going into each and everyone in detail but it was good to see that the waiting times were fairly short given how busy the park was. The rest of the day just involved a LOT of walking until 6pm when I settled down to watch the Main Street Parade followed by Fantasmic (a huge show based on Mickey Mouse playing with magic using a lot of pyrotechnics and some clever waterworks).
After a great, if tiring, day out it was back to the hotel.

US Tour - Hollywood!

A nice lazy start to the day (as Sunday’s should be). Eventually headed down to ‘breakfast’ (if 11.30am still classes as breakfast) at a near-by bakery restaurant called CoCos. After treating myself to a huge “Mega Breakfast” of eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes and pancakes it was time to jump in the car and head over to Hollywood!

Traffic was rather heavy but once more the GPS proved its worth and it wasn’t long before I was parking up in the Hollywood and Highland Centre on Hollywood Boulevard. Spent some time strolling up and down the boulevard, taking photos of cheap impersonators, a few of the star’s stars and their imprints outside the Chinese Theatre and popping into a few of the shops. After getting a few photos of the Hollywood sign, it was back to the hotel to plan what to do for the evening.
A stroll round the area local to the hotel resulted in dinner at... an Aussie steak house! Lol!

US Tour - It all begins here...

Ok... so I'm off to America for two weeks and thought it would be a cool idea to blog a little something each day as a reminder of what went on... it all starts today!

A fairly early start to kick things off... catching the 6:45am FastCAT and then a taxi up to Heathrow (terminal 5) for the eleven hour flight out to Los Angeles.

Despite the lack of sleep on the flight, the first task at hand was to jump in a hire car and make the 45 minute drive to the hotel! Driving for the first time in the States after a particularly long flight was an interesting start but was pretty smooth... helped by the GPS system :P

The hotel, being a Hyatt, was great. Big building, big rooms and a couple of restaurants to choose from for an evening meal. A quick burger (what else could I have for my first night in the US) from the California Grill in the hotel lobby and then it was off to sleep, ready for tomorrow's exploration of LA.

On holiday! YAY!

Ok... so... July has been and gone and I've still neglected my blog!

Ah well... I don't think anyone actually worries about it too much :P

In truth, I've just been so very busy and tired. This time of year is always my busiest time at work, and normally the time when we're at our lowest having seen through the academic year. But, thankfully, I'm now 'officially' on holiday!!!

Ok, so I've had to pop into work for a least a few minutes each day so far...

And my right-hand-man has found himself a better job...

AND my carefully planned major job for the summer was, rather carelessly, completely destroyed in order to save a couple of quid (i.e. get the same result with a fraction of the resources!).

Still... roll with the punches eh?

Good job I'm off to the 'States for a bit... they won't be able to phone me there... Bwahahahahaha...

As for gaming... there's been plenty of GTA4, which I've now completed (just under 80 hours... I love to 'quest') and Rock Band... along side a return of Neverwinter Nights 2, EVE Online and, of course, the ever present Everquest 2. There are also a whole host of new titles on the horizon... Soul Calibur 4, Fable 2, Warhammer Online, Red Alert 3, Star Wars Force Unleashed, Spore, etc... so I don't think I'm likely to get bored any time soon :P

Anyway... I've just got in from seeing 'The Dark Knight' and should probably think about getting some sleep... hopefully my next post won't be too far into the future eh?

Enjoy!