Snap 17: Robert Reminiscing...

Hi girls!

For the past two years June is the time we have booked our America trips for the start of the following year. Sadly, this year we are having to cope with withdrawal symptoms as we are wanting to buy a house this year! Robert is especially suffering, desperate to go to Chicago and Boston, which I would love to visit too. However we think we will need to skip booking a trip for 2014.

I love this photo of my amazing Robert when we had just got to Universal Studios in Hollywood, ready for our VIP Experience there. It was one of the best days of our trip!

He was standing in front of the huge Universal Globe and as we had got there so early we were the only people about! It was such a gorgeous day too, absolute bliss! 

With Sprinkle Of Glitter!

LA Day 3: Hollywood!

Hi girls! Today, I am bringing you the third day we spent in Los Angeles and to be specific, we went to Hollywood!

This day was really supposed to be a bit of a relaxing day, however I knew I wanted to go to see Hollywood and it was the only day we had free!No break for us! We did get a lie in, which was awesome, even though it was only till 9am! We were back on the Interstate again third day in a row for what felt like the 50th time! We headed for Hollywood Boulevard and after stopping for a quick breakfast, got there at midday! When we got out of the car park, there was a fancy tour bus sitting there and you all know the drill, the guys standing there coming over to talk to you about their tour! Well we actually went ahead and booked it as it took us up to see the Hollywood sign, around all the sites in Hollywood and Beverley Hills and would take us a tour around some houses where the stars stay! It was a good price, so we thought why not?! We had about an hours wait until the bus would be there to pick us up, so we went to get some lunch! We went to an awesome little burger bar called Juicy Burger, which was so yummy! Robert loved it and the milkshakes were awesome!!

After a little stroll around looking at some of the stars on the walk of fame, it was time to get onto the tour bus! The first destination on the tour was the Hollywood sign!This took a about a 20 minute drive from Hollywood Boulevard, but our tour guide was great and told us loads about the history and spots to take photos of! It was so worth going up there, it is just so iconic!

Looking out over LA, amazing view!

After this we were driven round Mulholland Drive, which is a very famous road, for the magnificent views, houses and also for jogging/running. We then somehow ended up on Sunset Boulevard and were told about the famous bars and clubs along this road. We then entered Beverley Hills! Obviously had to get a photo of the sign!

We were shown so many houses that were owned by celebrities, that had been owned by celebrities and then also some really famous houses that had been used for films and tv shows! Here are a couple of the good ones!

House where the Osbournes were filmed in their tv show, now owned by Christina Aguilera!

Left to Right: Top row - Kourtney Kardashian's house. Tom Cruise's Front Gate to his four mansions on the one block. The newest of his mansions.

Middle row - The house George Clooney grew up in , his mum still lives there! Jennifer Lopez lived here. Ellen used to live here

Bottom row - Micheal Jackson died in this house. House used for The Fresh Prince of Bel Air!!

After going round loads of streets and seeing loads of amazing houses, we came onto Rodeo Drive! We have all heard of Rodeo drive haven't we?! Full of shops that are just there for show, as they do not make any money, because of the increased pricing!

Shop in the film Pretty Woman, where Julia Roberts gets knocked back and the hotel in Pretty Woman is at the bottom of Rodeo Drive!

This Bugatti Veyron is parked on the street everyday. It is worth $1,800,000! And no I didn't add too many zeros! How awesome is that! I would love to get a shot at driving it!!

The tour bus then headed back along to Hollywood Boulevard, passing some interesting things on the way back! I would definitely say to do a tour when you visit here, because you get to see it all! When our tour had finished we drove along to see the Kodak Theatre and the Chines Theatre, which was cool! Afterwards, we headed to The Grove shopping centre!

The Grove is a gorgeous little shopping centre, full of all the usual favourite shops; Forever 21, Topshop, Abercrombie & Fitch, MAC, etc. The Grove is famous for celebrity spotting and everyone usually says they at least see someone famous! It has a lovely relaxed atmosphere and is just so different from any other shopping centre I have been too!

Oh yes and I went to Uggs!! Hehe and also to MAC! On the way back to the car, in the lift which was quite full. We heard another Scottish accent from quite a tall man and he was with his son, the accent stands out over there in LA so it was so easy to pick up! I just thought oh wow he's over here from Scotland too, how funny that we are in the same lift! Robert also noticed him and he said that he was sure he recognised him! When we got home that night after some researching, we realised it was Craig Ferguson, who has his own talk show and worked his way up from comedian to actor and then got his talk show! So cool!!

So anyway, we left the Grove and by this time it was after 5pm, we decided to head over to Long Beach to see the Queen Mary, which is a huge ship that was built on the Clyde in Glasgow! So we had to go visit her and say hello! By the time we got there it was quite dark, so please excuse the photo quality!! 

Sadly we were too late to get into the museum, but we were just glad that we could say that we had been to see her! Robert loves all things to do with transport and planes and ships are his favourite, so it was cool for him to see her. His dad had seen the ship launched into the Clyde!

Afterwards, we headed back to Anaheim and we were so hungry by this point! We were definitely in need of an awesome meal! So after a quick stop of in Target (to get some make up goodies!), we found out that there was a TGI Fridays just around the corner! As it was Saturday, it was busy, but it was well worth the wait!! I think it was the best meal of the holiday! We of course had a starter, main and dessert! It was awesome!!

We then headed back to the hotel! The next two days would be spent at Disneyland Resort, which I was so incredibly excited about! It was an early start the next day, so after watching a bit of the tv, we were fast asleep! Anyone else excited for the Disney posts?!

Love, Jen x

LA Day 2: Universal Studios!

Well, this was a day of the holiday that I had been extra excited about since Christmas, because Robert had bought me tickets for the VIP Experience at Universal Studios Hollywood!!

We were not sure about what the traffic was like in the morning as we had to be there for half 9. So we left the hotel at half 7, just to make sure we weren't late and it was back onto the Interstate to make our way to Hollywood! Well, we were early, like an hour early, hehe! Although it did take us a while to work out where the hell we were to park. People kept sending us in all the wrong directions! I mean how hard is it for somebody who works there to point us towards the front gate?! We were to use the valet parking right at the main entrance, because this was included in our VIP experience ticket. So we got to the valet 20 minutes later... Although it was so cool just dropping the car off right next to the Universal Globe!! As we were still so early we went and explored City Walk and then headed on in to the VIP Suite! Hehe!

We were the first ones in and helped ourselves to the breakfast spread that was there for us. Robert put some bread into the toaster, followed by croissants to be heated up, however it took a while for them to come back out. Obviously it wasn't designed for croissants and the toaster had quite a bit of smoke coming out of it. It was hilarious!! Robert freaked out in case he was going to set Universal Studios on fire, but eventually the croissants slid out the bottom, black!! Haha, the kitchen area was a little cloudy from all the smoke and I attempted to waft it out the windows!! The suite smelt like burnt bread for the rest of the time we were in there!! Haha, it was so so funny! So anyways after the other people from our tour had arrived and our tour guide Doug came in to greet us, we were away and then onto our tram, which would be taking us round all the studios!

So our first stop on the tour was around Sound stage 44, which is the set of Parenthood, a hugely popular American drama. This is called a "Hot Set", because it is actually used to film from and we got to walk right into the "house"! It was so interesting to actually be looking around and learning so much about how its made etc! Very interesting learning all the tricks that they do to make it seem like an actual house!

We then went into a huge warehouse where all the sets and props are made! Robert loved this part as of course he is a joiner (carpenter) and after seeing lots of things they were making exclaimed that he wanted to stay and work there and "how do you get a job working here?!", hehe! We then went onto the Backlot, which is a huge outdoor set, with loads of different sections, where thousands of films have been made! It was awesome to be able to walk around them and to recognise some of the streets and areas from films!! It was amazing!

Recognise this from Back To The Future?!

We then got back onto our tram and were taken to an amazing King Kong 3D experience! The whole tram was moving and there were huge dinosaurs trying to eat us, but of course King Kong saved the day! Afterwards we were taken to see some cars used in famous movies and then we went into see a little show about how crash scenes are really filmed! 

We then went into a mini Jurassic Park and got sprayed at by naughty dinosaurs who had escaped their cages! We also travelled through a Mexican looking village, where we were shown how the weather is controlled on a set (including flash floods!!) and then ended up in a Wild West type set, which was awesome! 

After a look around there and being told all about how they made the doors certain sizes to either make the actors look taller or smaller, we ended up in Amity Island, which is of course famous for... Jaws! Of course the shark himself came over to say hello!

We then got onto the set of Desperate Housewives! Now I loved Desperate Housewives and thought it was a brilliant show, so I was so excited when we rolled on up onto this street! It was totally like what you expect and looks just exactly like what it does in the tv! 

Gabrielle's House!

We got to see "the Who's" set from the film The Grinch and then we turned the corner and we were at the motel from Psycho! I have such a funny video of our tour guide Doug totally putting me in it and trying to set me up with the baddie, Norman Bates! Unfortunately, it won't load (sad face), but basically we see Norman Bates putting a body in his car and then he sees us and starts to come over! So then he brings out a knife and Doug is chatting away to him and he then says "Oh here's Jennifer, look she wants to go home with you!", so then he starts walking to me and the driver pulls away! Hehe, Robert then does the whole "I'm watching you" hand signal and Norman starts to laugh, along with everyone else! So funny!

We were then taken onto the War Of The World set, quite a famous film with Tom Cruise as the star. Robert loved this set, as it is a plane crash scene, with a real Boeing 747 plane! Robert was full of questions, asking Doug all about it! It was an amazing sight! There are also houses up on the hill, whose windows look out onto the scene every day!!

We also got a sneaky peak at the Jurassic Park set, which is behind the huge plane! We then drove past the huge blue screen, that has been used for so so many famous movies and let me tell you the screen really is just so big, it has a huge pond in front of it!! We then went to the last part of the studios tour and went into the prop warehouse! This is where the set designers go in and pick out all the furniture and items needed to make their sets look real! Every single thing imaginable is in that warehouse! It is huge!! E.T. is even in there!! After having a look round it was time to say goodbye to the tram and off we went into the theme park!

The theme park itself is amazing and the rides are even better!! Doug firstly took us to the Jurassic Park water ride, which was so good and was also so glad that we had been given ponchos, because we would have been soaked! Then we were taken on the Transformers ride, which is an awesome 4D simulator ride!! Then before we were taken for lunch it was the Mummy rollercoaster! So much fun! We were then led up the "Star Way" and up onto the rest of the park! We got taken to this awesome buffet for lunch, which had mini doughnuts, just like The Simpsons ones!

After lunch, at about 2pm, we all met back up with Doug at the House of Horrors! Now unbeknownst to me, this was a walk through full of men dressed up as your worst nightmares waiting to jump out at you! So I headed on in and as we are taken to the front of the queue wasn't really sure what I was letting myself in for (as I am terrified of things like this!)! So I made sure Robert was behind me holding onto me at all times and was almost holding onto one of the other guys from our tour in front!! Honestly I must of been such a picture!! Haha, screaming my head off, trying to work out where they were hiding!! At one point, a guy jumps out from behind a curtain and then Robert decides it would be funny to give him a fright back! So he waits a couple of seconds and just as the guy is coming out again, Robert is up in his face shouting boo back at him!! Hehe, I can see it being hilarious now, but at the time I just wanted to get out of their and was wanting Robert to hurry up!! It felt like it went on for ages though and at one point I asked a steward if it was nearly over, in fact I almost cried it at him!! "Is it nearlyyyy ooovvverrrrrrr!?!?!" Hahaha, and he said yes, but he lied! There was still about 5 more scenes filled with monsters to go! Honestly when I saw a streak of light up ahead of me, I was totally overjoyed!! Haha, so funny looking back on it!

We were then taken to all the awesome shows! Waterworld (we got to stay at the end and talk to the actors and also got to see the sea plane be put back into place!), Special Effects Stage and then Universal's Animal Actors (again we got to stay at the end and meet two of the animals, they brought out a very clever dog and a Capuchin monkey. We got to get our photos with them and the little monkey touched me, it was just so amazing!!)! We then got taken onto the Simpsons ride, which is just so so good!! Honestly, so funny and you walk in not knowing what to expect, its amazing!! Lastly we said goodbye to Doug, as we went into Shrek 4D! Doug was such an awesome tour guide, so funny and full of knowledge about films and the sets! Here are some photos of our time in the theme park!

We had just the most amazing day and we went into the shops and bought some goodies, which I will show you in  haul! I would most definitely say that the VIP tickets were so worth it and it was just fantastic! If your going to Universal Studios Hollywood, I totally recommend the experience! 

We left the park and headed over to the City Walk once again, to get our dinner! Let me tell you it was so so busy, since we were there in the morning!! After noticing the Abercrombie &Fitch shop, that was just so nicely placed there, there was no stopping me buying some really pretty tops! And that was the end of our very long, but completely amazing day!! We got some ice cream and then picked the car back up and headed back to the hotel!

One of the best days of our holiday right there! Thanks again Robert for getting the tickets!! Also I am sorry if that post was really long! Hopefully you didn't mind I just wanted to fit it all in!! Hehe. 

Love, Jen x

LA Day 1: Santa Monica and the LA Lakers!

Hi girls!

So as I said in my last post, we had an early morning flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles. It was at 8am, so a very early B.A.R.T ride was required to get back to the airport. I was so excited to get to LA, because of course this is where we would be driving the rest of the trip! It was just an hour flight to LAX and it was fab when we were getting nearer to land, as we could see the whole city under us and we actually saw the Hollywood sign from the plane! I think we were the most excited people on the plane at that point!! 

When we landed the first thing we had to do was go and get the car. Robert and I love Mustangs (me especially), so we were hoping to get a convertible one! We hired through Thrifty and after sorting everything out and getting a GPS (sat nav), we were sent to a specific section of the car park and were told we could choose which ever one we wanted! Hehe, when we walked around the corner there was three convertible Mustangs sitting there!! Honestly, we must of looked like little children trying to decide which one we wanted!! We ended up choosing a black one;

I called him Roo! Also this photo was taken further into the trip.

So on leaving the car rental, we decided we would go to Santa Monica! So I put it into the sat nav and Robert began to follow the route. Now Robert has not driven a left hand drive car before and only driven on the "wrong" side of the road a tiny bit (because of course the UK drive the opposite way round from most other places). So after getting onto the correct side of the road, we were off and Robert was told just to follow the car in front when turning corners! Hehe, only 5 minutes into the drive, of course the sat nav takes us onto an Interstate (or motorway as we call them in the UK). Now Robert and I drive everywhere and everyday, we are not nervous drivers in any way, but that first day the driving was a little cray cray!! When we first got on the Interstate, Robert gave a little yelp of "your making me go on this already?!", to which I replied that I didn't have a clue what route the sat nav was going and he could not turn back now! Hehe, Robert did extremely well though and got us parked up near the beach all ready to explore a bit of Santa Monica! 

Two words; utterly gorgeous! Honestly this place was beautiful! All the little beach houses, which must cost an absolute fortune. Then the beach itself was just amazing with golden sand, hundreds of palm trees and proper lifeguard huts, which went on for miles and miles in each direction.

Then we saw the Pier a little way away from us, so obviously we headed in that direction! For lunch, we stopped at a little beach restaurant and I had a grilled cheese and chips, which was just so good!!!

It was such a gorgeous day! Not a cloud in the sky, so it was perfect walking along the beach and then up onto the Pier, which is actually the unofficial (I think) end of Route 66! I just had to get a photo!!

Oh gosh that place was just so pretty!! Sadly we never went into Pacific Park, due to not having enough time left where we had parked. We had an amazing time and even walked past the famous Muscle Beach!! They were actually filming some sort of work out programme when we were there and later in the week we saw it on the tv!! It was so funny, knowing we had been there! So after getting some Dippin' Dots, which is quite a strange concept of ice cream in tiny litlle ball form. I got strawberry flavour and looked and tasted like I was eating the sweets called Millions! We walked back to the car and headed for the hotel.

Now the hotel, which we were staying in for 5 nights, happened to be in Anaheim (because we were going to Disneyland), but as LA is such a huge city, Anaheim is about 45 miles from the centre of LA and then is obviously more miles away from Santa Monica. So it took us just under 2 hours to get to the Hilton in Anaheim, due to all the traffic. During that journey, we experienced quite a scary moment due to a stupid impatient guy behind us when trying to join onto the Interstate, but this I guess just made Robert more focused. The average motorway here is usually 6 lanes across, well we were on one which was 14 lanes across!! It was crazy! We weren't that bothered by the amount of traffic on the way to Anaheim to be honest, but it was great to get to our hotel room and have a little rest for a while!

Robert had always wanted to go to a basketball game, so he booked us tickets to go and see the LA Lakers at the Staples Centre, which is right in the centre of LA!! So it was back on the Interstate for us! Now this is when we saw huge amounts of traffic and the Interstate was jam packed and moving very slowly!! It took us 2 and a half hours to get parked up beside the Staples Centre. As we were on holiday, the traffic never really bothered us, but I don't know how people can live there!! They must spend half their lives on the roads!! So anyway we were quite excited to get in and see the game!

We had a good view of the whole court and the game was great! The LA Lakers were playing the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Lakers won! I did try to do some star spotting along the front row with my camera, but never really saw anyone! After the game it was back down the Interstate again to the hotel! To be honest Robert and I weren't really bothered by this drive, as we are used to doing longer journeys in the car and plus the hotel was fab, so we were happy!! When we got back to Anaheim, it was 11pm and we had a very early morning, so it was straight to bed! Our second day of LA was a very exciting VIP Experience at Universal Studios!! So stay tuned for that post!!

I am linking up with Helene with her Travel Tuesday segment! Love this idea!!

Hope you enjoyed reading about our first day in LA!!

Love, Jen x