229 Universal Studios - Hollywood

Sunday 15th September 2013
Miles Today 198  Total 21,459

We awoke a bit earlier today and the boss sent me next door to McDonalds  to get us a Sunday breakfast. This set us up for an earlier than usual get away and we were wheels rolling just after 10. 

The sky was clear blue and there were absolutely no clouds whatsoever. This never happens in the UK. 

400 miles of this was a bit wearing.

 The ride South was getting a bit tedious and despite the desert being beautiful, it was going on forever. We decided to play I-Spy. It was a short game. Sand, hills, road, bushes, telegraph poles (Karen, TP was a just too easy !) and er...er....

I spy with my little eye, something beginning with .......

We only stopped once to fill up, sadly only with fuel, we just wanted to get to LA and get out of the heat. It was a lot hotter than yesterday with the temperature peaking out at 38C (100F). When it goes above body temperature it is difficult to cool down so we just pressed on and arrived there at around 2:30.

We found a cheap motel in Van Nuys and dived in out of the heat.
 

Monday 16th September 2013
Miles Today 22  Total 21,481

We set off for Universal at around 11am and the 11 mile trip was freeway almost all the way. After paying the car rate to park Wallace (why do they do that in America) we parked up and wandered in to the estate.
 We emptied our wallet into the ticket booth  and joined the hordes entering the park. 

The first ride we went on was the Shrek ride. It was actually just a 4D cinema with seats that bumped and moved about whilst spraying water at you and tickling the backs of your legs to mimic spiders running around your legs. I was a bit disappointed.
 

And this was the guy responsible for it...

Next was the Jurrasic park ride which was of the large log flume variety. As we got on I was the last of 4 on our bench and when seated  tried to pull the communal bar towards me. It would not move more than a few inches so I pulled even harder. I could hear some sort of commotion and funny 'oof', 'oof' noises going on the other side of Karen and then Karen shouted "Stop Ray". I looked across and next to her was a big fat guy going an interesting shade of purple. My over zealous pulling on the bar was crushing his rib cage. Oops. Those that know me know when finesse fails, I resort to brute force. We rode with the bar loose and the fat guy saw the funny side of it when he came round.

I t was a fun but very wet ride

 It was then off to the new Transformers set which was very good. The 3D graphics interlaced with being thrown around sitting in a moving car were state of the art. 

There is a human in there somewhere. Sorry to burst your bubble Trula.

 Anyone that remembers 'Waterworld' starring Kevin Kostner would like the next item on the agenda. At the time of production it was the most expensive film ever made and hardly anyone went to see it. Doh ! However the play put on for us was fun if not a bit hammy on the acting front. And the cast made sure that everyone they could reach got wet.

I missed the shot but the star of the show just popped up out of the water on his jet ski. Impressive.

This guy, Brandon Loeser, was recently in the Batman film, 'The Dark Knight'. When he was not performing he took great delight in throwing buckets of water at the viewing crowd. As you can see, he clearly enjoys his work.

We then entered the haunted house which was fun aside from the fact that with so many people in it (they had all just walked out of Water world) it was more like a procession. The actors inside were good though, popping out of dark and scaring the crap out of us. Actually it was all dark, but you know what I mean.

This 2 feet high model was actually used to depict a full sized house in the film, The Munster s..

 

The Frankenstein scene

As is the norm for me I was hungry so we decided to look for a hot dog stand, Not too easy in the US. Everyone eats burgers and chips (French fries). Anyway, we found one and they advertised a Polish hot dog, which is a big one, so I asked for one of those. I was then asked it I wanted a spicy one. Yeah, why not.....

This is why not..............

An idiot in agony.  Tears in his eyes and large red chilli's in the sausage.

I could not speak, I was crying and hiccuping all at the same time. Needless to say Karen was gaining much merriment from my anguish, or should I say she was in stitches laughing. A close inspection of the sausage showed it was about 10% red chillies. The beer I had went down real quick and I was dreading tomorrow morning.

I liked the smile on this guys face. And it should read MY FEMALE, not US MAIL

 It was getting late and we had seen all we wanted so we left the main park and went out into the 'City', a area of shops bars and a cinema.

After a beer we went to see Alysium, a Sci Fi film starring Matt Daemon. The film is about a modern space station occupied by rich people who have escaped the decaying population on Earth.
We actually enjoyed it immensely. We are easily pleased after all.

Tomorrow we set off for Phoenix to visit Karen's cousin Charles. It will take us a couple of days.