Note form only will tidy and add photos another day!
Sun
K and I walked to a local bakers and picked up some pastries, 2 choc almond croissants, 1 pistachio croissant and a raisin pastry ($25), along with some orange juice.
We headed for the Griffith Observatory today up in the Hollywood Hills. Not too far from hotel, about 7 miles. We parked up and planned to walk up to the Observatory as we thought there wouldn't be any car parking spaces at the top. We set of walking but the heat and looking at the climb up soon had us returning to the car to give the car park a try. Windy road up a just a couple of minutes wait before a caf pulled out and we had our space! No way we'd have made the walk up there! Views were incredible! Slightly hazy but wow, what a huge city lay out before you! Plus the added views of the Hollywood Sign. Spent a while looking at the views before heafing into the Observatory first to see the telescope and then inside the main building to see the science displays. Loads of intersection things to see and nice to be out of the sun for a while!
Back to the car and we headed down the hill back towards Hollywood. With Sarah's navigation we drove along Hollywood boulevard to the the stars on the walk of Fame, along with sights like the dolby theatre and the Chinese theatre. We carried on all the way to the end then took the winding roads up the mountains to Mulholland Drive, to see some of the homes of the rich and famous! We stopped at a couple of view points to take in the city, the first high above universal studios, the second giving another view of the Hollywood Sign.
The road ends just a short distance from our hotel. We headed back to have a rest and a cool down for a while.
Phone call with mum
Headed out to late lunch/early dinner at Dennys.
Onto universal. Parked in curious George 4, walked through city walk to park. About 5 o'clock, park was still busy and hot! Didn't really have a plan for this evening other than to get our a feel of the park and maybe do a couple of rides. Wandered round the upper lot and 3 of us decided to try Harry Potter which said 30 min wait. Brilliant ride, and we noted they were using single ride access as well! We were off the ride and back with Stephen in just under 30 mins. We took the 4 long escalators to the lower lot where 3 if us did Transformers. Stephen was quite happy soaking up the atmosphere and wandering around. Back together we went into Nintendo World, queues for browsers ride had been showing at around 60-80 mins so we decided not to bother. The mummy was now showing 15 mins so we all decided to ride, Stephen was very excited for this ride as he'd been young and terrified on this ride in Orlando. Very good although i felt it wasn't as long as the orlando version, but that might be my memory! Will have to look up the differences. Stephen decided to keep wandering the park while we headed back to the upper lot and did the hr long back lot tour which was showing no queue. Was an incredible ride with at least 4 rider "ineractive" sections. Miles better than any orlando back ride tour! Back together and Stephen and Sarah decided to do HP as single riders. Area was busy as there were light shows at the castle, Keith and I set ourselves a viewing spot where we could also catch the kids as they came out. They were out within about 10 mins, no queues in the ride at all, so we stood and watched the light show at 8.50.
Many people were now leaving the park, but with an hr still left and the rides queues quiet we decided to do more. Simpsons was completed in about 25 mins, the s+s decided to head back to the lower lot where they rerode Transformers and The Mummy. K and I were shattered so sat with an ice-cream (24 degrees at 9.30!). Message from the kids informed us that Jurassic World had opened (it had been showing as closed for refurb since we arrived) so we quickly grabbed out bags and bottles and walked down the escalators as quick as we could and joined the very short queue. Were quickly on the ride. Brilliant, again I think I prefer this one to the orlando version! It was now past park closing so we set of on the long slow return to the car (feet were really aching by now) up the 4 escalators, through the park, through city walk and back to the car park. Thank goodness the hotel is just a 4 min drive away. Quick wash, cup of tea and we were all soon asleep!
What a day! Thoroughly enjoyed our morning and achieved far more than we expected at universal this evening. Spirits were high even if our feet were screaming with tiredness!
