Griffith Observatory and universal studios

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! 

Southern California Coasters - pre trip!

So, it appears we are having another "family" holiday!  Options for a trip this year included resurrecting our covid cancelled Canada trip for 2, a road trip from Denver covering Colorado and Utah with a possible extension to Florida with Sarah and Stephen joining us for the last bit, or a road trip for 4 of us from Las Vegas to San Diego.  With Stephen having started a new job this year and his annual leave being a bit tight, we eventually decided on another coaster trip, 10 nights, taking in Southern California.  It might be the last 'coaster tour" for Keith and I, we're not getting any younger!!!  For us this will be a small road trip covering between 300-500 miles.

Six Flags Magic Mountain was always going to be the main draw for this trip.  Keith and I visited in 2018 and said how great it would be to do it with the 'kids'!  As Six Flags MM is the only one of the parks we are doing that is due to close some days from mid August onwards, date wise, it was a case of fitting it around that, so we have finally settled on:    

3 nights Comfort Suites, Stevenson Ranch with 2 days set aside for Six Flags - so many rides to do - X2, Wonderwoman, Tatsu, Full Throttle, Superman, Twisted Colossus - this park is home to 20 coasters, lets see how many we can do!  Two days will hopefully mean we don't have to rush, and give us plenty of time for re-rides.

2 nights Tilt Hotel near Hollywood and Universal Studios.  As this will be over a weekend and the parks tend to busier, the plan is to spend Saturday and Sunday morning doing some sightseeing to hopefully include the Griffith Observatory, Hollywood Sign, Hollywood Walk of Fame or the beach!  Sunday Afternoon/Evening and Monday will be Universal Studios.

2 nights Clementine Suites at Anaheim. Although we will be staying close to Disneyland we will probably only have time for a quick Disney fix at Downtown Disney one evening. We are not planning to visit their parks on this trip.  Main reason for the stop here is Knotts Berry Farm.

3 nights San Diego.  No hotel for this one, we have a house booked close to Sea World.  Seaworld rides have always been a favourite and we thought it would be nice to visit a different one.  If we have time we would love to visit USS Midway and maybe Belmont Park at Mission Beach.

Lots to do and, I fear, little time but we will see.

  

Hi, thank you for looking at our Florida Holiday Blog.   This was initially made to keep my sister up to date when we took my neice in 2010 but we decided to keep it going for future trips.  We have also now ventured a bit further in the USA than Florida!

Please use the tabs at the top to view either the West Coast 18, New York 18, 2016, 2015, 2013 or 2010 trip, or to read our food reports from either our 2015 or 2013 trips or the scrapbook pages made from the 2010 trip.

2018 - Our Grand Tour - Magic Mountain, Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyons, Horseshoe Bend, Page, Monument Valley, Moab, Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon, Zion NP, Las Vegas, Death Valley, Yosemite, San Francisco
2018 - Girly trip to New York
2016 - Toronto, Niagara, Cedar Point, Kings Island, Canada's Wonderland.
2015 - Washington,  Six Flags, Bush Gardens Williamsburg,  Blue Ridge Mountains, Kings Dominion,  Carowinds,  Orlando
2013 - Orlando
2010 - Orlando

Apologies for spelling errors, live blogging from the parks on my tablet.  Will attempt to proof read when home (no promises)!

West Coast 18 (National Parks +) Index

Day 1 - L.A. Bound
Day 2 - Six Flags Magic Mountain
Day 3 - Off to Nevada, Laughlin
Day 4 - Route 66 and the Grand Canyon
Day 5 - Grand Canyon to Page + Horseshoe Bend
Day 6 - Page and Antelope Canyons
Day 7 - Monument Valley
Day 8 - Arches National Park
Day 9 - Bryce Canyon
Day 10 - Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park
Day 11 - Zion National Park
Day 12 - Zion to Vegas
Day 13 - Vegas
Day 14 - Hoover Dam and Vegas
Day 15 - Death Valley
Day 16 - Off to Yosemite
Day 17 - Yosemite, Glacier Point and Mariposa Grove
Day 18 - Yosemite Valley
Day 19 - ... onwards to San Francisco
Day 20 - San Francisco
Day 21 - homeward bound

Please bear in mind that this blog is primarily put together for family and my daily reports are typed "live" on a tablet and there are spelling mistakes - oops!!  There are also a couple of days where wifi connection was poor so few or no photos were uploaded.  I will try and put all these things right when I have the time!

If you have enjoyed or found any of this useful please comment and let me know!

Thank you for reading

Day 21 homeward bound

So, our grand tour comes to an end today.  I hate last days!  I never seem to have a plan except to get to the airport on time.  It's the only part of holidays that really stresses me.  I don't like to do anything late.

So with a very loose plan of visiting the coast we had a quick hotel breakfast, packed and repacked trying to make everything fit and not to be too heavy!  One large and one medium case was the wrong decision, Two large next time!

We headed West out of Castro Valley and crossed the San Mateo bridge in the direction of half moon bay and Highway 1, the Pacific coast road.  It was a journey that should have taken just over half an hour but as we crossed the hills before the coast we hit slow moving traffic.  Unfortunately there wasn't much we could do, single lane traffic and no turn offs.  We feared it might be all the way to the coast.  After about 20 mins or so we passed through a small farming community where each farm had their pumpkins laid out and they had laid of activities for families like haunted houses, pony rides and bouncy castles.  This it appeared was the hold up!  People looking plus those pulling in and out of the farms!

We drove a little way  south down highway 1 and after a couple of attempts found somewhere to park the car.  It was actually at a hotel called Ritz-carlton that had spaces for the publuc to park and allowed access to the coastal trail through their grounds and golf course.  It was lovely, the sun  was shining and we walked down to the beach listening to the waves crashing. We walking a little further along the cliffs path beford turning back.

Back in the car and we followed highway 1 north.  We would have stopped a few times but the lovely weather  combined with a bank holiday weekend had brought the masses out to the coast.  Some of the days were packed with surfers.

We eventually stopped for a burger in a shopping mall near Daly City.  With a couple of hours still to waste we wandered round a Target and an attached shopping mall before giving up and heading to the airport.

We returned the car to the car rental garage (the Kia has done us well over the last 3 weeks,  2775 miles in total!) and made our way on the airtrain to the International Terminal A.  We printed our boarding passes, and dropped off our cases before heading through security.  It was all fairly quiet and quick.

We were on the double decker A380 and had booked the very last row, as the side seats were 2's and we could recline without bothering anyone.   Much more comfortable than our journey out.

Day 20 San Francisco

Up a bit more leisurely this morning with hot breakfast included at the hotel again. 

We drove to the Castro Valley BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport) car park which is free on the weekends.  We walked across the road into the station and found machine to buy tickets.  After a bit of umming and ahhhing we eventually got 2 tickets loaded with enough money for return travel to SF.  It wasn't too tricky really, we are just slow about reading all the instructions.  Tickets in hand we entered the station and made our way to the platforms.  These are positioned between the carriageway of the freeway at Castro Valley which was interesting!

BART station in the centre of the freeway!

We waited about 15 minutes for a train which was pretty empty.  We grabbed a seat and enjoyed the passing scenery until we entered the final underwater stretch.  The trains move quite fast and our ear popped a couple of times as we went down beneath the bay!

We got off underground at Embarcadero and exited to bright blue skies in San Francisco.  Checking shadows on the ground we headed north until we found pier 9, then turned left to follow the road round the bay area.

There was quite a bit of activity area the bay but having not been before we didn't know if this was normal.  It soon became apparent that I hadn't done my homework on SF.  This week is Fleet Week and there was lots going on.  By the time we got to Pier 39 it was heaving.  Although there were lots of people it still felt relaxed and everyone was chilling and enjoying the weekend.  We walked along pier 39 looking at all the restaurants and shops until we got to the far end where we found the seal viewing area.  There were lots of them basking in the sunshine and also swimming around the dock.

We walked a little further to some Bay Boat tours where I managed to persuade Keith to take the hour long bay tour!  He would have preferred the speedboat tour but that didn't go where I wanted to go!

It was about 11.45 and the guy in the ticket booth said they had tickets for 12.15, so we purchased those then went to join the queue.  After the obligatory green screen photo, we boarded and managed to find seats on the top deck.  The journey out of the harbour was a little bumpy but with the sun out and little breeze it was a gorgeous day to be out on the water.

We made our way out towards the Golden Gate Bridge and passed underneath it before turning round (this was a little bumpier) and heading back to pass around Alcatraz.  As we headed back to dock we watched first a parachutist with an American Flag followed by an airliner making a fly past.  It soon became apparent that actually there was a full blown air show this afternoon and the parks and walkways along the bay were jam packed.

Alcatraz

Back on dry land we bought some ice creams and sat on a nearby wall to eat them.  Keith noticed a movement on some nearby flowers.  It was a hummingbird!   (Pic to follow next week from camera!)

We carried on walking West with the intention of getting some more good views of the bridge but we kept getting distracted by the air show!  It really was very good with the aircraft flying very close to the water and also overhead.  The highlight was the Blue Angels, similar to the Red Arrows and obviously held in high regard by Americans as they were all very excited when they were announced. 

We didn't make it all the way to the bridge but we did have a fantastic time enjoying the flying displays.  It was lovely to see everyone relaxed and enjoying the sunshine, including the police and emergency services. 

At 4pm we decided we ought to head back.  We retraced out steps back along the bay alongside everyone else now the flying displays had finished.  We grabbed a hog dog from a street seller on the way back as we realised we hadnt eaten much since breakfast.  Our feet were starting to hurt and we ambled back to the BART.

We quickly found our platform and waited for the train for Dublin/Pleasanton.  It was a bit busier than this morning but after the first stop we got seats and the 35 minute journey soon passed.

We went back to the hotel to shower and freshen up before we set of for our last evening meal at Applebees.  It was gone 6 by the time we got back.

It didn't quite turn out to be the day we expected but we have thoroughly enjoyed what we have seen of San Francisco. It was clean, friendly,  interesting and had a lovely vibe.  We would be very happy to return and explore more.

Day 19 ... onwards towards San Francisco

After 3 nights in this lovely part of the world we are on the move again to our final destination, Castro Valley, just outside San Francisco.

We had our 'at home' breakfast of cereal and fruit and then packed up the car.  As the sun was shining this morning we decided to head back to the valley floor for some sunshine photos before we headed off.   Keith has been feeling very tired the last couple of days and it was only as we passed an elevation sign this morning we wondered whether 'living' above 6000ft was not helping his breathing.  We'll see if it gets better in SF or whether he's just worn himself out with all the sightseeing!

We stopped first at Tunnel View, who could resist one last look along the valley to Half Dome, gorgeous.

We then carried on into the valley area and stopped a few times to top up the photo count.  We also parked up near the lower Yosemite Falls area and walked a little til we found a view I had liked yesterday where you can see the falls from the walkway.  The flow definitely looked slower than yesterday but the whole area is just lovely.  Must admit I was relucant to leave, not sure whether it was Yosemite itself or just the fact that it is our last national park!

We continued to enjoy the scenery as we left the valley and followed the rest of the Tioga Pass out of the park and into the hills of Stanislaus National Forest area.  We found some more fascinating roads including the steep and winding road out of the hills and down to a town called Moccasin.  There was also a large reservoir here and we found somewhere to stop and look at the water while we ate our sandwich lunch.

The next part of the drive was very flat and there was a lot of agriculture. There were a lot of trees planted in rows and it took us a while to find clues to tell us what the crop was - almonds (we think)!

We joined the freeway and it was a bit manic.  The opposite carriageway was packed with people leaving the city on Friday afternoon, our side was flowing but fast and busy.

After one missed turn and a bit of re-routing, we found our hotel and checked in, then took some time to relax before heading out for dinner.

A new restaurant chain for us for dinner tonight, Black Angus Steahouse, bit like Longhorns.  We were very impressed with our ribs and teriyaki steak meals.

Hoping to use the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport system) to get into San Francisco tomorrow, no idea how that's going to go,  we don't do public transport usually! 😲

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