Meeting the Lads - Blogabond

July 12
After an on and off sleep we arrived in LA. We were expecting long delays to get through all the security, but nope! It was the quickest we've had in any of the countries we think.
We were told the lads flight was getting into terminal 7 so got a bus there and waited. After 20 mins we checked again and a lady said their flight gate had moved and were getting in at terminal 6. We quickly dashed to the next terminal which is surprisingly far away. Holding up our home-made banners we met the lads as they came out of the outside doors.
We all squeezed into a taxi (these lads have more stuff for 2 weeks than we do for the whole 6 months!) We arrived at the Beverley Garland Holiday Inn. Once checked in we headed for a walk to find a pub. A man told us it was 3/4 mile down the road. After about 45 mins we realised it was a bit longer than this! We settled for an Argentinian restaurant and had a few drinks and some dinner.
We walked the 3/4 mile and the rest back to the hotel bar. Where we caught up with the UK gossip and also told many stories of our travels as none of the lads had read the blog - typical!

July 13
We went to the restaurant for an all you can eat breakfast buffet.
The hotel had a shuttle bus to Universal Studios so we hopped on that. We bought a new and bigger memory card for a camera. We then headed for the Grounds Studio tour on a train thing. We saw lots of sets for shows and flims - Desperate Housewives, Jaws, Fast and the Furious, War of the Worlds. Went on 4D shrek where we got sprayed with water and air jets.
Next were the fun rides. Jurassic park where we all got absolutely soaked. We soon dried off in the sunshine though. The mummy ride was quite surprising, we were expecting to be scared a little, we didn't expect the rapid acceleration and going backwards. It felt like 1-100 miles an hour in few seconds!
Backdraft was very hot, showing us all of the fires and specail effects explosions used in the film. (No Billy Baldwin though - gutted!)
We went to the house of Horrors where it was a bit scary especially when Trace turned round to talk to the lads and when she looked round there we re 2 monsters right in front of her and made her jump out of her skin!
We had food at Mels 50's Diner. Our camera then showed an error on the memory stick and we lost all of the days photos. We went back to the shop we bought it from and after a discussion we got another memory stick, but none of the photos back.
We went to the waterworld show. We got a bit wet and watched them all water ski behind jet skis and jump off really high towers.
We got the shuttle bus back to the hotel.

July 14
We got up and had a buffet breakfast again. We all got a taxi to Hollywood Boulevard to see the walk of fame and stars on the sidewalk (pavement to us!) We saw where the celebrities all put their hand and foot prints. Walked all the way along one side then crossed the road and walked all the way down the other side. Not quite what we were expecting,as doesn't look that glamerous like it does on the TV, it is actually quite tacky with all the cheap shops trying to sell you stuff.
We got a taxi to near the 'Hollywood' Sign and all had our photos taken by it.
Back at the hotel the ladsa went for one last swim whilst we waited for the RV to arrive.
A Mexican guy called Tony brought the RV to us atthe hotel - he was quite useless and new nothing about the van, as he's the one who just drops it off!
Once we settled in we headed for the supermarket to fill up on supplies. Then we set off on our journey, except we had no idea where we were going or anything booked. We went to a local petrol station to find out where to get maps and lists of RV parks in California. Once that weas done we rang ahead to a few parks, finding out that this time of year is quite busy and you really need to plan ahead!

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James & Tracey on July 12, 2007 from Los Angeles, United States

from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour

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