Vegas

The Jersey Boys was a great show. Not exactly the same show we saw in Melbourne, but very good.

We wake up late the next day and Jeff spends time looking at options for a Grand Canyon tour the following day. Then it's time to check out Las Vegas Boulevard (the strip) in daylight.

Vegas is HUGE and therefore a lot bigger than I had anticipated. I could say we looked in 'all' of the casinos but that would be an exaggeration. We did enter Caesers Palace, Bellagios,  the Venetian, New York New York, Excalibur and MGM. They all are themed in some manner or other. NYNY has the rollercoaster, and the Streets of NY inside. The Venetian has canals and gondolas. Another, the name of which escapes me, was French themed. All sensational buildings.

 

That night we saw Human Nature at The Venetian and we both found it more enjoyable than Jersey Boys. Bonus.

LA to Vegas

To 'all' dedicated readers of this blog, sorry for the delay in updates. You must be deperate if this is your fix of entertainment!

As we now know the bus system, we jump on the #20 with two suitcases and hand luggage. One guy in a wheelchair is already on the bus but there's room for us. Shortly after, a homeless man with his belongings loaded on his chair hops on and the fun begins. Jeff eventually hops off through the rear exit, with his suitcase, to reappear at the front. The homeless man was very chatty but do you think Jeff could understand him? Of course not. Anyway now the man knows that Australia is not in Europe and Jeff has been told about the merits of honey buns (food i think).

Eventually we get to the departure point for the bus to Vegas and head off about 30 minutes late. After about an hour of driving through LA and picking up more passengers we are on the way. Vegas in in the desert and most of what we saw was desert. Not totally unattractive but it's desert.

It was amazing though, big highways and plenty of vehicles on the road. (Still not used to left hand drive....although we're not driving. I've imagined seeing cars without drivers and buses going backwards all because my mind is locked into right hand drive.)



Finally get to Vegas, collect tickets for Jersey Boys and find our hotel. Made it!

Random photos

LAPD crime scene

LAPD Bomb Squad

Bicycle friendly bus

Hollywood

Now we have a grip on the bus system, it's time to buy a day pass. At $1.50 per trip it's cutting into our daily budget so we can save a fortune by getting a 'daily'. So off we go to the underground station where we are confronted with a machine. Luckily a young English girl (woman) is there to help us buy our two daily tickets at a total cost of $12.

Then we're off to Hollywood by bus in search of stars, and possibly a lead role!

En route Heather finds (another) 99c store and a junk store. The 99c store is a supermarket and items cost 99c. The US is cheap compared to Oz. The junk store has a great web address www.thisisnotikea.com.

When we arrive at Hollywood Boulevard we discover that it consists mostly of spruikers for tours, souvenir stores, adult shops and eateries. Even the souvenirs are cheap...and made in China.

Indian food for late lunch and Heather's pleased with her chicken tikka salad and lassi. Jeff had chicken malai, vegetable korma, rice, roti and Kingfisher.  Total cost $23.82.

So it's two buses to Hollywood and two bus rides to get home. You do the maths. Was the day pass a bargain or not?

LA beaches - day 2

Today was spent visiting Santa Monica and Venice Beach. Possibly because it's a Sunday, and a nice day, crowds are very large. There are separate paths for bike riders and pedestrians, and both were very busy as we did the return walk to Venice Beach.

A message about war

Santa Monica pier

Day 1 in LA

Off to Tulla bright and early only to be confronted with a two hour delay as the plane hadn't passed security, been cleaned or whatever. Finally on board the Airbus A380 it's smoothe flying to LA in 13.5 hours. That's a bonus as i thought it was a 16 hour flight.

Not happy with the 2 hour delay!

We arrive at our hotel about 10am but check in isn't till 3pm. The room's ready around noon and they let us in. Another bonus, although the QANTAS recommended hotel is 2.5 star.

Time to book the bus to Vegas, shower and grab a nap.

Bus to Vegas leaves at 1pm on April 1 and it's a 5.5 hour trip, longer than my expected 3 hours. Will be a rush once we arrive as we have to collect tickets to Jersey Boys.

Meanwhile, back in LA, we are ready to head out on a walk to Downtown and then onto a historic precinct named El Pueblo. Unknown to us it's 5.5km to Downtown and another 3 to El Pueblo. We sought directions from two people along the way and both said it's too far to walk. Buses are only $1.50 we were to learn on the way back!

Some lovely buildings remain in LA. Probably 1930s and if i can work out how to load them to the blog, I will.

El Pueblo was interesting. A tiny neighbourhood, it's where LA commenced back in 1781. A little like a tiny Mexican 'Vic Market', there was shopping and eating. They were celebrating the blessing of the animals.

After walking more than 10km we jumped on a bus back to the hotel to plan for Santa Monica and Venice Beach tomorrow.

Final countdown

With just 23 days until we depart, travel insurance is in place and most accommodation and travel plans booked and confirmed. There are no flights direct from Cuba to Jamaica so we are going via the Cayman Islands with a three-night stopover in Grand Cayman.
The plan is to return to Australia via Hawaii to see Pearl Harbour.
The total trip looks like this:
Melbourne to LA
Las Vegas
Washington DC
Williamsburg
New York
Boston
Toronto
Cuba
Grand Cayman
Jamaica
Toronto
Hawaii
Melbourne