Other stuff we did (which always comes second to
Disneyland
)
We had a 10 day Parkhopper ticket, so had a few days that we needed to fill in which werent Disneyland.
We didnt go to Universal last time, so we decided to do it this time. It was fantastic.
We did the VIP tour, which while expensive, is so worth the extra cost. We just about fitted everything in, but could have done with some extra time. I chose a Saturday to go because the park was open until 8pm (6pm during the week) and I thought this would give us extra time to re-do the rides we liked after the tour. We did re-ride all 4 rides and did 2 more shows that they didnt take us to during the tour. The park was packed, so it may have been less crowded on a weekday, but it didnt affect us seeing we had Front of line access to rides and shows all day.
The Parenthood set
Back to the future set
The props dept
Wisteria Lane
The psycho house. This guy was amazing. My kids were scared out of their brains that he was going to come and get them (he took out a knife and started running towards our bus!)
War of the worlds set. We got to walk all around and through it which was great.
Waterworld
The loooong ride to the bottom lot
My son in the Animal Actors show. He's a bit of an actor himself!
On the middle Sunday, we went in to Hollywood. We parked at the Hollywood and Highland Centre and looked around the usual places. Saw the Stars, hand and footprints, walked through the Disney Soda Store. It was a bit freaky with all of the weirdos there, so we didnt stay too long. We then drove through Beverly Hills and headed to Santa Monica beach. Well, being Memorial Day weekend, it was chockers. No carparks, so we just kept on driving right home.
Then the day we were coming home (the next Sunday) we went back to Hollywood. We had checked out so had a car full of bags. We parked again at Hollywood and Highland Centre and headed to Ripleys Believe it or not. This was the kids choice. I guess it killed some time and the kids enjoyed it. We were going to go to Madame Tussauds, but it was a bit expensive just to fill in some time. Back to Johnny Rockets for lunch and then off to the Discovery California Science centre. This was free (except to see the Space Shuttle) and again, the kids loved it. I was stuffed by this time, and was still getting over my cold, so I sat and waited most of the time.'
Ripleys
Now, we had wanted to go to a
Walmart on the way to the airport because we wanted to bring back lots of nice American chocolates and candies. My husband had said that they may melt if we got them earlier, so we looked up a Walmart close to the airport.
As we were driving from the Discovery Centre (which is right next to USC) I started being a bit worried about where this Walmart would be. I looked it up later and found we were right in the middle of South Central LA! Hubby decided to stay in the car while the kids and I went in to get what we needed from Walmart. He said he moved parking spaces at one stage because he didnt like that where he was didnt have many people around. We definitely felt like the minority in that Walmart!
Anyway, our other spare days were spent shopping of course. We did the Citadel Outlets (another place we felt like a minority) and the Block at Orange. Citadel was pretty good. The Block at Orange had a few good outlet shops.
Yum! We will be looking out for it when we travel later this year, we're staying in LA for a week first before our week at DL.
