Palm Springs
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2005
1
33
41
Trip End
Jul 28, 2006
Palm Springs, United States
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Do you remember what time we left Fiji? Now come on! Were you paying attention? Well for those of you who have forgotten it was 11pm on the evening of Saturday 17th June, we flew for almost 11 hours, crossed the International Date Line and arrived in Los Angeles 8 hours before we'd left Fiji, 3.30 in the afternoon of the 17th. Weird we can tell you.
So, Los Angeles (LA), a massive sprawling airport with numerous arrival and departure terminals, a point we would have been best to notice, but more of that later. No signs inside the airport to direct you to taxi ranks or shuttle buses, no tourist information office, just announcements over a tannoy, which you couldn't hear for the noise and bustle of the airport. Rather like British rail announcements but with an American drawl making it even harder to understand
01 Neil's Jukebox
. I guess we have to be thankful that at least the immigration queue and procedure wasn't nearly so bad as we had expected, in fact Australia was much worse. Well eventually we stood in the transport "red zone" easy once you've discovered the system and we were soon on a shuttle bus to the Howard Johnson hotel where we crashed down for the night.Next day Paul's friend Neil, who he has known since they were babies in prams, and has lived in the US for almost 30 years picked us up and we were off to Palm Springs, in the Californian dessert..........it's summer here....blimey it's hot....... 113 degrees f, they still talk in old money, even still have miles and pounds and ounces. Now we can't tell you for sure what that is in degree's C but believe us it's HOT. Think it could be 45ºC. The journey out from LA was our first experience of American driving, no lane discipline, no indicating, 5 or more lanes, spaghetti junction but worse and no decent sign posting, thank goodness Neil was driving. The city turned into the dessert, surrounded by pale grey mountains, a few even in this heat so high they sported snow. Out of the blue rows and rows of tall white windmills, in the valley and on the mountainsides, supplying the dessert with electricity.
We're not sure if Neil knew what to expect but within minutes of us arriving at his lovely cool condo it looked like a Westwood bomb had hit it with stuff all over the place
02 Westwoods arrive
. Sorry Neil, hope you've managed to tidy up now we've left.A relaxing few days at Neil's saw us swimming in the pool, having barbecue lunch of hotdogs, whilst watching the England v Ecuador game at friends of Neil's, Billy and Renee. Wednesday was just brilliant when more friends of Neil's, Ray and Carol, chartered a boat and took us out sailing from Redondo Beach, just outside LA. (One of those posh places you see on TV) Apart from Chris throwing up over the side, most embarrassing with people you don't know, it was a wonderful experience. Champagne picnic on board courtesy of Liz, another friend of Neil's from the casino industry where he works. What a life, so far removed from anything we 're familiar with but boy we could soon get used to it. Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, an American institution, which, apart from serving 30 odd varieties of cheesecake in gigantic portions, also does a pretty good dinner........about 4 times the size of a UK serving. Liz's husband, Jesse, then took us on a tour of his "home town", to overlook nighttime LA with it's twinkling lights along the coast and Guinness at an 'Irish' pub. We ended the day with an overnight stay at a hotel overlooking the Marina. Jessie took us next morning to his favourite beachfront diner just up the coast, where we saw the young and beautiful playing volleyball on the beach, whilst tucking into an enormous American breakfast. A trip to Venice Beach, the Blackpool of LA; tee shirt and tattoo shops, wandering minstrels, acrobats and home of Muscle Beach, what fun
03 Sailing
. Miles of silver sand and blue skies lifeguards on patrol this is the place to see and be seen.A really big thank you goes to all of Neil's friends for making us feel so welcome and taking the time and trouble to entertain us.
As if all this wasn't enough, excitement had been building for us as Gareth and Jo were coming to join us for 10 days and it was soon time to go and meet them at LA airport. Now, remember we mentioned earlier that we should have paid attention to the airport layout when we'd arrived? So, once Neil had dropped us back at the airport we realised that we had absolutely no idea what terminal they would arrive at or even, which airline or flight number. How have we managed to travel around the world for 8 months you might ask? There are 8 arrival terminals, granted some are for internal flights so we managed to narrow it down to 4 and plumped for one in the middle. Making rather embarrassed enquiries inside we were told there was no flight from the UK arriving anywhere in the airport at the time Gareth and Jo had given us, in fact no flights landing from anywhere at that time, what to do? Well coffee and cake obviously helped and before we knew it Gareth had sent us a text asking where we were. Our planned big scene to welcome them with tears and big hugs as they came through from immigration swept to one side, as Chris cried and hugged outside the airport instead
04 Sailing too
. After a couple of circuits of the airport terminals, collecting more and more passengers we eventually headed off to our hotel. Through downtown LA at quite ambitious speeds, dropping people off at various hotels eventually brought us to the 'Ramada Inn Hollywood near Universal Studios'. Bet you can't guess from its name why we chose this particular hotel. Not much time left that evening for anything other than a quick bite in a local diner.Of course the next day we boarded the LA Metro and just five stops later headed straight off to Universal Studios for the works. Tour of the back-lot, special effects studios, Water World, Back Draft, Terminator, Jurassic Park ride (made Paul use an old Anglo/Saxon word), Shrek and many more side attractions. Chris, of course, had to volunteer to take part in the special effects show. She was attacked by a giant kitten, had lunch with the nutty professor and was enslaved on a pyramid building site. All in a days travelling eh! We all had a great time there. On our way back to the hotel we stopped off for dinner at a Mexican restaurant and, not knowing much about Mexican food, and as non of the staff spoke any English-well we are in America so what do you expect-knew we should have learned Spanish. We decided to order a No. 1, 3, 5 & 7. Gareth wanted to order twenty No. 6 which he thought might reduce his nicotine cravings. (Hope you've managed to stays off the fags now that you're home.) The food and choice was 'interesting' to say the least and the interior was just like being in a greasy spoon, we decided not to eat there again, a wise decision considering the state of Paul's stomach the next day
05 Skipper
! Then it's off to Hollywood to do the stars' "walk of fame", which was covered in chewing gum and other yuk, not quite what you might have expected. No tourist information seemed to be available so off we went with no real idea of where we were going. There were lots of stars that we knew but plenty we had never heard of. Jo had a special mission from her sister, Laura, to hunt down and photograph the star for Winnie the Pooh, which, after quite some searching, she managed to do. We should probably have thought to look at the pavement in front of the Disney shop first, doh! The next day Chris and Jo were delighted to find we had to drive along the famous Santa Monica Boulevard crossing Rodeo Drive, unfortunately no time for shopping. (Phew said Gareth and Paul) We collected our hire car from a company based at the Hollywood Hilton and, after a quick photo, headed off towards Palm Springs for a night at Neil's before travelling on with him to Las Vegas. Neil was a brilliant host for us for the whole time we were in the US with loads of info and ideas of things we could see and do.Monday saw us driving to Las Vegas. "So what" We hear you say. Well its worth a mention as this involved a long and very hot drive across the Mojave Desert. Paul and Neil were in the hard rock motor with cd's of Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, etc. Although as hard as they might have banged their heads there didn't seem to be much hair flying about
06 Muscle Beach
. Jo and Chris followed with Gareth at the wheel of the hire car, following in Neil's tracks whilst he got the feel for the road. We stopped off at the now closed Roy's Motel, one of 'Route 66's historic landmarks, right out in the dusty dessert, water has to be brought in by tanker. Neil is a real route 66 fan and was able to give us loads of info about its history. We arrived at our hotel, The Orleans, decked out New Orleans style with masks and carnival theme. As we are writing this it's occurred to us that some of you may not have realised the significant of the name of our Blog "Sri Lanka to the Strip and beyond" Well the Sri Lanka bit is easy and well, now we're on the "Strip" bit and beyond is yet to come. No sooner had we checked in than we were back out heading for downtown Las Vegas. Not the Strip for today but still loads of casinos. Freemont Street (downtown) has been covered over and there's a fantastic series of light and sound shows on the high ceiling every thirty minutes. Coincidentally part of one show is set to a song called "Hush" by Deep Purple, which Paul and Neil had listened to, for the first time in years, just hours before! Neil selected a suitable casino and we trooped in. Neil's friends and colleagues were amazed when we told them that we had never set foot in a bookies let alone a casino before. Chris soon got into the swing of the roulette table and with a bit of guidance from Neil finished with more than she started with
07 Heads or Tails
. Paul and Gareth were a bit more reluctant to dip their toes in the gambling waters but over the next few days both Chris and Jo had a flutter here and there. Chris eventually ending up with an overall profit of $80, much to everyone's amazement, as we were sure the complete novice couldn't win at this game.The following day we woke late, after our late night, and made our way to Vegas' smaller airport to catch our flight to the Grand Canyon. The Scenic Airlines' flight was delayed by almost an hour to allow a thunderstorm to completely move through the area, or so they said. The flight however was still rather rough and, as it turned out, was to be the last out of Vegas that day. Frankly once in the air we all wished they'd cancelled our flight too, the storm off to our left throwing out lightening and causing far too much turbulence. Most on board felt sick, a couple of kids were sick and more than one of us was terrified, as much by the thought of the return journey as anything else. Despite the terror ride the views were just incredible, we really had no idea of the scale of the Canyon as we flew over mile after mile of gully's and valleys. The Hoover Dam and Lake Mead were spectacular, the canyon its self-seeming to be lots of smaller canyons culminating in the "BIG" one. The colours in each layer of rock ranged from red to grey, yellow sand to browns, the blue green Colorado river running over rapids on it's way into the main canyon
08 Venice Beach
. Turbulence was worst as we flew over each canyon and we were all very glad when we landed safe and sound at the Grand Canyon Airport. We were issued with our "lunch boxes"(by now it was teatime), before boarding a coach to take us to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. The coach driver was a jovial and entertaining chap and gave us loads of info and advice about the canyon as he ferried us to the two vantage points for our tour. The sides of the canyons are actually rising at the same rate that the Colorado River is cutting into them, meaning that the river is still at the same height above sea level as when it started. The Grand Canyon is, for sure, one of the wonders of the natural world. Chris has wanted to visit here since being a small child and had a little cry when she first stood there gazing in awe at its enormity, at this point 1 mile deep and 18 miles wide! Unfortunately Neil suffered a bit of vertigo and was unable to go completely to the rim's edge. Paul took over Neil's video camera so hopefully he'll be able to enjoy the views from the safety and comfort of his living room. We took some photos of course but they don't really give you the full picture, you do need to be there. The inevitable gift shops were given a quick glance before we headed off, back to the airport for a return flight none of us were really looking forward to. We checked in at the airport and almost immediately were told, by a guy that looked like a mechanic, that there might be a delay but that if anyone was hungry they had some leftover lunch boxes available in the garage
09 Universal Studio
. This, as we suspect you can image, wasn't helping to reduce the nervousness generated by memories of the outward flight. Strangely enough everyone turned down the offer of the sarni's. Fortunately not too much later and just in time for those starting to feel queasy, just as this same guy was telling us about potential lifts and falls of 1000' as planes pass over the canyons, word came through that our flight was cancelled and hotel spaces were being investigated. Sure enough within half an hour, we were back on another coach heading back to Tuscala, the nearest town to the Grand Canyon and airport. The Red Feather Lodge was able to accommodate us (all at no cost.....brownie points to Scenic Airlines) and just up the road we found a sports bar to get some dinner and a drink or two. On our way back to the hotel we caught sight of a large and well antlered elk, chomping away at the vegetation outside Ronald M's local outlet. No it's definitely true and had nothing to do with the alcohol intake, in fact we have a couple of photos that'll prove it when we get home. We're pleased to say the flight back to Vegas the following morning went without a hitch or a bump to everyone's relief.The unexpected overnight stay did of course reduce the amount of time we had the following day so a revised plan saw us parking up at the Venetian hotel/casino for a quick tour before Chris, Gareth and Jo went into the theatre to see The Phantom of the Opera
10 Water world
. The Venetian is a really impressive place. True it is all make believe, but wow it's impressive, properly carved stone, marble flooring, painted ceilings, etc. Canals run through the place with real gondolas and singing gondoliers both inside and outside the building. Actually the inside looks as though you are outside as well due to the sky painted ceiling and lighting. We had a gondola ride with Neil videoing us from the bank, paparazzi style. Chris, Gareth and Jo all love the theatre/drama scene and 'phantom' lived up to their expectations. Meanwhile Paul and Neil went off to find the running times for some of the free shows, Treasure Island's pirate ships, The Mirage Hotel's erupting volcano and The Bellagio Hotel's fountains. Neil is likely to remember not to suggest another drink in Olive's restaurant and bar in the Bellagio as the bill for two drinks, a margarita and a Jack Daniels came to almost $24! That's about £13 in real money. Anyway it all paid off as we all caught the volcano and water fountains shows after Phantom had finished. We might have caught the pirates too but one or two of the group got sucked into video poker, with free drinks, at the bar in Paris casino. Jo was keen to see inside the Bellagio as it featured in the movie Oceans Eleven so we headed in. Neil told us that he thought the glass ceiling art in the reception lobby cost $11million to install
11 Drama queen
. Both of us wondered how much progress could have been made in Sri Lanka with that sort of money. Hey ho, back to the Orleans for a few more spins of the wheel of fortune slot machine.There were two highlight of our last full day in Vegas. The first was a visit to see, close-up and personal, the Hoover Dam that spans the Colorado River between Nevada and Arizona states. Not sure but we guess this is probably one of the wonders of our manmade world. The second was dinner with some of Neil's friends at an Irish bar where Neil knew the owner and some of us had a good few drinks. Gareth particularly enjoyed the Guinness and Paul the Bass. Las Vegas is unreal, an adult play park, not really to our taste but it's so well done you can't help but enjoy it no matter who you are.
The following day was a tear jerker as we said goodbye after lunch to Gareth and Jo as they drove off from a real 1950's Diner on Interstate Highway 15 to LA to catch their flight back to the UK the following lunchtime. We wound our way back through the desert, Joshua Tree National Park and Yucca Valley back to Palm Springs. Neil, poor chap, managed a bit of a catnap but then had to work that evening, 8pm to 4am. On top of that he then woke to watch England throw away another World Cup opportunity on penalties from 8am, just 4 hours later. We left him to catch a few more z's after the match while we went food shopping and to arrange a hire car
12 Chris and nutty prof
. We wanted to go to LA to attempt to change some of our onwards flights, particularly those with Varig and Lloyd Aero Boliviano who are both in financial difficulties. We had also come to the decision that our cash wasn't going to last out for the full twelve months especially as getting to Ecuador was looking to be unrealistically expensive. We were both keen to get back to see granddaughter Daisy too!Our trip to LA the next day was pretty successful leaving us with just one international and one domestic Varig flight, fingers crossed, and an extra bonus stop off at Washington DC.
4th July saw us cruising Palm Springs and El Passeo, where the rich and famous doing their shopping, fortunately most were closed for the day, (note from Chris, Neil said Paul had paid him 100 bucks to take me past the shops when they were closed!!! Can you believe that?) The River shopping centre, with it's well manicured but fake river allowed us to take advantage of happy hour and a snack at the Yard of Ale pub. Later we made our way to meet Ray and Carol again, (they hired the yacht we went sailing in at Redondo) this time at their house on the hillside above Palm Springs to see the fireworks go off in all the desert cities. It felt a bit weird sitting in swimming gear sipping cool drinks by the side of their pool at gone midnight. That's Palm Springs' summer weather for you. The next day was to be our last full day in the US so as usual Neil and friends had got a plan for us that worked like clockwork
13 Stars
.Liz and Jesse (also of yachting day fame) collected us at midday and whisked us up to Palm Springs Aerial Tramway to access Mt San Jacinto State Park and Wilderness Area. The tramway rises from an altitude of 2,643' to the Mountain Station at 8,516' in a matter of just 10 minutes, with the floor revolving, all the way as it goes! The round valley trail was selected and three hours later we returned to the Mountain station having had a wonderful trek through beautiful mountain scenery with stunning views of the desert cities and valley floor. Liz and Jesse did a great job guiding us about including a detour off the main trail to a recently formed lake and panoramic views. We couldn't dally though as we had to get back to get ready for another get-together with Neil's friends for our farewell Chinese meal. Good food, good drinks, good company, what else could we ask for? Well we didn't ask for anymore but we did end up having a most pleasant final drink on the patio terrace of the Lodge hotel (very posh) looking down on the twinkling lights of Palm Springs for the last time. A final drive down Palm Springs' main street with the top down sealed a most memorable day.
The next morning Neil, bless his cotton socks, loaded us into his motor and having said our thanks and goodbyes dropped us off at LAX for our flight for Mexico City.
Comments
Still Going Strong
Hi Guys, Chalkie here still alive. Glad your still enjuring the travel experience I'm enjoying the Blogg its a rate memory jerka!! All is well at Kibb? adjusting times my friends!! Enjoy the best part of the America's, see ya in late autumn early winter. You will need extra clothing by then as you are both Grandparents now!! Never mind try and claim an allowance!!