So our final stop on the road trip was Los Angeles. We drove into town 24 hours after the news of Michael Jackson's death was made public, and Hollywood which is crazy at the best of times, was on a whole other level. The day before I had joked to Jim that we would "probably arrive at about the point they started selling the the commemorative t-shirts" - I was wrong, they made them overnight and they were on sale several hours before we rolled into town.We stayed just off Hollywood Boulevard and from the moment we arrived there were people in Michael Jackson t-shirts, playing his music in their cars and talking about him on the street... weird, really weird.
The funny thing is that I had actually been quite a big Michael Jackson fan about 20 years ago, which coincidentally was also when I was last in LA.
We walked past the crowds at the makeshift shrine on the Walk Of Fame a couple of times, and on our last day when the queue was shorter, decided we really should spend 5 minutes waiting to see it, just because we were there. (see above left)Away from the craziness of Hollywood our 36 hour stopover gave us a chance to visit somewhere else I hadn't been for two decades... Universal Studios.
For anyone else who also last visited it in the 80s, I'm afraid I have to disappoint you by saying that they have dismantled the Back To The Future set! However, they still have the San Francisco earthquake with the collapsing ceiling and flood, and they've added one of the sets from War Of The Worlds, Desperate Housewives (above) and a brilliant 4D Shrek movie...
So, with our pockets significantly lighter, we are safely back in Ralston. It's quite strange to be honest, because after having our shipping sent a few days before our holiday, I think we both felt that we had left for good, but 3 weeks today we'll be flying out of Medicine Hat and on to the UK. I think I have finally made a decision about the future of Blackie the cat, but I'll reveal that in a few weeks..Oh and to answer another question I have been asked a lot... the blog will be continuing in Cyprus, but I'm not quite sure what it will be called!
"....and a brilliant 4D Shrek movie..."
ReplyDeleteWhat is this 4th dimension about which you speak? Is it time?
That looks like one coll trip that you have had there. Great pictures.
Mark
The fourth dimension is liquid, but I couldn't find a way of explaining this. Basically if a character sneezes or squirts something towards the screen you get water sprayed on you, its quite bizarre!
ReplyDeleteMark, my wife's mistaken (either that or I'm being really pedantic!). The 4th dimension is 'physical' in that the seats move and do funky stuff! ie if you're watching a carriage rumbling along a cobbled street, your seat vibrates and if the carriage hits a bump, the seat jolts so you feel the bump. Thats all quite cool but the really cool thing is the seat squirts water, so if a character sneezes facing the camera you get a quick squirt!! Likewise if ther's a splash in a puddle or pool you too get'splashed'. (We're not talking drowning here just a squirt but it's really cool.
ReplyDeleteYou've got to try it!
Glad your home safely traffic in LA can be quite scary after the relatively quiet roads of Alberta. Glad you will be continuing your blog.
ReplyDelete