I got up early again and took another shuttle to LAX which took an hour, then another hour to get checked in and eat breakfast (an egg panini). Over an hour later the plane was ready for boarding and departed at 2pm. Some turbulence over the Atlantic Ocean and another two meals later, I arrived early at Heathrow around 7:40am. It's now tomorrow.
Recently in Los Angeles Category
Colin flew home in the morning so Thomas and I went to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno without him, after another visit to Universal City and lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. We arrived just after 2pm to a line of under a hundred people and eventually got seated around 3:30pm for the show start at 4pm. They film it "live" without any editing or re-takes so we were finished soon after 5pm.
After waiting half an hour for a bus we eventually got back to the hotel and tried to meet up with Marie at The Grove for 8pm, but without a car this proved difficult. Two taxis with fare lights on refused to stop and when Thomas attempted to call for one they just transferred him to a number that didn't exist. We ended up getting a take-way from a Quizno's, where I had a tuna sandwich.
Jeff and Koen flew home today while myself, Thomas and Colin went to Universal Studios for the day (after a quick visit to the Dodger Stadium so Thomas could buy... a novelty baseball bat).
We went on the recently opened (this year) Simpsons Ride, got soaked on the (rather short) freefall waterfall of the Jurassic Park Ride, and various other events. Arriving late to the Terminator meant we got into the VIP section. They gave out free tickets to the next day's recording of the The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Dinner was at the Mariasol restaurant on the Santa Monica Pier where I had grilled salmon and they tried to sell us photos of us loaded with advertising for the restaurant itself.
Myself and Colin met up around 9:30am with Jeff and Koen at their hotel and then we went to the nearest The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, which smelled strongly of Coffee, to get breakfast (I had a chocolate croissant). We went to the Santa Monica Pier first and then on to West Hollywood and the Walk of Fame before driving through Beverly Hills, stopping briefly at the sign itself.
Lunch was some expensive pieces of chicken on sticks with cucumber and lettuce at the Hilton around 2pm. We then walked up the overlook by Runyon Canyon Park which would have been impossible without a car to reach before heading back to meet Thomas and Marie, who had been at Disneyland all day.
We had dinner at the Library Alehouse where I had a turkey burger with sweet potato chips in the dark, as it was getting late (after 7pm) and this place had plenty of Patio heaters but seemingly no outside lighting. Yet another visit to the Hilton for a couple of hours, where I got a good night time shot off the 4th floor balcony and some relatively uncommon $2 bills courtesy of Jeff.
Many banks stocking $2 bills will not use them except upon specific request by the customer, and even then, may cause a delay with a trip to the vault. --Wikipedia article
actually, when i got those bills for you the lady had to search for them and ask all her colleagues --Jeff
I woke up early at 7am and waited around to check out and get the shuttle to the airport. Airport security was uneventual, at least they don't only make some people take their shoes off, then the flight was delayed 20 minutes. This plane had more leg room than the previous flight. Arriving around 2pm it took another hour and a half to get to the hotel after going right around the airport looking for more passengers.
This hotel was much better than the one in San Francisco, larger rooms, beds, and it actually had an air conditioner (which I had assumed was just a heater for the first couple of days). We went to Jeff's hotel (the Beverly Hilton) which has an entire floor for the Lobby... until we went for dinner at the Palermo Italian Restaurant at 7pm where we met up with Marie and I had the Lasagne, ordering more of it than I could actually eat.
We went back to the hotel again for a few hours (it takes forever to get anywhere here with all the intersections).
