i'm home!
well i'm home.
i hadn't had a chance to update before i left the states, so here is my wed, thurs and fri and trip home...
wednesday morning we slept in and then decided to go to the snow!
gina was out and we didn't know like, where to go? we didn't want to just follow the roads blindly towards some snow capped mountain!
so eventually we texted her and she said to go to mt baldy or arrowhead. baldy was in the gps... well the ski resort was... so... that's where we went.
it was about a 1.5 or 2 hour drive, and north of LA. we drove up the freeway and found ourselves on mt baldy.
signs all over the place said we needed chains on the car but we didn't have any but we just stayed on the ploughed and dry (or ok some of them were rather wet from melting snow running onto them but i digress) and went up the mountain.
we wanted to get to the ski resort and maybe go tubing or something but the road wasn't ploughed the whole way and it was really muddy and icy so we decided not to as we didn't want to accidentally get stuck!
so we had a play in the snow on the side of the road. it was fun. we climbed up the side of a hill and then i fell over and slid right back on down again.
so bethanie had a nice lovely wet butt! hehe.
anyway we spent around an hour playing and stuff and then decided it was cold so we left.
we were gonna go to some bakery that we found closeish on the gps, but it took us totally not to the bakery... so we went home via upland, and then got stuck in rush hour traffic. oh well.
we had a good time anyway.
thursday morning we got up and headed off to LA to go to universal studios. while we were there, we wanted to go to burbank and go to the tv studios and see the WGA strikers and stuff. so we went to nbc but there was no parking (lots of striking people though) so we went down the road and found disney. we got parking and talked to some strikers. they were really pleased to know that australians supported them! we got our picture taken with some of them. no idea what they write for though, we didn't ask! doh!
then we left there and got lost going to universal studios. yeah - and it's 3 miles away. grr. oh we also got lost going to burbank, missed a turn off on the freeway and ended up driving through downtown LA. NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!
universal was good.
there was like, NO ONE there! we had the place practically to ourselves. well, a quiet day at disneyland still has thousands and thousands of people. i have discovered that a quiet day at universal has like... hundreds... well probably there was a good couple of thousand, but it's rather spread out... so yeah.
we did the terminator 2 3-d show. now that was excellent! universal has definitely improved since i went there 7 years ago that's for sure! we looked around for a bit and went down to the bottom and we saw a special effects show. they showed how they do effects on heroes and some other things.
we went on jurassic park ride. last time i was there the line was 90 mins long.
this time they said 5 mins but by the time i walked through the line, i jumped right on board. andrew even went on it too. AND we didn't get wet. only from the mists and the dinosaurs that spat water out, but when we did the plunge down we didn't even get wet. i reckon they take out some water in winter or something...
i also went on the mummy rollercoaster. that's a weird ride! you go all the way through. then you stop. then you go backwards. then stop. then you turn around and that's the end! weirddddd!
we went back up the top and did the studio tour. andrew enjoyed that but nothing new for me really. cept for wisteria lane (desp housewives). that wasn't there last time. oh and there is a fast and the furious display for the tokyo drift movie. that was good.
after that we looked around a bit and did the shrek 4-d show which was really awesome too.
then we bought some bits and pieces and left! i think that's all we did there.
we had dinner outside in their food mall thingy thing. we went to the hard rock cafe. it was yummy... pricey but yum.
then we headed back on home. blah blah.
friday we got up and packed. we spent most of the day packing and repacking and trying to stuff 110kg of baggage into 4 bags. hahaha! we had to buy another bag on friday too at target and we also picked up my wedding dress.
finally we were all done and gina and the kids and us went to Ruby's for dinner. it's this 50's style diner and it was nice. i was soooo over fries and stuff so i had a turkey sandwich (really yummy) and subbed the fries for a bowl of fruit.
when we got back, we said our goodbyes... gina said we only just got there, we couldn't leave yet! and we jumped int he car for the final drive to LAX. the gps took us yet another way, up another freeway... gosh how many is there?
i-5 to burbank and i-405 to lax. lol.
the traffic was pretty bad but we only managed to miss one turn and that was the exit into LAX so that wasn't too bad.
by the time we got to the car rental place, they took us to the terminal via shuttle and then we checked in. my gosh lax is the crappiest airport. for one of the busiest airports in the world you'd think they'd have some processes a little better. like, you check in. that's fine, normal. THEN YOU CARRY YOUR BAGGAGE AWAY FROM THE CHECKIN DESK AND ACROSS TO THE XRAY MACHINE. tell me what the point of that is? it's not like you watch it go thru xray and can take anything out... we threw our stuff int he pile and left. oh yeah... and the xray line goes across the checkin line... so um hello... like... how inefficient is that? and when you check in there is no way to get out of the line into the other line apart from walking through a pile of people.
my gosh it's stupid.
oh and we didn't get seats next to each other. different rows but andrew was directly behind me.
i sat between an american businessman going to a conference and a baby boomer couple going on their first vacation to australia. we had some nice chats although i hate having someone i don't know next to me on the aisle, coz i hate having to ask every time i need to get up to pee. grrr!
eventually we made it to melbourne, nearly an hour late because of adverse weather in melbourne so we had to slow down so we got there late... or divert to sydney but the pilot decided to slow down. which is good coz then they have to put everyone on another flight etc.
bleh.
we were worried about missing the perth flight but we made it with about 30 mins to spare. customs and quarantine took a while. i was last in the customs queue (i think there's something wrong with me, happened at LA too!).
finally we made it on the flight to perth which we had seats 4 rows apart which the lady in LA had given us, but when we re-checked out bags they changed our seats to ones together in the last row of the plane which was good coz i stood up half the trip coz i couldn't sit still any longer.
kirsty picked me up, and andrew's parents picked HIM up...
when we pulled in the drive, kirsty informed me that missy had been a ghost cat for a week, she'd barely seen her... spent her days outside and not around at all. glad she hadn't told me when i was away though. so i got out the car... called my kitties... they dind't come. i walked int he house, calling and george came up to say hello. he's his usual self. then ellie crawled out from under the kitchen table and just... looked at me. i don't think she knew what to expect.
just looked... and looked... i picked her up and she looked... and eventually she purred so i was happy. i put her down and walked out the front door to get my bags, and missy was sitting at the door waiting for me! yay!
she barely left my side all afternoon and evening. didn't want to be held or even touched... just wanted to be near me. so i kept having to watch my feet lol.
she slept next to me all night, and george at my feet.
i felt loved. she was even there this morning too! missy never sleeps with me!
i think i was missed.
this morning kirsty (
moof_mum) came over and we had a good catch up... and she got to see my wedding dress, yay. we had a good mroning, then andrew came over, kirsty went home, and we went to the shops to get a massage and buy some salad for dinner and cat food.
when we got home, the moment missy realised i was home, she was sitting at my feet. awwww.
she's gonna go nuts when i'm at work tomorrow all day! oops!
i hadn't had a chance to update before i left the states, so here is my wed, thurs and fri and trip home...
wednesday morning we slept in and then decided to go to the snow!
gina was out and we didn't know like, where to go? we didn't want to just follow the roads blindly towards some snow capped mountain!
so eventually we texted her and she said to go to mt baldy or arrowhead. baldy was in the gps... well the ski resort was... so... that's where we went.
it was about a 1.5 or 2 hour drive, and north of LA. we drove up the freeway and found ourselves on mt baldy.
signs all over the place said we needed chains on the car but we didn't have any but we just stayed on the ploughed and dry (or ok some of them were rather wet from melting snow running onto them but i digress) and went up the mountain.
we wanted to get to the ski resort and maybe go tubing or something but the road wasn't ploughed the whole way and it was really muddy and icy so we decided not to as we didn't want to accidentally get stuck!
so we had a play in the snow on the side of the road. it was fun. we climbed up the side of a hill and then i fell over and slid right back on down again.
so bethanie had a nice lovely wet butt! hehe.
anyway we spent around an hour playing and stuff and then decided it was cold so we left.
we were gonna go to some bakery that we found closeish on the gps, but it took us totally not to the bakery... so we went home via upland, and then got stuck in rush hour traffic. oh well.
we had a good time anyway.
thursday morning we got up and headed off to LA to go to universal studios. while we were there, we wanted to go to burbank and go to the tv studios and see the WGA strikers and stuff. so we went to nbc but there was no parking (lots of striking people though) so we went down the road and found disney. we got parking and talked to some strikers. they were really pleased to know that australians supported them! we got our picture taken with some of them. no idea what they write for though, we didn't ask! doh!
then we left there and got lost going to universal studios. yeah - and it's 3 miles away. grr. oh we also got lost going to burbank, missed a turn off on the freeway and ended up driving through downtown LA. NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!
universal was good.
there was like, NO ONE there! we had the place practically to ourselves. well, a quiet day at disneyland still has thousands and thousands of people. i have discovered that a quiet day at universal has like... hundreds... well probably there was a good couple of thousand, but it's rather spread out... so yeah.
we did the terminator 2 3-d show. now that was excellent! universal has definitely improved since i went there 7 years ago that's for sure! we looked around for a bit and went down to the bottom and we saw a special effects show. they showed how they do effects on heroes and some other things.
we went on jurassic park ride. last time i was there the line was 90 mins long.
this time they said 5 mins but by the time i walked through the line, i jumped right on board. andrew even went on it too. AND we didn't get wet. only from the mists and the dinosaurs that spat water out, but when we did the plunge down we didn't even get wet. i reckon they take out some water in winter or something...
i also went on the mummy rollercoaster. that's a weird ride! you go all the way through. then you stop. then you go backwards. then stop. then you turn around and that's the end! weirddddd!
we went back up the top and did the studio tour. andrew enjoyed that but nothing new for me really. cept for wisteria lane (desp housewives). that wasn't there last time. oh and there is a fast and the furious display for the tokyo drift movie. that was good.
after that we looked around a bit and did the shrek 4-d show which was really awesome too.
then we bought some bits and pieces and left! i think that's all we did there.
we had dinner outside in their food mall thingy thing. we went to the hard rock cafe. it was yummy... pricey but yum.
then we headed back on home. blah blah.
friday we got up and packed. we spent most of the day packing and repacking and trying to stuff 110kg of baggage into 4 bags. hahaha! we had to buy another bag on friday too at target and we also picked up my wedding dress.
finally we were all done and gina and the kids and us went to Ruby's for dinner. it's this 50's style diner and it was nice. i was soooo over fries and stuff so i had a turkey sandwich (really yummy) and subbed the fries for a bowl of fruit.
when we got back, we said our goodbyes... gina said we only just got there, we couldn't leave yet! and we jumped int he car for the final drive to LAX. the gps took us yet another way, up another freeway... gosh how many is there?
i-5 to burbank and i-405 to lax. lol.
the traffic was pretty bad but we only managed to miss one turn and that was the exit into LAX so that wasn't too bad.
by the time we got to the car rental place, they took us to the terminal via shuttle and then we checked in. my gosh lax is the crappiest airport. for one of the busiest airports in the world you'd think they'd have some processes a little better. like, you check in. that's fine, normal. THEN YOU CARRY YOUR BAGGAGE AWAY FROM THE CHECKIN DESK AND ACROSS TO THE XRAY MACHINE. tell me what the point of that is? it's not like you watch it go thru xray and can take anything out... we threw our stuff int he pile and left. oh yeah... and the xray line goes across the checkin line... so um hello... like... how inefficient is that? and when you check in there is no way to get out of the line into the other line apart from walking through a pile of people.
my gosh it's stupid.
oh and we didn't get seats next to each other. different rows but andrew was directly behind me.
i sat between an american businessman going to a conference and a baby boomer couple going on their first vacation to australia. we had some nice chats although i hate having someone i don't know next to me on the aisle, coz i hate having to ask every time i need to get up to pee. grrr!
eventually we made it to melbourne, nearly an hour late because of adverse weather in melbourne so we had to slow down so we got there late... or divert to sydney but the pilot decided to slow down. which is good coz then they have to put everyone on another flight etc.
bleh.
we were worried about missing the perth flight but we made it with about 30 mins to spare. customs and quarantine took a while. i was last in the customs queue (i think there's something wrong with me, happened at LA too!).
finally we made it on the flight to perth which we had seats 4 rows apart which the lady in LA had given us, but when we re-checked out bags they changed our seats to ones together in the last row of the plane which was good coz i stood up half the trip coz i couldn't sit still any longer.
kirsty picked me up, and andrew's parents picked HIM up...
when we pulled in the drive, kirsty informed me that missy had been a ghost cat for a week, she'd barely seen her... spent her days outside and not around at all. glad she hadn't told me when i was away though. so i got out the car... called my kitties... they dind't come. i walked int he house, calling and george came up to say hello. he's his usual self. then ellie crawled out from under the kitchen table and just... looked at me. i don't think she knew what to expect.
just looked... and looked... i picked her up and she looked... and eventually she purred so i was happy. i put her down and walked out the front door to get my bags, and missy was sitting at the door waiting for me! yay!
she barely left my side all afternoon and evening. didn't want to be held or even touched... just wanted to be near me. so i kept having to watch my feet lol.
she slept next to me all night, and george at my feet.
i felt loved. she was even there this morning too! missy never sleeps with me!
i think i was missed.
this morning kirsty (
moof_mum) came over and we had a good catch up... and she got to see my wedding dress, yay. we had a good mroning, then andrew came over, kirsty went home, and we went to the shops to get a massage and buy some salad for dinner and cat food.
when we got home, the moment missy realised i was home, she was sitting at my feet. awwww.
she's gonna go nuts when i'm at work tomorrow all day! oops!