Needless to say, we didn’t sleep well. At 5am, I called lost luggage and they were helpful as a hat load of a-holes. Customer Service is not a specialty for American Airlines.
We had a day to kill in LA, so we did a half day tour of the sights. The best thing about waking up in a new city is the chance to experience sights, smells and culture that you have never seen, felt or embraced before. We jumped on a tour bus and started hitting the sights. Our driver Gary (Gazza) looked like an older version of Owen Wilson and he was actually really good. He didn’t crap on too much and didn’t talk about where to get the best lunch deals for hours on end like the similar style of tour we did such a long time ago to Niagara Falls.
We passed via Marina Del Rey, at the time, a $22 million investment for the largest man made built harbour. The harbour now grosses over $40 million in revenue for moorings!
We then headed over to Venice Beach. Venice Beach used is well known for a number of things. From the eighties where muscle men used to do weightlifting on the beach to woman not wearing a whole lot rollerblading along the paths. But perhaps most well known of all is that this is where Baywatch was shot. Interestingly, it's name is devrived from the town of Venice, Italy and it had a number of canals. Only five remain today.
We then went to the beach with Dan doing his best Pam Anderson run along the beach and got some shots of the towers that were used.
Venice Beach has an area that is designated for graffiti artists and it is well utilized with everything from the rubbish bins to the palm trees getting a workover. 
Even being fairly early in the morning there were quite a few people around including some local art and craft stores and some bums who had some signage we thought was fairly amusing. 
We then drove to the affluent area of Beverly Hills to the well known street of Rodeo Drive and its many expensive and overpriced stores. 
Rodeo Drive itself was fairly small and really, not that much to look at. All the shops including Versace, Louis Vuitton, Harry Winston, Prada etc were there. 
One of the girls on the group, an Aussie from Toowoomba, summed it up well with her comment “I feel like such a bogan with what I’m wearing on Rodeo Drive”. Still it was interesting to see where some of the movie Pretty Woman had been shot.
Next stop was the Manns Chinese Theatre and Kodak Theatre where the Oscars are held. Outside of the Manns Chinese Theatre were heaps of hand and footprints and names of actors and actresses imprinted into the concrete. Along the sidewalk were the names of stars who had been put on the walk of fame such as Matt Damon, Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, John Wayne (very small feet) and Marilyn Monroe.
Interestingly, the front of the Kodak Theatre was being set up for the Oscars that will happen in less than a week. We say the big gold statue lying down and other small Oscars in another room.
Dan had his photo taken with Marilyn Monroe! 
And we saw the famous Hollywood sign. 
Next we headed to the Farmers Market for lunch. We parked up in the sun with a cup of coffee and tried again to ring American Airlines with no luck to find Dan’s bag. 
We had enough of American Airlines sheer incompetence and decided to head to LAX and search for the bag ourselves and of course, there it was sitting amongst a pile that obviously noone had bothered to look through. At least we were going home with our belongings. Dan gives them the big thumbs down. 
Having got to the airport so early, we checked in and headed to the Qantas Club to feast on some nice nibblies and lots of champers, always a good way to end a trip. The blog was updated and after nearly four hours our flight was called. 
We boarded the almost full 747 and bid our adventure goodbye. An eleven and a half hour flight took us to Auckland where our layover gave us enough time to head to the Qantas Club and a hot shower and then back on the plane for another three and a half hours to Melbourne where we will spend a week before heading home to Perth.
Our travels have taken us to eight new countries and provided us with opportunities to see and experience so many new things and meet great people along the way. However, all good things must come to an end and this marks the end of “The Adventures of Dan and Tan” blog. We’ll reactivate the blog on our next round of travels. So we will end with this quote, a favourite:-
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but the moments and places that take our breath away.
We had a day to kill in LA, so we did a half day tour of the sights. The best thing about waking up in a new city is the chance to experience sights, smells and culture that you have never seen, felt or embraced before. We jumped on a tour bus and started hitting the sights. Our driver Gary (Gazza) looked like an older version of Owen Wilson and he was actually really good. He didn’t crap on too much and didn’t talk about where to get the best lunch deals for hours on end like the similar style of tour we did such a long time ago to Niagara Falls.
We passed via Marina Del Rey, at the time, a $22 million investment for the largest man made built harbour. The harbour now grosses over $40 million in revenue for moorings!
We then headed over to Venice Beach. Venice Beach used is well known for a number of things. From the eighties where muscle men used to do weightlifting on the beach to woman not wearing a whole lot rollerblading along the paths. But perhaps most well known of all is that this is where Baywatch was shot. Interestingly, it's name is devrived from the town of Venice, Italy and it had a number of canals. Only five remain today.
We then went to the beach with Dan doing his best Pam Anderson run along the beach and got some shots of the towers that were used. Venice Beach has an area that is designated for graffiti artists and it is well utilized with everything from the rubbish bins to the palm trees getting a workover. Even being fairly early in the morning there were quite a few people around including some local art and craft stores and some bums who had some signage we thought was fairly amusing. We then drove to the affluent area of Beverly Hills to the well known street of Rodeo Drive and its many expensive and overpriced stores. Rodeo Drive itself was fairly small and really, not that much to look at. All the shops including Versace, Louis Vuitton, Harry Winston, Prada etc were there. One of the girls on the group, an Aussie from Toowoomba, summed it up well with her comment “I feel like such a bogan with what I’m wearing on Rodeo Drive”. Still it was interesting to see where some of the movie Pretty Woman had been shot.Next stop was the Manns Chinese Theatre and Kodak Theatre where the Oscars are held. Outside of the Manns Chinese Theatre were heaps of hand and footprints and names of actors and actresses imprinted into the concrete. Along the sidewalk were the names of stars who had been put on the walk of fame such as Matt Damon, Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, John Wayne (very small feet) and Marilyn Monroe.
Interestingly, the front of the Kodak Theatre was being set up for the Oscars that will happen in less than a week. We say the big gold statue lying down and other small Oscars in another room. Dan had his photo taken with Marilyn Monroe! And we saw the famous Hollywood sign. Next we headed to the Farmers Market for lunch. We parked up in the sun with a cup of coffee and tried again to ring American Airlines with no luck to find Dan’s bag. We had enough of American Airlines sheer incompetence and decided to head to LAX and search for the bag ourselves and of course, there it was sitting amongst a pile that obviously noone had bothered to look through. At least we were going home with our belongings. Dan gives them the big thumbs down. Having got to the airport so early, we checked in and headed to the Qantas Club to feast on some nice nibblies and lots of champers, always a good way to end a trip. The blog was updated and after nearly four hours our flight was called. We boarded the almost full 747 and bid our adventure goodbye. An eleven and a half hour flight took us to Auckland where our layover gave us enough time to head to the Qantas Club and a hot shower and then back on the plane for another three and a half hours to Melbourne where we will spend a week before heading home to Perth.Our travels have taken us to eight new countries and provided us with opportunities to see and experience so many new things and meet great people along the way. However, all good things must come to an end and this marks the end of “The Adventures of Dan and Tan” blog. We’ll reactivate the blog on our next round of travels. So we will end with this quote, a favourite:-
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but the moments and places that take our breath away.
1 comment:
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