The Marathon/Crossover Blog

Two days have passed since my last blog entry, so the details here may be thin on the ground, but a lot has actually gone down, so strap yourselves in because it'll be a hell ride from here... (You've been warned!)

After the concert I crashed in Burbank, some 30 minutes from my hotel, with the intention on Sunday of seeing Dy and Rhi who had the previous night arrived into Los Angeles via the long haul Zurich to LA flight.

SUNDAY

I woke early/mid-morning, showered, ate some candy and began watching the NFL pre-game shows... Being Sunday and having these shows on the TV I vaguely understood what time it was in Australia, so, naturally I sent a Facebook message to Chris expecting him to be asleep, just to comment on how weird it was waking up near midnight and having NFL on all day... To my surprise he replied and was all 'Dude, its 4 AM' and shit... I apologise for nothing...

What's this? An NFL pre-game show with real life sunlight hitting the TV?

My host had errands to run, so I wasn't able to sit on her couch all day watching football and was soon whisked away to my hotel up in Valencia where I met my Dad after his marathon effort running the Santa Clarita marathon... Apparently its harder to run in miles than it is in kilometres. 

Dy came up and met us and we headed out to a local restaurant/brewery (politely named BJs) for lunch and an American setting to watch the Broncos-Patriots/Manning-Brady match... Dy fit in especially well in this crowd thanks to his Royal Adelaide Show 'authentic' Los Aneles Lakers baseball cap...

I wonder how the Staples Center faithful will react to the city's name change

Noting that there was deep-dish pizza on the menu, and with no trip to Chicago planned for any of us we all thought it best to order some deep-dish.  The ordering process was a little bit convoluted and odd... Recalling the last time my father and I were in Chicago I suggested we get a medium which should satisfy all 3 of us, the waitress strongly suggested we get the large due to there being 3 of us and it not really being a huge serve... We were glad to have listened to her, because the pizza was no deep-dish, it was a pan pizza like you'd get from many a local pizzeria at home... Needless to say, we took little time in polishing off the pizza.

Exchange of the day: (ordering our drinks)
Dy: Can I just have a Coke?
Waitress: Is Pepsi OK?
Dy: Sure
Waitress: And for you sir?
Sam: Uh, what's the Pepsi equivalent for Sprite? I'm not sure if me talking in this accent is giving it away, but I'm not from around here, and if I ask for lemonade I think I'm going to get that lemon squash kind of beverage you know?
Waitress: ...........
Sam: ... Uh, is it Sierra Mist? Can I get a Sierra Mist?
Waitress: OK, so that's one Pepsi and one Sierra Mist, I'll bring those right out

After hanging out at BJs for several hours and watching the Patriots kill the Broncos and the 49ers fumble on the goal-line to lose to St. Louis, we left and saw off Dy who headed back to LA.  Dad and I killed a bit of time watching SNF and then headed down for some dinner before retiring to the room.  Keeping up with my TV watching, I watched The Walking Dead on AMC, with full on American ads, and none of the Australian ad rubbish... That said, they went to commercial directly after the title sequence, which not only surprised me, but frustrated the shit out of me... After this we went to bed, ready for the big day to come.

MONDAY

Finished packing my bag and grabbed breakfast before heading to the car.  Today Dad was driving to San Diego but before doing so was going to drop me off at Universal Studios so I could spend the day hanging out with Rhi and Dy, before spending the evening with my American host Sarah for some pizza and an Australian film.

The drive down from Valencia to LA was meant to take 26 minutes if you believed our trusty and faithful GPS 'Blinky' (anyone who remembers Homer Simpson's brief time as a trucker will understand that reference), however Blinky doesn't have any kind of grasp of traffic.  For a good 25 minutes we were meant to only be 5 minutes from our destination, however Monday morning Los Angeles traffic had other ideas and we were caught in gridlock for close to an hour.  However, we made it to Universal City with many minutes to spare and upon leaving my father behind I met up with Rhi and Dy. 

I had to go and buy a ticket to enter the park, but before that I had to go through a bag check.  With the majority of my clothes in my larger bag that my father was taking to San Diego I had my backpack, which was still very heavily packed, and included a few tubes of Vegemite for that touch of home.  Trying to explain what it was to the bag checker was a bit difficult, but made a whole lot easier when an Australian woman came up and very loudly said 'Oh Vegemite! We've been without it for 5 weeks, the kids are going crazy!'... I then got through with very few questions... After they unsuccessfully tried to upsell me at the gate for a 'front of the line pass' I got into the park, dumped my bag and the three of us headed on to see Universal Studios Hollywood.

After my last visit (which, granted was in mid-August) I didn't really want to wait in line for 40 minutes to do the backlot tour... Thankfully both of the others had said the same thing before I came up with the suggestion, so we headed off for the backlot tour. 

Those 3D glasses just complete the look don't they?

The tour took us through the various street scenes where they can shoot pretending that they are in LA, New York, England, continental Europe, the old West and various rivers, lakes and oceans.  The Western part was interesting because apparently in the early days of film they could film up to 5-6 films at once because they were silent era films... Gotta love that efficiency

The tour then went into a 3D section where King Kong beat the crap out of some dinosaurs and then let us drive away... Good guy King Kong... Went through the famous car row after that... I asked Rhi and Dy if I could be on the left hand side of the tram so I could get a better shot of the Back to the Future car... You can understand my disappointment when this car was not present on this part of the tour.  Very disappointed.

They also showed us how they can control weather conditions and sent a flash flood towards the tram.  The guide instructed people to not lean out because they'd get wet... Specifically trying to get the attention of one girl on the side of the tram... She didn't listen... But nor did she lean out... This was also disappointing...

Back to the Future - Future Cars

Jurassic Park: The Lost World

Dino-crushed

Flash flood splash

Being the end of the Halloween season the backlot had zombie everywhere, which made for some pretty funny scenes.  The crash scene from War of the Worlds for example was full of Zombies. 

At one point we were instructed to keep quiet and the guide got off the microphone because there was a TV show shooting on the backlot.  No idea which show, but I'll post the photograph below anyway for you to be the judge...

I think the word 'Family' was somewhere in the name of the program.

After the backlot tour we headed to the lower lot to go on some rides.  Rhi held onto our belongings and Dy and I went on the rides.  The Jurassic Park ride was first...

Welcome to Jurassic Park

Clever girl

Then we went on the Transformers Ride, which was a new addition to the park since my last visit.  This ride was the best and worst ride I went on.  It broke half way through, so, we sat in abstract silence watching a blank street view and wondering what Optimus Prime wanted with us.  Upon leaving the ride the others in my vehicle (Dy was in the one before mine, due to the joys and powers of the Single Rider line) loudly complained to the attendants, and we all got given the front of the line passes (single use, but free... Nuts to paying for one at the gate!).  I walked out of the ride, and went over and met Rhi, who seemed enthralled by the antics of a posing Optimus Prime who was talking to the people he was being photographed with.  Dy had gone back onto the ride, and we both didn't know where he went.  I decided to go get something to drink, and went into the Panda Express next door to get a drink.

Quote of the day contender: (Sam to Rhi)
Sam: I'm going to get some water
Rhi: Alright
*Sam walks away, returns 20 seconds later without any water*
Sam: Oh my god, oh my god... The guy from Law & Order: SVU is in there... You know, the guy who plays Stabler... What's his name? Chris Meloni? He's in there with his family!
Rhi: Wow
Sam: Yeah, I didn't ask him for a photograph...

Yeah, I got flustered when I entered the restaurant and saw a Law & Order cop in there... I walked past him, walked in, did a double take, and then ran back to Rhi to let her know about my discovery... If he wasn't with his family I'd have asked for the photo...

We went and had a look at some of the costumes and props that had been used in films, and we found this gem:

I figure if you're going to build a time machine, why not do it with a little style?

Great Scott!

I was understandably much happier about this.  This exhibit was not at Universal last time I went.  One of the better parts of the day for me, I adore that film series.

Great times!

We then headed up to the upper lot and had a look through the Kwik-e-Mart.  If not for the fact that I don't want to be spending US$32 on t-shirts I'd have bought some items in there, it is a pretty funny store for those of us who are fans of the show. 

True

These donuts, honest to God, were like a small cake with donut icing... You could feed a small family with one of these!

"Oh my god! Look at the size of that Rice Krispy Square!"

D'oh

Dad Joke of the Day contender: (upon walking through a fountain square water show)
Rhi: "See there, no running and no horseplay"
Sam: 'Neigh to horseplay'

Candy shop laughs

Candy shop laughs

Candy shop laughs

 From here we had lunch, and then headed on to the Waterworld stunt show.  This was pretty good, and the actors they had actually being from TV shows was very cool, but we did debate vigourously as to whether or not they'd be sacked if they couldn't use a jet-ski (given that apparently they all know how to do that).  We stayed for the 'front of the line' Q&A session with a few of the stars after the show and they told us that, so it isn't just me talking rubbish.

Waterworld

Waterworld

Waterworld

We then went and took a look at the Special Effects show.

Mis-quote of the Day: (after a volunteer named Leia from Las Vegas is introduced to the crowd)
Sam to Dy: She's our only hope

I then told Dy that I had incorrectly used this, as it was actually Obi-Wan Kenobi who was our only hope...

Embarrassing mis-quote of the Day: (after one of the performers says something about Leia)
Dy yells out to the entire Auditorium: SHE'S YOUR ONLY HOPE!!
*Sam starts laughing - Rhi recoils in horror*

From here we took a look through the City Walk area of Universal City and then headed back to the hotel the others were staying at just near Hollywood Boulevard.

Being the wonderful tour guides that they are Dy and Rhi showed me the nearby restaurants and eateries such as the In N Out Burger, the IHOP and a place called The Happy Ending... We debated for a little while on where to go to get something to eat... A suggestion was made...

Dad Joke of the Day contender: (when deciding where to go)
Sam: We could go In N Out a few times and then end up at The Happy Ending

We ended up going to In N Out, where the others had meals and we eventually returned to the room so that I could wait to be picked up. 

I am sure Rhi and Dy will write about the day at Universal and the In N Out Burger.  Their blog also contains a number of posts from their European adventures.  If you wish to read any of their blog posts please go to http://chalrynda.us/

After being picked up by Sarah we returned to her house for pizza and Australian film.  We watched The Castle which in my humble opinion is the best Australian film ever.  I'm sure there are other great films to come out of Australia, but The Castle is my favourite.  There weren't too many questions and she seemed to enjoy the film, so that was a good result.

I'll leave it there and try not to spend 3 days between blog posts... You were warned that this would be a marathon blog post... I hope it was still enjoyable.

Tomorrow I go balls-deep into the Whale's Vagina that is San Diego, CA.  Stay tuned!