An early start this morning with a 6:30am departure to get to the airport for our flight to Los Angeles. Everyone was on time, so no "Wrath of Donnellan" yet. We assumed not a lot of sleep was had by the boys as there was a bit of noise last night among the Chicago Fire Department sirens that seemed to go off every hour.
The airport trip was great for that time of the morning and check-in was the best process we've had so far at all airports. There was no in-depth searches at security either. Perhaps they don't care who leaves Chicago or what they have in their bags? The flight time of 4hrs was tough. Just enough time for a movie and a sleep. One happy Brad Dalton who sweet talked himself into another exit row. Well played, Sir. Well played. Upon arrival at LAX, we saw another President of the United States - were met by none other than Donald Trump himself. Check out the pics below and judge for yourself. He wasn't too talkative, but did carry the bags for some other travelers. Perhaps he Ubers on the weekends? We packed our bus and drove out to UCLA for the game between them and Cincinnati. We were pushing our luck to make tip-off. We should have known it was going to be tight. We missed the start of the game and in some over the top UCLA security process, no bags bigger than a lunchbox were allowed into the arena, so we had to check all these into a tent outside. All the mums had to drop off their handbags and my good camera was denied access too. More delays. Cincinnati won by 10 or so points. Was a good experience to be there. The campus itself is great. As we drove in we saw the frat houses and their Greek logos out the front. The sporting facilities are great too. There is even a rugby ground here. Post game, we visited the UCLA Shop and a few boys bought some things to curb their spending addiction. That shop is huge and the amount of people in there was too many to count. They would have done a roaring trade in that hour alone. After a pic with the Uni mascot - a huge bear - we boarded the bus again for a bit of a city tour hosted by Saints coach Joel Elbag who once lived in this city. His expert commentary on all the sights - who lived in this house, who died in that night club, what this building is famous for, which actor was discovered there, what scene from a movie that place was in, what band was discovered in that bar - was informative and comical. Well played, Joel. Well played. We stopped off by Hollywood Blvd and walked along looking at all the movie stars and rock stars' names on the footpath. Some names the boys had no idea of and either did I. Who the heck is Elizabeth Taylor? Uber driver Donald Trump has a star there and its the dirtiest one there - people put their cigarette butts out on it, leave rubbish on it. Not sure why. Along this strip there were lots of people dressed up as all sorts of famous people and actors, ready to have a photo with you for a few bucks tip. So much to see along there, we could have easily had another hour there just looking. It was starting to get dark so we jumped back on the bus for the drive to our hotel in Anaheim - 2 hrs away in the LA traffic and that was a punishing trip. We got here after 7:30pm, checked in (awesome rooms by the way), had a bite to eat and straight to bed. Tomorrow we make our assault on DisneyLand as soon as it opens and will try and stay till the end when they have a fireworks display. We'll knock up 10k steps easily. Only a few sleeps to go, till we are home. Been a great trip so far. Feels like we've been away for months - some boys will need a haircut. A proper haircut... Wish us luck on the rides. Hope there are no height restrictions on any of them... Our slam dunk coach Mr Bataille might be in trouble.
1 Comment
Tracy Dowling
12/17/2017 01:31:06 am
Enjoy the warmer weather.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
December 2017
Categories |