Being so, so touristy

Day 2 started off with a trip for supplies: We had packed in a bit of a rush and realized somebody forgot a toothbrush and the hotel-supplied ones were terrible. We also couldn't pack enough sunscreen on our carry-ons to pass TSA regulations, so we had the Lyft driver drop us off at the CVS we spotted next to the Chinese Theater. We got our supplies, and then from there, we hopped on the Big Bus again to repeat the same tour as the previous day. The audio was slightly different so we weren't bored, and did learn new things.

This time we hopped off the bus at a different spot to see the "Guitar Center". This store had a mock courtyard like the Chinese Theater, but with handprints of Rock and Roll celebrities, called The Rock Walk. We spent some time checking out the familiar names there, and the kids even went inside to gawk at the guitars for a bit.


From there we walked to the Jim Henson Company. This was not open but we were able to take a look around from the outside and take a few pictures.

From here we walked back and through some of the scariest and dirtiest streets I've ever been on (Sunset Blvd) to the Hollywood Boulevard area again. We were just a couple minutes early for Madame Tussauds to open so we hung around and waited for that to open and we were one of the first guests inside. Everyone loved this experience, and we had a blast posing with all the "celebrities".

After this we grabbed some lunch (I honestly can't remember where) and made our way back to the meeting point for our celebrity homes tour. This was exactly the silly tourist trap you would expect it to be. We were driven around the hills of Beverly Hills and neighboring areas, while the driver pointed out homes miles away that celebrities either lived in, owned, or rented. We did not see a single celebrity anywhere along the way. There were some really beautiful places, I have to admit that I enjoyed the scenery of the landscape more than the actual homes. It was a cute way to kill a couple of hours.

After this, we got a Lyft to Universal CityWalk. The plan was to shop and explore and make sure we picked up the PowerUp Bands needed to play the games at Super Nintendo World the next day. Found the shop and got our bands fairly easily, and then decided on dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. The food was great and the service was even better...I truly enjoyed this meal. After a bit more exploring of CityWalk, and scoping out the entrance to Universal Studios, we took a Lyft back to the hotel for some rest and relaxation because we had an early start the next day.

The next day, we were VIPs!

Hollywood Exploring and Tar

 Our day of travel was a bit of an adventure that turned out fine in the end. The closest airport to us that Southwest Airlines serves is Philadelphia, but it takes over an hour from our house to drive there. Parking is also outrageous. Luckily for us, we have some incredibly generous friends who live just 20 minutes from the airport. They put us up the night before our flight, and let us park our car at their place for the trip.

We took our first Lyft as a family from R&R's place to the airport at 4am. That was adventure one - we all are just a little uncomfortable with taxi/Lyft/Uber rides. The driver we had was also *INSANE*, and drove way too fast for our liking. We lived, and made it to the airport in plenty of time (again because Nexus saved us! The TSA line was literally out the door - and we walked past the whole thing to be 2nd in line at the TSA Pre-check line). The first flight went uneventfully and we landed in Chicago with a couple of hours to kill. We had some food and boarded the next plane. Just before take-off, the pilot announced an issue with the "winglet". We had just the right seats to watch the airport staff evaluate the issue. We had a short delay of a couple of hours while a new plane was found, we changed gates and planes, and were finally off to Long Beach.

That hole isn't supposed to be there...

This little issue actually solved the problem of how we were going to kill time after landing and before our hotel check-in time. Long Beach airport is super cute, and we easily found our way to the "Ride app" waiting area. It was crowded so it was a bit of a challenge finding our Lyft, but we were successful and soon on our way for the hour ride across LA.

We got to the hotel and waited about 45 minutes for our room to be ready. The Tilt Hotel Hollywood looks a bit sketch from the outside, but the rooms were a pleasant delight. The "family suite" was 2 connected rooms, so we had 2 bathrooms, and 3 beds, in a very clean, spacious and quiet hotel. The free breakfast was pathetic (cold cereal, no milk, pre-packaged breakfast sandwiches, watery juice, and coffee) but we had a Starbucks and a good pizza place right across the street.

We got pizzas for the first night to bring back to the rooms and settled in. 

- 𐫰 - - 𐫰 - - 𐫰 - - 𐫰 - - 𐫰 - - 𐫰 - - 𐫰 - - 𐫰 - - 𐫰 - 

The next day was the first of two days of tickets on Big Bus Tours. We had received a text late the night before announcing that their "Blue Route" was not going to be serviced for the weekend due to some kind of celebrations going on which resulted in street closures. This nixed our plans to go see Santa Monica Pier. We took a Lyft to the tour's headquarters (which wasn't open yet) and enjoyed the quiet streets while we waited. 

Part of our ticket with BBT included a celebrity homes tour, which we originally had scheduled for this day. However, with the beach plans canceled, the Chinese Theater tour and the La Brea Tar Pits on the schedule we asked (and got) our homes tour moved to the next day. We walked the half block down the street, looking at Hollywood stars along the way, to the Chinese Theater. We were about 20 minutes early for the tour, so looked at the many hand and foot prints in the concrete, and read the plaque outside dedicated to Marilyn Monroe, before heading inside for the tour. The tour was delightful, about 45 minutes long, and included a short film so we actually got to sit and watch a "movie" here! Picture dump of the costumes and architecture inside:

Avengers!!

Real - for real from the Ming Dynasty!

Family Selfie time!

Have I ever mentioned I like Star Wars a bit?

Courtyard shot

Chandelier inside the theater

 - 𐫰 - - 𐫰 - - 𐫰 - - 𐫰 - - 𐫰 - - 𐫰 - - 𐫰 - - 𐫰 - - 𐫰 - 

Next we got on the HOHO bus right outside the Theater, and took a tour through the city. It was chilly up top in the wind, and we were not expecting to be so cold in California! But we learned a lot and saw a bunch of infamous spots.

About half-way through the tour we "hopped off" at the La Brea Tar pits and museum. We ate lunch at a fantastic burger joint across the street called The Counter, then went and walked around the grounds and museum. I learned so much and was just absolutely fascinated with the fact that these pits are STILL bubbling fossils up to be discovered on a daily basis. (They are also still trapping live animals!) I also learned that we used to have lions, camels and elephants living on this continent (well, their pre-historic versions at any rate) and I feel like my public education failed me in not telling me this before.

The scientific name for Saber-toothed cat cracks me up

The "kids" chasing butterflies

An active dig in progress!

After the museum, we hiked around more of the grounds and local area, and stumbled accidentally on a famous art installation used by Instagram influencers for photo shoots all the time. NJ was in heaven! Since it was our wedding anniversary, hubby and I got our picture taken for the heck of it, too. 😂

Once finished exploring, we "hopped on" the bus to continue the tour around Hollywood, including a better view of the famous Hollywood sign, before returning to our starting location. 

We shopped, ate dinner, and then decided to get tickets to the "Ripley's Believe It or Not" museum and Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum in a combo deal.  We did the Ripley's museum right away (which I apparently took ZERO pictures of! LOL! I'll have to steal some from the kids later...) and when we finished up there, caught a Lyft back to our hotel for the night.

Being so, so touristy!

How to Read the Posts

 Hi friends!

I wanted to let everyone know that the top post in this blog is not necessarily the most recent. :D I found a way to edit the "published" date to be the date the events actually happened. The blog sorts everything on the main page in order of the published date, though...so watch out!

If you just want to read about the time in Europe, start here:

https://wherewillthisgofromhere.blogspot.com/2022/06/here-we-gooooo.html

If you want to read everything from the beginning of time, start here:

https://wherewillthisgofromhere.blogspot.com/2022/03/t-minus-78-days.html

(click "Newer Post" at the end of each post). 

I hate that I can't re-order the default. :( Sorry! 

Getting Overseas

 Well, we are back!! And I am now writing this blog in the past tense, today's post more than 3 weeks after it actually happened. It doesn't feel like it was that long ago, and yet at the same time it also feels like a different lifetime. 

Over the next few days, I plan to add posts for each day, each adventure, bit by bit. I probably will also come back to posts to add more details as I remember them, or add stories from my family members' perspectives. We took thousands of pictures, and I am struggling to figure out how to include those in my posts, so please be patient as I figure this out and as my "style" changes from post to post!

I also realized that I can change the "published" date on posts, so while this post is indeed written in July, all following posts will appear to be published in the past - on the day they happened. oooooo...it's like a time-traveling blog, now! 

And now, on to the juicy details!

Phase 1 - Getting Overseas

Our family had never flown anywhere other than Orlando, Florida before. (I personally have flown many times between the US and Canada and many destinations within the US, as well as one trip to Belgium about 12 years ago. My husband also has many flight hours under his belt, but not within the last 20 years). There was not a small amount of anxiety going around between the four of us, what with Covid testing requirements, airport changes since 911 and Covid, and the additional layers of Customs and Immigration controls to pass through. Curt and I did a lot of pre-reading about airport procedures, as well as people's recent travel experiences through Newark, Heathrow, and Charles De-Gaulle airports. We felt as prepared as possible, and also agreed as a family that each and every "hiccup" would be met with as much humor and "que sera, sera" attitude as we could muster. 

A few days before our trip, the US removed the requirement for a negative Covid rapid test result to return home. I was thrilled! We now have over 15 "wasted" home tests sitting here, but at least that saved a massive amount of space in our baggage! It also relieved any need for a "Plan B" to get stuck in France should any of us have tested Positive before coming home.
I started obsessively checking the United app about 3 days before departure, feeling better each time I saw the green "On Time" bubble. At the 24-hour mark, I checked in for our flight. I'm so glad I did, because the afore-mentioned change in the Covid testing rules had wiped out all the prior paperwork I had already completed! After another half-hour of uploading Passport info for everyone, and signing all the e-documents, we had our electronic boarding passes and checked in our luggage. This put us in the "fast lane" for check-in at the airport, but we had no idea what that meant. LOL! The app just said to "look for the purple signs".

On June 15th, we finished all the packing, cleaned the house, said goodbye to the pets, and waited.

Bags ready to go, with cat saying "What's up?"

Ann picked us up from the house around 2pm, with plans to be at the airport by 4, which was 3 hours before departure time. We had no traffic delays, arrived at the airport on time, and waved goodbye to our sister-slash-Disney-travel-agent.  As we walked into the airport, we easily found the "big purple sign" for dropping off our pre-checked luggage (at the exact opposite end of the terminal from where we were - of course!) and hiked ourselves on over there. Less than 5 minutes later, we were done and on our way through security. With our Nexus clearance, we have TSA Pre-Check, and were through security in a matter of just a few moments, too. After we made the long walk to our gate, we had over 2 hours to kill before boarding! Well...we always say we'd rather wait at the airport than miss our flight!

We spent a few minutes wandering around the airport, trying to figure out how the tablets were used to order food, and finally found a table and got some dinner and drinks. We then planted our butts in some waiting chairs, and killed time. Boarding was mostly smooth, but some confused passengers caused us to have a delay in getting off the ground. I attempted a family selfie on the plane, with minimal success. 

Dinner was served on the plane - an Indian spiced chicken dish that no one in my family particularly enjoyed. 

I was glad we'd eaten already, but I also knew this would be just the first of many times my kids would eat just barely enough to survive. After the food was collected, it was "lights out" time. The plan was to sleep on the plane, as much as possible. I don't think any of us got more than a few minutes of a light doze, despite our best attempts to find a comfortable position. We at least had these cool panels in the seats to watch movies, listen to music, and track our flight progress:

Six and a half hours into the flight, we just gave up on trying to sleep, and ate the provided breakfast, hoping the coffee would fuel us through the rest of the day. A few minutes later, we got the announcement that we were landing, and I peeked out of the window to see London below us! 

There it was - the Thames river! Famous bridges and buildings I had only seen in movies or pictures! Familiar and yet entirely new to my eyes! I don't know how everyone else felt, but at this precise moment, I nearly cried at the realization that everything I had only believed was a fairytale fantasy was in fact real and was actually happening to me. 

Getting home and some final thoughts

 Our trip home was delightfully, pleasantly uneventful.  We had hired "Paris Chauffeurs" for a private car from the hotel to the airport. They were responsive via email, helpful on planning the best pickup time, prompt, courteous and so helpful that the driver even walked us into the airport and up to our airline gate for us! We were early, but there was still a huge line...but while we waited, I realized there was a separate line for those who were only doing baggage dropoff. Of course I had checked-in the day before, and had our boarding passes downloaded, so I was pretty sure we qualified to be in that shorter line. We took the chance and hopped over there, and luckily I was right. We were done in about 15 minutes after the check-in desks opened for the day.

We stopped at a McDonald's for drinks (first coffee of the day) before going through security. Security lines were short, too, and we were at our gate about 2 hours early. We ate breakfast, going to the Starbucks a couple of times because the girls found out they had pancakes and muffins, and of course Curt and I needed more caffeine.

As we boarded the plane, I handed off the gifts for the flight attendants again. N and I had made little goodie-bags each with a $5 Starbucks gift card, a "Thank you!" note printed out by N, and some local chocolates. On the trip to Europe, we had stuffed Hershey Kisses in the baggies, and on the way home we bought Lindt chocolates for this purpose. On both flights, we were thanked personally by every single flight attendant on board. This trip, they went a bit extra, and we were given the same gift that the First Class passengers got, and a hand-written thank you note! 

The kit has socks, an eye mask, ear buds, a pen, a face cleansing cloth, tissues and a toothbrush and toothpaste, all in a hard-shell case. We were chuffed that the little tokens were received so well...made it totally worth carrying those baggies all over Europe with us!

The rest of the flight home was about the same as the flight out...we all watched movies, took short but useless naps, got a couple of meals/snacks that no one really enjoyed, and landed safely.

We had originally hired another private car to get us home from Newark, but a few days earlier we got an offer from Curt's sister to pick us up. Everyone agreed we were tired of being driven around by strangers, so we took her up on that. She met us at the airport and we got to talk all about the trip the whole way home.

We got home to find both pets alive and well, the house clean, our bedsheets washed and the dishes done....what a great house-sitter! 

I may write more about this trip later, but for now, this is the end. It is actually Aug 6th, 2022 today - a month since we arrived home - and I am still beyond ecstatic that we had this adventure. I really feel like words are inadequate, but I sincerely hope I've managed to capture the feelings and memories so that when I read this again in a few years, it will all come back. 

When I named this blog "Where Will This Go From Here?" I was honestly not sure what this trip would do to my family. It was 50/50 whether it would be a disaster or a success. I can happily say that we are looking forward to our NEXT trip to Europe...we are just having such a hard time deciding where to go!! 💖💖😂

Final Day in Disneyland

 For our final day of the trip, we were in "easy mode". We started off by rope dropping the big rides in Studios before the lines got crazy. N, S and I rode Crush's Coaster.

View from the line

Then S waited with Curt while N did Tower of Terror again with me this time.

It looks so serene from the outside...

For lunch, we wandered over to Disneyland to eat at Walt's. On the way in, N saw one of her favorite characters, so we stood in line for Winnie the Pooh (and got to see the parade again from the line).

Lunch was incredible...this restaurant is worth all the hype! The décor was stunning, the food delicious, the service impeccable. What a great memory!

This time S got the signature dessert

Curt now had to do the "back to the room to rest" thing, so the girls and I spent a couple of hours in the afternoon riding more rides, including the horrible Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril (ohhh, so rough!!) which was S's first loop-de-loop coaster! 

We finally rode everything the park had to offer, and S wanted very much to do Big Thunder one last time. As we got there, we discovered the ride had e-stopped and was being evacuated. We hung around for a few minutes to see if this would be a quick restart, but it looked like it was unlikely, so we headed back to the hotel for some time at the pool before dinner.

I can see our room!

Once we had enough pool time, we went back to the room to pack, and then walked across the "lagoon" to the New York Hotel. This had just recently been re-themed to the Avengers, and was all modern and sleek. Not my favorite style to stay in, but really fun to visit.

Hallway to the restaurant

Dinner was buffet style with Italian, American, and Chinese food offerings. The kids were *finally* able to eat their fill, and N made it her goal to eat every single dessert offering available. She succeeded! Perhaps to her regret for a while afterwards. 😜

This was only plate 1 of 3...

After dinner, I checked the app and saw that Big Thunder had re-opened. N offered to take her sister over for one more ride. I would've joined them if my feet weren't hurting so much, but I also thought it was a great opportunity for them to spend some sister-time together. So, off they went while Curt and I went back to the lounge for another drink before finishing the packing, and confirming our driver's arrival time for the morning.

We didn't take many pictures this day, but the rest are here:  https://link.shutterfly.com/99aLje0tdsb