americanadventures2017

[americanadventures2017]

Day 26: Linkin Park concert Well what can I say…. the last evening of our trip would be spent at the Hollywood Bowl, celebrating the life of Chester Bennington…. what a surreal feeling!

We chilled most of the day because we knew we were going to have a big night, watched Stranger Things on Netflix haha

At about 4.30pm we headed on our short 20 minute walk to the Hollywood Bowl. Outside the gates they had all sorts of things set up to honor Chester…. a signature wall where you could pay your respects, a picture wall, a ribbon wall filled with ribbons that had LP lyrics, merch etc! There was a group of fans who were singing LP songs in a circle with a guitar for over an hour, it was crazy to see all the diehard fans, so many LP & Chester tattoos everywhere we looked. I thought I was a fan girl but I got nothing on these people!

The gates opened at 6pm and we found our seats, holy WOW, what an incredible venue. It had views of the Hollywood sign and the LA mountains, and the venue itself was just awesome!

I am not going to explain the concert in detail as you can watch the full thing on YouTube, but just know we lost our shit when Alanis came out, and then again when Jeremy from ADTR sang A Place for my Head, and for the 3rd time when Blink 182 performed. I only cried once, and it was when Shinoda sang a brand new song he had written 8 days after Chester’s passing, titled ‘Looking for an Answer’…. wow what a beautiful and emotional song, I think the whole crowd would have lost it at that point.

I truly am so thankful we got to be amongst the 18,000 fans who got to celebrate Chester’s life, as I anticipated it was truly special and something I will never forget. An amazing way to end our month in the USA.

🎶🇺🇸

[americanadventures2017]

Day 25

After a recommendation from our Air BnB host, we decided that today we would check out some places in Downtown L.A. At around 11:30, we caught an uber to the Grand Central Market where it was recomended we get lunch. We sat down at a place called Ramen Hood, for lunch. We had the Garlic Ramen and boy was it delicious. I still wasnt quite full so on the way out I had a small second meal of Beef Brisket and Banana Pudding. We then put our next destination, the Walt Disney Theatre, into google maps. Lucky for us, the cool uphill tram contraption was headed in the right direction to get there so we jumped on. At the top there are a bunch of buildings and this nice little courtyard and outdoor stage. It was clear that we had entered the business center of L.A where all the suits work and tip really high when buying lunch n stuff. So we kept walking to The Walt Disney Theatre.....which was fine, I guess. But THEN, we headed past that, to the Grammy Museum. As we set off towards said museum the roads became abit confusing and we somehow ended up going through a massive hotel and indoor shopping precinct. This, in and of itself was an impressive museum of star wars like architecture and james bond looking bar and hotel reception area. We, eventually made it to the Grammy Museum, which was super cool. 3 floors of Grammy history to explore from Grammy awards, to outfits worn, to award winning speeches, to instruments... it was all there! After the Museum we caught an Uber all the way up to the Griffith Observatory... we made it just in time for sunset and boy it was a beautiful sight. We stayed there for over an hour, and got to look in this enormous Ziess telescope at the moon, an amazing experience and another great day!

[americanadventures2017]

Day 24 We slept in, and ventured out of the house just before lunch. Walked a few kms in the blistering heat and stumbled across Smokes Poutinerie, so we had to have lunch there. I got the traditional poutine (chips with cheese and gravy incase you were wondering), and Dylan got the Philly Cheese Steak poutine (chips with cheese, gravy, steak, liquid cheese, mushrooms etc). It wasn’t as amazing as we wanted it to be, 5 Dogs in Surfers still does the best poutine. After lunch we walked a few more blocks to Amoeba Music…. one of the biggest music stores in the world, it’s massive! We easily spent 1.5 hours in there, looking at the records, DVDs and the amazing things they had on offer. A music lovers heaven! We then ventured back to our apartment and chilled for a few hours before heading out to the Comedy Store… where Dylan was to finally see his idol in life, Joe Rogan, perform stand up. Joe was pretty funny, as were all the comedians and we didn’t get home until 1am. Was a very good evening. 👍🏻

[americanadventures2017]

Day 23: Santa Monica Pier & Venice Beach

Here we lie, sunburnt, tired, yet completely satisfied with our day. Santa Monica was beautiful. We arrived at around 11am and headed down to the world famous pier. There were great views of the ocean and coastline all around to Malibu and despite the huge amount of homeless people it was quite scenic. The theme park on the pier looked alright but not as good as in the movies, and besides we are all Theme Parked out. The other option was to have a swim. So I did. The water was REALLY cold but the sun was REALLY hot so I loved it. Amy dipped her feet in, but didnt brave the waves like I did. After my swim, we headed up to the promenade and looked at some shops. On the way back we passed a bike hire shop and decided on the spot that we wanted to hire bikes and ride down to Venice beach! We had the bikes for 4 hours, which doesnt seem like much, but it was ample time. We set off on the bike path in the blistering sun, me with my shirt off, (hence, I am a tomato now) and Amy with hers on (The locals there arent THAT lucky). The ride was beautiful despite the heat. Plenty of huge houses to gawk at and a wonderful view of the ocean. Once we got to Venice we were again in shock at how many homeless there are. Its like a full community with huge tent cities and people trying to sell anything they can. However the shops are really cool and there are plenty of novelty shirts and shorts. The booty shorts and underwear had some pretty outrageous things printed on them like “Slippery When Wet” and “It Aint Gonna Smack Itself”. After taking some photos and looking around, we parked the bikes in the main street and walked down looking for a place to have lunch. We passed a guy holding some weird sushi-like “wrap” and I was immediately set on finding that. Sunny Blue restraunt was the culprit and Omusubi or Japanese Rice Balls was the dish. They were incredible. Filled with all sorts of meats and seasoned with all sorts of great japanese seasoning. I really hope there is an Omusubi restraunt at home so we can have it again. After lunch we headed back to Santa Monica, again taking in the bizzare Venice strip. There’s such a weird contrast of people there. From bodybuilders and models in bikinis, to crazy, homeless people and people playing guitar (badly) for tips. We passed the Santa Monica pier and went a little further north, checking out the mansions and resorts that lined the beach that way before we returned our bikes and began planning the trip home. It was around 4pm and as we checked the price of an uber home we found that it was out of the question. Around $35….minimum. After a long, tiring search for a cheaper option, and then a frustrating walk around to find the bus stop we needed to be at. We got on the bus that would take us close enough to our apartment. However, the ride took us about 2 hours and we were so over it. When we got to our stop there was a target nearby and we decided to go get some washing powder tk wash our clothes and some food to cook ourselves so we could stay clothed and save what little money we have left for these next few days. We got some good stuff and then walked 10 minutes back home. All in all it was an awesome day that we’ll be wishing we could come back to next tuesday when were both back at work.

[americanadventures2017]

Day 22: Travel from Anaheim to LA We slept in, and had a mean feed of waffles at our hotel. We then headed to the Anaheim bus station to wait for our bus to LA. When we got there we were told our bus was running an hour late... not happy Jan. So we had lunch in one of the places inside the transit centre (pictured above).... Dylan’s sanga has fried oysters on it, so weird! The bus finally arrived and after another hour and a half we made it back to LA to our new Air BNB. We dropped out stuff and went and got a healthy dinner of maccas, and then came back and watched a movie on Netflix. A very uneventful day, but was good to chill out after our big few days in Anaheim.

[americanadventures2017]

Day 21: Disney California Adventure Park

I wish we could say today started smoothly and happily but Id be lying. It was at least 30 something degrees and we were waiting for about an hour in the sun because the front gate admissions had some big problems with their system. Once we finally did get in however, we waited in ANOTHER line to fix an issue with our Maxpass that we bought through the app (just like the previous day) Amy was SUPER hot and bothered and I just wanted to go on the Guardians of the Galaxy ride as soon as possible. However, we first rode the "California Screamin'" Rollercoaster which is the biggest ride in the park. It was ok but having just been at Knotts Berry Farm, it didnt quite measure up. From there we went on Mickeys Ferris Wheel which, unlike most Ferris Wheels, swings and moves on its own track while going around. We got a nice view of the park and it was cool. From there we walked through lots of other themed areas from Cars Land (which we would later come back to), A Bugs Land (which was super cute) and we passed the Guardians ride, a huge, remodelled, Tower of Terror. Over in the shaded corner stood Groot, taking photos and probably hating it because it was too hot to be in a suit like that. We stood in line and got the picture you see above. From there I spotted a banner in a Hollywood themed street that read "Thor: Ragnarok, Exclusive Sneak Peak" with an arrow pointing to a huge 3D theatre. One does not simply...walk past a sign like this. We went into the air conditioned theatre (that was the selling point for Amy, it really didnt matter what movie it was for) and I saw a few new scenes from the movie. It looks glorious, hilarious and I cant wait to take some of you guys to see it. We then had lunch. Award Weiners: Best Supporting Roll, came through with the goods. Cheese Kransky with BBQ sauce and cheese. Amy was now a very happy woman. From there, it was finally time. Guardians Of The Galaxy: Mission Breakout. Essentially an indoor Giant Drop, but soooo much better because youre on a mission with the Guardians, Obviously. It was amazing. And actually a little scary for me (I get scared by big drop rides). We would return later to the ride for a limited Halloween experience called "Monsters After Dark" where the ride actually changes its "story" and things work a little differently. It was amazing to get to do that knowing that only people there around Halloween can see it. We then decided to go and watch the Frozen theatre show, as again it was in air conditioning. It ended up being an hour stage show that was spot on to the movie... an amazing production and pretty good considering it’s included in the ticket price. After the show we walked around the park and looked in different shops, we saw some people with these amazing little Groot cups. After much searching, Amy found the place that sold 'em. Above is us with our new baby Groot in front of "Paradise Pier" at the bottom of the park. We kicked around for a little bit checking out wait times for different rides and they were all far too long and it was far too hot. We got a fastpass for the After Dark guardians ride but it wasnt until around 10pm so we eneded up jumping on a bus and going to dinner. Dinner was amazing and we felt refreshed enough to go back to the park for our fastpass and more adventure. We got back to the park around 8pm and walked back down to do the Cars ride. The line was still huuuge so we jumped in the shorter single rider line. Although we got split up, we had ana amazing time on this crazy ride which makes you feel like youre in the movie. It really is worth abit of a wait. On the way out of that ride we paused in the exit path to watch Disneylands incredible Fireworks display. It was beautiful and along with a second, different Guardians ride, was a PERFECT way to end the night.

[americanadventures2017]

Day 20: DisneyLand What a huge day. After walking (the long way) from our accommodation, We walked through what they call “Downtown Disney” which is a row of themed gift shops and restaurants. We entered the park via the monorail. Smart move as the lines looked huge at the gates. We were taken down to Tomorrowland where we started the days adventure. I was drawn to a place called the “Star Wars Launch Bay” which was a building filled with props from and information on the Star Wars Saga. It was amazing. On exiting the Launch Bay we came across one of the many “Mountain” rides located in the different “Lands” Tomorrowland has Space Mountain, an indoor rollercoaster that takes you through the galaxy. And at Halloween time, the Ghost Galaxy. It was a long wait but the ride blew my mind and made up for it. We decided to skip said long lines and get Disneyland’s MaxPass. This gave us access to fast passes on some of the rides through the DisneyLand App. After a few inconveniences with that app (don’t get us started) we had booked in our first, timed Fastpass ride. Onwards to “Splash Mountain” another famous Mountain in Frontierland. This water ride was a little different to Space Mountain as it offered audio animatronic “critters” singing, dancing, and being generally creepy. It really captures the magic of Disneyland and many attractions built since this have tried to replicate the intricacy of the themeing and use of space.

We then rode Indiana Jones' Temple of the Forbidden Eye ride. Again, this coaster was a GIANT maze of indoor pyrotechnics, holograms and themeing. We were literally riding an an old Jeep attached to a track. It was so cool. After Indie, it was time to eat and as you all know by now, Im pretty much the worst vegan ever, so I had the Turkey Leg. It was just so dank. Following lunch there were more rides, a peaceful canoe ride (pictured), shopping for cool souveniers, pictures with Raffiki and a whole lot of walking off our food. It was then time to ride the Matterhorn Bobsleds. I had no idea what this ride was or what a Matterhorn was for that matter, I concluded after riding that it is a monster (like the abominable snowman) that chases bobsleds through mountains. This ride was a standout for me because as you descend fast down the mountain, the animatronic Yeti roars and claws at you on every corner! And it looks so cool and realistic! At this stage it was getting later in the evening and we had been exploring the park all day so we were tired. We decided to wind it down abit with a train ride over to the other side of the park. The train ride was unexpectedly really awesome because it takes you through tunnels containing big "rooms" themed around american landmarks. There was the grand canyon and even a room full of animatronic Dinosaurs. We reached Mickeys Toon Land just in time to watch a stage show at the huge outdoor theatre down there. Mickeys Magical Map was full of cool theatrics and songs from alot of the best Disney movies. It was time to join the crowds of thousands to enjoy the Light Show! Taking place over the river we canoed on in Frontierland, the light show incorporated holograms of characters projected onto water fountains, a real stage show, a pirate ship and an old wooden cruise ship full of characters and of course LOTS of amazing lights. It was a surprisingly nice way to end the night as after this we decided to pack it in and get some rest for the next day; Disney California Adventure Park.

[americanadventures2017]

Day 19: Knotts Berry Farm

Beginning with another trip on a less than GreatHound bus, we made our way to Anaheim from Hollywood. Another early start meant that I (Dylan) was a grumpy boy. Lucky I had my Yowie book to read and, when we got there, a breakfast feast to eat at a restaurant called Dennys. The place that Im writing this post from right now (its great value and the meals are big, so time for round 2). We caught a lift DIRECTLY from Denny’s to Knotts Berry Farm OR…in October, Knotts SCARY Farm by night. As soon as we pulled up I was excited as there were lots of HUGE coasters with plenty of loops. When we finally got in, we started towards…wherever we were compelled to go. The first thing I noticed (other than the bathrooms that we needed) was that these guys really go ALL OUT in transforming the park into the SCARY Farm. Plenty of zombie mannequins, pumpkins and themeing. The place was themed like an old settlement town mixed with (go figure) a berry farm. It looked really great! The first ride we came to was…. The Ghost Rider! A MASSIVE, old looking, wooden roller coaster *Pictured Above* This thing was wild. Best, most hectic roller coaster I’ve been on. We then went on the Sierra Sidewinder, Jaguar, Supreme Scream, Montezoomas Revenge Silver Bullet and a few others. We were bummed however, when we found that the Xcelerator, the biggest ride in the park (Picture the Superman ride, just taller and longer) was closed all day. So triggered. Anyway after doing all these amazing rides plus the Ghost Rider a second time, we had enough. We looked in some shops, bought some of Knotts signature Boysenberry products (Jam, Lollies) and got an Uber to the shops near our accomodation. We saw plenty of options but ended up at Johnny Rockets (a vintage looking diner). Pictured above is our food. #Health. We contemplated going to a hockey match at the Honda Centre that night, which is the home of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. However, I was tired and already in bed by the time Amy had looked fully into it. We were asleep by around 6pm and I have no regrets about that as today, we take on Disneyland!

[americanadventures2017]

Day 18

Today was a very exciting day, we were going to be on The Voice US!

It was another early morning, as we had to be at Univeral Studios ready to check in by 9am. There was a catch to getting free tickets to the biggest show in America, though......no phones allowed. So we ordered our uber, ditched our phones and set off without our modern day sense of security. Amy was triggered. Once we got to the first security checkpoint, ole mate security guard told the girls in front of us (one of which was from Melbourne, both of which had their phones) that they had lockers around to store phones. Oops. We cleared security smoothly and politely, cos were the best, and moved through to another waiting area. That’s the biz, 90% waiting 10% Showtime. We then caught busses down to Stage 12, home of The Voice U.S. They lined up against some barriers that formed a “red carpet” scenario and then informed us that they would film the superstar coaches walking through and high fiving everyone. Our responsibility as extras in the scene was simple....Go nuts and give Adam, Blake, Alicia and Kelly Mother F’nClarkson a warm welcome. So after waiting a little longer, we did. I got a huge high five from Blake Shelton and Amy got to high five Alicia Keys and Kelly Clarkson. Pretty good value for our $0. Anyway, we were then escorted inside and what followed was a LONG day of 10 minute auditions and Coaches comments/ Adam and Blake bickering and then 5 minute breaks for make up and bathroom breaks. The talent was great and Kelly did end up singing a little bit of Alicia’s song Aint Got You which, again made us feel lucky to be there. I think we’ll definitely be on the show, if even for a second or two. So we’ll keep you all in the loop. All in all it was a fun, eye opening, yet long and tiring experience.

[americanadventures2017]

Day 17

Spent a solid 5 hours on a bus from Vegas to LA.... was a dodgy Greyhound bus, we weren’t fans but it was super cheap so can’t really complain.

When we got to our Air BnB in LA we were pretty knackered so we napped all afternoon. We didn’t leave the apartment and got Maccas delivered for dinner haha. A very eventful day!

[americanadventures2017]

Day 16 After we got back from the Grand Canyon we went back to our all time fave, the Ellis Island BBQ…. I told you we would go back, it was too damn good! This time we took a pic of our meals to show you all! After dinner we decided to get dropped to the Vegas sign, we knew it had basically turned into a memorial for the victims of the shooting on the 1st, but we didn’t realise how significant the memorial would be. All around the base of the sign, and metres behind it were items left by family & friends of the victims, and complete strangers. There was a cross for every victim decorated with items that represented who they were, scribed with messages from their loved ones….. so so sad! Was incredibly touching, and reminded us just how lucky we are to live where we live, and to have such amazing family & friends in our lives ❤️ #vegasstrong

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Day 16: Grand Canyon Pretty self explanatory. We went to the Grand Canyon. It was grand, and it was a Canyon haha The helicopter ride to the bottom was awesome, and our short little cruise on the Colorado River was great too! We then had a few hours free time to look around and explore the West Rim of the Canyon. Oh and on our way we stopped and checked out Hoover Dam, it’s rather impressive. 👍🏻

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Day 15: Part 5 (final post of the day I swear) As soon as we got back to Excalibur we showered and got ready to get dinner. Adam had told us about Ellis Island BBQ where you can get cheap BBQ ribs and chicken... we knew as soon as he said it that this was where we would eat! Holy moly, these were honestly the best damn ribs we have ever eaten. So tender, so much meat and so much BBQ! The chicken was luscious too. And we both ate for $40 including tips. And you should have seen the size of the plates!!! Tempted to go back tonight haha. On our walk back home we decided to get a permanent souvenir as a memory of our incredibly amazing day hunting Aliens out in the Nevada desert! The end 👽

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Day 15: Area 51 Tour Part 4 Finally the time had come, to head to Area 51. We had one quick stop first…. the Black Mailbox, or what was left of the Black Mailbox. It always gets stolen so we were very lucky that there was actually a mailbox that was black at the site. This is basically just a place where people leave a whole heap of junk for the Aliens, so we left a $2 Australian coin and a NY metro card haha. You never know, the Aliens might want to ride the subway! Finally we had made it to the most top secret army base in the USA (that we know of)… Area 51! We got some super cool pictures, and walked a small portion of the perimeter (the side where you don’t get shot). This apparently made the security guards wary, as they drove a little way down the hill and were watching us the entire duration of our stay, they even honked us when we were getting a little ‘too close’. Our tour guide was stoked as he said that was the most activity he has ever got from the guards. Nothing like dicing with death. Haha nah they don’t actually shoot you, just slap you with a $1000 USD fine. Was a really great experience, even if we didn’t see any Aliens in the flesh. On our way home we stopped at ET Fresh Jerkey and Dylan got Venison (deer) jerky to try. He must of liked it as he ate the entire packet on the journey back to Vegas….. he paid for it later that night though if you know what I mean 😂 And this still wasn’t the end of our day! TBC

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Day 15: Area 51 Tour Part 3 Rachel, Nevada..... Population approx. 80. Alien sightings: confirmed. This is where we visited the world famous, Little Aleinn as seen in many documentaries and movies such as Paul, and where we ate the world famous Alien Burger. Such a cool little landmark and filled with photos of crazy UFO sightings and conspiracy’s. In the last pic you can see the Jet trails of the US military running drills out over the desert. What a wild wild place. TBC

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Day 15: Area 51 Tour Part 2 After our first off road adventure we headed for the Extraterrestrial Highway... the loneliest Highway in the world. Dylan brought a Malibu Stacy sticker over with him to leave his mark somewhere in Merica’, and this seemed like the perfect location. Look directly above the W and you will see his perfect sticker slap 👌🏻 The next stop was not far from the highway sign, the Alien Research & Visitor Centre. Dylan wrote our names on the signature wall inside the centre, and we got some cool souvenirs. Our tour guide Adam also gave us the heads up to try a Tequila shot here, it was Alien themed tequila so how could we say no?! It was super pungent and defs out of this world! TBC

[americanadventures2017]

Day 15: Area 51 Tour Part 1 We had the best day on our Area 51 Tour!!! The tour started by driving out to a dirt road in the Nevada desert where we would go on an adventure to find a dry lake where the military carry out operations e.g. landing jets etc and the rednecks go out there and camp / shoot…. we found lots of shell casings. Our next stop was the petroglyphs (mysterious symbols drawn by a Native American tribe called the Anaszasi). There were lots of different creatures drawn around this specific area, and Dylan was eager to get up into the rocks and explore….. even though we had been warned about Mountain Lions, Snakes and Tarantulas haha. We were hoping to see lots of wildlife that our guide was telling us about but the best we could do were some Lizards and Ground Squirrels, Oh and we did find Mountain Lion dung which was kind of cool. I was super excited because there were so many Joshua Trees around, so I got to give the camera a work out. Down the road, off another beaten track was a special addition to the tour that our guide decided to stop at, called Alien rock….. quite literally a rock shaped like an Alien in the middle of the desert. A coincidence, a man made structure, or a sign left by the Aliens….. we will never know. TBC