Los Angeles back to Anaheim

Wednesday, 19th November, part 2:

So after we left the Walk of Fame we headed towards Beverly Hills:

Next we headed down Rodeo Drive. The guide told us to watch out for celebrities, we didn't see anyone though just lots of over-priced shops. After that it was straight on to the Farmers Market:

We didn’t stop there for very long so my trip buddy and myself only browsed one nearly shopping checking out their quirky Christmas decorations: 

 

Once everyone was back on the bus we headed back to Anaheim I spotted an Irish pub on the way:

The guide said this closed down coffee shop is rented out for movie companies:

The Staples centre… I only know of this because Michael Jackson's Memorial was there and it was all over the news:

We got back to Anaheim after 6 and the guide was even good enough to drop us at the hotel we were planning on having dinner in, The Disneyland hotel, so we didn't have to walk to it. Mickey and Minnie were outside the hotel to welcome us: 

Then inside they had a giant gingerbread house:

Christmas tree in the lobby:

They had some pretty cute furniture in the lobby as well: 

We headed outside then past the Monorail pool:

We had dinner in Trader Sam's Clickie before heading out under the Sorcerers hat into Downtown Disney:

The first thing we saw in Downtown Disney when we crossed the road was a huge Christmas tree and ice rink:

We wandered back through Downtown Disney towards our hotel stopping along the way for a look at a few shops. Beauty and the Beast lego:

While we were in Downtown Disney the fireworks started in the park and we stopped to watch them for a few minutes: 

And we obviously couldn’t pass World of Disney without a quick look as well:

When we got back to the hotel we collapsed into the bed completely exhausted but happy with our tour of Los Angeles.

Touring Los Angeles

Wednesday, 19th of November, 2015

So today we had a tour of Los Angeles booked with Starline tours. The tour didn’t pick up until 10.30. We were collected in a mini-bus and there was only about seven people on the tour, which was good. The tour-guides name was Dan and from the time he collected us he was full of information about everything we could see.  He told us about everything from the highway system to practically every inch of what we were looking at, starting with Disneyland. id you know Disneyland’s address is 1313 Harbour Boulevard and nobody else wanted that address as they thought 13 was unlucky but Walt Disney wanted it because M is the 13th letter of the alphabet so 1313 stood for MM, Mickey Mouse. As we drove along it became very clear that everything in Los Angeles was in a movie eg: this was the “River” the race scene from Grease was filmed:

Universal Studios water tour:

Our first stop was at Exposition park to see the LA Memorial Coliseum:

It was literally a 15 minute stop to go there and get a quick picture. He also told us to go over to the California Science centre for a bathroom break as we wouldn’t be stopping for a while. These were outside, have no idea what they are meant to be but I thought they looked cool:

The Science Centre had a space shuttle display on at that time. It looked like it could have been interesting but we hadn’t enough time to see anything besides the entrance.

Once everyone was back on the bus we headed off towards the next stop. The guide went up some side road to show us a load of frat houses. It amused me because I had just been watching Bad Neighbours on the plane on the way over and wondered if people in these frat houses partied as much as the one in that movie: 

This rather cool looking hotel was used in some action movie: 

We were supposed to stop at the Walt Disney Concert Hall for 10-20 minutes but it ended up just being a drive by: 

Continuing on the next building of note we saw was City hall. This was the building that King Kong actually climbed not the empire state building because they didn't want to do to New York for filming!

Next we went to some little Mexican type market place and stopped for 20 minutes. We had a snack here as well. My trip buddy got giant Mango pieces:

and I played it safe with a fairly plain hot dog! 

There was a bandstand nearby with a large nativity scene displayed:

After our stop in the market place we were headed to our longest stop of the day and of course the guide pointed everything and anything out along the way including this church where he said Tom Cruise and John Travolta like to hang out: 

The next stop was meant to be a 10-20 minute stop according to the schedule on the website but our guide gave us 1 hour and 20 minutes to explore the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I was fine having extra time and as soon as we stopped my trip buddy and I headed for Ghirardelli's:

I had my sights set on the pin trader sundaes. We both got a sundae and got a Nanny from 101 Dalmatians and Panchito pin. The ice cream was yum as well we got vanilla and cookie dough ice-cream with hot fudge sauce and cream and sprinkles. 

Once we were finished our ice creams we took a stroll along the walk of fame. The home of the academy awards, the Dolby Theatre:

This was the best view of the Hollywood sign we were going to get this day:

We were searching for Disney related stars:

We then took a bit of time to check out the hand prints outside of the Chinese Theatre as well while we were near it:

 

After the walk of fame we drove around L.A. for another bit with the guide continuing to point out everything along the way. We passed the Laugh Factory and the guide told us that there are so many comedians suffering with depression that the Laugh Factory actually has an on site counsellor for the comedians that work there. 

Trader Sam's

The Second full day we were in California we had Dinner in Trader Sam's at the Disneyland Hotel. 

I had read about it online and thought it sounded like a fun place to eat. Anyways it was kind of dark inside but the walls and ceiling were full of pictures and Tiki faces and random other bits and bobs that apparently Trader Sam is supposed to have collected on his travels or something of the sort:

They have a few speciality drinks in this place and when anyone orders one a load of sound effects and drumming go off which was quite fun to see. We were served pretty quickly in here although the waiter wasn’t the happiest CM in the world.  We both ordered the Teriyaki Chicken Sandwich:

I also  got a Schweitzer Falls to drink. It said it was supposed to have “tropical juices” but it just tasted of pineapple:

Despite the grumpy waiter we thought the food was good and it was a fun and interesting little place to eat in and loved seeing and hearing the special effects that went with the speciality drinks.