Crafting Words Pays Off... All The Way to LA!

Thursday, October 07, 2010
Los Angeles, California, United States
Want to see JACK JOHNSON LIVE AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL? Just tell us in 25 words or less how you are reducing your carbon footprint.

So I did .

J-uicy fruit trees, vegie patch cuts food miles,
A-lways walking eliminates driving: healthy smiles.
C-otton organic, sustainable bamboo for gear…
K-nocking my carbon. Three cheers!


Every phone call holds the promise of someone on the other end saying 'CONGRATULATIONS!"
So after four years entering competitions, it comes as quite a surprise to receive an email on a Saturday afternoon (during the AFL Grand Final!) announcing a win for my first international trip. Scepticism is quashed by a follow-up phone call within the hour. The win is to LA - to a Hollywood Bowl concert! But there's a catch...

IT'S NEXT THURSDAY!!!

These competitions usually say something like 'must be taken before October 2011' but I guess a Jack Johnson tour doesn't wait for JB and her entourage So next Thursday it is.

For 2 nights . Hhmmm...

Tickets and accommodation have been finalised today, leaving just under 2 days to prepare.
Or be unprepared...
To avoid conflict, both offspring are staying home minding each other and the dogs, the stay has been extended to 3 nights and the hop-on-hop-off bus timetable has been dutifully downloaded, along with the weather reports. The lucky nephew is beside himself!

But this involves breaking two promises to myself, having said that I'd never go near LAX again or fly cattle class on long haul. Should be an interesting long weekend...


Thursday, October 7, 2010

I said I would never fly long haul economy or go anywhere near LAX again, but here I am doing both. When someone else pays the fare x 2, I can't complain. Much...

V Australia VA2 to LA is very impressive. Acceptable seats for cattle class, groovy mood cabin lighting, youthful cabin crew, self-service water and snacks bar, a dedicated ladies-only toilet, congratulations to the newly engaged couple in Row 36 and very acceptable food and movies.

But there are 5 children on board and 2 were directly behind us... With two parents who did little to control their screaming and SCREECHING! I have about 1 hour's sleep overnight . (And my glasses break - the final straw.)

Never again. REALLY. It's Premium Economy hereinafter!

LAX is far better than last time - still hopelessly disorganised and slow, but not nearly as crowded. We have in impromtu tour of the LA rush hour via our shuttle bus transfer and settle into the quite acceptable Tower Hotel in Beverley Hills and an early night.
 

Friday, October 8, 2010

A sunny 70°F LA day is perfect for being the typical tourist, sitting atop the hop-on-hop-off bus and discovering the lie of the land. The same company that operates many in Europe runs four loops here... we concentrated on the 'Red' loop today doing all the quintessential LA sights... Beverley Hills, Rodeo Drive, Sunset Boulevard, Walk of Fame, numerous diners where stars have allegedly eaten or worked before being discovered.

More fascinating is the La Brea Tar Pits (thanks Becky!) where mammoths, saber-tooth tigers and numerous other creatures from the Pleistocene Era became entrapped. In now-downtown LA in the sticky mud of the tar ponds (that still bubble methane gas) are thousands of fossilised bones. A small museum houses completed animals big and small and a viewing room where we watched scientists and volunteers sifting and sorting through minute scraps, separating vegetable from mineral and bone .

Sadly the bus times are not as frequent as other cities.

With connections, we didn't have enough time to thoroughly explore a second route, so took a scenic ride on the blue route which essentially just whizzes up to Universal studios. There's tomorrow for the other sectors.

Besides, we had a concert to dress for!

Brett the limo driver picked us up right on cue - oh yes, no mere taxis or buses for us tonight - and we joined the tangle of cars headed out on a Friday night in LA. This city could do with some serious reworking of it's road layouts and traffic management! It took us an hour and a quarter to travel about 10km.

And then the second-best/funniest highlight of the night... At the VIP ticket collection desk, the lady handing out pre-booked tickets announced "We've been expecting you!" as she fished out our little pieces of paper gold . She rang security and grandly announced...
"Jenny Bush from Australia has arrived!"

What a hoot!

How often do you get escorted up to the VIP dining area of a major rock show to spend a few minutes talking to an international star?!
With photos.
And goodbye kisses. 
 
Not weekly, that's for sure.
Not likely ever again!

The Hollywood Bowl holding 17,000+ is sold out. It looks possibly about the same capacity as the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne although steeper and is all allocated seating. Collapsible chairs in the first 10-20 rows, park benches in the nose-bleed section and a good half as four-person 'boxes' that would cost around $US800 per seat accordingly to the people behind us! And ours is centre stage on the first walkway up! You can almost imagine us here in the aerial photo halfway down the page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Bowl
We were behind the white spot which would have been a mixing desk.

FAR OUT! Could the night get much better?! Well actually, yes!

Jack Johnson does a great 90 minute act, incorporating the two support acts at times - we had missed them in the traffic - and the crowd is pumped. (The warm night and the $26 large sangrias may have helped - and they are selling 4-6 at a time...)

We stick to Hollywood Bowl hamburgers and Pepsi and for one night at least, live an American dream .
 

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Today WAS to be the other two loops on the tourist bus - and we made the Yellow loop down to Santa Monica Beach. Walked the famous pier, Justin did the boardwalk to Venice Beach and Arnold Schwarzeneggers's gym then a bite of late lunch at a Santa Monica pub.

Then things start to unravel...

We wander up to the local shopping mall and cruise Nordstrum, Bloomingdales and a number of specialty shops, do a bit of purchasing until I found my Visa card missing in one shop. This tourist's worse nightmare...

And I wouldn't ordinarily bore anyone with the tale of hours retracing our steps and making calls if only for the amazing security in place at Nordstrum - a Myer-like department store.

The cashier at the relevant counter is able to phone security and state her location (and hence the nearest camera) and a time from my receipt and have them call up the video confirming that she had handed back my card, I had put it in my wallet then in my bag! When we then look around there are cameras every 15-20m... apparently people brazenly grab whole armfuls of gear and run, regardless of exit alarms blaring. Everything is also security tagged - even cheap t-shirts.

No other shop or centre management can help so it it's back to the hotel to ring Westpac .

My mood lightens a little when we find a tasty Mexican dinner locally. Just.

How exciting then when the phone rings at 10.30pm. My card has turned up in the 10pm closing clean-up!

 
Monday, October 11, 2010

This morning is one to be impressed with the LA bus system.

The trip back to Santa Monica to pick up my Visa card costs US$1.00 with the $1 note fed into a small machine at the front door.

No Myki mess, no zones, no 2-hour versus all day options. Just $1 for as far as you like (or about $3 for an all day ticket.) For a Sunday morning, the buses run every 15 minutes and were FAST.

And the sight of my returned Visa is delightful. How much I depend on it now compared to cash! (And I was down to US$10 in $1 notes...)

We have a couple of hours to explore the clearance racks before returning to pack and contemplate venturing back to LAX.

A drink in the iconic LAX Encounter Bar ticked another must-do off the list (and disposed of all remaining change) before queuing to check in for VA12 home.
Did I mention previously how V Australia seemed to have their customers' needs sorted? Catchy music playing above the check-in queues . No-one seems to mind the slow shufflehere as the masses jiggled along to Boy George!

On board, with a bulkhead behind our seats that eliminated all possibility of kids kicking, I sleep for about 6 of the 14 hours and bounce out at Tullamarine at 5.00am in a ridiculously awakened state for me.

THAT won't last, but the memories of the weekend of a lifetime will!

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