And
those Hollywood nights, in those Hollywood hills. She was looking so right in
her diamonds and frills. All those big city nights, in those high rolling
hills, above all the lights, she had all of the skills.
-
Bob Seger
If there’s one thing I’m not going to miss about Los Angeles when we leave tomorrow, it’s the traffic. How citizens of this city can regularly sit in giant traffic jams that stretch on for miles and miles is beyond me. Coming back from Disneyland today, it took us more than 2.5 hours to get into Hollywood, right through the teeth of the Monday evening peak. It’s a brand of insanity that makes Sydney’s traffic seem like nothing at all.
It must’ve been our day for crowds, because
Disneyland was jammed with people, more than I’ve ever seen at the park –
previously, we’ve visited in off-peak periods – and far too many to make the
lines on any of the very popular rides anything less than about 45 minutes. I’m
not okay with standing in line for so long for a two-minute ride…but you don’t have
much choice if you want to get on.
Thanksgiving Week is one of Disney’s
biggest of the year, and it apparently gets worse and worse as we get closer to
Thanksgiving on Thursday. Black Friday will be totally insane. Queuing for so
long takes a lot of the fun out of being in the park, but Disneyland is still a
great place to visit. I can’t recommend it enough.
We managed to get on the water ride,
Grizzly Rapid Run, the California Screamin’ roller coaster, Toy Story Midway
Mania and Soarin’ Over California (flight simulator) in California Adventure
before going over to the main Disneyland park, where we were last night. Lunch was
some very good Mexican-flavoured chicken and we watched the A Christmas Fantasy
parade down Main Street, we went across to Tom Sawyer Island and Pirate’s Lair,
but didn’t line up for anymore rides.
For dinner, we drove into Hollywood, where
my brother, Matt, and his girlfriend, Thao were staying. Tonight was their
first night in America, and although they had a rough flight with not much
sleep, we had some beers and some good food and laughs at Denny’s on Sunset
Boulevard. Matt and Thao are staying in Los Angeles through Thanksgiving and
braving Disneyland over the next couple of days. It will be interesting to see
how crowded it is when they’re in the park.
Early night tonight, because we have a
hellish 3.30am wake-up for our flight to Chicago, where we’ll be over
Thanksgiving. The day before Turkey Day is traditionally the biggest travel day
in the country, with giant queues, stress and tension at both security and
check-in, so we’ll be at LAX before 5.00am to try and avoid those delays.
Making things more complicated for travel, a
nasty winter storm is going to cause havoc on the I-95 corridor – Washington D.C.
through to Boston, encompassing New York City, Philadelphia and Boston, amongst
other cities – but the weather looks okay for departure from Los Angeles and
for our arrival in Chicago.
Fingers crossed that we have no delays.
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