We
are, we are the saints, we signed our life away. Doesn’t matter what you think,
we’re gonna do it anyway. We are, we are the saints, one day you will confess.
And pray to the Saints of Los Angeles
- Motley Crue
Did we sleep like it was going out of
fashion last night/this morning, or what? After a day where we flew halfway
around the world, tackled the big coasters at Knott’s Berry Farm, battled
infamous LA traffic, and went to a hockey game, we were pretty much ready to collapse
when we got back to the Travelodge. And we did.
Nine hours later, we all felt much, much
better. The weather was better this morning, more sun than clouds and no rain, and
after breakfast in the hotel’s courtyard we headed downtown towards Hollywood,
and Universal Studios.
Sitting on the edge of the sprawling NBC
Universal studios, Universal LA is the smallest theme park in the city, and one
of the most interesting. It’s centrepiece is the Studio Tour, in which you go on a tram through all the back lots, past famous filming locations, lifting the lid on
how things are done in Hollywood. For example, a small patch of grass on the
edge of a road is what they use for Central Park shots. There were a few movies
shooting as we went through, and, of course, the big sound stages that house
CSI and The Voice are always in action.
After a fire ripped through the Universal
back lot in 2008, the old King Kong experience was destroyed, so Peter Jackson’s
WETA digital studio put together a new one especially for the tour. The tram
you’re on drives into a tunnel, and suddenly you’re being rocked back and
forth, with King Kong fighting dinosaurs and saving the trams. The reality is
that you’ve hardly moved at all. The special effects are incredible. As are the
ones on the ‘earthquake simulator’ where you drive into a subway station, which
is then destroyed by a massive earthquake. Attention to detail here is incredible.
The real story is that the Kong experience broke 3 times as we tried to go through it. They couldn't get it working. All we saw was a giant white screen in the tunnel. They ended up putting us on a different tram to go through the experience, and handed us some vouchers for our trouble. It extended the tour by nearly an hour and backed up the tours behind us something shocking as we tried so many times to get into the attraction as normal. It was worth it in the end!
Universal also has some great rides – The Mummy
roller-coaster, Transformers 3D, The Simpsons Ride and the Jurassic Park
splashdown. On Jurassic Park, you ride a big boat through the park, seeing some
of the harmless dinosaurs, before an incident occurs, and a T-Rex gets loose.
You’re then ‘evacuated’ by dropping from 14 storeys up down a ramp for a water
splashdown. No one on our boat – and there were at least 16 people – got as wet
as Nathan did. He was absolutely drenched. The rest of us, not so much!
The new Transformers 3D ride is also very
cool, and The Mummy roller-coaster takes place exclusively in a dark room. It’s
not as fast as anything we rode at Knott’s yesterday, but it’s pretty wild
because you can’t see where you’re going. Sitting in the very front row is
awesome. The Front of the Line Pass, which allows you one-time access to the
head of the queue for each ride, show and attraction cost an extra $50 and it
was totally worth it. Going right to the front for a ride, rather than wait
half an hour, is fantastic! It’s the only way to go on a busy day.
After we'd gone through Universal, we took our chances with the Los Angeles
traffic and made the relatively short trip across to the downtown area, to
Staples Centre, home of the Los Angeles Lakers (NBA), Clippers (NBA) and,
tonight, the Kings, 2011 Stanley Cup Champions, and perennial contenders in the
NHL’s Western Conference. Two hockey games in two nights – perfect!! Tonight’s
opponent was the Colorado Avalanche in from Denver.
Tonight was no different to last night.
There were no goals in regulation time. Apparently our appearance is inducing
goalie duels. It’s good to watch two really good goalies stone shooters again
and again but, right now, I’d give just about anything for a wild 6-5 game.
Unlike the fairy-tale ending at the Ducks game, with Getzlaf’s last-second
overtime winner, the Colorado Avalanche scored in overtime, sending the
pro-Kings fans home unhappy.
Watching the Kings is great. It’s cool that
they took Lord Stanley home in 2011, but they’ve always had a passionate fan base,
and a bunch of good players over the years – the greatest of all time, Wayne
Gretzky, played some record-breaking seasons as a King – as well as one of the
best game day experiences. Staples Centre is fantastic: the crowd is loud, and
the facilities are top-notch. The only downside is some of the seedier parking
lots around. Those $10 lots aren’t worth your life!
Special no-thanks to the unhelpful lady on
the main concourse who wouldn’t accept our Australian identification for Trev
and I to buy ourselves some Budweiser. She would only accept our passport,
which, of course, we weren’t carrying. “US driver’s license or international
passport only, sir,” was her stock-standard line. Our solution? Go around to
the next bar, where they had no such problems. Give us a break! It’s not like
we’re under-age or anything.
Another good day, despite the Kings loss,
and a big one coming up tomorrow with Six Flags Magic Mountain in the day and a
Lakers NBA game at night.
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