Movie fans like us always dream to Hollywood. Hollywood is a district in the center of Los Angeles near Hollywood Hills, only 10-minute drive from Universal Studios Hollywood. There are two famous streets in Hollywood, one is the world famous street ” Hollywood Walk of Fame”, and another one is a shopping area, “Sunset Boulevard”. The two streets are parallel each other. Visitors who have time can make a tour for this area. But all of us burned off too much energy, and we spent a lot of time to recognize super stars’ signatures and handprints at the chilly and dark night. We were too hungry too cold to visit Sunset Boulevard.
Those cosplayers are waiting for visitors who want to pay for photos with them, one photo is $5-$10, not including tips, so expensive. Marilyn Monroe Cosplay is very popular.
When you see those pink five pointed stars, you arrive at the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Oscar Academy Awards is held on Hollywood Boulevard, and here is for Oscar Red Carpet Show. More than 2500 pink stars are embedded in the sidewalk along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard. Hollywood Walk of Fame is unexpectedly long. We had not enough energy to check those stars one by one, so tired to look down to closely see names and words printed on the stars that made our neck stiff and sour.
Chinese Theater built in 1926 is located in the center of Hollywood Walk of Fame. The plain looking of this theater is one of historic buildings in Los Angeles and it is still open to public. The first owner was not a Chinese but a person who was a fans of Chinese traditional culture and classical buildings. And he named this theater as Chinese Theater. TCL, a Chinese electronics company, purchased the naming rights in 2013. So the theater has been changed to TCL Chinese Theater since 2013. We were not interested in visiting this theater. The concrete of the theater’s square was our target. Handprints, footprints, and signatures of Hollywood Celebrities we were looking for are over here. This area is the keystone of Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The square in front of Chinese Theater is small but still has nearly 200 Hollywood Celebrity handprints, footprints and autographs. There is no more space to hold new handprints that have to embed at the other side of Hollywood Boulevard. So only superstars can leave their handprints in front of Chinese Theater. Some autographs made years ago are hardly recognized at the dark night. We spent a lot of time to recognize one by one. The middle of the concrete is for Grauman and Mann who built this Chinese Theater.
First, let us see those funny prints that make more likely people will remember , although we cannot recognize which celebrity made them, they must be from two Western cowboy movie stars.
I like those celebrities who left beautiful notes to people.
This one is so bold, from Sean Connery’s barefoot prints, this should be a standard version.
The following prints are from super stars. I picked several clear signatures for you. Please recognize them by yourself. It is not necessary to write down their names for you. Everyone should know them very well.
So short signature from Brad Pitt
Johnny Depp is always so different, no exceptions for him to make footprints. Look at his shoe prints, so showy.
Look, what I found, the prints from Marilyn Monroe, so tiny hands and foots.
This one is so easy to recognize, from Sophia Loren
Except movie stars’ handprints, footprints and autographs, those famous movie directors also can get same honors to leave their names here.
John Woo is one of few Chinese celebrities who are honored to leave names on Hollywood Walk of Fame. And he is the only one who left his name in Chinese. We are so proud of him.
Maybe you are so curious why Donald Duck can leave his footprints and autograph here. Actually it is from the voice of Donald Duck, the voice performer Clarence Nash, so special.
This is definitely from “Harry Potter”, handprints, footprints, autographs and three stickers.
This is from a classic TV series “Star Trek: The Animated Series”.
While walking along Hollywood Walk of Fame, we arrived at Kodak Theater where Oscar Academy Awards is held every year. Since Kodak went bankrupt in 2012, this theater has been changed to Dolby Theater. Kodak Theater is well know for Oscar Academy Awards, actually this theater like other normal theaters is open to public. The hall where they hold Oscar Academy Awards every year also holds operas and concerts. If you want to visit the hall inside, you can join their guided tour or buy a concert ticket.
Stores surrounding the hall are selling luxury products. But the stores close so early, obviously common people like us are not their target.
Here is the map showing our one day trip in Los Angeles, including Universal Studios Hollywood and Hollywood Walk of Fame.
We were scared by the crowds at Christmas in Disneyland and changed our plan to take a rest, we slept late and had a morning tea. And then we went to Universal Studios Hollywood in the suburban Los Angeles.
30-minute drive passed by the famous Hollywood Sign located in Hollywood Hills. It’s not easy to take a picture for it while driving.
This building is home to NBC Universal. We would arrive Universal Studios soon.
Compared to Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood is much smaller. Even on Christmas day, one day was enough for us to take a tour. CityWalk, a shopping and dining plaza, is outside the parking lot.
Stores on the street of CityWalk are selling souvenirs, brand clothing and delicious food. Every store is well decorated to match the style of Universal Studios Hollywood.
A rich neighborhood on the hallway of Hollywood Hills, although Beverly Hill is much more famous, such a nice view makes this neighborhood only for the rich.
During Christmas season, the crowds are everywhere. Everyone is inspired by those traditional festival decorations.
The Hollywood film crew were ready, just waiting for us to join.
Our CityPass also included the admission to Universal Studios Hollywood. So we avoided a long line to buy tickets, quickly entered the park and luckily caught the first show —— Water World. This is a live show based on a 1995 movie “Waterworld”. The story is that the earth is covered by water, people in future only can live in the floating islands. The leading actor Kevin is going to trade food on the island but is held by the host because of his webbed toes and fish gill. And pirates come to this island for food and the daughter of the host. Kevin helps them to fight with pirates. The show is about 20 minutes, including exciting speedboat chase, fire and explosion. We were totally involved and felt we were on site to see the Hollywood movie was filming. We definitely recorded the whole show but I cannot find my file. So pity. Please search online. Youtube must have those videos for sharing.
Shrek 4D Movie Theater, the line for a movie in a big theater is always short.
There is a waiting area inside. You can see the preview of the movie that Shrek will save the three piggies.
Shark is a hot topic of movies. But this big shark is so poor to be hung up here for us to take photos.
The Simpsons Ride, a roller coaster to do adventures with the Simpsons.
A big movie poster standing in the passageway that connects between uptown and downtown. It’s a good chance to take photos with super stars of Universal Pictures.
Hollywood Hills is over there.
The NBC Universal Experience is a live NBC newsroom for visitors to see how to broadcast daily news.
There are several rides, restaurants and gift shops in the downtown of Universal Studios Hollywood. We had already seen the incredible long line for Jurassic Park from uptown.
The ride of Jurassic Park is a river rapids ride to visit the park built based on Steven Spielberg film Jurassic Park. First, we visited the area for grass-eating dinosaurs, passed through a dark cave where a T-Rex opened its bloody mouth and jumped over the head, and our boat made a final splashdown to the bottom. We were soaked and thanks to California sunshine to make our clothes dry fast.
When we were taking a deep breath to relieve from the scared Mummy Ride, a parade was coming to us. Scooby was waving his hand to us.
The specials of Universal Studios Hollywood are selling Oscar Golden Statuettes as souvenirs.
Terminator Robot
The benefit to leave Universal Stuidos Hollywood until dark is this beautiful CityWalk decorated by colorful neon lights. It’s so different from the daytime.
Here is the map showing our one day trip in Los Angeles, including Universal Studios Hollywood and Hollywood Walk of Fame.
We left beautiful San Diego and drove 2 hours back to my friend’s home in Los Angeles. We were heading to Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, 30-minute drive away from Los Angeles.
Disneyland Resort is located in the center of Anaheim, California, which is second largest city in Orange County. It is the first and the only theme park designed and built under the supervision of Walt Disney. After going several amusement parks with his daughters, Walt Disney came up an idea to build his own park for kids and he received a lot of letters from fans who hoped to visit his Disney studio to know how to produce Mickey Mouse cartoons. Those fans’ wishes inspired Walt Disney to build a Disney cartoon theme park. So, Walt Disney bought a land in Anaheim in 1954 and spent one year to build the first park. Disneyland opened in the summer of 1955.
Since its opening, Disneyland has done a number of expansions and major renovations based on those beloved Disney characters. The whole expansions were completed in 2001, almost triple to the first opening one. But comparing to other Disney theme parks all over the world, Disneyland is still a small park. But Disneyland is still a top welcomed park because of its creator Walt Disney. Disneyland annually hosts around 16 million guests. We were honored to be one of them in 2008.
Disneyland Resort has two theme parks, one is Disneyland Park and another is Disney California Adventure Park. The two parks are connected by a shoppng and dining area “Downtown Disney”. If you are going there during the regular season, 3 days are enough to try every ride in the two theme parks. However, we went there during the Christmas season, the most busiest period of the year. Queueing everywhere was wasting a lot of time and made us to give up several rides.
So friendly “Welcome” board standing outside the parking garage. So excited we were. We were finally here. Going to Disney was one of our dreams. Now our dream came true.
A shuttle service from the parking garage to the park, what a nice service! Our Southern California CityPass included 3-day pass to the two theme parks of Disneyland Resort. We can get in any theme park. So we did not check which park this shuttle would stop. Where was the beginning of our visit all depended on this shuttle. This is why we always like relaxing individual trips, not those guided group tours.
The shuttle brought us to Disneyland Park. All right, this was our beginning of the 3-day visits to Disneyland Resort.
A train just arrived. We were rush to get on and the train took us directly to the top of Disneyland Park, Mickey’s Toontown, a kids playground. All the rides are for kids. We missed the schedule to meet Mickey and Minnie at Mickey’s house. And there is only one chance to meet them in the whole day. It is not easy to meet King and Queen of Disneyland.
One good thing to visit Disneyland during Christmas season is that special festival decors are everywhere.
Except Downtown Disney, there are a lot of gift shops at the every corner to sell toys and souvenirs in the park. Those shops are welcomed by those toddlers as well as big kids like us.
Thousands of visitors are in the park during Christmas season. If you are going to try every ride during the peak time, you should spend around one week in the park. Only local people have time but we had to pick several rides that not many people were waiting for.
Space Mountain Ride is an indoor roller coaster to simulate a spaceship driving in the dark universe. This game has been one of the most popular rides in the park since 1977. There is always a long line waiting for this game during the peak time. If you want to avoid the long line, you can buy Fast Pass in front of the door. Disneyland has a great operations management to speed up the line. We did not wait so long because a bunch of people can take this ride together. Our roller coaster flied to the space like a rocket.
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters is a laser gun shooting ride. Two people in one ride can shoot the target while taking the ride. MinMin was the best but I was the worst of our group.
“It’s a Small World” is the most classic ride in Disneyland. The Small World Clock has a cartoon characters musical show every 15 minutes, like a traditional cuckoo clock.
We took a boat to visit “the Small World” under the building.
The interior building feels much bigger. Hundreds of dolls in the style of children from all over the world with colorful lights welcome every guest.
Dumbo the Flying Elephant, let’s fly with Dumbo. It’s only in Disneyland that playing kids’ games turns adults to those little kids.
Snow White’s Scary Adventures, we took the ride to visit the dwarfs’ home.
Pinocchio’s Daring Journey, we also took the ride to see that Pinocchio’s nose grew. Most of those rides are for kids, we just found a place to take a rest.
Matterhorn Bobsleds, a roller coaster carries 4 people to climb to the peak and slide down the hill. It looks very exciting but it’s one of the longest line to wait in the park. The tip board that every door to a game had mentioned the waiting time was at least 2 hours. We had to give up because we had a very tight schedule.
This is a restroom in Disneyland, still well decorated.
Sleeping Beauty Castle, every Disney park has its own style of a castle. The castle of Disneyland Park is for Sleeping Beauty. The Sleeping Beauty is sleeping in that castle and waiting for her Prince. Except the regular colorful lights around the castle, Disneyland Park made a special festival lights decorations for this castle. That’s why a lot of people like joining the big party in Disneyland during the holiday seasons although thousands of people are lining up for all the rides, restaurants and even restrooms.
Disneyland offers fireworks every night and provides special festival shows for holidays, especially for Christmas season. We were totally involved by the spectacular musical firework show. At the end of the show, man made snow was falling, so magical.
Day 8 December 25, 2008 (2nd day in Disneyland)
Our first day just visited half of Disneyland Park. 3-day pass seemed very tight for us. Today was on Christmas Day, much more people came to the park. Disneyland did capacity limit on Christmas Day. Luckily our 3-day pass included Early Pass to any theme park. So we did not need line up for limited tickets, and also we can enter the park one hour earlier. We picked several popular rides before the park opened. A tip for the peak time, don’t buy tickets at the on-site ticket booth, booking tickets online is the best way. You will be desperate for the endless line. Even you spend several hours to get tickets, the capacity limit may have already been reached.
Tarzan’s Treehouse, Tarzan’s home is on the top of that tree. We crossed the bridge to be guests of Tarzan to see where he grew up and how to build his sweet home.
Mark Twain Riverboat, a 19 century steamboat to experience Mark Twain’s life on a steamboat of the Mississippi River. Before Mark Twain created “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, he was a pilot of a steamboat on Mississippi River. The sightseeing view perfect matches the real life of 19 century at the bank of Mississippi River. If you want to line up for one hour, you can try 18 century sailboat to make a tour of the river.
This is the most most popular ride in Disneyland Park. Actually it is a splash mountain that everyone has already played in other amusement parks. Why would people like to wait for two hours to take a only 10-minute ride? We understood why when we were on the ride. A wooden boat climbed the top and passed through several caves. Those caves were decorated to tell several stories to guests. When we were totally involved by those stories, our boat made a fake jump. When we just felt relieved, scream was much closer and we were ready to do a big jump that made everyone soaked, not only the first row.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, a honeypot ride took us to visit Winnie the Pooh’s home, meet his friends and go adventures with Winnie the Pooh in the forest.
Train station is in the center of New Orleans Square, you can take the train to every area of Disneyland Park. This old style of steam train was the train that we took at the first day to Mickey’s Toontown.
Haunted Mansion is also popular in the park, that’s why so many people were waiting outside.
Before the park closed at night, famous cartoon characters were gathering in front of train station. Don’t miss this good chance to take a picture.
Day 10 December 27, 2008 (3rd day in Disneyland)
In order to avoid crowds at Christmas, we adjusted our schedule and delayed the 3rd day trip to Disneyland to December 27. On December 27, we went to another theme park Disney California Adventure Park. Unlike the rides in Disneyland Park take guests to visit cartoon characters and listen to their stories, the rides in Disney California Adventure Park are more exciting and more challenging. This park is still designed for all ages.
A special theme restaurant at the gate of Adventure Park offers ice creams, sandwiches, burgers and desserts for guests to energize. Don’t eat too much, those rides in Adventure Park will make your stomach falling.
Condor Flats in Adventure Park is the only one ride here, Soarin’ Over California. I cannot judge this ride just by the name. A plane model standing outside the door implied that this ride should be a flight simulator. When we entered the room, it looked like a cinema, we sat down and waited for a movie. But our seats were hanging in the air and the wind was blowing to the face. Our seats were shaking like a glider flying on the various famous attractions all over the U.S.
The famous Grizzly River Run is over here. It is the longest, tallest and fastest river rapids ride in the world. The rolling raft we took was quickly dropping into the water and passing through caves. We were so excited and completely soaked although raincoats were provided.
Most rides are in Paradise Pier.
Our next target California Screamin was behind us. It is the only roller coaster at the Disneyland Resort to feature an inversion that can make you scream all the way and it is the fastest ride in the park. Roller coasters are always most popular in parks. There is no exception here, too. Luckily, the line was going fast. MinMin was scared by those loud streams and sneaked away.
This ride has been cancelled. There is a similar one in China. It is called as “Hundreds Birds Worshipping The Phoenix”. In China we rode a bird, here we rode a plane, whirling up and down. I felt a little faint when getting off.
This ride of Hollywood Tower is not only a Freefall ride but also a rocket launching ride. Sit tight, countdown and launch you like a rocket reaches the top of the tower in seconds. And there is no time for you to relieve or enjoy the view from the top, suddenly this ride turns to be a Freefall ride like jumping from a tower. It may be the most exciting ride in this area. Only two of us tried this ride. I must be the one of the most crazy people.
Traditional carnival games, such as skeeball, target shoot and bottle stand in tents
Another flight simulator, this is a flight simulator for a fighter jet. It’s a good ride to experience a real fighter pilot to climb up to the sky and spin in the air. But it’s so pity that Disneyland has cancelled this ride.
Muppet Vision 3D theater offers a 15-minute 3D cartoon in Hollywood Land. There are three or four movie theaters in Disneyland. Those theaters broadcast various movies, some are 3D and some are 4D. The reason why the theater is named as Muppet is that the Muppets are sitting around you to see the movie together.
A lot of Hollywood film sets are in Hollywood Land.
A Mini Hollywood Pictures Studio
You can see blue sky white clouds at night here.
A Mini Disney Animation Studio
This model shows guests how to make cartoon characters to move. The plate is whirling to make a Toy Story for us.
Main Street, USA and Downtown Disney are dining and shopping areas in Disneyland. Main Street, USA is a main street in Disneyland Park and Downtown Disney is connected between parks and resort hotels. It’s a good place for tired guests to relax.
Main Street, USA is connected between the gate of Disneyland Park and Sleeping Beauty Castle. There are cinemas, restaurants and gift shops on the street.
A popular tourist bus makes a tour from the gate to the castle alongside Main Street, USA.
This statue standing at the end of Main Street memorizes Walt Disney’s contributions to Disney Studio and Disneyland. This is the end point of Disney Cartoon Character Parade that holds twice a day in Disneyland Park. This square is a good place to see the parade.
Several statues of cute Disney cartoon characters are surrounding Walt Disney.
Disneyland is a kids’ paradise. Certainly lovely and beautiful kids are everywhere.
Goofy was warming up, the famous Disneyland Parade would start soon.
Downtown Disney is built between Disney resort hotels and theme parks. We passed by this store in the morning and did not find the special design of telescope. A big eyeball is much clearer at night.
Disney Store in Disneyland is much different from stores in shopping malls and premium outlets. Gifts are for all ages. More adult clothes, bigger plush toys and more home decor are around you. Shopping is my favorite, I cannot move my feet due to so many cutie stuffs.
Going to Disneyland must pick one day to stay till night, not only for fireworks but also for these beautiful lights. When lights are on, Disneyland becomes a real fairyland.
3-day trip to Disneyland ended. Although the crowds at Christmas wasted a lot of time to line up, we did not fully enjoy playing every ride. Having regrets in travelling always makes you miss it so much. Missing the trip makes you come back soon. Whenever we looked back at photos we took at Disneyland, smile on everyone’s face was so shining. Those smiles were from our hearts, so relaxing so happy. Disneyland is a magical place, like its ads, Disneyland really made our dream come true.
Here is the map showing our 3 days trip in Disneyland.
The sunshine was back. Everybody loves sunshine, especially for today. We were going to SeaWorld, a great place for all ages. San Diego SeaWorld is built on the coast and using the most economic and safest way to raise its animals by sea water of Mission Bay directly. SeaWorld has 190 arces, and is divided to three main areas, marine mammals exhibitions, marine mammals shows and adventure park. We stayed all day in such a big theme park.
Travelling to San Diego during the Christmas Season looks like staying in a tropical city.
Beautiful decors at the every corner of the park
A parking lot not for cars but for strollers, so lovely and friendly
A pool for manatees, seals and sea lions
So relax she was
The big one was certainly a manatee
A house for penguins
A keeper was feeding penguins who were rushing to fishes. So cutie.
Polar bears in the winter of tropical San Diego were still going to winter sleep. It looks like the sleep is not related to the weather. Whenever the winter is coming, they are going to the bed.
Here was an aquarium for fishes, turtles and aquatic plants.
We were at the bottom of the aquarium to see the sharks. White belly was not so much scared.
It’s the dolphin show. I cannot find our video record of this show. So pity. Make sure you are not in the “soaked” zone unless you want to be more fun or you have raincoats.
After the show, you can join the dolphin interaction program. A small box with three little fishes is provided to feed those dolphins that are eagerly swimming to you to ask for fishes.
She looked like very full, swam up to the beach to rest under the sunshine. This little bird was so jealous for such a relaxing life of the dolphins.
Look, what was inside the water? A white whale. She lives in the Arctic or sub-Arctic area and is listed as “near threatened” to be protected. White whales are also known as sea canaries because of their songs.
Killer whales are the treasure of San Diego SeaWorld. Killer whales are fierce and dangerous. Although they look very cute, they really attack and kill people. That’s why they are called as killer whales. A killer whales Tilikum in Orlando SeaWorld killed three people, two trainers and one man trespassing.
The best part of our one-day visit in San Diego SeaWorld finally started. The show of killer whales was on.
Let me share the great 30-minute show we recorded with you. Sorry I cannot find my original copy and I had to download the compressed file from another video sharing website that I uploaded before for my old blog. This quality of the compressed file was poor.
The wonderful show of the killer whales made us a happy ending for our 3-nights 2-days trip in San Diego. Los Angeles, we were coming.
Here is the map showing our Day 6 trip to San Diego SeaWorld.
When we left the zoo, the rain finally stopped, but the sun did not come out of the clouds and the strong wind blew. The bad weather did not destroy our good mood. Our next stop was USS Midway Museum located in downtown San Diego at Navy Pier.
San Diego deserves to be listed in U.S. top travel cities. Most hot spots are very close to each other. Tourists like us don’t need spend a lot of time on the road. It’s only 10-minute away from San Diego Zoo. What a convenient city!
On the way to USS Midway Museum, we made a wrong turn and then saw this plane model. We thought we arrived at our museum.
But we accidentally went to the real U.S. Naval Air Station. We nervously and quickly made a U-turn to get out. A car of four foreigners with cameras in the real military base may be a big deal.
Back to the right direction, the view was pretty good, San Diego Bay was over there.
We just passed the San Diego-Coronado bridge, a 2-mile bridge link Coronado to San Diego. A beautiful curve is crossing over the San Diego Bay. This bridge won the Most Beautiful Bridge Award from American Institute of Steel Construction. The five-lane bridge featured the longest box girder in the world until it was surpassed by a bridge in Chongqing, China in 2008.
Neighborhood near San Diego Bay
Luxury Sea View Apartments for sale, so expensive, around $500K-$600K for a one-bedroom condo
Hilton is a good choice for the rich or businessmen who can enjoy this beautiful sea view.
We finally arrived. A huge ship was in front of us. This was our destination —— USS Midway Museum. This is not an ordinary retired aircraft carrier, not only putting some stuffs for exhibitions to make it to be a museum. This aircraft carrier has a big name USS Midway CV-41. Someone who knows about World War II should know this ship and the Battle of Midway.
The Battle of Midway was a very important part of World War II, a famous battle among aircraft carriers. U.S. sent several aircraft carriers to fight with Japanese and won the battle to get the Pacific area including Midway Island back. This win played a big role in forcing Japanese to surrender.
This carrier was renamed to USS Midway CV-41 because she was a main escort carrier during the Battle of Midway. And the carrier is the last existing carrier who joined World War II. She was a super star not only in World War II but also in Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War. She got a lot of medals. U.S. can build such a great carrier in 1945. What a strong military capability! This carrier was the largest one in the world until 1955. And she served for an unprecedented 47 years until 1997. Since 2004, she has become a part of the beautiful view in the San Diego Bay.
We visited the inside of the carrier first. The museum used this big space to exhibit some photos, documents and models.
In the real world, planes, tanks and weapons were stored in this area.
We were on the deck. That’s awesome.
The deck of the carrier actually is a big parking lot. Retired fight planes, scout planes, transport planes and helicopters are parked on the deck for exhibition. In the ’70s and ’80s, Americans can make so advanced weapons. I cannot imagine how advanced current U.S. military weapons are.
A close-up shot for the in-service USS Aircraft Carrier 68 and Carrier 76
This is a world famous statue. Its official name is Unconditional Surrender. But people call it “Kissing” or “Love”. So romantic! “Unconditional Surrender” was from a real story happened in Time Square, New York. On August 14, 1945, everyone was celebrating the end of World War II because of Japanese Unconditional Surrender. A Navy soldier was so excited to kiss a nurse standing beside him. This kiss was shot by a reporter and became a legend. This statue was made to memorize this romantic and exciting moment. This statue is 25 feet high, it’s a really big and standing in the bay park near the museum. But the best angle to take a picture for the entire statue with a clear shot on the face is from the deck of USS Midway. If you take a picture in front of the statue in the bay park, you only can shot the big feet and thick legs.
The dark was falling, the colorful lights of USS Midway was on that made the steel ship more gentle.
Here is the map showing our Day 5 trip of San Diego.
CityPass is available for U.S. top travel cities that includes most popular attractions in one ticket. The package price that CityPass provides is much cheaper than buying tickets separately. That’s why you can see a lot of people are holding CityPass booklets at the entrance. Especially during the peak season, CityPass holders can avoid the long queue to get in the attractions directly. CityPass is our favorite travel toolkit to save time to make an itinerary and save money with the package price.
CityPass has a joint pass “Southern California CityPass” for San Diego and Los Angeles. Our package at that time included 3-day LA Disneyland Pass, LA Universal Studio, San Diego Sea World and San Diego Zoo. And our price was above $200, but the price is rising so much to above $300, and current package does not include this amazing attraction San Diego Zoo. Even current price of this package is above $300, but it is still much cheaper than buying tickets separately. 3-day Disneyland Pass $250 plus Universal Studio $80 plus San Diego Sea World $78 is total $408. Costco member can buy CityPass in the Costco website at $280, cheaper than buying from CityPass.com directly.
Day 5 December 22, 2008
San Diego Zoo is not far from downtown San Diego. The land area is about 100 acres holding around 3,700 animals. San Diego Zoo has its tour bus for tourists and designs a typical walk route to see animals one by one. We tried both at that day.
We got a very bad beginning, a thunder storm in the morning. Every tourist always prays for a sunny day. However, we met an unexpected snow in the desert in Las Vegas that forced me to buy a down coat. Now we got a surprising thunderstorm at the first day of San Diego. We had to buy raincoats from the gift shop when we just arrived at the zoo.
San Diego Zoo’s open-top red double-decker tour bus, it would be better to sit on the top in the sunshine.
After enjoying a 35-minute tour on the bus, we followed the walk route to visit animals closely. It’s still raining heavily. some animals were hiding but we still saw some were not scared of rain.
A group of flamingos, ducks and storks
Big animals are not scared of the rain, they look like enjoying the cool weather.
Some dangerous animals have to be caged.
Those cuties are always welcomed.
Only four zoos in U.S. rent Giant Pandas from China. San Diego Zoo is one of the four zoos and it is the only one zoo that has skills to breed pandas. Panda is always a super star in the zoo. Even in the raining day, the crowds are still lining up to see them.
I am scared of reptiles, those pictures were taken by MinMin, not me, I was standing outside.
These two pictures are the best among hundreds of pictures MinMin took. This one is Timon from “The Lion King”.
Another one is for this sleeping beauty. Even this chilly rain cannot wake her up.
Gift Shop at the entrance not only sells raincoats but also provides a wide selection of souvenirs.
Although we all got completely soaked walking in the heavy rain, we still insisted on finishing the guided 3-hr walk tour. It’s a really amazing experience. Don’t miss it.
Here is the map showing our Day 5 trip of San Diego.
We left Las Vegas and drove 5 hours on the U.S. Route 15 through Mojave Desert to Los Angeles where we picked up my friend. Thanks to her mom for inviting us to stay her house for one night to energize ourselves while sleeping until noon. Our group of four were heading to San Diego after lunch, a major city in California and adjacent to the border with Mexico.
Day 3 December 20, 2008
Thanks to arctic air to bring us the snow scene on the Mojave Desert.
Nice view of U.S. Route 15, road constructions in U.S. are well developed. You can make road trips across the country if you want. To avoid those hairpin turns and blind curves, they can pave a very straight road through mountains. I cannot recall how many mountains we climbed, only remember our PT Crusier was slowly climbing those hills with loud noisy engine. Although it’s so cool when the car was going downhill, several police cars were watching you. Although you actually were in the middle of the desert, you should pay attention to your speed while enjoying your road trip.
We finally were close to the city, we would arrive at Los Angeles soon.
Day 4 December 21, 2008
After shopping in Camarillo Premium Outlets, we were heading to San Diego and arrived at the downtown San Diego in the evening. We made a tour at the famous Gaslamp Quarter. Gaslamp Quarter is a famous historic attraction in the heart of San Diego. A lot of events such as carnival march are held in the Gaslamp Quarter. Especially at night, Gaslmap Quarter is a hot spot for not only tourists but also local residents. There are a lot of restaurants and bars in this quarter.
Westfield Horton Place, a famous shopping center in the Gaslamp Quarter
There are a bunch of stores and malls in the shopping center. But we went there for a great food court on the second floor. As San Diego is adjacent to Mexico, delicious Mexican food is very easy to access.
A big antique clock made by Joseph Jessop in 1905. Jessop and Sons is a local well-known jewelry store. This clock has been a San Diego icon for more than 100 years.
We can only see the colorful logo of NBC on the top of the NBC building at the dark.
When the dark is falling, people are coming to Gaslamp because the quarter is the best destination for lounges, restaurants and night clubs.
There are several special historic buildings in Gaslamp Quarter.
This building is one of San Diego historic landmarks, which was built in 1882. Now it has been renovated to apartments for rent.
Another San Diego historic landmark building, a luxury hotel has been running in this Victoria style building since 1887.
Surprisingly we found a Chinese Historical Museum.
Here is the map showing our route from Las Vegas via Los Angeles to San Diego.
We were going to tour the city of Las Vegas at night. In the city, except shopping or slot machines, nothing else can do during the daytime. So, we went to Hoover Dam that was 40-min drive from the city of Las Vegas. Hoover Dam is in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between Arizona and Nevada. The route 93 is a scenic road but it’s too winding too steep to enjoy the nice view while driving. We were lucky to have a responsible and careful driver.
The scenic Route 93, that is Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States
It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated by President Franklin Roosevelt but it was named after President Herbert Hoover. At that time, it was the largest power generation, until now it is still the largest one in the Western Hemisphere. The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China is the largest power station in the world. Hoover Dam provides power for Nevada, Arizona, and California. Hoover Dam is a major tourist attraction in the West Coast and nearly a million people tour the dam each year. In addition, “Transformers” (1st movie, released in 2007) was shot on Hoover Dam. I still remember that scene “a secret military base was built in the base of Hoover Dam and Megatron was frozen inside the Dam” .
This is the famous Hoover Dam, so magnificent.
Have you recognized this scene? A lot of robots were climbing down to the base of Hoover Dam along this slope to wake up frozen Megatron.
The real world of the base of Hoover Dam is the power generation, not the secret military base in “Transformers”.
Lake Mead, formed by Hoover Dam, is a part of Colorado River
The lake water is very clear.
The running Colorado River is making the power generation working day and night. The Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge was being built when we visited Hoover Dam. It was opened in 2010, the key component of the Hoover Dam Bypass Project that removed several hairpin turns and blind curves from route 93.
We only made a tour on the Hoover Dam. Tourists can visit the base of Hoover Dam and the power generation inside. The admission fee is $11 per person. Sightseeing was the key of our trip, so we did not go inside to make a tour.
Here is the detail map showing the 40-min drive from the city of Las Vegas to Hoover Dam .
We spent 14 days to travel four cities in West Coast during our first winter break in USA. 14 days seemed so long but we still cannot cover every corner of the four cities. Tourists can not be local people to check every spot leisurely. Hope we have a chance to go there again.
We departed on December 18, 2008 from Boston Logan Airport, made one stop at Detroit Metropolitan Airport and arrived at Las Vegas McCarran International Airport after 6-hour flight. Our West Coast Trip started from Las Vegas, drove to San Diego and then we were heading to the north via Los Angeles to San Francisco, total around 1000 miles. Only one of our 4-person group can drive a car at that time. Thanks to our responsible driver who brought us to those beautiful cities safely. Especially in the around 6-hour drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco, our great driver made a non-stop drive. When we arrived at our hotel in San Francisco, he cannot move his legs out of the car and he was chewing gums to stay awake while my husband MinMin and I went to sleep. Thanks to your driver again for everything he made for us.
Las Vegas, the Casino City, was our first stop. Although I went there once for a business show, I was on duty at that time and no friends or family was around me. I had no mood to look around. Compared to my business trip, this time my friends and family went there together. It’s completely different experience.
US Western Development is so successful. Such a big casino city was built in the middle of the desert. Every year millions of people go to Las Vegas for weddings, honeymoons or family vacations. Most hotels, casinos, malls, restaurants and bars are located on Las Vegas Boulevard. All hotels have their own casinos for their guests and tourists. They provide different types of gaming tables and slot machines with various rewards to attract people. And each hotel offers different performance shows, such as magic shows, circus shows and concerts. Foodies can also enjoy various delicious foods on Las Vegas Boulevard. The smell of BBQ in the air makes you hungry. That’s why people always pick Las Vegas as the first choice for family vacations.
Daytime Las Vegas is so peaceful, only few tourists are hanging out. Outside Las Vegas Boulevard, you actually are in the middle of nowhere, deserts are around you. When the dark falls, the lights are on and the music is up. The noise of slot machines is back. Laughing and dancing begins. The real Las Vegas wakes up.
Day 1 December 18, 2008
MinMin’s brother’s flight was late. He was our great driver. We walked around in the Las Vegas McCarran International Airport to kill time.
Airport décor told us we arrived at the desert. We thought we did not need coats in West Coast, especially in the desert. We were wrong. Arctic cold and snow just invaded the west. We surprisingly got the snow in the desert. It’s so freezing that I had to find the premium outlets to buy a down coat.
This is the Casino City. There are rows of slot machines in the airport. People are waiting for their airlines while playing.
This drawing is the beautiful view of Grand Canyon, the famous attraction in Nevada. But it was closed due to the snow at that time. So pity.
Our hotel Stratosphere is located in the north end of Las Vegas Boulevard. As it is not in the center of Las Vegas Boulevard, its price is fair. And guests of Stratosphere can go to its own observation deck on the top of the Tower for free. This tower is a separate building beside the hotel, and the tallest freestanding observation tower in US and the second on in Western Hemisphere, a little shorter than CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We were not on purpose to climb the tallest tower in US. When I wrote this blog and did some research, I just found we did climb the tallest tower in US.
The another end of Las Vegas Boulevard is a big neighborhood in the dark.
Day 2 December 19, 2008
During the daytime, we went out of the city for natural sightseeing. We visited Las Vegas Boulevard after dark. Although the boulevard decorated by the colorful lights is more charming, it is clearer to see the details of the buildings standing on the Las Vegas Boulevard during the daytime. Luckily, I visited Las Vegas Boulevard at noon when I went there for a business trip. Let me share several pictures for you.
Siegfried & Roy with their white tiger at Mirage, it was one of the most famous shows in Las Vegas, but the white tiger attacked Roy in 2003 and this accident forced Mirage to stop the show.
If you want to feel a real world of Las Vegas, you should hang out along the Las Vegas Boulevard to visit those hotels one by one like us. And there are some free night shows in front of several hotels, if you don’t want to miss any one of them, you have to check all the schedules on their websites and make a perfect plan.
Wynn looks more gorgeous when its neon lights are on at night. There is a great buffet in the Wynn lobby where you can see a free acrobatic show.
There was a free open-air musical pirate show in front of the hotel Treasure Island. This show was about 20 minutes. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled due to the chilly weather because those dancing girls were wearing bikinis and some dancers need jump into the water. So pity.
I saw the show twice when I was there for my business trip. That show was awesome but I cannot find my video record although I definitely recorded that show at that time. Anyone wants to see that show, please search on Youtube. But from now on, you only can see that show online because Treasure Island cancelled that show last year to rebuild for some stores.
Full view of the center of Las Vegas Boulevard
The view of the opposite side of Mirage
The Mirage Hotel and Casino where I stayed one week for my business trip
Mirage Volcano Show at front door
The Venetian, the snow was falling in the middle of the desert.
The Venetian is architectural replicas of various Venetian landmarks.
Caesars Palace Hotel
Caesars Palace is the replicas of the famous Roman landscapes. This is a small size of Trevi Fountain. We have never been to Italy. It’s a good chance to look at the replicas first.
Hall of Fame in Caesars Palace, Celine Dion was holding her small concerts here. But we need to book the tickets two months in advance but we did not. It’s my fault I forgot to check with the box office when we just decided to go to Las Vegas.
What a gorgeous decor in the lobby of Caesars Palace!
This is Bellagio Hotel that provides a world famous buffet. We heard people had to wait five or six hours to get a table for their buffet during the holiday seasons. So we had to skip it, maybe try it in the future.
This is my most favorite show in Las Vegas, a musical fountain show in front of Bellagio that let you completely forget you are standing in a busy and noisy Las Vegas Boulevard.
Hi, we are in France. Actually, this is Paris Las Vegas Hotel and Casino. It is also the replicas of several famous French buildings, such as Eiffel Tower. When we were walking along Las Vegas Boulevard, we seemed to walk with Doraemon who had his magic Anywhere Door that brought us from Roma to Paris.
This is a small size of Fontaines de la Concorde that should be in the center of Paris. Take a picture with the Fountain and post it on your social media. It must make your friends to believe you are in Paris.
Another small size replica — Arc de Triomphe, small but still magnificent, I really want to go to Paris to see the real one
Flamingo Las Vegas, here is a paradise for men because the famous Belly Dance Show is over here.
We were on the Brooklyn Bridge. Yes, we arrived at New York-New York Hotel & Casino.
A mini Liberty Statue in front of New York-New York, don’t miss the famous Roller Coaster, a better way to tour the hotel.
The end of the center of Las Vegas Boulevard is Excalibur Hotel & Casino, staying one night makes yourself to be a prince or princess in this sleeping beauty’s castle.
Our last stop was this MGM Grand Hotel & Casino. This is the famous MGM Lion Leo.
Photography is allowed in the lobby but cannot take close-up pictures for those gaming tables and slot machines. Most of casinos have same policy on photography.
Besides those various Casinos and Hotels, there are several special flagship stores on Las Vegas Boulevard.
It took us three hours to walk through the center of Las Vegas Boulevard, it’s so long. And there are several great hotels not far from the Boulevard, such as Egyptian Themed LUXOR Casino Resort. We can see the Luxor Sky Beam on the top of its Pyramid from MGM, but it’s so chilly outside. We hardly felt our fingers and cannot move our feet anymore. Any further exploration should be waited for the next time. Las Vegas, we promise we will come back. We haven’t seen Celion Dion Show yet. So we must come back.
Here is the detail route of our first day flight from Boston, MA to Las Vegas, NV .
Here is the detail route of our second day night walk along the Las Vegas Boulevard .
QiQi+MinMin+MouMou+Leo 