Canada

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Following our trip to South America, I came home with a plan up with to catch up on various crafts – sewing, scrap booking etc. Consequently, on one hand I got a lot done; on the other, I completely lost my writing mojo and this is my first blog for quite some time.

Now I have it back ….. because we are in Canada!

Nice to have a direct flight, from Brisbane to Vancouver. Not so nice the 13-1/2 hour flight. Good thing I can sleep pretty well so don’t have a problem with jet lag.

We are doing a Trafalgar tour with a group of 24, so together we made our way from the airport to the car ferry, heading for Victoria, Vancouver Island, where we spent 3 days in our Worldmark accommodation, very conveniently located, a short walk from Fisherman’s Wharf.

The locals were feeling the heat, with temperatures around 30 degrees, but we thought it was great. Love Victoria, the beautiful buildings, friendly people and hanging baskets of flowers everywhere.

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Also it doesn’t get dark until about 10.30pm which was absolutely amazing for us. We can’t even get daylight saving in Queensland, so we thought it was wonderful to be able to walk around town in the evening and watch all the buildings light up.

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Counting Down to South America

In a few days’ time we will be on our way to Buenos Aires for our trip around South America. This is our itinerary – we will be boarding the Emerald Princess for a 30 day cruise and will disembark in Los Angeles, where we will spend a few days before flying to San Francisco for a few more, then back to LA to fly home.

It’s been far too long since our last cruise so we’re very excited. What will Cape Horn be like, I wonder? Of all our cruises (including around the world) we’ve never really experienced rough seas yet, so will our luck hold out once again?

Hope you will follow along and share our adventure.

Los Angeles, U.S.A.

Sat, Aug 10

This morning we arrived in the port of San Pedro, looking forward to our day in LA, but first we had to complete a face to face inspection by Customs Border Protection immigration officials. This was conveniently carried out onboard, and as we had already been photographed and fingerprinted in New York, we were quickly processed and then were free to join our excursion.

We had a very informative guide who gave us a lot of interesting facts about America’s second most populated city, located in Southern California and 130 miles north of the Mexican border. Our first stop was the Disney Concert Hall/Music Centre; featuring stainless steel curves on its striking exterior, this 3.6 acre complex is one of the most acoustically sophisticated concert halls in the world.

We then went to Olvera Street; the birthplace of LA, this colourful village features 27 historic buildings and a marketplace offering traditional Mexican food and handcrafted Mexican wares. I was very pleased to discover a leather purse that I had seen in Brisbane at 1/3 of the price!

Next stop was Hollywood Boulevard, home to the Walk of Fame, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum, Madam Tussauds’s and the TCL Chinese Theatre (formerly Grauman’s) featuring elaborate Chinese-style architecture, and over 200 Hollywood legends hand and foot prints, set in the concrete of its forecourt. They were all quite close together and it was a bit difficult trying to take photos in the timeframe we had – especially with the sun in the wrong spot and just as we would go to take the shot, suddenly someone’s feet would appear right in the middle of the frame!

You could not leave LA without visiting Beverly Hills and driving down Rodeo Drive – the shopping mecca for the wealthy. Hundreds of the world’s top labels and icons can be found here. We were amazed to see a menswear store which opens by ‘appointment only’ … the cheapest item we were told being a man’s handkerchief costing $100. The owner’s motor vehicle was parked out front – a Bugatti Veleron – according to our guide worth over $2M!!

We were very pleased to have an extended tour around town – we thought we would be done by 1.00pm but didn’t get back to the ship until 4.00pm, so we were able to spend a good length of time at the Farmers Market browsing the many shops and enjoyed a great hot dog and fries for lunch. We noticed many Mexican restaurants and we love Mexican food, but just too well fed on the ship to indulge in a big meal unfortunately. We were amazed at the prices of souvenirs and clothing generally, so much cheaper than Australia.

Unfortunately we were not able to go the Hollywood Bowl, as it was closed to the public in preparation for a concert that night with Willie Nelson.

Once back at the ship, we took advantage of the free Waterfront Trolley to take a quick trip around San Pedro (not the most attractive part of town), then back to the ship about 6.00pm. The weather was warm with a breeze coming off the water … similar to our weather in Queensland but with low humidity, making for a very pleasant day.

We loved LA – we travelled on some amazing freeways, saw many landmarks familiar from movies and television – Fifth Avenue, Wiltshire Boulevard, Cedars-Sinai Hospital, Paramount Studios, CBS – just to mention a few, and thought that the type of housing in the pretty leafy suburbs was very similar to ours. Instead of skyscrapers there were lots of palm trees giving the city a nice tropical feel and people in general were relaxed and friendly. We felt very much at home.

Next stop: Hawaii