Free & Easy Los Angeles – Chapter 3

This is yet another over-due post…..

Disneyland 

After a long and tiring day at Universal Studio, we have an even longer day at Disneyland the next day! As mentioned in one of my previous post about Disneyland, we started our journey before 5am!! As we stayed near the airport, we have to take shuttle-train-bus to arrive in Disneyland situated at Anaheim which was about 2 hours ride in total…

Since it was Holloween period, the entire park is dressed in Holloween’s decor. It is really amazing to see all their refined decos/props which they will change every seasons! At least the money we paid for the entrance fees are worth every cent! Compared to our local themeparks (you should have guessed which one) … aiyoh all so rusty and full of dust but yet still charged exorbitant entrance fees and often use recycled props… or a lot of out-of-service signs!

The entire place is really huge and one day (8am-6pm) is just not enough to finish visiting every attactions in the park and Disney’s Adventure Park is just opposite! That is why they have Parks-Hopper ticket which can be used for a certain amount of days. 

Basically we went for those popular rides but then again the Qs are unbeliveable! Also due to the Holloween weekend, people just flocked the park after noon time and even with Fastpass (a special ticket with return time issued at each attraction to avoid long Q) we still have to Q!

For kids, Fantasyland is a dream come true… even Darrius is intrigued with those rides! I went on most of the rides but still missed some cool rides as the Qs were just too long and we are so short of time as we wanted to catch the parade too. The most chi-kek (thrilling)rides I took were the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Frontierland) and Space Mountain (Tomorrowland)… even PiggyBeng is not game to try!!! Matterhorn Bobsleds was closed for renovation so can’t rate the chi-kekness…. hehehe Other must take fun rides are the Indiana Jones Adventure, Haunted Holiday Mansion (Night Before Christmas) and Pirates of the Carribean.

From Mon-Thurs there is only one parade which is at around 3.30pm and on Fri-Sun, there are 2 parades and a fireworks. The parade is one of the park’s spectacular so try not to miss… too bad we have to skip the fireworks session….

While we are trying to board the bus home, there were a little commotion which has sparkled into a racist thingy… The incident started with a Caucasian guy’s earphones was accidentally caught somewhere when he was trying to board the bus and he angrily pushed the person behind him who happend to be a small Mexican girl. The girl’s mother was so mad that she pulled the man down but he continue to board the bus and later he turned around and pushed all those standing behind him!! This caused the Mexican girl, her mom and some other passengers to fall on the pavement… we were lucky to have stood on the far end. The the man hurled some racist remarks (You Mexican – Go back to your country!) and the entire bus load of people got furious.. and one of the passenger (a security staff of the park) pushed the man out of the bus! Then we found out that the guy was also a staff of the park…. What a shameful thing he had done… I’m sure Disney’s management will not tolerate such behavior.   Well, the incident gave us a good fright!

Del Amo – Torrance (LA)

Free & easy leisure day after 2 hectic day out. We went to Del Amo in Torrance to meet up with a blogging mommy – Whosisbaby and her family. It was so nice of her to meet up with us and bought us lunch too. It is such a bummer that both of us were so busy chatting and minding our babies that we forgot to even snap photos! Anyway, we had lunch at Hometown Buffet located just opposite of DelAmo Mall. After lunch, Whosisbaby showed us Target and ToysRUs which was just across the street before parting so we can have some time to shop and look for a car seat for Darrius.

We did some shopping at Macy’s, Sears and Burlington Coat Factory. We found the Munchkin’s food feeder (demo by Darrius in the photo below) selling only for US$2.99… so we quickly grabbed it as the price in M’sia is double of that! Would have wanted to get more but it was the last piece… Look at Darrius in the photo above-right, he was so tired after the long day he just dozed off in his stroller – with style!

On Sunday, we moved to another hotel so decided to have a R&R day instead. After we checked into the next hotel we ventured out to the nearby shopping area called Culver City which is near Fox Hill Shopping Mall. There are Target, ToysRUs, Bed Bath & Beyond and some other shops too. We had our lunch and did some groceries shopping.

Chinatown, Pasadena and Beverly Hills

We went to LA city again as PiggyBeng wanted to snap some photos of Disney Theater. The architecture of the building is very nice. We only snapped photos from across the street and did not go in to see what how is the building’s interior is like. We have a lot to cover for the day, so did not spend too much time here.

Our next destination was Chinatown. I was quite surprised that the LA’s Chinatown is smaller than I have expected. We only walked along the main street and stopped by one of the food store for brunch… aiya, forgot to take photo ler. Food was ok but PiggyBeng find them a little unhygenic. Price wise, quite reasonable.

From Chinatown, we took a train to Pasadena. Pasadena is actually a small arty-farty town. There are some art schools or colleges there… did not check those out. We walk around some of the streets and later we saw this restaurant selling Hot Wings… PiggyBeng said it’s very nice so we went in for a bite as I’ve never tasted it before but have a rough idea what it’s. We ordered the 12 wings set came with carrot and celery sticks and dips (they count the drumlet and wing as 2 pcs…. so 12 pcs is like 6 pcs only!) with 2 drinks… free refills. What so interesting about these hot wings was how they rate the spiciness of the sauce… they have mild, hot and suicide! Upon hearing the last one… we decided to stick with just ‘hot’. On first bite, it was ok but after the 3rd pc, we were perspiring! So, imagine if we were to take the ’suicide’ sauce!

After the hotzzzz wings, we decided to take a bus to Beverly Hills. It’s a long ride from Pasadena but there’s a lot of sceneries so not that bad. When we arrived, we walked to Rodeo Drive… where all those big names boutiques resides. Were trying to look out if we can catch glimpses of some big movie stars sipping coffee at the cafes but… no luck leh….

After all the unsuccessful stars gazing at Beverly Hills, we took another bus back to the city which pass by HRC. HRC is actually at this mall where Bloomingdale departmental store is but I can’t remember the name of the mall. Went in to HRC and bought a beanie bear for USD$9.90… a bit on the ex side but… it’s Hollywood mah….

Long Beach

Our last day in LA that week was Tuesday before we leave for Las Vegas. It was a cloudy day… Maybe because it’s Holloween? hehehe

Anyway, we went ahead with our plan to go down to Long Beach. Again, it’s a long journey. We took the train all the way. Long Beach is a beautiful place… very clean and neat. Some of the signages are like those seen in some designer books or magazines… very nice! There’s even a Convention Centre near the beach. See the photo below, Hyatt is a really nice place to stay if you are in Long Beach!

We walked along the pier where there are some shops around with a few restaurants too. As it was a week day, business seem a little slow or maybe we are too early??? I love those palm trees… all look so nice!

Then, we went for lunch at Hometown Buffett (yes, again!) at City Place. Darrius was making lots of noises and he threw the biscuits I gave him all over the floor…. damn embarassing! But then again… look at his cheeky face… all anger gone!

Holloween in LA 

After lunch, we head back to Culver City – ToysRUs to get the car seat for Darrius as we will be collecting our car later. After paying for the car seat, Piggybeng went to get the car which was just next to our hotel while I waited with Darrius as he can’t be in the car without the car seat…. it’s compulsary to put babies and toddlers in a car seat in the US. So I went about looking for a Holloween costume for Darrius… it seemed that almost all the shops are being ransacked by people who came in for last minute Holloween shopping! Finally I managed to get a little Lion costume from a pharmacy for 50% off!

When PiggyBeng returned with the car, we quickly fixed the car seat and head off to Torrance as we made appointment to meet up with Whoisbaby and her family to go for ‘Trick or Treating’ at a neighboring residential area.

Look at Darrius and his cheeky smile in his new Holloween costume. Charming baby Brandon is really big size for a 8-month old! This photo was taken when Whoisbaby and her family was about to leave as Brandon’s daddy need to sleep early so they can’t stay longer. Even baby Brandon has taken his costume off! Baby Brandon has a very cute Caterpillar costume and you can view it here.

One thing about the Holloween celebration in the US, is that people are practically sitting outside their houses waiting for those with costumes to come trick or treat.. which is really different from my previous experience in Perth… that we only open our door when someone knocks… the feeling is different somehow. Also, people here really spend on their costumes… some even with beautiful make-up and lots of accessories too!

After Whoisbaby’s family left, we continue our treat or treating for another 30 minutes. We are really amazed with the way some of the folks decorate their houses and compounds! This is really a good experience for us, especially Piggybeng (initially he has refused to go but agreed after much bugging) and he was having so much fun collecting candies for Darrius! Not to mention witnessing the grand scale of the celebration.

The photo above was taken at one of the decorated houses, these folks really treat Holloween as a grand event… some even played ghastly screams and smoke… there were more photos that we took but did not turn out nice as it was really dark…. and our camera is not those top of the range type so can’t really capture beautiful night scenes. Anyway, nothing beats the real thing…. being there to see and feeling it!

Related posts:

1. Free & Easy Los Angeles – Chapter 2
2. Free & Easy Los Angeles – Chapter 1
3. Halloween in LA
4. Preview – Disneyland, LA
5. We Survived the 15 Hours Flight!