Home Sweet Home

AMOS - The little lion king, patiently waiting for us to come home

I'm blogging this post from home. We arrived safely noon today after been away for almost two months. The flight home was long, with the added leg from Hawaii. We spent a total of about 30 hours in the air and at airports. We are glad to be home. I'm signing off for now and wishing the next blog to be something like NEW YORK, NEW YORK.
Goodbye!!

Aloha Hawaii

Sunset at Waikiki Beach. A breathtaking sight
Dinner with friends at the Outrigger

At the Arizona Memorial

At Hickam Air Force Base. A view of the Officers Club. Hickam took a brunt of the Pearl Harbour attack and have plenty of remnants left, especially bullets holes at the Hq

The last part of our holiday was to Hawaii. We were here for two nights and the first night was actually spent at the famous Waikiki beach. We watched the sunset while having our dinner at the Outrigger Hotel restaurant. It was indeed a beautiful sight as the sun set and day turn to night. There were a large crowd at the beach and many more were in the water, some are surfing and others are playing in the shallow water.
The next day, I had the opportunity to play golf in the morning and right after lunch we visited the Arizona memorial. It was very touching to be at the memorial and to know actually a total of 1177 sailors perished during the attack on the battle ship. We were brought to the platform and saw the remnants of the ship underwater with part of the gun turret sticking out. We also observe traces of fuel from the sunken ship still visible on the surface. Apparently, the fuel has been sipping all these years as Arizona was fully fuelled when she was attack.

South to San Diego

Torrey Pines Golf Course at La Jolla. the home of 2008 US Open

The Aviation Museum. One of the many museums at Balboa Park, the home of famous San Diego Zoo. The aircraft at the front is the early copy of SR 71 spy plane

The USS Midway became a museum piece

Spanish Architecture. One of the many buildings in San Diego showing the Spanish influence

At the wharf. A nice place to relax and admire the beautiful harbour

We had an opportunity to make a visit to San Diego, the southernmost city of California. We took a rental from Los Angeles and with the GPS, driving there was a breeze. It took us almost 2.5 hours as the traffic was quite busy. But down here, if you have more than two passengers, you will get to ride on a special lane. That was what we did. The GPS also took us onto a new toll highway along the pacific coast before we join the San Diego highway. We checked into a hotel not far from the famous Sea World. We had a nice sea food lunch down at the wharf. The place definitely has a good business as the place is rather crowded. Well, the food is excellent and the ambiance is fantastic. The wall is pasted with old photographs of fishermen making big catches.

On the way back to LA, we make a detour (thanks to the GPS) to La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya) beach. The weather and the surf is just nice for the crowd to enjoy the water. Further up, we visited the famous Torrey Pines Golf Course, the home of 2008 US Open. We make a stop at the pro shop to buy some golf souvenirs. It was indeed a fun outing. We got back to the hotel in LA at about 8 pm after braving the heavy traffic.

Beverly Hills and Santa Monica

Santa Monica. The beach is made famous for the setting of the popular TV Series "Baywatch". The road fronting the beach is the Pacific Coast Highway, the same highway that goes all the way to Monterey.
Beverly Hills

Having coffee at Cafe 208. In the background is the Wilshire Hotel

The familiar sight of Beverly Hills. However this one is unique as it is bright yellow.

Beverly Hills is a city in the western part of LA. We had the opportunity to drive through the city, the playground of rich and famous. We passed through Rodeo Drive, Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard. Rows and rows of up market stores line up the streets which are dotted by many palm trees. Many tourists flocked to this area not only to browse the stores but to soak up the atmosphere of just being in Beverly Hills. Some are hopefuls to meet the celebrities and quite a number of them are just happy to snap pictures with the many exotic cars as the background. We stopped for cup of coffee and cheese cake at Cafe Rodeo 208. This cafe is on the Via Rodeo Drive, just above the "Spanish steps". This cafe also overlooks Beverly Wilshire Hotel, made famous by Julia Roberts in the movie "Pretty Women". We waited for a while to catch a glimpse of Will Smith, Eddie Murphy and Julia Roberts; but there were probably away at the movie sets.

In the afternoon, we proceeded to Santa Monica, about an hour drive from Beverly Hills. It was crowded with tourists and visitors and the air of festivity is always there. The street is jam packed with visitors strolling to the famous beach. There are also many street performers.

Pedicabs

Siapa sangka akan berjumpa dengan beca di California. Kami berjumpa dengan beca di bandar San Diego, bandar yang paling selatan dan berhampran dengan Mexico. Disini beca ini atau dipanggil "pedicab" (dari perkatan pedal cabs) adalah amat popular untuk membawa bukan sahaja pengunjung tetapi penduduk tempatan. Melihat beca ini, kami terus teringat Kota Bharu. Cuma yang berbeza adalah disini beca dikayuh oleh anak-anak muda lelaki maupun perempuan, lain yang di Kota Bharu yang dikayuh oleh Pak Cik.

Hollywood and Universal Studios

In LA, we had a chance to visit the famous Universal Studios. It was one of the most enjoyable visits that we had made during our holidays in the US. We were there for almost the entire day as we were mesmerised by the number of shows and exhibitions on the set. The high point was the tram ride round the estate that took us almost an hour. We were also awed by the quality of the rides as we embarked on three of them. They were the Jurassic Park, The Simpsons and The Mummy. We also shopped at the many stores available in the compound. Towards the end of the visit, we had a chance to be entertained by a cast at the set of "Waterworld". The play was magnificent as there were plenty of pyrotechnics and water splashing. Quite a number of the audience, including ourselves, were splashed. It was all fun.

Kong about to grab a pedestrian

One of our favourite store, "The Simpsons"

At the iconic globe of Universal Studios

On the red carpet, at the entrance

With Shrek and Fiona

At the set of "Fast and Furious"

At the set of "Jaws". The menacing predator can be seen swimming towards the crowd. The beach and sea setting for the movie "Jaws" was filmed here. As a matter of fact, this set was the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Ocean to Universal Studios

One of the houses of "Desperate Housewives"

The set for "War of the Worlds". Real aircraft and cars were used for this scene. This is a movie that I thoroughly enjoyed

With "Homer". He was not too happy when I punched his big tummy and his big arse. Duh.........

At the set of "Waterworld". The audience were seated in a stadium like setting with the cast acting a scene choreographed after the movie "Waterworld". Many of the audience were happy to be splashed by the water scooters and water jet blasters. Very impressive show, with lots of pyrotechnics and stunts

Down at Hollywood Boulevard. Crowding around the "star" of Michael Jackson, in front of the Chinese Theater.

Hoover Dam

On the way from Las Vegas to Grand Canyon, we came across the famous Hoover Dam. The dam was actually constructed in 1935 and now become a tourist site. Currently a highway is being constructed, cutting the mountain high above the dam. A long bridge is also being constructed to connect the highway. We saw the bridge construction, and it was a awesome sight to see the end of the bridge being wedge against the side of the cliff. The working gondola and crane is being suspended high in the air with cables running between two steel towers. An engineering marvel indeed. Unfortunately or fortunately we did no see Megatron here!!!

The highway and bridge being constructed. Have a look at the end of the bridge edged aginst the side of the cliff

The Hoover Dam

Lake Mead, where the water is channel to the dam