Monday, March 23, 2015

Day 1 - The Longest Day

There have been times when I'd pray for more hours in the day. Well, today that prayer was answered. This first day of our trip was by far the longest day of our lives. For me, it was 45 hours long, for Bazz, 42 hours. And there wasn't much sleep to be had either.

Bazz hit the ground running, leaving in a rush to get Brisbane to catch his plane to Auckland not long after he woke up. I had a busy morning, finishing off some last minute work things before only starting to pack half an hour before I left for the airport.
Leaving Nelson

After a flight each we met up in Auckland, had dinner in the lounge and watched some cricket, before we were called to board our plane.
Watching some cricket in the lounge
When we booked our tickets, we did a sneaky and booked an isle and window seat, hoping that no one would want to sit between us. Unfortunately our plan didn't work, but Lauren was happy to sit on the Isle and Bazz and I got to sit together.

Neither of us slept much on the plane, we chewed through another dinner, and both watched Interstellar. Before we landed we talked a bit, Lauren worked out that I was pretty smart, especially with history, geography and politics and that Barry thinks he knows... things. 

We had breakfast and settled in for landing and finally, after an 11:55 flight, we landed and disembarked. Customs let us through and we made our way to our hotel on an airport shuttle.
A few police cars



Oil wells next to the freeway

After we settled in and got ready we went for a walk to the train station to make a trip down to Ananheim to watch the Ducks vs the LA Kings. 

On our way we avoided the people dressed as superheroes or stars on Hollywood Boulevard, because I knew they hustled you for money, but we were totally scammed by two 'artists' who gave us crappy burnt cd's for $20... each. We are wiser for this experience. 

Getting ready to leave the hotel in our Ducks and Kings gear
The Hollywood Walk of Fame
Some interesting stars we found















We caught the subway, which was Bazz's first experience on a subway. 
'What you takin' a photo of?'

While transferring between trains we explored Union Station, the central station of L.A. I got a Wetzles Pretzle and gave Bazz a try. We totally get why pretzels are a thing. 

We caught the hour long AmTrak ride down to Anaheim and made our way to the Honda Centre. We found a bar on the way and stumbled upon a large gathering of Kings fans and Barry made himself at home. We hung out with the Kings fans, were interviewed by a Czech news crew, check it out here. Finally, we went into the game.
The Honda Centre

Two Brews with two brews







Corey Perry

And what a great game! It had lots of atmosphere and some good fun. And the best part... the ducks won in over time 3-2!
At the Ducks game

Ducks warming up














The Honda Centre after the game

We made our way back to the train and while waiting at the platform, we met three Aussies who are traveling over here. We caught the train back with them and made our way home. On the way, we saw an episode of 'Lucifer' being filmed on Hollywood Boulevard!
Filming Lucifer

After having a good old rubberneck, we stopped at In n Out Burger for a feed and went back to our hotel. I organised a few things for the next day and put an end to my long day. Bazz decided to head out for a drink and came back later to end off his day. 
In N Out Burger





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