Adventures in Los Angeles, CA - Days 1 and 2
At the beginning of the month, B and I took advantage of a stretch of days off and decided to head to the west coast. The furthest west I've ever been was Phoenix in the southwest and Seattle in the northwest, so we decided that Los Angeles would be a perfect place to spend a few days to get out of the Wisconsin winter.
Our original plan was to leave on Wednesday of that week, but an ice storm was predicted to roll through so on Tuesday night, our flight was cancelled, then rebooked, then cancelled again. We were able to rebook for the first flight out on Thursday morning (thank you Southwest Airlines!) which I was grateful for because there was supposed to be more snow coming through later that day.
He always looks like he's a prisoner.
The flight was the longest US flight I've ever been on, going just to the 4 hour mark. I was able to get some podcast listening done, read a few chapters of my current book, and watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Podcasts I'm currently loving:
Views from the window seat.
Peaks. Valleys.
Requisite first stop - In 'n Out, double double!
We stayed at the Sheraton Universal, which ended up being a pretty decent location. It's pretty central to a lot of the attractions in that area and we were only an hour drive away from the coast. While the location was good, the hotel was just meh. The days we were there it was quite cold, only a high of 55-60 degrees (which does not feel the same as 55-60 in Wisconsin!) and the common areas of the hotel were absolutely FREEZING. There was a shuttle that ran from the hotel to the entrance of CityWalk at Universal Hollywood, but over the four days we were there we only saw the shuttle TWICE. It was only a 15 minute walk from the hotel entrance to the park, but that was kind of frustrating when it was so cold in the evenings.
Our first night there (Thursday night) we went to a sushi restaurant, Wasabi, at Universal CityWalk that was quite delicious and had great food. B had a great bourbon cocktail with his dinner while I enjoyed my sushi rolls.
We were able to purchase our park tickets from the concierge at the hotel and saved $20 per ticket doing that versus buying them at the gate. You can also get the same deal purchasing your tickets online.
Welcome Home.
In the morning on Friday, we woke up early to go get breakfast. Using Yelp we found a cute little diner-type place in Universal City and I had the most delicious strawberry banana Nutella crepes. Oh, and about five cups of coffee.
Since we bought our tickets online, we were able to get into the park at 9:30 am instead of 10 am (not as good as the on-site guests get at Universal Orlando, which is an hour). First you have to go through security and have your bag checked, then line up to wait to get in. First, they let you in about 100 feet into the park, then the employees stop you at a roped off area until 9:30. Luckily, where they stopped us was right by the in-park Starbucks so we popped in there for a coffee.
Our first stop was of course, Hogsmeade. I was surprised by how big the area was, since it is only Hogsmeade compared to Universal Orlando's Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. There are many of the same shops and food options, including The Three Broomsticks, Zonko's, Honeydukes, and Owl Post. There's also a Platform 9 3/4 Shop by the Hogwarts Express steam engine that has a ton of travel-themed goodies.
After doing a quick walk-through, we took the escalators down to the lower lot and did the Universal Studio Tour ride since the wait times for that can be astronomically long. The Studio Tour ride is very interesting - they take you through the history of Universal Studios and some of their iconic movies, some movie sets, and there are some "thrill ride"-esque parts to it as well.
Once we got off that ride, we took the escalators back up to the main lot and went back to the Three Broomsticks for lunch. I had the Fish and Chips, B had a grilled cheese sandwich of some sort. Both were very delicious.
In the afternoon after we left the park, we decided to drive the PCH for a little bit and took in the sights of the ocean around Malibu. Such gorgeous views and a really quaint area, save for the fact that those houses sell for millions.
I'll have days 3 and 4 up in a post shortly, which will include our visit to the Warner Brothers Studio and a special Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts exhibit!
I also have a Highlight on my Instagram all about our trip, feel free to check that out here!