Dharma & Nita travel blog

Final morning, was a bit sad, this was the last day of our holidays! Plan was to vacate the apartment by midday, and leave the VAN loaded and in the secure undercover parking.

Kids were ready by around 11am, then it was time to start loading the VAN. We had soo much luggage, this time we required the last row of seats to store additional luggage.

(our combined luggage ready to be loaded in the VAN)

Whilst me and Vik were loading the VAN, Pooja and Aaria were enjoying their dolls.

VAN loaded, apartment cleared, it was now time for all of us to head out to Hollywood Blvd, for lunch we headed to the same Sushi place near out apartment, Nita wanted the Spicy Chowmein and kids wanted the Sushi!.

After a good lunch, it was time to head to Madame Tussards and also do the walk of fame!

my next home theatre should have Dolby Atmos

Along the way, we got approached by the Madame Tussards sales agents attempting to lure people in with $10 OFF vouchers, we ended up getting one for everyone, not a bad saving of $40 per family!

At Madame Tussards, now to mingle with the famous identities…

with George Clooney

Taylor Swift

Beyoncé

Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift

Beyoncé

brangelina

brangelina

BradNita

Lady Gaga

My fresh prince …. Will Smith

hubba hubba!!

casting time

ooh dear, just could not resist!

Charlie

Charlie

three Charlie’s

better view from down under!!

kebab mein haddi

sssshhhhh

oh no, naughty & guilty

oh no, naughty & guilty

oh no, naughty & guilty

Spidey

Spidey

Spiderman powers, clinging on the ceiling

Hunger Games

Bond Girl

shoot some hoops

ahhhhhh !!! Mr.Lee it was not me!

Hunger games

Zoro !

Bendit like Beckham

Tiger this is how to do it

ouch!! wrong direction

Beat it like Michael

not to worry Whitney, I am you BODY guard!!

ooooi Vik, it is time for Action, Steven is waiting!

Robbin, let’s go!

ET!!

ET I can see it

ET

hang on ET, we are almost there

Fruit Ninja champion!

Jim!

Mr President, can you please tell me dad to extend our holidays

Mr. President, my Unicorn loves this place

I told you Kirk, this was not the right way!

Rocky vs Dharma

Mr Forrest – life is just like a box of chocolates

Dance with Patrick

let me show you how to dance

Groovin with John

Hurry up, get in the car!

Groovin with John

Bond girl

Mini Bond Girl

with Tony Stark

Saw Thor(Chris H) just a few days back!!

Captain America

Iron Man, I am soft girl 🙂

are they sharp!

Finished the wax museum, time to roam about.

With the best Ogre – Shrek

My first crush – Tom

Me and my unicorn

I love this place

Ghirardelli is soo yuummmm!!!

We saw him in Disney

this one is for me

Headed to Ghirardelli for our final sundae and chocolate fix. We ended up buying some more chocolates for home. Very good sundaes here!

Around 5pm we headed back to the apartment carpark, time for us to head to the Airport.

It was peak hour and the drive took around an hour.

Arrived at LAX, dropped off the ladies and kids along with the luggage at the terminal, now to go and park the VAN at the designated LOT C parking. We did not realise LOT C was not in the airport terminal area but outside the airport area serviced by regular shuttles. Me and Vik must have wasted around 15 minutes trying to figure out where LOT C was! Finally we located it and headed there. Parked the VAN, locked it up and sms’d United Van Rentals on where we had parked the VAN. Got the Shuttle back to the terminals.
Check in process was painless, no issues with luggage.
Going through security, the queues were BIG, whilst arriving to join the line, a security lady directing people noticed Aaria in the stroller and motioned us to take the express route which was for disabled or parents with kids. The youngest kid in our group had allowed us to jump the queue.

Got through immigration and first stop was to have a dinner – our flight was at midnight, long wait ahead. LAX had a great depatures area with loads of dinning options. We opted for Mexican, it was very good!
Post dinner ladies were off to Duty free shopping, kids were chilling at the lounges.

The girls having their last hugs before boarding @ LAX!

Boarded the aircraft around 11:30pm, long flight back home.

Arrived in Brisbane with no immigration issues at all, except for the very long queues.

All tired waiting for pickup @ Brisbane

This has been a  great amazing holiday, kids have had a blast, we have enjoyed the entire experience and it was even more fun with our two families going together. Big thanks to Meeta for the amazing research she did on all the key sights, without that we would not have even covered half. The pics cannot do justice to the level of fun we had!

the gang on Day 2 of trip @ San Francisco – the CITY we fell in love with..

Lots of memories from this trip, never thought USA would be so much fun .  Mine and Nita’s opinion of US was simply big cities with no character, we could not have been more wrong, it seems we will be visiting US again very soon!

Now to plan for the next trip …… NEW YORK!

And for a quick slideshow of this trip, 

So Proud of Neha, she has started her blog and in the process I have learned heaps from her, all the galleries in my blogs have been her teaching! Her blogs are at:

https://nehakalyan.wordpress.com/

Last full day in LA today, not much planned other than a visit to Boyd St, a tour of Downtown LA and then the Science Museum.

Pushpa kaki (Nickesh’s mum) had told Nita and Meeta about Boyd st, apparently the place had a great little store that sold very good kitchen pots/pan/utensils and everything kitchen at amazing prices. Both the ladies wanted to go there!

We left the apartment just before 11am (slow start today), drive to Boyd st was only about 15 minutes!
First impression, what is this place, the place was old and not clean, loads of boxes/packaging lying on the street side, stores were more like mini warehouses. We found a street parking around the corner, walking to the Boyd St Kitchen store, we passed loads of stores selling soccer gear! This place was like a wholesale market, with each street specialising in a particular department. Reached Boyd st, and yes, it was stores selling Kitchenware and did they have everything from Pots to big outdoor stoves (like the mandal style stoves) to every other kitchen stuff. Nita and Meeta were like, OMG, this is soo good, we should get this, look at that and on and on!
Left them to sort out their shopping, me, Vik and kids headed to a shoe shop next to the kitchen place. Kids shoes were unbelievably cheap, picked up a pair each for all the little girls – more luggage!

Ladies needed around an hour to complete their shopping, in the end they had collected a fair bit of stuff, me and Vik could not get over how much they had put aside. We did not have that much space in our luggage!

(kitchenware shopping by the ladies)

The guy at the store was very helpful and upon our request packed it all in two boxes ready for check-in at the airport.

Loaded the boxes in the VAN, headed off to Downtown LA. Drove around a few key blocks. No one wanted to get off, just a drive by was good. LA downtown was not so great, not much at all when compared to San Francisco.
Then headed off to Figueroa St, location of the Staples Centre. The place was massive, it also had some good eateries, time for lunch.

lunch time, awesome burgers here

For lunch we decided on SMASH BURGERS, it turned out to be a great choice. The place had amazing burgers and the sweet potato fries were sooo good!

Walked around the place post lunch. Had not realised the Staples Centre is the venue for the Grammy Awards!

Back to our VAN, next stop was the California Science Centre, this was something my work colleague Amy had highly recommended, especially to view the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Parking in the carpark, the first sight was wow, a massive US Airforce Spy Plane the A-12.

Stepping inside, there were some great exhibits, started off with the space exploration area.

whose rocket can fly first

Space toilet

Endeavour Shutte

This place had too many cool exhibits, and lots of things you could play, kids were having a ball with it all. The earthquake exhibit was very good, Neha enjoyed that heaps and was able to relate to her recent assignment on how the buildings are now designed to handle earthquakes! The place even had an interactive model showing what happens to the ground during an earthquake, some very cool stuff.
The Space Shuttle Endeavour exhibit was the highlight, we were amazed at the size of it. We spent close over an hour at the Endeavour exhibit! Was very cool learning about how the shuttle worked, how the two disasters occurred. Also had not realised, but it is only the FRONT NOSE section up to the cockpit where Astronauts liveable area is during the mission. The rest of the entire Shuttle is CARGO zone! Pooja wanted to try Astronaut ICE CREAM, essentially dry ice cream not requiring any freezing, this is the same product used by Astronauts. We tried that, not bad!

It was already past 4:45 pm, time to make our way out of here.

Time to head back to the apartment. Kids had a great time here, none of us were expecting this place to be so good!

Heading back, first stop was the large Supermarket on Sunset Blvd. Had to buy Hershey’s and Twinkles for family back home! Supermarket visit was another 45 minutes, it was interesting exploring the aisles, package sizes were much bigger and prices much cheaper! Shopping done – more luggage, now to dine and head back.

On Sunset Blvd, came across a busy Thai restaurant, well we had tried lots of other cuisines but not American Thai, why not! Luckily there were no wait times and we were quickly seated. Unfortunately food was average and nothing to rave about.

Managed to get to the apartment before 9pm! No one was going out tonight, kids were ushered to sleep, whilst the 4 of us got busy with the packing! This was very time consuming. Lucky Meeta had her portable scale, ensured all bags were limited to 23Kg or less.

It was a long night, by the end of it, we were all sorted and ready for tomorrow.

(Lots of luggage)

A relaxed schedule today, mainly sightseeing around the place and ending @ Santa Monica.

Kids were not rushed to wake up, me and Vik headed down to Hollywood Blvd Starbucks to get our morning Coffees & Chai Latte fix. Back in the apartment time to get everyone sorted and ready for the day.
Like every morning in this apartment, Vik had bollywood music running on the TV, it was great having ROKU TV, every morning a different hindi filmi stream.

Me and Meeta worked out the optimal route on google maps on what sights to see and in which order – this was essentially the same itinerary the other tour operators were using, since we already had our own BUS there was no need to use them!

(kids ready to go, Pooja with her Unicorn!)

First stop of the Day, the Griffith Observatory, it had a good vantage point to view LA and the Hollywood sign.

The Griffith Observatory is sitting on the south facing slope of Mount Hollywood in Griffith Park. It was about a 30 minute drive from our apartment.

(LA, viewed from the Griffith Observatory)

With a clear day, it was a perfect setting for viewing Downtown LA and the Hollywood side of LA. Stayed up there for over 30 minutes.

Next on the list was Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive. Driving down from the Observatory, Vik took the scenic route, a bit longer but much better views. It was well worth coming here.

(on Sunset Blvd heading to Beverly Hills)

Navigated our way to Sunset Blvd heading towards Beverly Hills. Aaria & Pooja were getting a bit hungry, stopped by at McDonalds, we all decide to grab a quick bite there.

Back on the road, drove through a few suburban Beverly Hills streets, lots of large houses with manicured gardens and lawns. It did put my lawn to shame  . And then it was Rodeo Drive.

Did not hang around there too long, could not risk the ladies going shopping here !!

Arrived at Santa Monica just after 2pm. Drove around for a bit to get our bearings and the best place to park.
Found a car park that had a clearance of atleast 8feet! Vik drove the Van in and moving on to the second level I noticed the ceiling significantly lower that what it was when we entered, not a problem for normal cars but definitely an issue for our oversized VAN. Quickly stopped and looked around, there was a sign stating ahead was only 6 feet clearance! U –turn in a tight spot, Vik was having fun maneuvering our large vehicle , heading down again, we were in luck, someone in the lower levels (in the 8 feet clearance area) was just vacating a spot, parked in there!  Now to explore the place.
First to the Third Street Promenade, an open air mall for foot traffic only.

Ladies got excited with the opportunity for more shopping, me and Vik along with the kids headed our own way. It was visiting candy stores, Converse stores to see how you can order you own custom printed shoes, Guess store and finally at the Apple store, Vik wanted to check out the apple watch, still not sure what the big deal about that watch is. At the Apple store we noticed a new tool which our Soccer boys may be interested in!

(improve your kicking skills with the smart BALL!)

(Neha and Pooja mucking around at the Guess store)

Met up with the ladies, the Promenade was done, now to head to the Santa Monica Place (another mall) for afternoon tea and cakes! Found a small french patisserie in the open area – UGO Café, had an amazing Chai Latte and Cheesecakes! Just the right afternoon pick-me-up! Kids opted for the Gelato. Ladies were soon gone to explore more shopping opportunities….again! Me and Vik hung around with the kids, roaming about.

This also gave the kids a good break before our walk down to the Pier. Ladies joined us just after 5pm, we all headed down to the Pier. We were hoping to have dinner on the Pier @ a Italian restaurant recommended by Deepa Jamnadas.

Onto the Pier, it was a Carnival atmosphere, lots of people, stalls, rides, food and surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. The Italian Restaurant was open which we were hoping to go to, made a reservation for 7pm, giving us an hour to explore the Pier.

one of the ladies had photobombed another pic, asked her to join in, all her friends got interested!

Looking out to the Pacific Ocean

time for a ride on the roller coaster for the kids.

Headed to the restaurant, was so good to simply walk in and not have to wait! Restaurant was called “Ristorante Al Mare”.

Got a great table with views to the ocean and the Sunset!

Food was very good, everyone enjoyed it that night!

Time to head back, tiredness was creeping into kids

(Santa Monica Pier at night)

Loaded everyone back into the VAN, headed back home via Sunset strip, we wanted to do a drive by and see what it was like at night.
Passing that, it was quite a let down, not many people and not many restaurants/pubs, in comparison our apartment was in a more buzzing area! From all we had heard, the Sunset Strip was supposedly a very buzzing place!

Back in the apartment, it had been a good relaxing day, not much running around, this time our VAN was doing all the running around!
Tomorrow our LAST FULL DAY in LA

Kids were settled in the apartment, headed out to Hollywood Blvd for another good night. It was my 41st!

We were surprised to see Hollywood Blvd closed off, opp the Dolby Theatre with fencing and red carpets lining the road, yet only minimal crowds around. And staff were rolling up the carpets! Did we just miss something!

Asking around, found out it was the World Premiere of Avengers the Age of Ultron. If only we had been here about 2 hours ago!

Headed to the upper levels of Mall attached to the Dolby Theatre (Hollywood and Highland), lets explore the dining options there.

Settled for Mexican @ “Cabo Wabo Cantina”. Me and Vik ordered the waiters suggested Margarita, Nita wanted a creamy cocktail – nothing on the menu so asked him to make the Dharma special – LOVE ON THE BEACH, Kahlua Malibu & Cream. Meeta ordered the same. Not everyone does this right, however this place must have had a good bar-man, he made them spot on.
Food was good but not great, the San Diego OLD TOWN Mexican was still the best so far.

It was after 10pm we left the place and back on Hollywood blvd. The red carpets were gone, the fences were still there and rows of Black Audi limos were now parked on both sides of the blvd. A few people had gathered at the Dolby Theatre street entrance. Asking around, apparently the world premiere was about to conclude and the celebrities would be coming out anytime.
Why not hang around – well that is what our ladies wanted to do. With nothing else planned for the night, that is exactly what we did. Most of the crowd were outside, we along them, however the cold weather was making it difficult, me and Vik decided to just go in the Dolby Theatre building and wait inside, was much better inside.

It was approx another 20-30 minutes before we saw someone we recognised.

Samuel L Jackson

Neal McDonough (Captain America, Agents of Shield)

some tv star…. not sure who?

Then a few members of the crowd ran out, apparently the celebs were exiting a different route…

Crowd building outside!

Ming Na-Wen (Agents of Shield)

Aaron Taylor Johnson (played Quicksilver in Avengers)

Chris Hemsworth (played Thor in Avengers)

James Gunn (Director- Guardians of the Galaxy)

Jon Favreau (Tony stark’s driver in Iron Man)

Brett Dalton (Agents of Shield)

Clark Gregg (Avengers, Agents of Shield)

Paul Bettany (the voice behind JARVIS – Tony Starks Computer in Iron Man, Avengers)

Chloe Bennett (Agents of Shield)

It was around 12:30, decided to call it a night, had seen enough celebs – Me and Vik would have loved to see Scarlett Johansson and Nita, Meeta similarly were longing to see Robert Downey Jr, unfortunately not this time, they will have to wait till the next trip!

Officially 41 today, but still feeling like 30!

Our final theme park for the trip today – Universal Studios, another early start. The apartment was great, organising breakfast was so much easier, the Wagh Bakri Masala Tea Nita brought along was working out well, needed a good cuppa to start the day.

All loaded in the VAN and headed out, could not believe when we arrived at the Studios in under 7 minutes. Well still had over 45 minutes before the park opened. What else but take pics.

Through the gates around 9:50am, then a further few minutes of wait inside until the 10am open. Vik had the scheduled sorted, first up, to head to lower level to finish off the key rides whilst crowd levels were low. Did not realise how low the lower level was until we came to the Starway, connecting the upper level to the lower level. We were around 200 –300 metres above the lower level! And connecting the levels were 4 BIG escalators.

We went on the Transformers ride, Mummy coaster and the Jurassic Park ride – which had a good chance of getting wet! Queue times for all were minimal, max wait time was around 10 minutes!

All the three rides were brilliant, The Transformers had so much realistic 4D feel to it, the Mummy coaster was quick and Jurassic park was FUN.
Fun fact for Jurassic Park ride, if riding with kids, make sure you do not sit with them in the same row if you have a big tummy or if they are super slim!! Each row can seat 4 people with a single handle bar securing all. For my row and the same with Vik’s, the handle bar stopped at our tummy (12 pack), which also left the kids with a fair amount of gap between them and the handle bar leaving them not too secure! Not a big problem, but on the last fall their bums were a fair bit off the seats , kids were not too impressed! Dian and Neha were very mad at us!

Great start to the morning, Time to head back to the upper levels, for more fun.

Finished off the special effects show, was very interesting on seeing the tricks that are possible with the Camera lens! Neha enjoyed that heaps!

Caught up with Betty Boop, lovely girl she is! As soon as she found out it was my birthday, she fetched a Birthday tag, wrote my name and left her lovely kiss on it !

Now for the Waterworld Show. This was the same set that was used in Kambakht Ishq movie.

This was an awesome show, especially the climax with the plane! Thoroughly enjoyed.

More exploring in the park

Next we headed to the Hollywood Studio Tour. This was in a 4 car tram driving us through the sets of TV shows, movies and also giving us a bit of hollywood action!

The King Kong 3D experience was brilliant, lots of Dinosaurs running around us!

KingKong 3D experience wa s brilliant

the famous cars used in movies…

the famous cars used in movies…

the famous cars used in movies…

the famous cars used in movies…

flash flood, hollywood style

flash flood, hollywood style

flash flood, hollywood style

flash flood, hollywood style

flash flood, hollywood style

flash flood, hollywood style

Vik very interested with this billboard

Drove through Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives, Nita and Meeta knew these very well.

On the sets of “War of Worlds” plane crash scene

The one hour tour went too quickly, it was very very good and loads of fun! This is sooo highly recommended for anyone coming here!

It was time for me & Vik to catchup with Marylyn

Next to explore the Simpsons Ride, another 4D virtual ride. In the queue, came across a name I know!

A bit of Sholay, Yeh Dosti!!

yeh dosti

Pooja: Neha I am chilling, just drive

Best buddies!!

kids are off….

selfie time

future director

future director of LONDON PARIS NEW YORK 😉

assistant director of LONDON PARIS NEW YORK 😉

Girl power

We had completed the park and all the key attractions in good time, it was approaching 6pm, we had done well to finish it all. Time to make our way out.

But first some shopping. Pooja wanted her Magic Unicorn, she had been crying for that!

On the way out, LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!

Lights Camera Action !!

two directors of this blockbuster vacation

It had been a very good day at Universal Studios, very very enjoyable, Nita was rating this theme park very high, even higher than Disney!

Outside the park, explored the Universal CityWalk, a three block shopping, dining and entertainment precinct.

None of the dinner options appealed to us (well not with kids), decided to get takeaway Pizza for Dian, and Sushi for Neha & Pooja. Then to our VAN.

What a sight, our big VAN all by itself in the car park. One perk of an extra large vehicle, we get to park very close to the entrance, no need to park in the big multi-level car parking for cars – which is always a fair walk away.

(hurray – we have done all the theme parks for this trip!!)

Headed to the apartment. Kids settled in, now for the four of us to head out
…..night birthday party with celebs continued on next post!

Today was a visit to Artesia, having lunch at Surati Farshan and then to Citadel outlet mall for some shopping therapy for the ladies.

Last few days had all been early starts, today was not one of them, bit more relaxed. At 10:30am we were still in the apartment just chilling, well getting kids organised to leave.

Arrived at Artesia around midday just in time for Lunch. Made our way to Surati Farshan Indian Veg – this place is apparently always busy, and it was the same for lunch today. Lots of food options. We ordered lots of Chaats, Dosa, Chana Bhatura & Nita ordered a THALI – she had been longing for a good veg meal! Food turned out very good. Then it was time for Gulab Jamun, kids were loving it.

After lunch we spent around an hour just walking around the place to see other stores in the area. We came across an eye brow threading place, Nita was – why not.

It was then off to Citadel outlets, got there around 3:30pm and were there till almost 7pm! More shopping done by all. Kids were very tired by then, Got back to the apartment, it was a task to carry all the shopping up!

(so much shopping, ladies in overdrive!!)

Once in the Apartment sorted kids meals with room service (well me and Vik were the room service waiters and delivery boys!). Dian had a Pizza whilsts my girls had sushi again.

By 9pm there they were all good and none of them wanted to come out with us, left them in the apartment with a phone and the 4 of us headed out. It was my birthday in Australian time zone and I had already got lots of birthday wishes from that size of the world, so why not celebrate it a day earlier in US.

We decided on Hard Rock Café, but before that I had to have a pic with the Hollywood Female Cop!

(very friendly the US cops!)

HardRock food was good, settled for a couple of burgers shared between each couple leaving enough capacity for desserts.

Vik had also arranged a surprise birthday dessert for me, thanks mate!

It was a great night and very very enjoyable one, this was the first time we 4 were out on our own without the kids and it felt so different and hassle free!

Great finish to the day, tomorrow was Universal Studios!