USA Roadtrip – Page 4 – Over 50 Aussie female solo traveller USA road trip and beyond

West Hollywood

Today the Californian sun was out. I strolled around Rainbow Harbour to Long Beach Harbour which is the resting place of the retired RMS Queen Mary. This ship is permanently moored in the harbour and used as an hotel.

Next to this majestic ship passengers were boarding the Carnival Imagination.

Long Beach is getting ready for the Grand Prix in April

Next stop was The Abbey in West Hollywood. Manny and Leo wanted me to experience this famous gay bar and their gogo boys. We had an unexpected surprise that the bar had an Oscars viewing party happening.

My drink for the afternoon was a hot chocolate with Baileys and Frangelico. Yummy.

Of course I couldn’t leave without getting a photo of the gogo boys.

Stopped out the front of Pump for Karen.

Entrance to Elton John’s Oscar party. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a way in.

I can now say I have been on Route 66.

Thank you so much Manny and Leo for showing me so many fun and interesting places. I look forward to when we meet again.

Naples Island

I think I have found where I want to live outside of Australia. I wonder how many times I will say this on my trip?

Today (3 March 2018) I walked down the main shopping strip of Long Beach to Naples Island.

I walked across the bridge over the Rivo Alto Canal into an area of beautiful homes which are built on canals similar to the canals of Venice and Venice Beach.

I went into 2 open homes. A 3 bedroom home off the canal area for $USD1.5M and a 3 bedroom apartment for $USD800,000 with no canal views.

Cute gardens and a house with a USA/Italian flag.

I enjoyed an afternoon at Manny and Leo’s friends’ housewarming at Westmont.

Then authentic Mexican food from Tacos El Gallazo diner. Did you know what we have as tacos in Australia are American? Tacos are actuaĺly more like our tortillas but thicker and much more delicious.

Long Beach has a high population of Mexicans. Many of the people I have met are teachers or work in the education system. The majority of the children they work with are from very low socio economic areas (projects in USA – housing commission in Australia). The children in these areas are lucky to have the support of these committed teachers who work in very difficult situations. Not to mention the real threat they all have with gun violence in schools. The schools all have drills they carry out in case of these situations. This includes preschool aged children. The solution the government has to arm teachers does not appear to have much support amongst the people I have met.

Long Beach

It is only Day 2 (2 March 2018) and Manny and Leo have set the bar so high that its scary.

The day commenced a bit dreary and cold. I thought “it never rains in California” but today was not so. I went for a walk in the rain and got saturated while looking for somewhere to have my fringe trimmed. I found a barber shop which was open at 9:00am (this is quite early for the area). I was so desperate to have the trim that I allowed the Guatemalan wife of the barber to do the job. She hardly spoke English but with my “pocito”Spanglish she did the $5USD job. Manny and Leo laughed so much when they saw how bad it was that Manny needed to tidy it up for me. I really should have done it myself.

Then I went to the school Leo works at “Broad Avenue Elementary” at Wilmington. I met children at their Book Fair and had a chat with the Principal who is keen to communicate with my School Principal friends in Australia.

Some children are fed 3 meals a day at this school

Book fair and they have this koala story.

Manny then took me to the Sunken City of San Pedro, where several exclusive cliffside houses were lost in 1929 in a natural landslide. We then went to the Korean Friendship Bell at Angel ‘s Gate Park on top of a beautiul lookout.

Next stop was the Point Fermin Lighthouse and Park, after which we enjoyed a beer (I had “The Dog Ate My Homework”) at Brouwerij West where I met the Assistant Principal of Broad Avenue Elementary.

We finished off the day being entertained at Hamburger Marys with a fun night of drag shows and dancing.

Sydney to Nadi

Getting to Sydney airport at 3:30am is not much fun, although no traffic. The flight to Nadi was good except I hope I don’t experience another flight surrounded by 8 children under 5. If they were my family that would be totally different. Luckily it was only a 4 hour flight.

I have a 10 hour stopover in Nadi. Note, if you have more than a 6 hour stopover, you cannot check your baggage through to your final destination. I could not use the Business lounge until I checked in my baggage and could not do this until 5 hours before my flight. So you drag your luggage around until check-in time or pay for the luggage to be stored

Better Solution – 5 minutes from the airport, the transit centre offers a range of facilities. They pick you up and take you back to the airport in time for your next flight. You can have a shower, use free wifi, watch a movie in a comfortable room with lounge and beanbags and have a 20 minute foot massage, they store your luggage and they have an area for you to have a sleep as well for $38FJD.

I also had a 60 minute body massage for $100FJD. All of this equals $88aud.

The full body massage was wonderful except when I fell off the massage table. That is a problem when you are vertically challenged and try to jump onto a massage table which is waist height and fall in an embarrassing naked heap on the tiled floor. After being assisted onto the table my dignity was restored.

Pre travel excitement and packing

I have three sleeps until my flight from Sydney Airport to Los Angeles with a 10 hour stop over in Nadi Fiji. Travelling with a stopover can reduce the price of a flight substantially. A flight from Sydney to Los Angeles is approximately 15 hours and I find breaking up the trip assists reduce jet lag.

Packing is always tiresome. The rules seem to be “halve the amount you have packed” and wear layers, especially when the weather fluctuates from a low of 4°C (26°F) to a high of 28°C (83°F). But how many layers can you pack with a luggage weight limit of 23kg (50lb). How do people travel with less than 10 pairs of shoes? A pair of walking shoes, thongs (flip flops), reef shoes, and normally a pair of shoes for each outfit but I will control myself and take one pair of stiletto sandals and one pair of closed in stilettos. I can always buy more on my travels but that will mean an additional $150US in excess baggage.

Luckily I had my son’s girlfriend assist with culling my wardrobe. Now I can buy lots on my travels.

Want to go USA road trip

1 March 2018

The yellow pins show where I have been and the green pins are where I plan to visit over the next six months. When I find something interesting I add the green pins to my map. These include haunted houses, best small towns to visit in each State, movie locations. I will change the green to yellow as I visit each place.