man versus kit kat

Feb

“Do You Have Any Guns In The Car Ma’am?”

By: muttler

hoover dam

nevada

united states

Welcome to Nevada!

08/02/2022

Today we left LA (a bit sadly… I would have liked maybe another day), and hit the road. The plan was to head from LA toward Death Valley, to a town called Pahrump, on the Nevada side of the National Park. We got away fairly early, braving the morning rush hour traffic. As we were heading out of town, it was pretty good all things considered.

Kate was very excited about one stop were were going to make in Pasadena. The destination? Rockler Woodworking and Hardware. Yep, a hardware store! Kate often laments how we don’t get good woodworking gear in Australia, and that the US gets all the good stuff, with the goodies from Rockler being the prime example. She was stoked when she realised how close by we were going to a store, so in we popped.

She was a kid in a candy store! “Oooh!” I would hear her exclaim periodically, and something else would go in the basket. Ha ha! In the end she did well, and we should have a reasonable shot at getting it all home 🙂

From there, it was on our way. When we got to Barstow, we decided to pop into the famed outlets, but they were pretty lousy, so we just took the opportunity to get some more In-N-Out Burger before they disappear as we head further east.

Given we were making great time, Kate had an idea. She had always wanted to see the Hoover Dam and we hadn’t really worked out how to make it work in our travels. Why not go today?! It would add about 3 hours of extra driving, but given it was only lunchtime, we thought let’s go for it!

So rather than head to Pahrump, we veered off towards Las Vegas. Just as we approached the main part of the city, we scooted east and in no time were at the Hoover Dam.

As we came into the main area, we were stopped for a quick security check. We thought we may have to let the guys look in our car. Kate was driving, and all we got was a “Do you have any guns in the car ma’am?”. “Um, no?”, was the reply. They were content and off we went! We parked, and wandered across the dam, as well as the main traffic bridge. It really is an incredible sight and engineering feat. Hardly anyone around too which was nice.

The sun was starting to go down so we jumped back in the car and headed back toward Las Vegas, scooting underneath and toward Pahrump.

Pahrump is a fairly nondescript place… seemingly for business conventions and things where gambling is OK but not with the craziness of Vegas. So we visited Walmart to grab some supplies for the next day and took it easy in the hotel. Death Valley tomorrow!

Feb

Yipee-Ki-Yay

By: muttler

united states

Nakatomi Plaza!!!

07/02/2022

Before hitting the road on our National Parks quest, we had a free chill out day in LA. After getting in the previous night we thought best not to get straight into hours of driving. So today was designed to be a fairly low key day, just popping to some spots in LA to relax, but also still stay fairly clear of hoards of people.

New Beverley Cinema

After a lazy start, we wandered off to the Farmers Market for some lunch. I had visited the Farmers Market back in my first trip to the US in 1998, and so had a little twinge of nostalgia to go visit. On the walk, we wandered past the New Beverley Cinema. What a nondescript place from the front! Alas, I wouldn’t have a chance to see a film, but nice to see the Tarantino-owned movie house in the flesh.

Trejo's Tacos

At the Farmers Market we had our choice of cuisine, but there was no mistaking what it would be as soon as I saw it. Trejo’s Tacos. Yep, that Danny Trejo, film legend. Kate had been jonesing for some tacos as well, so win win! As far as tacos go, we thought they were alright. Nice and spicy too 🙂

From there it was off to the one thing we had planned… a visit to the Academy Museum. Yep, the Academy Awards academy. While housing a permanent collection of film memorabilia and information, it was mostly to visit the temporary exhibition presenting the legend that is Hayao Miyazaki. Yes! We were lucky enough to be in town when exhibits of his sketches, storyboards, watercolours and other process drawings was there.

It was an absolute delight. The works were stunning… not only is he an incredible filmmaker but also a true pencil and paint artist.

No photos sorry, as true to Ghibli form, it was no cameras allowed.

The rest of the museum was cool, seeing artefacts and costumes. Highlights had to be seeing some Fantastic Foxes, R2-D2, Bruce Lee’s nunchaku, and The Dude’s dressing gown.

From there it was a little bit of shopping for Kate. Best thing was the shopping centre’s proximity to a bonafide piece of movie history. NAKATOMI PLAZA! Yes, that of the absolute classic Die Hard. Yipee-Ki-Yay indeed!

Amoeba Records

The night ended with a visit to one of my favourite places, Amoeba Records. It had relocated since my last visit, from its classic home, to just a few blocks away. And it still had that same Amoeba charm. I said I wasn’t going to buy any records. Yeah, I lied.

Shake Shack

My burger challenge continued, this time with a burger from Shake Shack. Wars are raging between Shake Shack and In-N-Out. While I think the patties are a little better in the Shake Shack, the In-N-Out has the sauce and the rest for me to give it the win. Let’s see how many burgers I will eat over the coming few weeks.

Feb

Travel In The Age of COVID

By: muttler

Tastes Like the US!

06/02/2022

Wow. It has actually happened. We have left Australia.

I obviously don’t need to bang on about this, but after 2 years of pseudo house arrest, as soon as we had a window of opportunity to escape, we took it. We were strategic… we thought what would be as safe a holiday as we could do that was still a little adventurous and felt like an escape. So we landed on flights to LA, then grabbing a car and visiting a bunch of National Parks.

Then Omicron came and we thought, “ugh… what do we do”. Well, we have decided to brave it. We are triple vaxxed, taking every precaution… and here we are!

I have to say, the travel was actually quite smooth, easy, and felt safe. We had our PCR tests on the morning of our flight (the most nerve wracking bit), kept masked the whole time, and were on a 80% full, but smaller, QANTAS flight to LAX. The flight was smooth, but the most joyous part came at LAX. Used to immigration and baggage often taking 2 hours, we were through in under 20 minutes. Yep. Literal 5 minutes for immigration, and then just the wait for the bags to arrive. LAX International was a fair ghost town, but I tell you… this whole travel made us definitely think we had done the right thing. I can’t imagine having this luxury in LAX again anytime soon!

We arrived in in the evening, so really only had time to get the car, drive to our hotel (the Magic Castle Hotel in Hollywood) and have a late dinner before trying to rest. I took the opportunity to enjoy the nearby In-N-Out for their tasty double cheeseburger. I really do LOVE these burgers. Plus, it reminded me that after 2+ years, we weren’t stuck in our house anymore.

Nov

8 Year Old Me Loses His Mind (So Does 40-Something Me)

By: muttler

disneyland

Tuesday (5/11/2019):

I didn’t really say that this trip really came about because of my work trip landing me in the US, and that Kate had not had a chance for a holiday all year. After all the work with our renovations, Kate deserved a trip to her happy place so a few days at Disneyland were in order!

It also worked out well, as what new addition was there to Disneyland? Galaxy’s Edge (i.e Star Wars Land)! I was SO excited for this. I had probably done a little too much reading about it, but that was OK… I had to be prepared. And what were the main orders of the day? Well, a trip on to the Millennium Falcon ride “Smugglers Run”, enjoying some Blue Milk, dropping in to Oga’s Cantina (full of scum and villainy), and… BUILDING A FREAKIN’ LIGHTSABER!! Indeed.

I’m not go into all the details for the Disney adventures. I have written about the parks a bunch. So it will be mostly photos (plus that gets me doing these entries quicker!). I will also go a little light on the build a lightsaber experience as I think the less you know the better the experience for that one. Needless to say I was a grinning idiot the whole time 🙂

We also did ride on some of our favourites, especially Haunted Mansion. But today was about taking it easy and exploring the new land.

Nov

Mid Century Modern

By: muttler

disneyland

palm springs

And now the holidays begin! I had flown back from Pittsburgh to LA and spent the night there ready to begin more adventures…

Saturday (2/11/2019):

Kate arrived on her overnight flight from Melbourne tired. But that was OK… I had fairly much adjusted to the time zone and was doing OK. So I met her at LAX, and we went and grabbed a car ready for a few days of driving into the California Desert. First destination was Palm Springs! We had always wanted to go and finally we were going to make it.

After some stops to freshen up and eat and outlet shop, we made it to Cabazon, just out of Palm Springs. It is home to a fairly dodgy looking Dinosaur tourist park. We didn’t go in, but stopped to see the dinosaurs out front like everyone else.

Mid arvo we arrived in Palm Springs and checked in to our hotel, the suitably 50’s Orbit-In. It was great. The owner was a fantastic guy who made us feel very much at home. The hotel was a time capsule to 50s vibe and was a blast. We even had “Orbitini Hour” at 5pm… drinks on the house by the pool. Ah, this is the life.

We didn’t know before we booked but it was actually Pride Weekend in Palm Springs! It meant the main street was going crazy with all kinds of pride events and festivities. It was great fun seeing everyone out for a good time.

We had good times of our own planned. As luck would have it, one of our absolute favourite artists, Shag, was having a print launch at his downtown gallery space! YES!!! So after some tasty Mexican food, we went to have cocktails and chat with the great man himself. We even treated ourselves to a couple of prints.

Sunday:

It was Pride parade day, but sadly we had already planned our day to check a bucket list item off… visiting Joshua Tree National Park. So we disappeared out of town before it got too crazy and made it to the National Park. It was a glorious day, not too hot, so we began our drive from South to North West.

First we weaved through the Colorado Desert, which is quite barren and mostly very furry cactii. Highlight is the Cactus garden where you can explore amongst hundreds/thousands of medium sized cactus plants.

From there you go over a ridge and into the Mojave Desert where the landscape instantly changes. We saw lots of rock and boulder formations, and the Joshua Trees start. Skull Rock is a stopping point and I couldn’t help but climb into the eyeball. Getting down was the hard part 🙂

We also went to the top of the main ridge and looked down on Palm Springs. It was quite hazy but still spectacular.

But it is the Joshua trees that take the cake. People say they are Seussian in their appearance and they definitely are. They are a sight to behold.

Sunset was very early so around 5pm the colours changed a little and the sun set on what is an absolutely gorgeous place.

We were given the tip for place to visit for dinner, a place called Pappy and Harriett’s. We had no idea what it was but went anyway! It turned out to be a cowboy bar of sorts in a place called Pioneertown, not far from Joshua Tree. Turns out it was a movie set in the 40s! The place was packed and a buzz. We had some great burgers and drinks and made our way back to Palm Springs.

Monday:

Alas it was time to say goodbye to Palm Springs already. We definitely did not have enough time there and both vowed to go back.

On the way out of town we visited the Aerial Tramway, to go to the biggest ridge above Palm Springs (not back in Joshua Tree). It is close to 3000m altitude and often has snow on it! We caught the tramway up and looked out over the area.

We also had time for some sneaky “Welcome To Palm Springs” type pics 🙂

When we entered Palm Springs a few days earlier, a couple of billboards caught my eye which I revisited. They had the legacy of some early Shepard Fairey (i.e. Obey) pasters on them that I had to stop and get pics of.

We fought the traffic back toward LA and arrived at our home for the coming days in Anaheim. After dropping the car off, we rested for a little bit and then decided it was time for a drink to wind down. Where did we go? Trader Sams of course!