The Grand Tour...Day 10 LA to Hawaii

[charly77]

We had a little lye in this morning and once everyone was up we packed and checked out. We wanted to get up to Griffith Observatory to see the Hollywood sign a little bit closer.

If I’m honest I was more impressed with the observatory, it was a spectacular building and I wished we had more time to spend here so we could go inside…another one for next time!

Think our favourite saying was ‘next time’, it’s really hard trying to plan a holiday to suit everybody’s interests whilst wanting to do absolutely everything! We looked to this trip as being a taster as we knew we’d be coming back one day.

From here we had discovered there was a Dennys in the local area so popped that in the Sat Nav and set off. Everyone loves a Dennys, we were not disappointed, great food and service!

One place DD really wanted to see was Kat Von D’s place of work, LA INK so we set off to find it…

It was in a rundown area on a main road, not much to see but we had ticked that box! DD was happy!

We thought we’d drive to Beverley Hills so headed up there, it was a stunning area and so clean everything sparkled, even the roads! We had a little Pretty Woman moment, as you do!

Interestingly enough we inputted 90210 into the Sat Nav and it did not lead us to where I was expecting, quite disappointing… nothing like the TV show, made us chuckle anyway. The surrounding areas were beautiful and the houses were out of this world, we thought we spotted someone ‘famous’ but no one could come up with a name so guess we’ll never know. We drove up many beautiful palm tree lined roads which gave me what I believe to be the iconic LA photograph

From here we headed to Venice Beach, one place I really wanted to visit in LA, firstly though I wanted to go via Venice High School, recognise it?

That’s it, Rydell High! From one of my all-time favourite films, Grease!


We spent quite a while at Venice beach, it was nice to sit back and reflect on what we had experienced so far on our trip.

DS is a keen skateboarder so we also checked out the skate park, boy these people were talented! There were young kids to old men showing off their skills, absolutely astounding!

We took a stroll up to muscle beach, I am so glad I wore my sunglasses as I couldn’t help but stare!

Just before we left for the airport we gave some homeless guys who had set up a camp under the palm trees our excess bottles of water and snacks, which were gratefully received. It was time to say goodbye to LA for a few days as we were heading to Hawaii!

DH dropped myself and DD off at the terminal so we could play around with the suitcases and make sure they were all within the correct weight restrictions. The boys dropped the car off at Dollar, everything was simple and easy and before long they met us at Starbucks for a cuppa! We worked out we had done just over 1000 miles at a cost of $95 in fuel, not bad.

Our flight was uneventful, we took off on time which is always good! We had snacks, drinks and hot meal with alcohol offered to us throughout the flight. The staff were very attentive, we managed to get a nap too so we were very impressed with Hawaiian Airlines. We landed at Honolulu airport around 8.15pm, it was 11.15pm in LA so we were quite tired and couldn’t wait to get to our hotel.

Once we had collected our bags we requested an Uber but our request kept getting cancelled, eventually a driver called us to explain it is illegal for them to enter the airport terminals as they would get a huge fine. We then had to book a shuttle, a bit annoying as we then had to wait around.

We eventually arrived at our hotel ‘Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach’ around 9.30pm, DH fell out the shuttle and split open his knee…something like this always happens! However it was soon forgotten as the welcome we received from the concierge was exemplary and made us feel like royalty!

Our bags were taken and hand delivered to our room whilst we received drinks, flowers and cold flannels during check in.

The lady who checked us in was so lovely and explained everything so well, we received a few freebies which was nice too including a free shuttle bus around the island! I had booked this hotel almost a year ago to when we checked in but since then the Outrigger chain had introduced a resort fee, luckily for us this was waived but we still received all the benefits of it for example we were given a free beach bag, water in our room, free local and international calls to name a few.

One thing to note here I did email the hotel to request two double beds rather than one sofa bed for the kids as they are both quite tall so I felt they would be more comfortable in a bed. This was taken on board and they actually issued the kids a bed each so they were really happy and we were impressed that someone had noted our request.

After patching up DH’s knee we took a photo of our partial ocean view, which we were more than impressed with before settling down for the night…

Steps today; 19,137

Floors climbed; 5

*Tip of the day… Pack a first aid kit…just in case!*

[Melbatb]

Wow - you packed a lot in! Hope your DH was ok after his stumble!

[Gabblemum]

LOVING IT ... Can't wait for the next instalment

[TracyW]

Looking forward to this part, we go to Hawaii in 7 weeks!

[holidayrep]

Really enjoyed that.

[Jake71]

We considered incorporating Hawaii into our trip instead of Vegas, but DH preferred Vegas so it won in the end. We did look at your hotel though and it was at the top of our list to book. Maybe for a future trip - DH now thinks Hawaii might be a good place to go for our 50th's in a few years. I'm looking forward to hearing what you did while you were there.

[phoebe23]

Loving this thread - it's a trip down memory lane. In 1992 our teenage daughters HAD to walk down Rodeo Drive. We sat for 30mins in Cafe Rodeo and were ignored - we watched other tourists walk out so we left😠 and drove to Arby's Drive Thru😂
In 1999 we stayed at Reef on the Beach for our Silver and 2004 for our Pearl Anniversaries and our eldest's wedding. Aaawwww 👰
Looking forward to your Next instalment ☺

[WileyCoyote]

oh poor DH there and his knee. Ouch.
Great morning at the observatory and Venice Beach - its a quite unique place isnt it !
Your hotel sounds really lovely.

[k4ti3-x]

Hope DH's knee was ok?! Looking forward to hearing about Hawaii as it's somewhere I've always fancied going.

[hross42877]

Thanks for sharing your day!