Our first foray into the big wide world: Los Angeles

A little bit of background

I am writing this post in 2023, 27 years after our first big adventure beyond Australian shores. I've kept journals of all my travels, the 1996 one typed on an electric typewriter and bound in a book, complete with ticket stubs, pictures from travel brochures, and other printed records of the trip. I hope you find it interesting reading, both for the throwback to travelling in a different time and for the world wanderings themselves.

We'd saved for a year for the 6-week trip in July-August of 1996. It was a honeymoon of sorts, as three years earlier when we were married we had no money for one. I had dreamed of international travel (beyond my journeys between Australia and New Zealand, that is) ever since I was very young, so this trip was huge for me as it was a long time coming and I had a bunch of bucket list things to mark off. The trip was meticulously planned using travel guides and my book and tv knowledge of the world. No googling involved! It feels like a different time now, with information so easily at our fingertips. We knew what we wanted to see and experience back then, but it felt much more like heading off into the unknown than travel does today, especially being less contactable once leaving home, as we were in those days.

This post is part of a series of firsts on that trip: the first long haul flight from Australia, the first time in the United States and Los Angeles, the first time in London, the first time in Europe (and on a bus tour), and the first time hiring a car and driving outside of Australia, as we did around England, Scotland, and Wales.

Note that the photos I've included in this post were taken in 1996, on a now old-fashioned camera, where we had to wait until we got home to develop the prints. The quality seems terrible now!

I've added my reflections on what our first LA experience meant to me at the end of the post.

Day 1: Arrival in LA

The main aim of our trip was to experience the United Kingdom and Europe for the first time. We decided to break those two aims into two blocks, the UK via a hire car and bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodation, and Europe on a Trafalgar bus tour. The flight we took with Qantas and British Airways allowed us to include a stopover and we chose to fly via Los Angeles and stay there for three days (plus the arrival day). on the way from Brisbane to London.

Back then, air travel wasn't nearly as comfortable as it is now, although the 12 hour and 45 minute flight from Brisbane to LA seemed torturous to me partly because it was the first time we'd flown such a distance. I remember feeling ill most of the way, but also marvelling at having a choice of meals on the flight. We sure were novices back then!

I remember coming out of the airport into the hot Californian sun and the chaos that is LAX. We were dazed and confused before that was a thing! The waiting area outside the airport was busy and hectic, with people, taxis, and mini-buses everywhere and airport staff with walkie-talkies directing the traffic. Our stopover package included airport transfers and we didn't have to wait long for a shuttle to take us across the city to Anaheim to our motel. The trip took around an hour and the driver helpfully pointed interesting things out, but it all seemed like a blur to us.

It was a relief to check into the motel and have a shower, although the heat took some getting used to. We'd left home in winter and were living in a part of Queensland then that is not as hot as Brisbane, our eventual home, so the sudden burst of heat was overwhelming at first. To be fair, there was a heat wave at the time of our visit, with temperatures in the high 30s to early 40s Celsius.

It's hard to believe now, but our stopover package only cost $350AUD each! It included three nights in a motel two blocks from Disneyland, airport transfers, a day pass for Disneyland and one for Universal Studios, a shuttle to and from Universal, and a $10 Planet Hollywood voucher. Bonus!

The collage below shows the motel - the Convention Centre Inn - where we stayed. You can see that it's super basic and of course looks very dated now. I looked the motel up recently and it's not even there now, replaced by a nice, new, shiny hotel complex. We, however, did not care that the room was basic as we were in LA! The room was clean and the bed king sized. I remarked in my original journal that we had a clock by the bed with LCD display and an alarm to wake us up on our first full day in the city. That seemed like some amazing technology to us back then. There was an included breakfast but we only ate it once, unused to cranberry juice and sickly sweet muffins at that time of the day.

The motel was on the road that led to Disneyland and was super busy. We'd never seen so much traffic before. The reception staff were very friendly and helpful and they had lots of brochures in the office for tourists, so we were quite happy staying there. We went for a walk to get our bearings after the flight and tried to find what we thought was a Planet Hollywood close by. We hadn't calculated the distances on the printed map very well and ended up, after our first go at a Carl Jnrs burger joint, back at the hotel for advice. Just as well as asked, as it turned out to be a 45-minute shuttle ride to Planet Hollywood across the city to South Coast Plaza. The perils of travel in a pre-Google maps world!

We didn't eat at Planet Hollywood but used our voucher to buy a t-shirt that I wore for years afterwards. It was cool to see the movie memorabilia at the restaurant, too, and at the time that included the Harley from the first Terminator film. Remember that this is the mid-1990s, when Planet Hollywood was a thing.

I don't think the restaurant we went to back then is there now.

Other firsts that afternoon included an American hot dog at a diner, a Macy's store purchase of a pair of sunglasses, a chocolate coke (that we couldn't drink in the end), and our first experience using foreign currency. All these things don't sound like much these days, but to us they were incredible new experiences! I remember, too, the overwhelming tiredness that comes from a long haul flight and struggling to stay awake as we took the bus back to the hotel, even though it was only early evening. Despite the lingering heat and sun not setting until after 10pm, I remember us crashing and sleeping right through until the alarm went off the next morning.

Day 2: Disneyland

I remember our incredible excitement as we headed to Disneyland on the free shuttle for the short trip to the park, with what seemed like every other tourist in the city. Surprisingly, the park wasn't too busy around 9am that morning, but we lined up (for about 40 minutes) for the Indiana Jones ride first as it had only recently opened. I'm not a rides person, but I did describe the Indiana Jones ride as 'scary' in my journal. That was really when a huge boulder came down on top of the cart we were in and we suddenly jolted underneath it. The ride is still open today, now in the older part of the park, called Disneyland Park, after the second park, Disneyland California Adventure Park, opened in 2001.

We spent a long, hot, exhausting day at Disneyland but it was an important first in our world wanderings - the first time we'd been to a truly iconic place. We had Dreamworld and Movieworld on the Gold Coast in Queensland where we live, but back then, Disneyland seemed to loom much larger. In reality, the park then was smaller than we'd expected and we thought a lot of the rides were kind of "old and tacky". Remember this is the original Disneyland and it's so much bigger these days with the opening of the second park. All that said, we had lots of fun wandering around the different worlds and taking in famous parts of the park like the castle and the teacups.

We chose a selection of rides to go on and waited between 15 and 45 minutes for each ride. We went on/in/under the Mark Twain paddle steamer (hilarious Americana), the Haunted Mansion (cool, especially the hologram), the Pirates of the Caribbean (fun log ride), Space Tours (awesome virtual reality ride), the original yellow submarine (super old and tacky but iconic), and Mickey's Toontown (fun older type of ride with a manual operation to twist the carriage around). A lot of these rides are still in operation in the original part of the park but are probably ridden by visitors for the nostalgia element rather than the ride itself...

We took the park railway which was a great way to take everything in, went to the Michael Jackson 3D and Hunchback of Notre Dame shows, and stood in the heat to watch the Mickey and Minnie Mouse and the Lion King parades.

It was super hot that day but we loved the fresh lemonade stands dotted around the park. We ate ham and turkey croissants at the New Orleans café and got into the spirit of America with a burger and fries for dinner. The giant portion sizes were another new experience!

We stayed at the park until 10pm to watch the Electric Light Parade. I don't think it runs these days, so it was kind of cool to have experienced it. The photos don't do it justice as of course we didn't have a clever camera back then. We were struck by the patriotism on display, unaccustomed as we were to such things. There were so many people in Main Street watching the parade and it was a battle to get back to the shuttle after it ended.

Being at the park was a sensory experience. The Disney overload was real, with all the shops selling Disney merchandise. Remember that this was the mid-1990s and we hadn't been outside of Australia or New Zealand at that point. It was surreal to be at Disneyland when our only experience to date was through books, brochures, television and film. What an amazing day we had!

Day 3: Universal Studios

As a movie buff, I was looking forward to Universal Studios more than Disneyland. We took the transfer shuttle super early that was included in our stopover package. The drive took over an hour but it was a great opportunity to experience the busy LA freeway system, see city smog for the first time, and catch sight of the Hollywood sign. Cool.

The theme park is part of a working film studio in the San Fernando Valley in LA, the first studio tour conducted in 1914. Expansion didn't happen until the 1960s when rides were added. The park location is hilly, and there's a the film studio and a few rides on the bottom lot and additional rides on the upper lot. You can see the giant escalator that separates the two lots in the collage below.

It's a good idea to do the bottom lot studio tour first as the wait can be long otherwise. We did that! The tour is actually kind of awesome. Riders sit in a tram that is open enough to enable them to see well. The tram takes riders past lots of movie sets and props from famous films. There are stops along the way to experience movie special effects such as attacks by Jaws and King Kong, a flash flood, a bridge collapse, and an earthquake. You can see shots of the flood and King Kong effects in the collage below. One thing I do remember well is the guide. He was so hilariously exuberant that at first we thought it was a recording!

Over time new rides and shows have been added to the park, replacing older ones. We were keen to do the Jurassic Park ride as it had only opened the previous month. We waited over an hour in the heat for our turn. It was totally worth the wait, though. The Jurassic Park ride is a water ride where riders are taken past all kinds of animatronic dinosaurs that lunge at the cars before a final encounter with a t-rex and a plunge of 26 metres into a lagoon. I am terrible with heights and sudden drops so the ride's ending scared the life out of me. I remember holding on until my knuckles were white and coming off with shaking legs.

The ride was briefly closed in 2018 and reopened the following year as Jurassic World: The ride with new animatronics and special effects. I went on the original again ride when I returned to Universal Studios in 2012.

We also went on the Back to the future simulator ride that I found super scary. Riders sat in an open DeLorean car and experienced fast motion while watching a film projected onto a large, domed IMAX screen. The ride opened in 1993 but later closed in 2006, replaced by a Simpsons ride.

I loved the ET ride that we did after lunch. That ride was opened in 1991 but closed in 2003, replaced by a Revenge of the Mummy ride that opened in 2006 (That I went on during my 2012 visit to the park). I enjoyed the ride as it wasn't scary and the pre-show and interior queue parts made riders feel like they were inside the film. The ride itself recreated the bicycles from the iconic film and each rider had their own bike to experience the ride through the air, as the kids did in the film. The views were magical.

There are new special effects attractions at the park these days. Space had to be freed up for the development of the Transformers ride, but in 1996, there was an awesome special effect experience based on Backdraft, a 1991 film starring Kurt Russell and Billy Baldwin about two Chicago firefighting brothers. The best part about the ride was the final part that recreated a scene from the film. We had a huge fright when the gantry we were standing on suddenly dropped in the middle of the action. There was another special effects attraction, Cinemagic, that is no longer there that we did which was a cool audience-participation experience of a bunch of film sound and special effects.

We thought the shows were awesome, especially The Flintstones and the WaterWorld ones. You can see a shot of the WaterWorld one in the above collage, and a photo I had taken with The Flintstones cast after the show. WaterWorld showcased lots of cool stunts based on the film and The Flintstones was a musical show, opening in 1991 and ending in 1997. WaterWorld is still going strong, first opening in 1995.

We had an amazing day out at Universal Studios and it was easily the highlight for me of our LA stopover. The park is perfect for film buffs as it feels like a giant movie set. All the rides have interesting things from the films they represent to look at while riders wait.

I remember we ate sandwiches and salads for lunch and a themed burger and fries in the Jurassic Park café. I also recall seeing cookies the size of dinner plates in one of the bakeries. Americans sure do super-sized food!

The bus ride back to our motel was fun, too. Cliff, our driver, entertained us pretending to be lost and quizzing us on our freeway knowledge. We drove a different way back to the morning's trip, through downtown LA and past the Capitol Records and the building used as the Nakatomi tower in Die Hard.

Day 4: The Movieland Wax Museum

Day 4 of our LA stopover was also the start of our sojourn in London before we travelled on to Europe. We had an early evening flight that allowed us to spend most of the day in LA. The previous day we'd booked and paid a deposit on a bus tour around Beverly Hills (including driving by celebrity homes). When we boarded the tour bus, however, the driver told us we wouldn't be back in time to catch our shuttle to the airport. I was so disappointed as one of my LA bucket list items was to go to Beverly Hills.

The information on the brochure about the duration of the tour didn't include the drive from Anaheim to Beverly Hills so we thought we'd have enough time. We'd pre-booked the airport shuttle to collect us at 2pm for 5.30pm flight but we ended up arriving at the airport with plenty of time to spare. I was sorry about our arrangements not working out, but I guess it was better to be waiting around at the airport than missing the flight.

After embarrassingly removing ourselves from the tour, we checked out other options from the brochures in the motel office. We decided to go to the Movieland Wax Museum on Beach Boulevard, Buena Park, something we could get to on the mini-bus that serviced the nearby Knotsberry Farm. It was actually rather fun in the end. The museum consisted of a dark warren of exhibits set up to recreate movie scenes with wax figures of their stars. There were over 300 wax figures in 150 sets. Here's an example:

Here's W in front of the Bonanza wax figures.

Hilarious! The museum is closed now, but it has a long and interesting history. It was opened in 1962 by Allen Parkinson who was inspired by a visit to Madame Tussaud's in London. The opening ceremony was attended by silent film star, Mary Pickford, who performed the dedication. The museum was sold to the Six Flags company in 1970 who subsequently built a similar museum in Orlando (the Stars Hall of Fame) that was opened in 1975. In 1985, Six Flags sold the California museum to the company that owns the wax museum at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. Sadly, dwindling visitor numbers caused the museum's closure in 2005, and it was torn down in 2016 to make way for the construction of new retail space.

Next to the museum was a restaurant called PoFolks. It's a chain restaurant that is described as "an American family restaurant serving hearty, homestyle cooking." You can see it behind the museum in the photo here. The chain is still around, but the one we ate at is now permanently closed.

The restaurant had a distinctly Western theme, with a train running around the wall above door height. I remember the place so well, as we ordered chicken sandwiches thinking they would just be a chicken and salad sandwich like we'd have at home. On top of the gigantic sandwiches, we were also served fries and salad and bottomless soft drinks. This was a massive meal to us!

After lunch we caught a min-bus back to the hotel, checked out, and took the airport shuttle to LAX for our evening flight to London. This was our chance to take in the enormity of LAX and the chaos of the renovations that were happening at the time. We also had time to rest and reflect on our LA wanderings. We ended up with loads of time at the airport so it was a shame that we didn't get to do the planned Beverly Hills tour.

Our Los Angeles experience

In those days, without access to information like we have now, it was easy to be overwhelmed by the enormity of what we'd seen. We were also at the very beginning of our travel adventures and not the seasoned travellers that we are now. I feel like that amplified the experiences. That said, everything we saw and did fitted with images we had in our minds. There was both comfort and sadness in seeing stereotypes played out in front of us. Los Angeles isn't really my thing, if I am being honest, and subsequent visits in 2008, 2012 and 2016 haven't changed my perspective.

The next part of our incredible inaugural world wandering was London. Read on for more of our adventures...