Day 2 – No luggage!!
As we expected, we were wide awake very early, ready to get up and wondering why it was still dark outside. The glowing numbers on the bedside clock told us it was only 3.00am!!
After dozing off to sleep again, we were once again awake, this time at 4.30am. I tossed and turned for a while and, at 4.45am, thought, “to hell with this, I’m getting up!” Looking outside, we could only see dawn’s cold grey light starting to tinge the sky in the east; sunrise wouldn’t be for another couple of hours yet.
I got washed and did the best I could with my messy hair (my hot brush and straighteners were in the case!) before dressing in my new knickers, jeans and cheapy Target t-shirt. Then we decided to take a walk over the road where, apart from Target, we had seen several restaurants, diners and bars, including “Denny’s”, which we seemed to recall opened at 6.00am.
As we walked along, another couple from our trip (who obviously couldn’t sleep either!) decided to join us. We asked if they were minus their luggage as well, but they had flown from Terminal 3 at Heathrow on Virgin Atlantic; it seemed that the “technical issue” with the baggage system had only occurred at T5 and affected only BA flights.
We entered Denny’s and were shown to a table for four before being given a huge menu to peruse. It took a while before we selected our breakfast from the vast array of dishes. I opted for bacon, sausage and egg accompanied by pancakes and blueberries.
When my breakfast came, it was MASSIVE. Two eggs “over easy”, sausage and bacon, then a mound of grated, crispy potato (it didn’t look like any hash browns I had ever seen) on a large plate, then another large plate with two pancakes at least 6″ in diameter toppied with blueberries and maple syrup. The whole lot would have been a generous breakfast for two people, never mind just one. No wonder there are so many morbidly obese people in the USA (and Britain isn’t far behind these days).
I left the mound of hash brown and one of the pancakes, which were all washed down with unlimited quantites of coffee. The coffee was scalding; it took ages for me to finish mine.
Afterwards, we took a slow stroll back to the hotel and pottered around in our room for a while, before heading downstairs to the foyer to meet Tomi and our driver, Frank, who would be with us for the whole trip.
As we milled around in the hotel lobby, I was amused by the number of Target t-shirts I spotted, all of them with the store creases still in them. We really hoped our bags would come today but we doubted it; I had already seen online on the BBC web site as well as various media outlets that the baggage chaos at Heathrow had made headline news, with over 20,000 pieces of luggage being “abandoned all over the airport” as staff worked “round the clock” to reunite passengers with their luggage. Hmmph! 🙁
Presently our smiling guide Tomi arrived, and we all followed her to the coach and boarded. Tomi said that she ensures that the same people don’t hog the ‘best’ seats on the coach by rotating everyone each day and indeed we noticed that above every pair of seats Tomi had placed a bright yellow Post-It with names on; these seats would change each day.
We found our seats on the right-hand side of the coach and sat down. As ever, the air-con was blasting out its freezing stream and before we even set off my right arm was freezing. The air vents were placed in the bottom of the window frame; I think they were meant to act as window de-misters was there was no mist today. It was pretty uncomfortable with the cold air blowing constantly, and I made a mental note to ask Frank if he could turn it down.
Soon we arrived at our first stop, which was on the Hollywood “star walk”. This is the famous boulevard where you find the stars set into the “sidewalk” with famous people’s names on them. They can be movie stars, musicians, TV presenters, pop singers or sporting heroes – you will find such an array of names along the “walk of fame”. Here are just some of them.
We walked along in the sunshine, looking at the stars as well as the tacky-looking shops selling holiday ‘tat’ and cheap clothing. The latter gave me an idea, especially when I spotted a place selling LOS ANGELES hoodies for only five bucks. Later on in this trip we would be visiting Arizona and Nevada, and desert locations, while roasting hot during the day, tend to be chilly at night. We had come prepared for this and I had brought a cosy alpaca wrap with me but it was (yes, you’ve guessed it)… in the case!
I therefore went into the shop and bought a blue hoodie, which will also be added to the expenses bill that we are going to send to BA when we get home.
Once Tomi had rounded us all up again, we followed her to a vantage point from which we could view the world-famous, slightly wonky “HOLLYWOOD” sign in the hills. In fact, for this part of the trip Trevor and I were not seeing anything new; we had previously visited LA, Beverly Hills and Palm Springs, in both 2000 and 2019.
We continued on our tour which I enjoyed very much. I was (and am) a big fan of Jackie Collins’ book Hollywood Wives, most of which is set in LA and Beverly Hills, and it was great to see the places mentioned in the book. Even the street names, like Sunset Strip and Doheny, Blue Jay Way and Santa Monica Boulevard all had a familiar ring to them, mainly because of Jackie Collins!
In addition, when we spotted the Santa Monica Boulevard sign and took the mandatory photo, some of us started singing that Sheryl Crow song “All I wanna do is have some fun, until the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard”.
Soon we came to another world-famous Beverly Hills street, the palm tree-lined shoppers’ paradise of Rodeo Drive. All of the clothes shops had big signs above them, “Gucci”, “Versace” “Louis Vuitton” “Givenchy” “Ralph Lauren” and all of a sudden we felt conspicuous in our obvious cheapy Target clothing, especially when we stopped at a gleaming, bright yellow Ferrari casually parked at the kerb. Across the road was a silver Ferrari rubbing shoulders with a sleek white Mercedes. The cars belonged there far more than Trevor and I did!
By now, it was lunchtime and we returned to the coach where Frank was waiting for us. I asked him if it would be possible to turn down the air-con a little, but before I’d even finished speaking he shook his head. “I can give you a towel to place along the vents” he suggested. Anything to stop that air from freezing my arm to the bone.
Frank then went to the under-coach locker where the luggage (what luggage?!) was stored and came back with a couple of bright yellow hand towels. I was able to wedge them into the vents along the upper edge, with them hanging over to impede the cold air coming out of the bottom. It wasn’t perfect, but it was better than nothing, and I kept my denim jacket on as well.
Our next stop was to a large park where an art exhibition was being held. We saw a 3D sculpture of Vincent Van Gogh’s famous “Sunflowers”. There were some amazing, original paintings and fantastic sculptures made from hand-blown glass. It wasn’t just the high prices that put us off buying anything, it was the almost certainty that they would never make it back to Blighty without being broken or damaged.
Soon we spotted something that lifted our spirits immensely – a beer tent! We each purchased a can of the local lager which was quite strong at 6%, and we sat at a nearby table under a large white parasol to keep off the hot California sun. We weren’t hungry at all after our insanely huge breakfasts, but we enjoyed our beers a lot. 🙂
Presently we had to make our way back to the coach for our next stop, which was to the famous Santa Monica Pier and Pacific Park fun fair. I informed Trevor that it was his turn to sit by the window (and the air-con vent) which he did, after placing Frank’s yellow towels to keep off the worst of the arctic blast. As I looked around the coach, I could see several other people had placed towels or coats or even stolen airline blankets along the vents; I don’t know why Frank just didn’t turn the bloody air-con down!
Eventually the coach pulled up at the sunlit, brightly coloured Santa Monica Pier, and we all alighted. We were told we had a couple of hours here and we had to be back on the coach for 3.30pm for our return to Buena Park and our hotel. We were, after all, still pretty jet-lagged.
I loved it at Santa Monica pier. It was a trip down memory lane with it’s nostalgic, 1960s fairground vibe. An old fashioned rollercoaster twisted and turned, rose and dipped its way around the park, and a large “Big Wheel” circled its way to infinity. All around us we could hear the chimes and bongs of the bells in the amusement arcades, and the cry of the stallholders trying to tempt us to buy cheap tickets for local attractions.
We walked along the wooden boardwalk, enjoying the feel of the hot sun on our backs as well as the cheerful, laid-back atmosphere. We fleetingly wondered whether our cases would be waiting for us at our hotel, then put that thought out of our mind – of course they wouldn’t, not yet.
At the appointed time we returned to the coach and it was a shock to the system going from Santa Monica’s pleasant warmth to a temperature more akin to Norway in the winter. It was now my turn to sit next to the air-con vent and I placed Frank’s yellow hand-towels, as well as the sleeve of Trevor’s coat, along the vents – better, but the frigid air soon found its way into any bits we had missed.
It was around 5.30pm when we arrived back at the DoubleTree Buena Vista and made our way to room 102. We were tired because of our jet lag (and our 4.45am start!) so I set the alarm on my phone for an hour’s time, and we settled down for a welcome power nap.
When we awoke at 6.45pm, we decided we were hungry. We hadn’t had any lunch because of our massive breakfast, but we felt that we could eat something now. We knew there was a Subway over the road, but there were a couple of things we still needed to get from Target, things you don’t realise you need until you haven’t got them! As Trevor had inadvertently packed his blood pressure medication in the case (yes, I know, I know – they tell you to put it in your hand-luggage but in this instance he hadn’t) we decided to buy a big carton of grapefruit juice which contains a small amount of he stuff he has been prescribed; anything was better than nothing until the cases arrived.
We therefore went to Subway’s first, so we didn’t have to lug the stuff from Target around with us. I enjoyed a 6″ tuna and salad sub washed down with a big, ice-filled carton of Coke Zero.
Then it was back over to Target where I bought some Revlon foundation (luckily, they had my shade) and the juice. I also bought a cheapy $5.00 pair of flip-flops which is my essential footwear on holiday in sunnier climes. Passing the breakfast cereals aisle, we spotted the boxes of breakfast and protein bars, those little 200-calorie chewy granola bars coated in yoghurt or carob. We decided they’d be a good idea to have in our room each day instead of an oversized breakfast full of fat and carbohydrate. We already had a coffee machine in our room, so this would save us time in the mornings, as well as being healthier. While we were in Target, we also bought some 200ml cartons of wine, a bit like those cartons of fruit juice that come with a bendy straw that you poke through a hole in the top. (The wine didn’t come with a straw, however). 🙂
Back in our room, we checked what time the coach would be picking us up in the morning to take us to our next destination, Palm Springs. It said the luggage was to be loaded at 8.15am (what luggage?) and the coach would depart at 8.30am. We set our alarm to be up at 7.15, so it would give us an hour as we hadn’t got to go anywhere for breakfast.
We tried to stay awake until our usual bed-time of 11.30 – 12.00 midnight as we didn’t want to awake in the middle of the night again. However, it was a losing battle and it was about 10.00pm when we finally settled down. Before doing so, however, we went onto the British Airways app to the “missing luggage” part and changed the delivery address for the cases to the Hyatt Hotel, Palm Springs. As we would only be there for one night, we really hoped the cases would arrive tomorrrow! They should do – we knew there were at least four scheduled BA flights a day from LHR to LAX, so we expected our suitcases to be on one of them.
I would like to say we slept well, but I can’t, because we didn’t. ☺