Author: Daniel Kallin
Age: 10
On the day before flying I became very ill with a high temperature and my parents took me to hospital. It was touch and go that we would make it onto the plane the next day. We were worried that our Los Angeles trip would have to be cancelled and our excitement: diminished. But despite the dizziness and a lack of appetite we schlepped onto a twelve hour flight on Delta Airlines.
We arrived and after going through customs we took a late-night car drive to our Hollywood Hotel. We stayed at the five-star Lowes Hotel, and the next morning I opened the curtains to discover, to my utmost delight, the Hollywood Sign. SNIP! SNAP! At least five photos were taken that morning. The Chinese Theatre followed by a Starbucks breakfast and The Walk of Fame brought delight.
That day was the warmest of our week and we took a tour of Downtown LA, from Union Station to Old Chinatown. The following day saw us going on a Celebrity Tour seeing everything from Elvis Presley to Katy Perry’s houses. Rodeo Drive, with its over expensive fashion shops and nice side streets, came the next day which also brought with it a trip to the Griffith Observatory in Hollywood Hills. A Welshman by the name of Griffith J. Griffith donated a sum of money to the LA Council to build an observatory which he declared: “I don’t want a dollar to be taken off any visitor to this observatory,” …and the observatory is free to this day.
The subsequent day allowed us to see the red carpet being set up for the Oscars (I sneaked a touch of it when security weren’t looking) before heading off to the Grammy museum which showcased everything from Michael Jackson’s jacket from Thriller to a list of every Grammy winner since the Grammys began. The final day in Central LA took us to Universal Studios where we saw a weird man shouting: “Mr Muscle has arrived, Mr Muscle has arrived, You Know!!!” The studio tour was awesome and my mother and I played a Minion T-shirt spotting game as they were so popular.
Our last two days were spent in Encino, up in the hills of outer LA, for a family event. By then my flu was over although my appetite hadn’t fully improved. It was the journey home that was most inadequate, our Virgin Atlantic plane’s televisions weren’t working and my parents must’ve had the hardest of times. I luckily was asleep for the majority of the flight. London was soon under our feet and America became very distant indeed. From Hospital to Hollywood, Worrying to Wowing – that was my tale of my best(ish) holiday ever (even with the flu).