Day 170 – 26th April – Los Angeles

We arrived after our night flight from Tahiti at about 10:30am and then began the long process of getting through US immigration. We were quite unlucky as a couple of other flights had landed at the same time so it took for what seemed an age to get through. We tried to use our charms with a security officer but she just seemed to put us in an even longer queue! We eventually got through and our lonely bags were waiting for us at the other side. Most of the flight were carrying on for Paris so there weren’t many bags left when we got through! We went to the information desk and decided to book onto a shuttle to take us to Hollywood. This was another long process as we were the last in the shuttle to be dropped off. After landing at 10:30am we finally got to our accommodation at about 3ish, it had been a long day! We had a bit of a chill and did some washing and then went out into Hollywood. Our hostel was really central and we were just off Hollywood Boulevard. We walked down the street looking at the famous names in the stars on the floor and then went into the shopping centre to get a picture of the Hollywood sign in the distance on the hill. We then went to find a bar and had a couple of drinks before heading to Hard Rock Cafe to have our first burger in America!

Day 171 – 27th April – Los Angeles

We were up early this morning as we had booked tickets to Universal Studios and we were both looking forward to the day ahead. We arrived about 9am and went straight to our first attraction; the studio tour. This was about an hour long and took you around film sets past and present as well as 3D rides and special effects. It was really good and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. We then went to the Harry Potter section which was relatively new. It was funny to see so many children and adults dressed in wizard and witches robes as they walked around! We went to queue for a ride here which took about 45 minutes to get on to. As we had come on a Saturday the park was pretty busy. The queue to get to the ride was cool though. It started off outside and then took you through Hogwarts where there were moving paintings including The Fat Lady.  There was also Dumbledore’s office and the Defence Against the Darks Arts classroom before the quidditch theme ride started. I found the ride to be quite terrifying although Dan wasn’t scared at all! After here we saw a brief Harry Potter street performance and then went to see a special effects show which was good. After lunch we went on a few more rides including Kung Fo Panda, Despicable Me and another Harry Potter one as well as a Waterworld show which was excellent. After all this it was about 6pm and we were getting a bit tired so we decided to go to Universal City which was next door to get a drink and some dinner. We had a nice meal and then got an Uber back to the hostel. We had a great day at Universal and there is loads to do and see. We’d definitely recommend it!

Day 172 – 28th April – Los Angeles – Mammoth Mountain

We got up, packed and checked out of the hostel at 10am. We hung around until about 11:15am and then got an Uber to the airport. Our flight was at 2:25pm and we had some lunch in the airport before our flight. The flight was only short and we landed into Mammoth Lakes about 45 minutes after take off. The airport is tiny as they only have 1 flight a day and the baggage claim was outside! There was a free airport shuttle to take us to our hotel and we arrived and checked in at about 3:45pm. The hotel was nice and we had a really nice 1 bedroom suite with a kitchenette and dining area. The hotel was also positioned right next to one of the ski lifts which would have been ideal if it wasn’t closing that day for the season! When we booked skiing we knew that 2/3 of the lifts and runs were closing today  as it was the end of the winter season. This meant it was a lot more affordable in terms of accommodation for us!! Not only that but there were still going to be 8 lifts working and 78 pistes open so we were fine with that.

As we had a kitchen in our room we decided to go to the nearest supermarket and get some food to cook. There are free buses and shuttles all around the town which was really good but as it was the last day of the season we got stranded at the supermarket as the timings had changed. Dan came to the rescue and rang the hotel shuttle who came to pick us up! After all this we got home when it was dark and couldn’t be bothered to cook so ordered a dominos pizza instead! We had a nice evening in and watched tv!

Day 173 – 29th April – Mammoth Mountain

We had a relaxing morning and after lunch we got the town trolley to go and rent some ski clothing. As it had been a bit of a late decision to come to Mammoth Mountain we didn’t have a lot of suitable clothing with us. Luckily I found a company online that rented ski clothing for $9 a day so it was pretty reasonable. We picked up the clothing and then went back to the hotel. We started having a look at accommodation for future places but got distracted and watched Jaws on tv instead! Just before bed we double checked that we were covered for skiing on our insurance but we weren’t! The alarm was set for extra early in the morning to try and sort it out!

Day 173 – 30th April – Mammoth Mountain

We woke up early to sort out adding on winter sports to our insurance policy so we would be covered for skiing. The lady said that it could take up to 72 hours before we would get an answer which wasn’t great as we were only skiing for 3 days! Luckily for us we got an email back about 45 minutes later saying they would add the cover on for £22 which was quite reasonable we thought! We went to get the town trolley to the village and then the free shuttle to Main Lodge which was where the working ski lifts were. We arrived at about 10am and at 10:30am we were on the slopes ready to go! It was really cold today as there was no sun and it was grey and really windy. Some of the lifts were on hold due to the wind. We decided to start off with a few gentle runs to get used to skiing again before moving on to the more difficult runs. We spent a couple of hours skiing and then had our packed lunch at the base of one of the lifts. It was really cold so we sat in front of the outdoor fire and got a cup of tea to warm us up! We skied for a bit longer after lunch but my boots were quite painful so I went to change them. After skiing we got the shuttle back to the village and went to a bar to enjoy the apres ski side of things! An hour or so later we got the town trolley back to the hotel and hired Jurassic Park 3 from the hotel’s dvd collection. Our recent trip to Universal Studios has encouraged me to watch more films!

Day 174 – 1st May – Mammoth Mountain

We got up quite early and got the shuttle to Mammoth Mountain at 8:30am. The weather today was much better and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. In the sun it was actually pretty warm! The skiing in the morning was good as all the pistes had been groomed and there was a very thin layer of ice on top so the snow was fast. We did a few different runs and I had a couple of breaks in the sun while Dan did a few more. We got the shuttle back at about 2:30 as due to the sun the snow was quite slushy in the afternoon.  When we got back to the hotel we caught a glimpse of ourselves in the mirror and couldn’t believe how much we had caught the sun. We were bright red! We got back to the room and found the aftersun! We then had a very relaxing evening as we noticed Jurassic World was on the tv! After this Sister Act 2 was on and then we started to watch Despicable Me. Our planned early night had gone a bit wrong!

Day 175 – 2nd May – Mammoth Mountain

We woke up early again and got the shuttle to Main Lodge at 8:05am. The sun was shining again and there were no clouds in the sky so we packed the factor 50! It was our last day skiing today and so we made sure we were on the slopes as early as we could be. The conditions were great and we spent the morning skiing. At one point we stopped to watch some downhill skiers go past. Gosh they were fast! Part of one of the black runs was cornered off so they could practice and it turns out it was the USA Olympic team. We’re not sure if they were the junior or adult team but they were the female team. They were also staying at our hotel. Just before lunch we went to one of the smaller parks and Dan did some tricks and jumps. After lunch the conditions were turning quite slushy so we just did a few more runs before calling it a day. The skiing had been great fun and we were really glad we’d decided to do it. We dropped off our skis and boots and got the shuttle to the village. We then went to drop our clothing off before heading back to the hotel. When we got back we had to get some planning done as we had been putting it off! After this, Dan cooked a lovely Mexican tea and we watched Harry Potter on our last evening.

Day 176 – 3rd May – Mammoth Mountain – Los Angeles

We got up and started packing as we were leaving today. Dan had asked for a later check out and so we were able to stay in the room until 12:30pm which was good as our airport shuttle wasn’t coming until 2:50pm. Our flight was only 55 minutes and we arrived into LAX at 5:50pm. We got an Uber to our hostel in Hollywood and then went to meet Smriti, Steve and Steve’s sister Emma in a bar. Smriti and Steve are friends from Manchester and they were visiting Emma in California as she lives here. We went to a few bars in Hollywood and West Hollywood and was nice to see them and have a catch up. They left before us and we decided to have one more drink and then head back. This was a bit of a mistake as we had limited WIFI which kept dropping out and so trying to get an Uber was a nightmare! After over an hour we eventually got an Uber and arrived back at the hostel after 3am!