SEVEN TEENs

Good morning, Santa Monica! The Three Teenagers and me wake up after some very good nights sleep. Wonderful beds they have in this little hotel, we are somewhat cramped here but its okay. We have breakfast with the leftovers form some grocerie shopping we did in San Diego, the hotelroom actually has a coffeemaker, which is nice. Today is the big US day:Universal Studios! We get directions and off we drive.

It has been some time since ME visited LA, last time I was pregnant with my first Baby. LA certainly has changed ever since then. Friends told me I should be warned about the traffic. Can't be that bad, I thought, but it's worse. Stop and go all the way from Santa Monica Beach to Universal Studios, that's enervating!

We find the Studio okay. And, boy, has that changed! My first visit was about at the time, when "Alien" was made, a little later (i took a chance to visit the cutters office and saw that THING laying on a desk...). They had a parking spot for visitors close to the studio entrance back then, you walked in and took a ride with the tour bus. Period.

Today, you're guided to an enormous parking garage, the further away from the main entrance the cheaper. Then you walk up to Universal CityWalk. A huge city of its own with shops,

restaurants and a huge theater. Something funny: Ever seen "Forrest Gump"? Universal opened up a whole restaurant and shop chain called Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.. Now you go see the movie and find out, why...

You walk all the way through that city to get to the entrance to a main gate. The Three Teenagers were impressed already, but it looked somewhat familiar, like Disney. At the gate ME almost got a heartatack: 72$ a piece! to get in. Where? All we wanted to do was the studio tour. Not possible I learn. You have to buy the whole package, studio tour is just one possibility of all the other stuff, you can do. So ME arguing about the price. And after only 45 minutes waiting in midday heat at some guest realtion desk with a very slow clerk I finally get us in for 50 a piece. Not much of a reduction but it makes ME feel a little better. Note: There are coupons and all kind of downloadable reductios I learn later. Do that next time!

The Three Teenagers are already tired from waiting and driving, but the sight of Universal Studio Amuesement Park wakes 'em up again. We explore the whole entire park, one section after the other. Its huge and some of the stuff IS fun, okay. For example we get in line for a Simpsons ride. What looks like a rollercoaster through a little park of its own turns out to be a fascinating "ride" in a 3 D 6-seater. You are ushered into a room with this wagon, expecting a door to open to let you out onto whatever ride. But instead a 180° movie starts, the wagon lifts up and you experience to be part of a simpson episode (Waiting was nice: I usually never get to see Simpsons on TV and here, while moving slowly foreard, you can watch Simpsons...) ME not really the rollercoaster type because it makes me wanna throw up has a hard time making it through this somewhat stationary rollercoaster alright. Its fun though because the effect is incredible. Maybe that's the future of cinema but I doubt that one can stand that longer than five or ten minutes.

It takes me only two hours to get rid of that feeling, The Three Teenagers want to go again and again. But its afternoon already and you have to hurry to be able to make ALL the lots. We watch different shows (Animal Actors is cute), the typical House of Horrors, watch how Special Effects are made and spent 30 minutes in line for some food.

Then the tour. That hasn't changed much since the first time ME took it (yes, they still have "Shark" effects...). But again 3 D fascinates: The whole bus drives into a garage, the door closes behind the car. All of the sudden you are part of the new 3D King Kong movie and even though you know the bus is not leaving the garage its a n incredible sensation. Nice.

We finish with The Three Tenagers taking a ride on the Jurassic Park ride where you get soaking wet at the end, and ME leaving the Universal Studios with The Teenagers smiling from head to toe. Sure enough everybody is hungry again. We get some food, some souvenirs and leave the park when its already dark.

Back in the car a sign is flashing which I hate: gas. Okay, so its getting gas before returning to the hotel. Find a gas station (2.69 in Chicago - 3.19 here???), stop the car, get out, take the nozzle, put it in the tank - nothing. ME waving at the clerk behind the window, he's waving back. No gas. So I walk in and tell him, I really would love to get some gas. He says I have to pay first. I say how am I supposed to know how much gas fits in the tank? He says, then just give me some money and he'll give me back the change when I'm done. Obviously half America used to get gas and take off without paying. So they changed the attitude.

Okay, I only have a hundred dollar bill and I think it's pretty rude to make ME feel like a criminal. But I need the gas or we won't get back to the hotel. I give the guy the money and wait. He looks at me puzzled again and sure thinks I'm the most dumbfold driver he ever had in his little gas station. ME making clear I want a receipt. If he thinks I would run of with his gas, than I have the right to think, he can deny ever having received my 100$. At the end of the day I get my receipt, I get my gas, I get my change. And yes: It would have been easier to get gas with the credit card. I just hate to be treated that way...

We make it back alright, snuggle up in our doghouse-size hotelroom, behave very american by watching a movie which I cannot remember because I doze off quickly. Tomorow is checking out of this place and entering the glitterati world of Hollywood....