This is it. This is the end.
A week after we had arrived in California, we were slated to fly back home to Omaha.
The good news is that this wasn’t an early flight in the morning like we’d had during our Florida trip in 2019 (read my blog post). That meant we wouldn’t have a panicked rush through security to make our flight home.
Our flight out of LAX was scheduled for 4:55 p.m. on Sunday, April 16.
That presumably meant we had time to do one more thing — and seeing the Hollywood sign was at the top of our agenda.
It was going to be the perfect ending for the trip. We were going to see the symbol that has come to represent the entertainment industry over the past century.
Bridget and Neil left for Mass at 9:35 a.m. to make the 10 a.m. Mass at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Sun Valley. (As an aside, when we were looking up the name of the church, we discovered there was a Catholic Church with a 10 a.m. Mass two minutes from the hotel. That would have been good to know. Oh well, we’ll put it on the time machine list.)
While they were gone, I tidied up the room, finished packing, and took some pictures out of our hotel room window.
Bridget and Neil didn’t return until around Noon — later than we had thought they would get back to the hotel. The distance to the church — combined with the length of the Mass and the Los Angeles traffic — meant that we were under the gun as far as our window of opportunity was concerned.
You just never know what the rental car return situation will be at an airport. You also don't know what the security situation will look like until you are there. 🤷
Our mantra: “Next time, go to the Spanish Mass.” — which was the earlier option. 😉 Or go to the Mass four blocks (Google maps: “A five-minute walk”) down the street. Hindsight is 20/20.
Add in the perpetual issue of clogged traffic along the main arteries in the city, and the idea of getting to a touristy destination becomes problematic (it was also 16 miles to Griffith Observatory — which is where we wanted to see the sign from).
None of us had had anything to eat. So we needed to find someplace to eat — a task that could derail our plans to visit the Hollywood sign.
At that point, we decided to cut bait and focus on lunch. None in our group was particularly happy at this development. We had hoped to finish strong!
Bridget and Theresa looked at lunch options (for a considerable amount of time) while we were fueling up at this 76 station across the street from our hotel.
Finally, a decision was made: Our lunch/brunch destination was Nat’s Early Bite (not too far from our Sherman Oaks hotel).
Parking was sparse in the corner strip mall on the corner of Burbank Blvd. and Hazeltine Ave. The man in the orange shirt and hat in the picture below directed Bridge to an open spot for our car (which was very nice of him).
Even though the place was packed, it didn’t take us long to get seat (about 10 minutes in total). We soon found out that the food and service at Nat’s is terrific.
For some reason, I only got a picture of the breakfast side of the menu (but you can find the whole menu here):
They also had a fun kids menu (Scotland colored her selection and annotated her special instructions) 😊:
At one point during our meal, I dropped my knife. A moment later, I saw a hand place a fresh knife on the napkin next to my plate — it was Scotland. She is such a thoughtful girl. 🥰
I had an omelette with cheddar cheese, bacon, and sausage. It was served with a side of the “Home Fries” (fried breakfast potatoes). I also had a blueberry muffin:
Bridget had scrambled eggs with hash browns (extra crispy) and pancakes:
Scot had french toast, scrambled eggs, and bacon :
Anson had a waffle, scrambled eggs, and bacon:
Blaise had steak and eggs with the “Home Fries” (he gave me a bite of the steak and it was really good):
Theresa and Neil both ordered lunch items. Theresa had a grilled cheese with french fries and a lemon blueberry muffin (she gave me half of it):
Neil had a philly cheesesteak (minus the veggies and mushrooms) with french fries:
I must say, his philly looked good. One of my favorite sandwiches is French dip. Nat’s had one on the menu that I had thought about ordering (but I’m never quite sure what sort of beef they will use).
I’m assuming the beef and bun that constituted Neil’s sandwich is also the basis of the French dip sandwich they offer. After seeing his sandwich, I kind of regretted that I didn’t try the French dip. 😋
As I mentioned earlier, the food and service at the restaurant were terrific. If we get back to the area, we will definitely eat at Nat’s Early Bite again.
PRO TIP: The hours at Nat’s Early Bite are 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday thru Friday, and 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday — so plan accordingly!
We left the restaurant around 1:30 p.m. and headed to LAX.
I kept noticing this elevated track as we were driving along I-405 during our stay. It turns out that it serves as the pathway for the Getty Center Tram.
The Getty Center (which includes the J. Paul Getty Museum) looks like it has a number of interesting attractions (along with various food and refreshment options). Admission is also apparently free. We'll have to add it to the “to do” list for next time.
We dropped off our rental cars and hopped on an airport shuttle. It was 2:23 p.m.
Scotland proved herself to be a capable and astute traveler on this trip. She was good at reminding us to take pictures for the blog.
We figured once we arrived at the Southwest terminal, checked our bags, and made our way through security that we’d have 90 minutes or so before our 4:55 p.m. departure.
We hit the security line right around 3 p.m.
I wrote about the lightsaber I built at Disneyland in the Part 4 blog post. I had read (and was told by my friend Mike Schellhardt) that you could take the lightsabers (which include a padded carrying case) onto the plane as a carry-on item.
But I was still concerned there would be some sort of SNAFU carrying it on.
It turns out that it wasn’t an issue. We ended up stowing it in the overhead bins. Schellhardt had told me that he has slipped it underneath his seat before, but we couldn’t figure out the physics of that on the Boeing 747.
Bridget helped Scotland with her homework while we waited (the rest of us were consulted on — and debated — one of the questions contained in the reading comprehension packet that required some interpretation).
There was also a young woman waiting for a flight who came around saying she was doing a “research project” and wondered if people would be willing to take a “short survey.”
I didn't bite. That type of thing causes my warning alarms to go off.
Bridget and Neil scanned her QR code (which took you to a Google form), and it appears she was in insurance sales. 🙄
Our flight ended up being delayed 70 minutes. Our departure turned out to be 6:06 p.m. (and we had to move gates during the process).
Taking the delay into account, we *might* have been able to see the Hollywood sign. You just don’t know these things are going to happen ahead of time.
We settled into our seats about 6 p.m. We were airborne a little after 6:30 p.m.
I got to see some pretty mountains out the window as we flew west toward Denver International Airport.
Our connecting flight in Denver was set to arrive at 8:10 p.m. and depart at 10:05 p.m. It turns out that they moved the DEN-OMA flight “up.” I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a situation where a flight departs “earlier” than scheduled. 🤦
The delay at LAX — combined with the earlier than expected departure at DIA — meant that we had to race across the airport to make the connecting flight (I managed to make a jogging stop at the restroom on the way — Neil went ahead to save us seats). 😏
It certainly wasn’t what we had expected. We had been planning to have dinner at the Denver airport.
Sadly, I don't have any additional pictures from the trip. We arrived in Omaha after midnight and collected our luggage.
We really should have taken a group selfie at the baggage claim area... or something like that to wrap up the blog.
We didn’t. We were all tired — ready to get home and get some sleep.
Neil and Theresa and the kids were picked up by Theresa’s parents. But our adventure wasn’t over, because we had driven ourselves and parked our Pilot at the airport, on the top floor of the parking garage.
We found where we had parked, and went to exit the top floor, but the ticket reader wouldn’t read the ticket. We pushed the “Help” button and were directed to stop at one of the manned ticket booths at street level. But there was a lengthy wait, because it seemed everyone who had parked on the top floor was having trouble with the ticket reader.
After a 10-minute wait in a line of cars, we finally reached the parking attendant, who informed us that an angry patron had run her car into the ticket reader a couple weeks earlier, rendering it inoperable. That would have been nice to know. But we were able to pay for our rooftop spot (with coupon – $88) and get on our way at a little after 1 a.m. (The parking garage receipt says 1:08 a.m.)
And thus ended our epic California trip. While we weren't able to get the “Hollywood ending” on the trip that we had hoped for, our last few hours in California turned out to be pretty memorable.
Bridget and I had fun hanging out with Neil, Theresa, Blaise, Scotland, and Anson on this trip.
When we took our first trip together to Disney World in 2019, we couldn’t have imagined that it would be 2023 when we took another trip together.
Our trip to California was wonderful. As I’ve been putting together these blog posts, I’ve been wishing we were back there.
Here’s hoping it won't be another four years before the next trip...!
Read the Entire "California Trip" Blog Series!
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