USA Trip (12th Sep - 8th Oct) - Day 5 - Drunken Monkey, Bronners & Saginaw

We had a bit of a sleep in on the next day after a busy day of travelling and then split up for the day.

I was dropped off at Drunken Monkey tattoo in Saginaw to get a tattoo and everyone else headed off to Frankenmuth.

Kristine and I had been watching a show called Ink Master for a few years, it's a 'reality' TV program which features contestants tattooing as part of a competition. One of my favourite artists on the show, Kyle Dunbar, competed on Season 3 and was voted back in to compete on Season 4. He also had a podcast about tattooing and the show, which I had listened to.

When planning our trip, I heard on the podcast that he was living and tattooing in Flint, Michigan, so I looked up his tattoo studio. It turned out that he was actually tattooing in Saginaw at a studio called Drunken Monkey. I joked with Kris about organising a tattoo with him and she got in contact with the studio and managed to get a booking for the time we were in Saginaw.

Normally when I get a tattoo done, I already have an idea exactly what I want and then find an artist, this time was different as I didn't really have a plan. I have only wanted tattoos that mean something to me, so I worked with AI to draft something up. I have a tattoo for my friends that have passed, one for my rugby club and one for Malmo, but I didn't really have anything for my kids. I recalled when Tomas was really sick with pancreatitis, we had just bought him the Captain America shield lego set and built it when he got better. He had always liked Captain America and it suited our trip to the US, so the first element was the Captain America shield. Cameron and I were both Starwars fans, so I added the lightsaber for him (fitting as he had signed up to make a lightsaber at Disney this trip) and Alana had always been involved in dance, so I added dance shoes (they are strictly ballet shoes and Alana doesn't do ballet anymore, but they were the most recognisable type of dance shoe).

I threw all of these into AI and asked it to put together a picture. The first one had the shoes tied to the blade of the lightsaber, so I made some changes and came up with a reasonable final design:

Kyle did a great job working with the design and making it ever better. He was a great guy and I really enjoyed the day and love the final product:

 

While this was going on, the rest of the family headed out to Frankenmuth the check out Bronner's Christmas Shop. I have posted about Bronner's a few times in earlier posts, but Tara and Brett have never been. They look like they had fun and everyone spent way too much money:

After finishing up at Bronner's, the family went to visit my Grandfather, Duane. When I finished up my tattoo and Kris picked me up and we spent a while longer with Duane before heading home for the night and cooked tacos for dinner.

USA Trip (12th Sep - 8th Oct) - Day 4 - Flint & Saginaw

This was a very early day. We had a 6am flight from LAX (which was fortunately delayed from 5:30am), so we were up at 3:30am to be ready to catch the airport shuttle. While the airport was only about 15min away, the shuttles came every half hour, so there was a risk that we could have a 30min wait before we could catch it.

The biggest trouble we had (other than waking up the boys who had only gotten back about 4 hours earlier) was the fact that the domestic flights came with no checked luggage allowance. We had flown over from Australia with three big bags and while Kristine had made us all bags that were an exact fit for the carry-on allowance we had bought some things at Blizzcon and in LA and there was no way we were getting everything in carry-on. It was US$45 for a bag each way and in the end it was less stress to just pay for three bags and not stress about packing. 

When we were lining up to board we noticed that many of the passengers had quite large carry-on bags, so we might have been able to get away with more.

Our first flight was from LAX to Detroit, which was about 4.5hrs with a time zone change that added an additional 2 hours to the current time. When we landed in Detroit and the plane was taxiing to the terminal we realised that our connecting plane had started boarding 3 minutes ago. We landed in Terminal A and our flight was from Terminal C.

The flight crew asked that everyone remained seated so that those with a connection could get off first, but we were right at the back of the plane and everyone stood and pushed forwards, so we were last off. By now we were about 10 minutes from 'boarding closing' so we ran through the airport. It didn't look far on the map, but it felt like miles. When we arrived at the gate they were still only boarding group 5 and we were group 8 (at the back of the plane again).

This time we flew in a Bombardier CRJ-900 which was a much smaller plane and it was completely full.

Our next flight was Detroit to Saginaw (Midlands Airport) which was a total of 45minutes. The flight was so short the flight attendants remained seated the whole time and there was no in-flight service. The flight to Melbourne from Adelaide always felt short, but this one too more time boarding that it did flying.

We picked up our car and drove to Flint, where we would be staying.

Overall our movements for this day were a little strange - Detroit airport was only an hour drive to Flint where we would be staying, and Saginaw airport was 55min from it, meaning that Flint was almost in the middle of the two cities.

So why didn't we just fly to Detroit, why bother flying to Saginaw? For some reason the tickets were cheaper to do both flights than the single one, car hire was cheaper from Saginaw, traffic was less and our family were in Saginaw.

The car pick-up went smoothly and we drove down to our house in Flint. Flint is not really the most desirable location in Michigan, it's an industrial city with quite a high crime rate and high unemployment. Our accommodation was from Stayz and was an old style two story house (plus basement). It was an older house and our relatives were worried about the area, but overall it was comfortable and we never felt unsafe.

Once we'd checked in and dumped the bags we headed out to Walmart to stock up and buy food for dinner.

Flying over the Grand Canyon

USA Trip (12th Sep - 8th Oct) - Day 3 - Los Angeles

We were up early on the Monday and left our accommodation, heading back into LA. We had booked the Holiday Inn Los Angeles - LAX Airport (the hotel were Tara was staying) for the night as we had an early start the next day.

Since it was way too early to check into our room met Tara and the boys in the carpark and took our bags up to their room. Kris and I then headed to drop the rental car off at the airport and Tara and the kids caught the hotel shuttle to meet us at the airport.

We then caught the Airport bus out to Union Station for a walk around LA.

We got off at Union Station and headed toward the Grand Central Markets, passing the LA City Hall:

LA City Hall was built in 1928 and houses the Mayor's Office, meeting chambers and council offices. The concrete used was mixed with sand from each of California's 58 counties and water from the 21 missions (Spanish Missions that became part of LA). It was modelled after the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (one of the seven wonders).

At 138m tall it was the first exception to the law that buildings needed to be below 46m tall (which was repealed in 1957). At the top of the building is a pyramid to honor Charles Lindbergh.

Next we passed the LA Times building, built in 1935:

Next was the Million Dollar Theatre, built in the Spanish Baroque Revival (Churrigueresque) in 1917. It was one of the first movie palaces built in the US. It featured in Blade Runner as well as GTA V (as Ten Cent Theatre):

We then stopped at the Grand Central Market for lunch. The market is housed in the Homer Laughlin Building and has been running continuously since 1917. It is visited by over 2 million people a year:

Directly across from the markets was the Angels Flight Funicular railway. Angel's Flight is a 2'6" (762mm) gauge railway that runs up Bunker Hill. It has two cars, Olivet and Sinai. The railway is only 91m long and rises a height of 29m

The Angels Flight is an iconic part of LA, but has a checkered history. It first opened in 1901, named the Los Angeles Incline Railway and was located on Third Street to connect Hill and Olive Street. It ws renamed to Angels Flight in 1912. 

In 1969 the site was cleared for redevelopment and the railway was dismantled and stored for 27 years. In 1996 it was reconstructed in its current location, using the same cars but with some upgrades.

The railway suffered a serious accident in 2001 where improper design of the brakes and drive allowed Sinai to roll back into Olivet killing 1 and injuring 7. The railway was repaired and reopened in 2010, closing in 2011 for a wheel replacement and in 2013 after a minor derailment. It was reopened in 2017 after significant safety upgrades. 

It is a famous landmark, appearing in over 100 films since 1914.

There was also a number of recreated adverts from the early 1900s displayed inside.

We then walked into downtown LA through the skyscrapers and took a quick stop at the US Bank Tower. Also known as the Library Tower and First Interstate Bank World Tower, it is 310.3m tall (3rd tallest in California, 2nd tallest in LA, 24th in the USA and 129th in the world). It has 73 storeys above ground and 2 below, a rooftop helipad (required by town codes) and is built to withstand an 8.3 Richter scale earthquake. It was built in 1987 at a cost of $350,000 and has featured in movies like Independence Day, Day After Tomorrow and San Andreas, as well as being the Maze Bank Tower in Grand Theft Auto V.

The Central Library

Two California Plaza (2Cal) building

Wedge-Shaped Wells Fargo North Tower

US Bank Tower

 Bell Communications Around the Globe  - Built 1961 to celebrate Alexander Graham Bell

City National Plaza Twin Towers

 KPMG Building (Figueroa at Wilshire)

Our next stop was Pershing Square. It is a city block created in 1866 as La Plaza Abaja, it was renamed several times before settling on Pershing Square, named after General John J Pershing, who was a General in the WWI Expedition Forces and a mentor to Generals in WWII.

The square was initially used as a camp for settlers from outside the Pueblo de Los Angeles, it was the site of multiple rallies in WWII. It was originally planted with palm trees, but these were moved to the new Disneyland site for the Jungle Cruise. The square was demolished in 1952 to build an underground parking garage. It was deemed an eyesore for the 1984 Olympics and was redesigned and redeveloped. It served as Legion Square in GTA V.

We also came across a food delivery robot:

We then walked down the road coming across some more interesting places:

Our next stop was The Last Bookshop, California's largest new & used bookshop. In was opened in 2005 and moved to this location in 2011. The new building was a former bank, complete with a vault:

We then started the walk back toward Town Hall and a few other stops, but the temperature was in the mid 30s (high 90s Fahrenheit) and humid, so we opted to catch a bus. We got off just by our next stop - Bob's Market, which featured as the Toretto's Market in The Fast and the Furious:

Toretto's Market - in the movie

Continuing with our theme, the next stop was 722–724 East Kensington Road, which served as the Toretto House:

Toretto House - in the movie

The house was built in 1906 in the Echo Park district. The garage from the movie was built as part of the set and the driveway for the house belongs to the neighbor. In the movie the house was exploded but this was done digitally.

Just around the corner from the house was a street with a number of famous houses.

The first was the Innes House, which served as the house in the Charmed TV series:

The house was built in the late 1880s in the Victorian style for Daniel Innes, a councilman and real-estate developer.

Across from the Innes house was the Sessions House, built in 1889 by Joseph Carter Newsom for dairy owner Charles Sessions:

A few houses down was the Sanders House, which is famous for featuring in the video clip for the Michael Jackson song, Thriller:

Thriller (1983)

There were a few other interesting houses along the street:

By now we were all pretty tired and hot, but we pushed on to our final stop, Dodger Stadium. Kris, Tom and Alana waited at the bottom of the hill and Tara, Brett, Cam and I hiked up the hill to see the stadium and the gift shop. Dodger Stadium is the home of the LA Dodgers Major League Baseball team. It was opened in 1962, took 3 years to build at a cost of $23 million.

Unfortunately the stadium wasn't open for sightseeing, but the views from the top of the hill over LA were pretty cool and worth the hike.

After this, I had originally planned an hour long walk back to Union Station but the heat had gotten to us, so we looked at how we could get back to the hotel and the boys suggested a Waymo, a self-driving taxi.  We ordered two (as there were 7 of us) and caught them back to the hotel. It was pretty cool, but a bit nerve-wracking watching the car navigate the LA traffic:

After we got back to the hotel we checked in - all of us were spending the night in the Holiday Inn - LAX Airport. We had 2 adjoining rooms on the 8th floor and Tara and Brett kept their 2nd floor room.  We collected our bags from her room and Tara, Brett, Alana and I went for a swim in the hotel pool while Kris rested. The boys caught an uber back into Anaheim to attend a Major League Baseball game between the LA Angels and the Seattle Mariners (Angels won 6-4) at Angel Stadium:

While most of us went to bed early, knowing we had a very early start the next day, the boys got back around 10:30pm, ready for the alarms to go off at 3:30am.