OUR HIGHLIGHTS:

PLACES:

Monique - Arenal & Tamarindo (& Target!)

Callie - Arenal & Monteverde Rain Forest

Luc - Arenal & Van Der Bank home

ENTERTAINMENT:

Monique - Selvatura Zipline & Cat Cruise in Tamarindo

Callie - Selvatura Zipline & Grand Central Station & Cat cruise in Tamarindo

Luc - Riding the NY subway, Selvatura Zipline, Baldi Springs & Cat cruise in Tamarindo

RESTAURANTS:

Monique - Local restaurant in Arenal & Pedro’s on Tamarindo Beach

Callie - Uri’s Indian Restaurant in NY & Katz

Luc - Mars 2112 (NY)

MOST INTERESTING EXPERIENCE :

Monique - Dinner at Korean Restaurant (and not knowing what to order!)

Callie - Celebrity houses in Hollywood

Luc - Statue of Liberty

SHOPPING:

Monique - Macey’s sale (Expensive, but thrilling!)

Callie - Window shopping (excluding the suitcase shopping on 30th and China Town)

Luc - Toys are Us

FAVOURITE EAT:

Monique - Comodes (typical Costa Rican Food) & Apple and Cinnamon pretzel (NY)

Callie - Plantain chips

Luc - Bubblegum & Chicken corn soups

BEST ACCOMMODATION:

Monique - Orchid Suites - LA (best value), Hotel Fonda Vela - Monteverde (best situated), Marriot Suites - LA (luxury)

Callie - Arenal Paraiso (Best situated)

Luc - Arenal Paraiso (for the pools!)

SPECIAL MOMENTS:

Monique - Seeing Liz (short but sweet!), chilling with Uri and being entertained by the Van Der Banks!

Callie - Pigeons in Santa Monica, seeing old friends & lava running down Arenal

Luc - Hoisting the sail on the cat

MOMENTS WE DON’T WANT TO HAVE AGAIN:

Monique - Driving with Callie on the right hand side of very small roads in Costa Rica

Callie - Carrying the fast asleep Luc in the streets in New York

Luc - Zipline in Arenal & looking forward to going up the Empire State building and then running out of time!

Uri - Slugging the Strydom’s suitcases up and down 4 floors (unconfirmed!)

9 APRIL - GOING HOME

It is a mission to get everyone out of bed and ready for our 4 o’clock pick up. We are at LAX airport before schedule and thank goodness for that, because the lines for the security checks are very long. Must say that we have been really impressed by the United Airways flight and service - from their Economy Plus Seats to the food served. There is no time for shopping and we board immediately. It is a 4 ½ hour flight plus a time change and we land in New York just after 2. We have to meet Uri to collect the rest of our luggage - he is running late, so we stroll around in the duty free shops - to whom everyone has access, but you can only shop if you have a boarding pass. Uri arrives and we tease him about coming with. He also has a field day, teasing one of the check-in girls busy with training. We quickly have lunch and then have to say goodbye to Uri - who ends up hanging around to see if the Strydom’s make it onto the plane! We have a bit of a problem with security - who screens one of our hand luggage bags three times and then asks us to open it to inspect - turns out it is Jana and Jaco’s wedding gift that had them baffled. We decide to take Uri’s advice and sleep as soon as possible, so that we can get straight into the SA time zone. This proves to be difficult with Luc who cannot get enough of the touch screen movies and games. It turns out to be an extremely uncomfortable night with the three of us trying to sleep on 4 seats - or shall I rather say, Luc sleeping on 3 and Callie and Monique trying to find a spot somewhere!!! We are all sad that our holiday is over and cannot believe that it has gone so fast.

8 APRIL - HOLLYWOOD & SANTA MONICA

We are extremely lazy and take the morning to update the blogspot, look at photos, speak to Roni (with Skype and free of charge) and only get going at 11. We take the hour bus ride down to Santa Monica. Callie makes conversation with a big, black fellow, who tells Callie that he is a script writer and movie director, who finally got the go-ahead to film his script. It is an action movie. Monique is very sceptic about this, but we will have to wait and see if it is ever released - as Uri says “everyone in Hollywood is either an actor, producer, director or in the movie business”.

We get off at the famous 3rd Promenade - a paved road surrounded by many restaurants and designer shops. We keep our eyes peeled for someone famous and Callie is sure he saw Sylvestor Stallone. After a long visit to the Sketchers shop - where Luc does his favourite pass time, getting gumballs from the gumball machine, and after buying the most expensive pair of tekkies Luc will ever have, we got down to the main promenade right on the beach. This is the famous promenade you will always see in the movies - people running and skating. We are really surprised by the number of homeless people asleep on the grass in the sun.

We walk down to the beautiful pier - with a few small curio shops, a games arcade and carnival. Luc immediately wants to do the water gun game, but refuses to go on the big wheel with his mother. Callie finally persuades him and we get a stunning view of Santa Monica and LA from high above the sea! There are a few nervous moments when we stop right at the top, but Luc is very impressed when he realises we are just as high as a helicopter that flew by.

On his way out, Luc tries the ladder balance act and ends up winning a small, cuddly toy for his brave effort. We are also forced to stop at the games arcade, under much protest from his mother! The greatest entertainment however is caused by feeding the doves and pigeons on the promenade. This happened by accident - we sat down to see who was climbing out of a limo that had just parked and whilst we were snacking away on some seed mix the local wildlife decided to join us for the snack. Quickly we were surrounded by hundreds of pigeons, climbing all over us!

We decide to head uptown before the rush hour, for which LA is so renowned and take the bus back. When we get to the Kodak Theatre, we make a last minute decision to go and a guided tour to view the houses of the stars! We get a great discount - cause they are filling up seats and it turns out to be a nice tour. We see locations where they are busy filming movies, then we see all the spots where the stars hang out - including the Macdonalds where Hugh Grant picked up the prostitute and George Micheals tried to pick up the undercover cop! We see the designer’s shops in Rodeo Drive. According to our tour guide there is an Italian suit designer who will only see you by appointment and if you don’t buy anything you get a bill of $1500. The average bill at his shop is $ 100 000 per person! We see the paparazzi hanging out at one shop and hear that the stars often come in after closing hours to shop. Then we see the houses and the cars. Christina Aquillera’s mansion on top of the hill to the $15000 million dollar house she got for her mom! We see the Farraris and Lamborginis of the owner of Guest Shop parked outside his house - cause he has no garages! We see the street and houses where Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween were filmed. We saw the Batman mansion and gates - which is public property. We see where Demi Moore lives with her young husband - and hear that Bruce Willis bought the house across the street. Also the houses of James Dean, Elvis Presely and Marilyn Manroe. We pop in at Sean Connery and Dr Phil - or the “house that Oprah bought” as our tour guide called it. We also see the famous Viper Room (Johnny Depp’s Club where River Phoenix died on a drug overdose).

We are very surprised to see that some of the properties are not very private at all, for instance, Patrick Dempsey (Gray’s Anatomy) house has a low fence and you can see the kid’s play area with his whole house. Although the houses are massive and worth fortunes, we actually got to realise that these are just ordinary people, with their own lives and not really much different from all of us - if you can ignore the paparazzi and
Egos!!!

We have a quick dinner back in the flat and try to pack and get into bed as quickly as possible for our very early flight.

7 APRIL - TO LOS ANGELES

WALK OF FAME - CHARLIZE

OUR HOTEL!
SPIDERMAN MEETS SPIDERMAN!
CAPT SPARROW
LUC AND TOM

TO LOS ANGELES - 7 APRIL
We sleep late (8 o’clock) and then decides to go for breakfast. After getting all 10 of us dressed, meeting up with Louise Jnr, putting the dogs away and sorting out the cars, we eventually get to breakfast just after 11. We eat at a great American family joint, where the kids are spoilt to waffles and drinks in “space glasses”. This is after Luc throw such a tantrum to get one and Louise, with her generous heart cannot say “no”.

We are sad to say goodbye to the Van Der Banks and the sadness continues even further, when Andre and Leyla, drops us at our hotel in Hollywood (after an hour drive). Luc is in tears when he has to say goodbye to Leila - we could not help but smile when we heard the conversation in the back of the car - “you are my best friend”, “I love you” etc etc!

We are booked at the Orchid Suites hotel, a small hotel right behind the Chinese Theater and the Kodak Theatre - this is where the annual Oscar awards take place. We get upgraded to one of the best deals on our trip. A massive suite with two king beds and a separate kitchen - must say Andre’s home cooking has made us eager to do some of our own cooking!

We are exhausted and Callie makes a comment on how good Liz and Monique was to survive 3 months of non-stop travelling with their round the world trip. We decide to make the most of it and stroll down to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a block down from the hotel. There are hordes of tourists and the Chinese Theatre is spectacular. Imprinted in the sidewalks we see the names and hands of many famous stars, like Marilyn Manroe, Johnny Depp and even our own Charelize Theron!

Luc immediately runs to Spiderman for a photo - one of the many imitations of movie characters (most probably out of work actors!), who makes a quick buck by posing with tourists. We see Superwoman, Spongebob and even a very good version of Captain Jack Sparrow - just can’t get away from the pirates!

We are tired, hungry and cold and decide to walk down to Sunset Boulevard to Ralphs Foods store to get some food to cook. It turns out to be a long walk and we are starving when we get back home. After a very quick pasta dinner and a glass of wine, Monique is in a bed by 9, whilst Luc and Callie tell stories!

6 APRIL - CRYSTAL CATHEDRAL

LUC IN FRONT OF CRYSTAL CATHEDRAL

INSIDE!

LUC AND NEW LOVE OF HIS LIFE - LEILA

ANDRE, LOUISE AND MONIQUE - WAITING FOR ICECREAM!

Luc does not want to wake up - he must be exhausted after all the travelling, so Monique decides to go to the first service on her own. It is a short drive to the spectacular church, made out of glass. Dr Schuller came to the States in the 60’s and started off his church in a drive-in with $ 500. The Hour of Power is also the largest and longest run TV church programme in the world and is extremely professionally run.

The staff is very friendly and Monique gets a private audience with Dr Schuller, during which they discover that they can have a conversation in Dutch - as he is from Holland originally! After a quick walk through of the programme, it is make-up and then time for the first service. It is truly spectacular to sit within this glass church and quite overwhelming. Monique is introduced and interviewed by Dr Schuller Senior and after the first question most of the butterflies are gone. Directly after the interview, Monique is taken backstage where she does another interview for the web feed.

Callie and Luc arrive and Luc is very happy to see his mommy. The second interview is much more relaxed and more detailed and we all join the congregation for the service. During his service, Dr Schuller Junior, tells about how ignorant some Americans are. He tells the story of the government official who had to visit China. When the travel agent tells him he needs a visa for China, he is furious. He tells her that he has been to China 4 times and never needed one. She double checks and when she comes back to her, he once again tells her that during the previous four visits he never needed a visa, he only used his American Express!

After the service we walk the grounds of the church, looking at all the amazing statues, whilst waiting for Louise to pick us up. Louise is the wife of Monique’s cousin, Andre, who moved to the States about 15 years ago and is now the hairdresser of the rich and famous. They live a few miles from the church and the plan is to spend the day with them.

We are met by a big household with 6 children! Andre and Louise have been supporting the foster care program in the States since their arrival and now have an extended family, including 3 dogs - of whom one is a chiwhawa who thinks he is a lion and wants to eat everything. Louise tells us that the other puppy ate hole in their lounge set and that they had to get a new set. It is great to see Andre again, we cannot quite figure out when was the last time that we have seen each other - Andre did Monique’s hair for her matric dance - this is more than 26 years ago. Andre is also the god child of Monique’s dad and he looks remarkably very much like her dad.

Andre had injured his leg earlier the week and, much to his embarrassment, was hopping along with a walking trolley with poor Louise attending! Luc is in his element, finally having some friends to play with and he immediately takes to Lyla, who is just younger than he is.

We all have pizzas and much talking is done on trying to catch up on family news, news in South Africa and how life in the States are treating the Van Der Banks. Later in the afternoon we take a slow drive (Andre refuses to drive with Louise and is behind the wheel with injured leg and all!) to Laguna Beach to see where the rich and famous lives. We chill out on the beach - a bit cool to swim, but the kids enjoy the sand. We enjoy little Danny (who is now nearly four) and cannot stop talking!

The kids get treated to Macdonalds (now Luc is really happy!) and Andre cooks a great new variation of the Coke Chicken. We hear about them missing tomato flavoured chips and how expensive Mrs Balls is. Andre has booked a hotel for us, but in the end it gets so late that we all end up bunking in Louise Jnr’s room. We thoroughly enjoyed the “chaos” of a big family - something Callie always wanted and Monique never had the energy for!

5 APRIL - TO LA

A FANCY RIDE!

HERE WE ARE AGAIN - DISNEY!!!

After a night with very little sleep, we are up and ready for the car at 6 to be at the airport at 7. It is Saturday and supposed to be an easy drive, but the morning begins with an accident on the road and it is a slow drive. We luckily get to the airport on time, I am on standby for the flight that Luc and Callie’s is on and finally manage to get on it.

We are picked up by a driver from Crystal Cathedral and the boys are in ecstasy when they see our lift - it is a limousine! I have all my days keeping their fingers off all the gadgets in the car. It is a 45 minute drive to Orange County where we are checked in at the Marriot Suites Hotel - what a nice change after all our backpacking accommodation. We have a stunning suite, with a bath! The driver, Feng, tells us that Disneyworld California is a few minutes away from the hotel. We are in two minds about going there, Monique wants to work on her interview and Callie is ready for an afternoon nap, but then decide that we should take Luc.

We stop at the Target (one of the Strydom’s favourite shops!) and after some shopping, set off on the local bus to Disneyworld. We only get there at 5 and there is no discount for arriving late. It is a hefty $180 to get in - but we are doing it for Luc… The park is very full - not as much as Disney Orlando. Our first ride is the Pirates of the Caribbean with only a 15 minute wait. Luc is scared - must remember his first Disney ride when we went down straight down the mountain! The ride is based on the movie and great fun - we see Captain Jack Sparrow a few times and Monique decides that Brad Pitt is out and Johnny Depp is in!

Whilst Luc and Monique go on the “not so busy” Winnie the Phoo ride, Callie runs off to Fast Track some of the more popular rides. Taking into consideration that the wait at some rides are 60 minutes, we might just end up doing 4 rides. After the very slow, but beautiful Winnie, we set off to the adventure of the bob sledge ride. It is a roller coaster that starts off high up in a “snow” mountain. Luc is scared, but once he gets the hang of it - he loves it!

The new submarine ride has a wait of more than a hour, so we decide to go to the Science Exhibition - with all sorts of games and gadgets. On the Chevron car ride, Luc gets to be the driver. It turns out to be bumpy (because of Luc’s driving) and slow (because of the car in front of us breaking down all the time). It is getting to be cold and we do the last ride - Buzz Lightyear. A journey into space where you have to help Buzz shoot down the aliens. Monique scores a high of 38 000 points on this one, followed by Callie with 9000 points (must take after her father!).

We run to get the bus and quickly pop into a street restaurant - a pie shop - for dinner. These are not the pies we know, but rather pecan nut pie, strawberry pie etc etc. We are exhausted when we get home and in bed by 10.

4 APRIL - NEW YORK

Best Bagels in NY!

Mars 2112!

Aliens!

The 2 C's - Callie & Cupcakes!

We sleep a bit later again and only get to the streets at 11. Monique has to get an outfit for the TV show - after being told that she needs to be dressed fancy. We stop at the bagel shop and then Fellini’s Basement, the boys go for soup whilst Monique is shopping. We go downtown to open a bank account and after a very long session we pop into Uri’s office to drop our shopping. We then walk up to 52nd street to the famous, Mars 2112 restaurant. Danny told us about this “spacey” restaurant and must say it turns out to be an experience. You enter the restaurant by getting in a “space ship” and taking a trip to Mars. The whole restaurant is designed to look like you are underground in Mars, complete with aliens walking around greeting everyone. Monique and Luc is hungry and ends up eating the most expensive hamburger ever - $ 15 (R 120!!!). After the quick visit, Callie runs uptown to get the laundry (which we had nearly forgotten about!) and Luc and Monique walks back to Uri’s office. Monique pops into a shoe shop looking for boots and finally ends up making a group of new friends! All the shop attendants are from Africa - Chad, Senegal and Morcocco - and could not stop talking about 2010!!! We rush down to meet Callie at 30st street where he is busy buying a suit case (for all the shopping!!!). We then meet Uri at the subway and then off to Uri’s other favourite - a Brazilian restaurant. It is a great stop, with great food. We have roasted corn which is out of this world! After dinner we take a long walk back and Uri shows us the West Village - where he used to live and is also the suburb of stars like Sarah Jessica Parker. We stop at the famous Sex in the City Cup cake bakery and eat a decadent cup cake. We get to the hotel just after 11. We quickly pack, whilst Uri waits patiently! Uri and Callie takes the two big suitcases to his flat, whilst I finish the other packing. Struggle to get Luc into his bed - an early morning that waits for us.