After a five year hiatus of flying overseas, almost to the day, it is now finally time to head abroad again for our fourth trip to the USA together. This one is going to be called the Sports & Entertainment Trip with plenty of events lined up, namely Wrestlemania.
Our plan for this trip is to stay 17 nights in California and Nevada with a night in Los Angeles, five nights in San Francisco, four nights in Sacramento, two nights in San Jose, then finishing with five nights in Las Vegas.
But first things first, we had to get to the airport and that proved trickier than hoped. Our shuttlebus left at 7am and it was 6:35am and we still couldn’t find a taxi/uber to Warrenheip.
But then we got lucky with one car becoming available and getting us to the station at 6:56am, just in time!
It was a pretty quick trip to the airport, getting in around 8:20pm. Fortunately we had free Qantas lounge passes through a promo deal we found.
But unfortunately it seemed every man and his dog had one as it felt like there were more people in the lounge than out in the normal area. At least the food was free and our last chance to pig out for a while.
Our flight was not till 11:55am but time went pretty quick. We boarded around 11:20am and as is usual with us, we were stuck next to a family with 3 kids.
So we buckled in expecting a loud 14 hours, but by a stroke of luck the kids were pretty quiet and well behaved. We spent most of our time watching our tv shows like White Lotus S2 and the Underworld movie series. With a couple of hours sleep and some nice meals in between, the flight felt like it went pretty quick.
We got into Los Angeles around 8am or so and getting through customs was an absolute breeze. They barely quizzed us or asked any questions, it was just straight through. Next we caught the free shuttlebus to our hotel which was about 20 mins away, but were unable to check in as it was too early.
Check in time was not until 3pm so we decided to go find a T-Mobile to get our simcards sorted. After walking for about 10 minutes we realised we forgot our credit card, so headed back to get it from our bags. By a stroke of luck, the lady said our room was ready so we checked in and had a little 2-hour nap.
Sports Day & Night
By now it was about midday so we decided to walk downtown and stumbled upon a soccer game that was starting soonish between the USA and Brazil national womens teams at SoFi Stadium.
Tickets were about $90 USD each which seemed a bit rich, so we passed and found a T-Mobile, as well as checked out a Target and some other shops.
After a bit of a shop, we checked ticket prices again and they were now about $14 USD. It was just about half time, but that was decent value even to watch a half game and check out an awesome new stadium.
The stadium as absolutely incredible. We had great seats and it was an enjoyable game that the US team won 2-0.
It was now 4pm and we had some time to kill before tonight’s NBA game. We found a bar called the Cork & Batter and got some beers and food whilst watching the Timberwolves @ 76ers and Grizzlies @ Pistons games on the tv. The Wolves won an epic with Ant hitting a match sealing 3pt right near the end.
Now it was onwards to our main event, the LA Clippers vs Dallas Mavericks at the new Intuit Dome stadium. This stadium is one of, if not, the most advanced stadium in the world.
Even entering inside the stadium was a tough ask that required the Intuit Dome app, which had facial recognition software. In fact, this place doesn’t even require money, all food and stuff works off facial recognition linked to your app.
We finally got to our seats which was pretty high up in the rafters. After a wonderful rendition of the national anthem it was finally game time. Both teams fielded strong lineups which was handy considering it was the second night of a back to back.
James Harden and Kawhi Leonard suited up for the Clippers, while AD was playing for the Mavs, so they were the main players we wanted to see.
Our seats were not too bad but it was pretty high up, so we decided to sneak into the lower section for a better view. Unfortunately the game was a blowout with the Clippers winning 135-104. The good news was because it was a blow out, we got to see the Aussies play some minutes – Patty Mills & Ben Simmons.
Oh, don’t get me started about the pricing and the food options at this place. It seriously cost $19 for a beer in this stadium, which converts to about $31.50 AUD. Absolutely mental. A tiny box of popcorn was $15 AUD. Frig off.
After the game we opted to walk back instead of getting an Uber. On the way we found a little 7-Eleven, got ourselves a healthy snack for tea of chips and dip, very nice at 11pm at night.
Then we decided to get some sleep at around midnight in our dingy little room that we are sure has seen some things over the years. Tomorrow morning we are flying out to San Francisco.
Where We Stayed in Los Angeles
