Day 13

After deciding that it would be really memorable if William and I could spend some time alone together this holiday, we agreed that Universal Studios would be the perfect place for our mother/son bonding to take place. After setting my alarm for 6am and dragging him out of his bed, we set off with Katy and Rita arriving just before the park opened at 9am.

We'd taken the shortest route as opposed to the fastest and so managed to drive through a few of the famous streets including, Melrose, Hollywood and Sunset. Katy was unimpressed with the layout and the atmosphere of Hollywood, commenting how much luckier we were to be staying in Hermosa.

Entering the park at just after 9am, Will and I headed straight for the lower lot in order to be first in line for the most popular rides; Revenge of the Mummy, Jurassic Park and Transformers 3D. We managed to experience all three before 11am which we were told was good going considering it was the hight of Summer. It took me a while to explain to Will that these weren't your ordinary Southend on Sea roller coasters. The rides were more like 'moving experiences' obviously there were large elements of stomach churning adrenalin but there was so much more. Each ride took you on a journey through a particular movie and included special effects such as water, fire, animatronics and stunning 3D visuals. Both Will and I enjoyed the Transformers ride the best but after queuing for 45 minutes couldn't face queuing up again!

The park is separated into upper and lower lots by about five sets of steep escalators. After we'd  exhausted all the rides down below, we headed upstairs to the biggest area of the park in search of more thrills and excitement. The next big attraction for me was not a $2m ride but the word Cinnabon, lit up in front of me. For those of you who have never had the awesome pleasure of trying a Cinnabon classic they look something like this....

I am in no doubt that my writing skills could never do justification in describing this culinary bombshell. But for a cake lover like myself it ticks just about every box there is. The only thing which took the edge of the pleasure of eating 1.5 of them (William left half!!) was when I glanced up at the board and noticed the 800 calories written in small print next to the picture. Determined that that would be the only thing I ate today, I walked away content in the knowledge that every one of my days allocated calories had been spent on something so stupendously scrumptious!

It was at this point that we bumped into Katy and Rita and decided to all go on the Simpsons ride together as there was no height restriction for smaller children. After another 45 minute wait we entered what we thought would be a nice relaxing child friendly experience that we all could share together - how wrong we were! The screaming children coming off the ride before us should have given us an indication of the rides verocity but as the sign on the door had said 'there's no going back now' we buckled our seat belts and hoped for the best. 

I'm not sure who was more scared, Katy or Rita, but it definitely felt like one of those scarring moments in your lifetime, where in 30 years time Rita will trace back years of fear and anxiety to that precise moment when she was forced to experience the Simpsons ride at Universal Studios, aged 5.

Splitting off again, Will and I enjoyed the famous Universal studio tour which took in the studios and locations used for many well known films and TV Shows. We toured the exterior set of Wysteria Lane from Desperate Housewives as well as many historical greats including Bates Motel from Psycho and Amity Island from Jaws.

We decided to leave before the traffic built up to heavily but before we did, Will enjoyed having his caricature drawn and also seeing his face superimposed onto the body of a movie character and printed on a t-shirt. Both activities were vastly over priced I might add, but seeing him enjoy himself was justification enough for the spending.

The journey home was painless thank goodness and it was lovely to hear that Holly and Louis had enjoyed their day at home without us. I felt less guilty for not taking them too after seeing their little happy faces when they received their 'ET' and 'Princess Fiona' soft toys.

For dinner, we visited a different restaurant, the 'Waterfront' which made a pleasant change from American Junkie. Conscious of how much money I had spent and the fact that I had already eaten my allocated calories for the day, I opted out of ordering any food and with good intentions let the children order cheese burgers and chips. 

When the burgers arrived Katy and I made the fatal mistake of trying one and can only describe them as the best burgers we have ever eaten.  We agreed that the secret to their superior taste had to be the 'onions in the patty' and full of self loathing continued to finish off all of the children's plates until we were fit to burst.

The best burger in the world