Our time in LA-la Land has come to an end - we didn't see many celebs but we definitely saw allot of plastic La-La's!
It makes a change not going to the airport but this time going to the train station. We are Amtraking our way to San Diego. Union Station is nice - old fashioned with massive wooden and leather chairs to wait on - no wonder there are a few homeless in here. What is odd is how quiet it is - at this time of day, 11.30ish at St Pancras the station would be rammed. I guess in a city that has more cars than people who uses the train!
It was simples! Collected our tickets, got a subway then boarded the double decker train. Smooth riding all the way to San Diego. We didn't see much from the train, residential then countryside mainly. We did see Anaheim though no sign of Disneyland. We exited at Santa Fe aka San Diego. Where the station was was so close to our hotel really we walked through the Gaslamp Quarter to F Street to our hotel - Andaz. Doesn't look like much from the outside but it appears in our guide book twice for best club with a view and pool. We were greeted with complimentary drinks and went to our room where we found no end of complimentary items, chips, cereal bar, weird banana chocolate thing and a whole list of items we could ask for if we'd forgotten or run out of. We could get used to this! Not the biggest room but a room for trendy guests. Glass wall separating the sink area to the bedroom.
We know we have a busy time here in San Diego what with Sea World, the zoo and Mexico for tonight we went to a sushi place - Hive. It was great, the sushi was yum and to top it off some dishes were on happy hour!
Happy days!
Showing posts with label Los Angeles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Los Angeles. Show all posts
Thursday, 15 August 2013
Wednesday, 14 August 2013
Venturing to Venice
Today was our relaxing day at the beach - well it was meant to be our relaxing day at the beach! As our tour bus ticket didn't expire til 10.41am - yes I know accurate, we thought we'd take the first bus at 10.15am down to Santa Monica. Now the buses never run to schedule due to all the traffic so we were pushing it a little bit! It did not arrive at 10.15! What did drive past us was a police escort with a car on a trailer filming a moving car scene - cool. Thankfully our bus did turn up at 10.35 - just in the nick of time!
Our first stop today was Santa Monica Pier - where there was more filming! This time we had not only no idea who it was but also what he was saying - it was Mexican, but he did look like he was doing a link for a TV show. The pier was good, it was sunny, we stopped for a hot dog (#2 of the holiday) then took a walk along the beach towards Venice Boardwalk. it's further than you think! This is why our day wasn't as relaxing as it should have been!
At this point the weather was great, we took in the street vendors, quirky shops and performers and the odd crazy then grabbed a milkshake at Muscle Beach and watched some 3 on 3 basketball action. It did get a little heated - probably playing for money or if being cynical or believing the films drugs or women lol. There weren't many muscles on Muscle Beach, probably because it's the middle of the day on a Wednesday, early morning or a weekend would probably be busier. People were playing to pose with the muscles that were there. Sorry I shouldn't call them muscles - they are people after all. That was a little weird.
We headed back to Santa Monica - stopping on the way to buy some art from a local artist - he was cool, had a book showing his work exhibited in many countries, never been to the UK yet though.
This is where we were a little naughty as our bus tour tickets had now expired but in a taxi it would be quite expensive, if we had to get a taxi we would but we thought we'd try to get on the tour bus first. It worked!! They didn't even check our ticket! We plugged our earphones in to make it look like our first time doing this part of the tour! Heehee. We used our journey to figure out where to go for tea for our last night in LA as we didn't want to go back to Westfield. #we settled for the best steak house in Beverly Hills - Mastro's. We managed to book a table online - good job as when we got there it was heaving! The steak was amazing - the best steak ever (well it should be at that price) but truly it was the best steak I've ever had. Big claim. Cooked perfectly. Also had great service - you can see why it's a favourite of the Beckhams and Kardashians - oh yes we googled who had been there once we got back! We even got driven back to the hotel by their private car - we asked for a taxi, got escorted to a sleek black car and driven home! It was a great way to end our time here.
Our first stop today was Santa Monica Pier - where there was more filming! This time we had not only no idea who it was but also what he was saying - it was Mexican, but he did look like he was doing a link for a TV show. The pier was good, it was sunny, we stopped for a hot dog (#2 of the holiday) then took a walk along the beach towards Venice Boardwalk. it's further than you think! This is why our day wasn't as relaxing as it should have been!
At this point the weather was great, we took in the street vendors, quirky shops and performers and the odd crazy then grabbed a milkshake at Muscle Beach and watched some 3 on 3 basketball action. It did get a little heated - probably playing for money or if being cynical or believing the films drugs or women lol. There weren't many muscles on Muscle Beach, probably because it's the middle of the day on a Wednesday, early morning or a weekend would probably be busier. People were playing to pose with the muscles that were there. Sorry I shouldn't call them muscles - they are people after all. That was a little weird.
We headed back to Santa Monica - stopping on the way to buy some art from a local artist - he was cool, had a book showing his work exhibited in many countries, never been to the UK yet though.
This is where we were a little naughty as our bus tour tickets had now expired but in a taxi it would be quite expensive, if we had to get a taxi we would but we thought we'd try to get on the tour bus first. It worked!! They didn't even check our ticket! We plugged our earphones in to make it look like our first time doing this part of the tour! Heehee. We used our journey to figure out where to go for tea for our last night in LA as we didn't want to go back to Westfield. #we settled for the best steak house in Beverly Hills - Mastro's. We managed to book a table online - good job as when we got there it was heaving! The steak was amazing - the best steak ever (well it should be at that price) but truly it was the best steak I've ever had. Big claim. Cooked perfectly. Also had great service - you can see why it's a favourite of the Beckhams and Kardashians - oh yes we googled who had been there once we got back! We even got driven back to the hotel by their private car - we asked for a taxi, got escorted to a sleek black car and driven home! It was a great way to end our time here.
Tuesday, 13 August 2013
Chicken Headed Bimbo's and LARPs!
After touring LA yesterday we thought today we'd actually visit some of the attractions LA has to offer so first stop La Brea Tar Pits. We all know how disappointed I was the last time I was here, not being able to visit the Tar Pits - well this time we made it! We got off the bus outside to be greeted by a lady with two disabled people shouting down her phone that she had told the chicken headed bimbo that she would need help today and to be fair to her there was no way she could push both wheelchairs alone. It was definitely the best insult I'd heard for a while!
We headed into La Brea Park and the the pits - it smelt like workmen were resurfacing a road! Not only can you see the pits outside, the pit they were currently working on they also have the Page museum too. In here they have all the bones of animals discovered in the pits - giant land sloths, sabre toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, they were massive - it was awesome, the makers of Ice Age are genius to think of making something like this into a film. I'm glad we finally made it there - it was totally worth it.
We left the tar pits and walked through the park to LACMA. The first piece of art we saw before even getting to the door was this suspended rock above a walkway - it was huge, you wouldn't want that dropping on you - you'd end up looking like a cartoon character with arms and legs sticking out of a rock that splattered you into the ground. We got to the door to find out it was free Tuesday! Awesome, saving bucks on holiday - 30 of them - is great, pennies, sorry cents, to be spent on other things. LACMA is massive, I think it was 7 buildings so there was no way we could see it all but we did our best. We saw Japanese, European, American, Pacific art work and Metropolis II, though as it was a free day it wasn't running. It was a very cultural morning!
We left for the bus only to see the same woman as earlier still waiting. I guess the chicken headed bimbo still hasn't sorted her problem!
Morning = Culture Afternoon = Celebrities
We headed back to Hollywood for a bite to eat and then a celebrities home tour! We took a walk up and down Hollywood Boulevard (not in the same vein as Julia Roberts!) to select the best tour we could for the best price and ended up taking a starline quality tour but for half the price - oh yeah and it turns out the guy's wife is from Doncaster! This was great, in a roofless slightly smaller minibus whizzing around the winding roads, first stop Mulholland Drive - a great view over Hollywood Bowl, downtown and the Hollywood sign. Then up into the hills, round Bel Air, Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive again. I love gossip so this is the best tour for me! We saw Beckenham Palace and Tom Cruise's land next door, I say land as he owns most of the hill and has a spacecraft like gate. We also saw Jackie Chan's place, Eddie Murphy, Marilyn Monroe, Steven Spielberg, Ice and Coco, Dr Phil, The Osbournes old house, Michale Jackson's house where he died and the Playboy Mansion as well as a block of condos where Cher and Matthew Perry owns whole floors. We saw where Wynona Ryder stole all that stuff and where Lindsay Lohan crashed her car drunk. It was v cool - also v touristy but who cares! Our guide told us about LARPs as we went round. Loads of awesome houses not owned by anyone famous - owned by LARPs = Lucky Arse Rich Person - I want to be a LARP! It makes you see how the other half live...and makes you wish you live like them!
Pink Taco was our choice for tea tonight - back to the Westfield - it's been a tiring day! The brisket tacos were however amazeballs.
We headed into La Brea Park and the the pits - it smelt like workmen were resurfacing a road! Not only can you see the pits outside, the pit they were currently working on they also have the Page museum too. In here they have all the bones of animals discovered in the pits - giant land sloths, sabre toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, they were massive - it was awesome, the makers of Ice Age are genius to think of making something like this into a film. I'm glad we finally made it there - it was totally worth it.
We left the tar pits and walked through the park to LACMA. The first piece of art we saw before even getting to the door was this suspended rock above a walkway - it was huge, you wouldn't want that dropping on you - you'd end up looking like a cartoon character with arms and legs sticking out of a rock that splattered you into the ground. We got to the door to find out it was free Tuesday! Awesome, saving bucks on holiday - 30 of them - is great, pennies, sorry cents, to be spent on other things. LACMA is massive, I think it was 7 buildings so there was no way we could see it all but we did our best. We saw Japanese, European, American, Pacific art work and Metropolis II, though as it was a free day it wasn't running. It was a very cultural morning!
We left for the bus only to see the same woman as earlier still waiting. I guess the chicken headed bimbo still hasn't sorted her problem!
Morning = Culture Afternoon = Celebrities
We headed back to Hollywood for a bite to eat and then a celebrities home tour! We took a walk up and down Hollywood Boulevard (not in the same vein as Julia Roberts!) to select the best tour we could for the best price and ended up taking a starline quality tour but for half the price - oh yeah and it turns out the guy's wife is from Doncaster! This was great, in a roofless slightly smaller minibus whizzing around the winding roads, first stop Mulholland Drive - a great view over Hollywood Bowl, downtown and the Hollywood sign. Then up into the hills, round Bel Air, Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive again. I love gossip so this is the best tour for me! We saw Beckenham Palace and Tom Cruise's land next door, I say land as he owns most of the hill and has a spacecraft like gate. We also saw Jackie Chan's place, Eddie Murphy, Marilyn Monroe, Steven Spielberg, Ice and Coco, Dr Phil, The Osbournes old house, Michale Jackson's house where he died and the Playboy Mansion as well as a block of condos where Cher and Matthew Perry owns whole floors. We saw where Wynona Ryder stole all that stuff and where Lindsay Lohan crashed her car drunk. It was v cool - also v touristy but who cares! Our guide told us about LARPs as we went round. Loads of awesome houses not owned by anyone famous - owned by LARPs = Lucky Arse Rich Person - I want to be a LARP! It makes you see how the other half live...and makes you wish you live like them!
Pink Taco was our choice for tea tonight - back to the Westfield - it's been a tiring day! The brisket tacos were however amazeballs.
Monday, 12 August 2013
What's Your Dream? (Again)
A car is vital in LA if you want to get anywhere soon, if not it takes forever! Our plan for today was to get the hop on hop off bus - which handily stops outside the hotel, we can suss out the locations and decide where we want to visit as we're never going to be able to do it all - as the guy on the plane said, you won't see everything in 4 months let alone 4 days!
We eventually got the bus, it was half and hour late and headed on the yellow line to Santa Monica. There's not much between us and Santa Monica so the guide bus played the Beach Boys down our earphones! We didn't get off at Santa Monica today, we decided to come back another day and continue on the yellow line to Beverly Hills.
We alighted here and took a stroll round Rodeo Drive, on route we saw Stan Lee! Now I obviously didn't recognise him but Daniel insisted it was him driving round a corner in a Porche. We were then on a celebrity hunt. Needless to say we didn't see anyone else - well anyone we knew. We did see an awesome car outside of Bijan - which we later found out was the most expensive men's clothes store in he world - only accessible via appointment! The car was cool, I couldn't tell you what it was but Daniel could - a Bugatti Veyron. We didn't buy anything on Rodeo - well except lunch and that was even on the corner of another street, don't think we could afford Rodeo prices!
After lunch we boarded the red route to Hollywood. It is a completely different world in Hollywood and unlike what you expect the area to be like. It is not glamorous at all, filled with souvenir shops, rammed with tourists and littered with all kinds of people dressed as different famous film characters. We got accosted by Scream and posed for a photo. We wandered around a little, took in some stars then got the red route round the rest of the tour seeing landmarks like the hotel where Julia Roberts stayed in Pretty Woman - not the Wilshire with Richard Gere - we had already seen that but her and Kits place - apparently it is still a bit of a dive like in the film! I know I have used this title before - but it is the quote that comes to mind every time I think of here. What would it have been like without Pretty Woman in the 80s!?! We also saw the Whisky A Go Go - which the Bourbon Rooms from Rock of Ages is based on and then headed back to the hotel. When I say headed back we didn't actually arrive til a couple of hours later. Not having a car means getting anywhere takes forever!
We stopped in the hotel for tea tonight as we were knackered from all the travelling!! Why are portions so large!!?!!
We eventually got the bus, it was half and hour late and headed on the yellow line to Santa Monica. There's not much between us and Santa Monica so the guide bus played the Beach Boys down our earphones! We didn't get off at Santa Monica today, we decided to come back another day and continue on the yellow line to Beverly Hills.
We alighted here and took a stroll round Rodeo Drive, on route we saw Stan Lee! Now I obviously didn't recognise him but Daniel insisted it was him driving round a corner in a Porche. We were then on a celebrity hunt. Needless to say we didn't see anyone else - well anyone we knew. We did see an awesome car outside of Bijan - which we later found out was the most expensive men's clothes store in he world - only accessible via appointment! The car was cool, I couldn't tell you what it was but Daniel could - a Bugatti Veyron. We didn't buy anything on Rodeo - well except lunch and that was even on the corner of another street, don't think we could afford Rodeo prices!
After lunch we boarded the red route to Hollywood. It is a completely different world in Hollywood and unlike what you expect the area to be like. It is not glamorous at all, filled with souvenir shops, rammed with tourists and littered with all kinds of people dressed as different famous film characters. We got accosted by Scream and posed for a photo. We wandered around a little, took in some stars then got the red route round the rest of the tour seeing landmarks like the hotel where Julia Roberts stayed in Pretty Woman - not the Wilshire with Richard Gere - we had already seen that but her and Kits place - apparently it is still a bit of a dive like in the film! I know I have used this title before - but it is the quote that comes to mind every time I think of here. What would it have been like without Pretty Woman in the 80s!?! We also saw the Whisky A Go Go - which the Bourbon Rooms from Rock of Ages is based on and then headed back to the hotel. When I say headed back we didn't actually arrive til a couple of hours later. Not having a car means getting anywhere takes forever!
We stopped in the hotel for tea tonight as we were knackered from all the travelling!! Why are portions so large!!?!!
Sunday, 11 August 2013
Off to LA-LA Land!
Today we move on - had a great time here in SF but won't miss the weather! Having mow sussed out the public transport system in SF we easily get ourselves to the airport and all checked in with plenty of time to grab lunch over looking the planes.
The flight was not very eventful except the very smelly man sitting next to me who thought he'd tell us all about LA. Nice of him though he stank!!
Getting off the plane and waiting for our bags we instantly noticed the heat! Oh yeah - it was red hot!!
When in LA the easiest way to get around = taxi. The place is a concrete jungle of vast expanse and public transport would have been a nightmare! Taxi is easy - door to door. And when arriving at our hotel they were doors manned by attendants that you don't even need to open them yourself! Needless to say our hotel was by our standards posh! Located on Avenue of the Stars, next to the old Fox Studios, down the road from Century City and Westfield.
We didn't do a great deal once we arrived - had tea at Rock Sugar which was awesome, then headed 'home' so we were fresh and ready for what LA had to throw at us!
The flight was not very eventful except the very smelly man sitting next to me who thought he'd tell us all about LA. Nice of him though he stank!!
Getting off the plane and waiting for our bags we instantly noticed the heat! Oh yeah - it was red hot!!
When in LA the easiest way to get around = taxi. The place is a concrete jungle of vast expanse and public transport would have been a nightmare! Taxi is easy - door to door. And when arriving at our hotel they were doors manned by attendants that you don't even need to open them yourself! Needless to say our hotel was by our standards posh! Located on Avenue of the Stars, next to the old Fox Studios, down the road from Century City and Westfield.
We didn't do a great deal once we arrived - had tea at Rock Sugar which was awesome, then headed 'home' so we were fresh and ready for what LA had to throw at us!
Thursday, 1 August 2013
Holiday!!!
Woohoo we are finally on summer holiday!! Been a long time coming and school stuff is now all packed away for six weeks. To get in the mood off I went straight away to Majorca for a few days to get in the holiday mindset and returned chillaxed with a tan!
Now its planning all the way for our trip to the USA! Very excited obviously! So the itinerary is as follows:
San Francisco
Los Angeles
San Diego
Chicago
So far we have tickets booked for the 49ers and Alcatraz night tour. We still need to book our tickets for San Diego Zoo and Sea World. For LA we have a couple of things in mind but nothing booked in advance.
So stay tuned for the travels from London to LA (with a few extra stops too)!!
Oh and in other news we have our first chilli growing!!! Yay!
Now its planning all the way for our trip to the USA! Very excited obviously! So the itinerary is as follows:
San Francisco
Los Angeles
San Diego
Chicago
So far we have tickets booked for the 49ers and Alcatraz night tour. We still need to book our tickets for San Diego Zoo and Sea World. For LA we have a couple of things in mind but nothing booked in advance.
So stay tuned for the travels from London to LA (with a few extra stops too)!!
Oh and in other news we have our first chilli growing!!! Yay!
Thursday, 14 February 2013
Summer Holiday booked!!
Stateside here we come!!
Summer holiday is booked - in advance I know but due to last years highly busy wedding season we are getting our holiday booked in now! So the plan, fly to San Francisco, see the sights, then live it LA style, then onto to San Diego via train. Finally the stop off on the way back is two nights in Chicago. I love the windy city and as Daniel has never been and we've both be to NYC a few times we thought Chicago would be a great shout.
Now to figure out what to see, eat, do...
Summer holiday is booked - in advance I know but due to last years highly busy wedding season we are getting our holiday booked in now! So the plan, fly to San Francisco, see the sights, then live it LA style, then onto to San Diego via train. Finally the stop off on the way back is two nights in Chicago. I love the windy city and as Daniel has never been and we've both be to NYC a few times we thought Chicago would be a great shout.
Now to figure out what to see, eat, do...
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Hooray for Hollywood...What's your dream?
So last day of our tour and we spent it seeing LA - good job too as it's a bitch to get around on your own as we found out on the first day! The weather was a little chilly to start but soon brightened up though it was extremely foggy. We stopped at Santa Barbara first, which you could hardly see due to the fog! But I'm sure it was lovely!! We went for a walk on the pier but couldn't exactly see the view! Though i did step in dog poo - booooo, why can't people pick up after their dog!
We then made out way through Santa Maria and Malibu before entering Santa Monica for lunch. We did go past some lovely houses - massive mansions when you can only really see the entry gates, but we get the impression they would have been nice - including Cher's house though my pictures doesn't do it justice as it looks like I've taken it of her shed! Ron was driving too fast for my camera!! We also went past the actual Baywatch beach where it was filmed but our first stop at Venice beach better suited Baywatch than this one.
Since we'd been to Santa Monica on our first day trying to get somewhere we didn't go on the pier with the others but hit the shops. We found an awesome shop, Forever 21, which we have since found out is coming to Europe in 2010 - fab. We got so caught up in the shopping area, which i might like to add was no smoking ever though it was a street, that we thought we were going to be late so grabbed a McD's on the run!
We then saw how the other half live - and boy how do they live in Beverley Hills. The posh shops, fancy houses, we also went passed the Beverley Wiltshire where Richard Gere stayed in Pretty Woman, what's your dream? Mine would be to have enough money to live here! We made our way to Hollywood where we saw the Viper Room - Johnny Depp's club that River Phoenix died outside of. Yet another morbid sight on our travels!
We started to take a trot down the Walk of Fame until we came to a stop as they had shut the street due to a premiere! Typical! We didn't see anyone famous - except Superman, but the red carpet was out ready! Hollywood is not what you'd expect. Beverley Hills definitely is as it is very glam but Hollywood is not glam at all. If anything its a bit of a let down considering how much Hollywood and the movie industry is worth.
We got back to the hotel and everyone was a little glum - except the two going back to Vegas, wish that was us! You always feel rubbish when you know you have to go home - wherever you have been. We went for our last meal back to Islands, where ironically the waitress remembered us! Must have made an impression - just like our trip had made on us! Oh well back to reality and ready to plan the next holiday!!!
We then made out way through Santa Maria and Malibu before entering Santa Monica for lunch. We did go past some lovely houses - massive mansions when you can only really see the entry gates, but we get the impression they would have been nice - including Cher's house though my pictures doesn't do it justice as it looks like I've taken it of her shed! Ron was driving too fast for my camera!! We also went past the actual Baywatch beach where it was filmed but our first stop at Venice beach better suited Baywatch than this one.
Since we'd been to Santa Monica on our first day trying to get somewhere we didn't go on the pier with the others but hit the shops. We found an awesome shop, Forever 21, which we have since found out is coming to Europe in 2010 - fab. We got so caught up in the shopping area, which i might like to add was no smoking ever though it was a street, that we thought we were going to be late so grabbed a McD's on the run!
We then saw how the other half live - and boy how do they live in Beverley Hills. The posh shops, fancy houses, we also went passed the Beverley Wiltshire where Richard Gere stayed in Pretty Woman, what's your dream? Mine would be to have enough money to live here! We made our way to Hollywood where we saw the Viper Room - Johnny Depp's club that River Phoenix died outside of. Yet another morbid sight on our travels!
We started to take a trot down the Walk of Fame until we came to a stop as they had shut the street due to a premiere! Typical! We didn't see anyone famous - except Superman, but the red carpet was out ready! Hollywood is not what you'd expect. Beverley Hills definitely is as it is very glam but Hollywood is not glam at all. If anything its a bit of a let down considering how much Hollywood and the movie industry is worth.
We got back to the hotel and everyone was a little glum - except the two going back to Vegas, wish that was us! You always feel rubbish when you know you have to go home - wherever you have been. We went for our last meal back to Islands, where ironically the waitress remembered us! Must have made an impression - just like our trip had made on us! Oh well back to reality and ready to plan the next holiday!!!
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Chillaxing in Carmel
Quieter day today - time to chillax a little. We make our way through loads of agricultural land, which turns out they flatten the land with lasers as it turns out it's not naturally flat, towards Monterey. We did find out this morning form Kurt the other guide that during our 2 days in San Francisco there was 2 earthquakes! Luckily they were only 2.2ish on the Richter scale and we couldn't feel them, so no panic or need for the emergency earthquake kits we've seen in the shops.
Fisherman's Wharf at Monterey was our first stop - it was that early they were only just setting up on the pier - i was in stitches when Mark our guide was waving and saying hello to a sea otter! It was so funny i was almost in tears. To begin with i couldn't even see what he was looking at as the seals and otters looked like rocks on the shore! Oh well, back on the road down to the world famous Cannery Row. This is where all the sardines from the bay used to be canned, it's quite a cute place really. John Steinbeck wrote books based here - I'm sure it was Of Mice and Men he wrote. Anyway we continued down the coast, where we saw a dead shark, then into Carmel.
A very odd town, extremely posh, randomly had a Tiffany's and Louis Vuitton there and rules on how to behave in the shopping area. Clearly a place where the men go off to work and the town is for ladies who lunch! Need to find me a sugar daddy, haha.
Final stop of the day after driving down the freeway that James Dean died on was Pismo Beach. Morbid i know but our guide likes to tell us all!! Tea at a Japanese Sushi restaurant was nice - they had hot plates where the chefs cooked it in front of you - one of them got a little eager tossing his spatula around, but all good fun and the beef teriyaki was fab. Back to LA tomorrow, boooo that means we are near the end of our tour :(
Fisherman's Wharf at Monterey was our first stop - it was that early they were only just setting up on the pier - i was in stitches when Mark our guide was waving and saying hello to a sea otter! It was so funny i was almost in tears. To begin with i couldn't even see what he was looking at as the seals and otters looked like rocks on the shore! Oh well, back on the road down to the world famous Cannery Row. This is where all the sardines from the bay used to be canned, it's quite a cute place really. John Steinbeck wrote books based here - I'm sure it was Of Mice and Men he wrote. Anyway we continued down the coast, where we saw a dead shark, then into Carmel.
A very odd town, extremely posh, randomly had a Tiffany's and Louis Vuitton there and rules on how to behave in the shopping area. Clearly a place where the men go off to work and the town is for ladies who lunch! Need to find me a sugar daddy, haha.
Final stop of the day after driving down the freeway that James Dean died on was Pismo Beach. Morbid i know but our guide likes to tell us all!! Tea at a Japanese Sushi restaurant was nice - they had hot plates where the chefs cooked it in front of you - one of them got a little eager tossing his spatula around, but all good fun and the beef teriyaki was fab. Back to LA tomorrow, boooo that means we are near the end of our tour :(
Thursday, 13 August 2009
Lost Angeles...
Today we had the day free to explore LA - explore? Yes we did but by bus! Dear God this city is difficult to navigate, and I'm a geographer! Our grand plan was to go to Venice Beach, then La Brea Tar Pits, then Griffiths Observatory and home by tea. In reality we did not have a clue how to get anywhere. After asking a very friendly postman we boarded a bus. Sarah had her turn at speed dating with the driver, like I had with the immigration officer at the airport, you know, polite chit chat. Turns out we had no change as well as no clue on where we were going so he let us ride for free, as did another bus driver when we got on the wrong way! People are very friendly in LA! Another bus driver, to quote, said 'she's beautiful'!! Score!!! We ended up going to Fisherman's Village then to Venice Beach and Santa Monica in the afternoon. Venice Beach was nice to chillax and observe the talent. The lifeguards were very Baywatch style glamorous! We lastly took a poodle on Santa Monica's pier.
Then started our laborious bus journey home, which we only made because a nice lady told us how! Still we didn't make it back til 6.45ish and didn't even complete our plan! Oh well turned out to be a good day. We also saw a homeless person in a face mask - was this to protect us from his germs i wonder?
Then started our laborious bus journey home, which we only made because a nice lady told us how! Still we didn't make it back til 6.45ish and didn't even complete our plan! Oh well turned out to be a good day. We also saw a homeless person in a face mask - was this to protect us from his germs i wonder?
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