Day 4 - LA to Big Sur

An early start had us checking out the hotel straight after breakfast at about 7.45. Today was a 300 mile trip so the earlier we could set off the better. It's straight down Santa Monica Boulevard to the sea where we joined the Pacific Coast Highway to drive north along the coastal roads.

We passed Malibu and Santa Barbara heading for our scheduled stop at Pismo beach which is just over halfway to Big Sur. Before we got to Pismo beach we needed to stop for a toilet break and to fill up with gas for the first time. I was a tad nervous about this because the system is so different from back home. Go in pre pay (I over estimated quite substantially), go out, fill up, go back in and ask for change, and then eventually drive off.

Pismo Beach was quite a nice stop. It was good to get out of the car for an hour or so. We had a little walk on the pier and looked over the huge beaches. As it was lunch time we walked up the Main Street and I picked out a typical American Diner which seemed to be showing about 5 "football" games simultaneously. We both had a hot dog (I opted for the Chilli Cheese Dog with Fries) which was my perfect idea of American lunch :)

After Pismo Beach the drive was a lot more coastal and the road really hugged the coastline. We stopped numerous times to look out over the various vista points. The scenery is really quite magnificent. Every turn seemed to reveal yet another idyllic piece of coastline. We took lots of pictures, but I don't think any of them will do the views justice. We stopped to look at some seals on the beach, but my favourite stop was Mcway Falls. This is a waterfall that falls onto the beach and it's a beautiful spot.

10 miles or so down the road is Big Sur. We arrived at about 17.00. It's been another long day and we've been on the road a good 7 hours or so with a few stops along the way. The place we're staying at seems okay (Big Sur River Inn). We're in the State Park but we're right on the road and it's pretty noisy. I hope we're able to get some sleep because we're up early for a whale watching tour in Monterey at 9.00. It's dark now and I think this is the most amount of stars I've ever seen in a night sky.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Day 3 - LA

Another scorcher today. Temperature over 30 degrees and with the top down on the car my head is starting to feel a tad tender. Not that I'm complaining :) After breakfast this morning we had a studio tour booked at Warner Brothers. You can't stay in Hollywood and not do something movie related. The studio is only 10 minutes or so from the hotel but we were still there over half an hour early :)

After a short intro video we were out on the tour cart thingy with our guide pointing out various sets used for various scenes in movies and TV. The guide was great and gave lots of snippets of information about how things work in a studio and how things were filmed. He told a story of someone parking in Clint Eastwood's parking spot and him then smashing the windscreen :) We didn't see any stars just wondering around waiting to bump into tourists.

Fakey street, and fakey buildings

Lots a big movies made inside this studio

Scene for Phoebe and Rachael jogging in Central Park

Central Perk

The Friends bit of the tour was probably my favourite because it's the show I'm most familiar with. There was lots of current sets and locations for shows like Pretty Little Liars and The Big Bang Theory but neither of us watch those shows (and I've never even heard of Pretty Little Liars). The tour included some exhibits of props so we saw things like the Batmoblies.

Batman looking for his car keys

After the tour finished we went to The Grove for some lunch and not a lot of shopping. Lunch was great. We ate at Gordon Ramsey's restaurant, the Fat Cow. I had a nice chicken and butter bean dish and Jess went for the burger (of course) but Chef Ramsey had slightly undercooked the beef. Schoolboy error. Still very nice in all. Lots of shops but neither of us seemed motivated to actually do any shopping.

We planned on going to a cinema whilst here, being in Hollywood and all. I've always wanted to watch a film over here, so we went to the Arclight Cinema. It was an awesome cinema and made our Showcase's and Cineworld's look like flea pits (which they are). I wish all cinemas were like this. It was huge, no yobo's, no adverts other than trailers, they don't let people in once the film has started. I liked this place.

We're back at the hotel now. Tomorrow we leave LA and have our first big drive up the Pacific Coast Highway to Big Sur.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Day 2 - LA

Despite not being a fan of my writing style Jess has insisted that I write the update for Day 2 this evening. I was so tired last night but was awake at about 3.30. I ended up in the pool at 5.30 and reading the paper waiting for Jess to wake up for breakfast. So again, I write this feeling very tired.

The first stop of the day was Santa Monica. We got in the car, took the roof down and hit the road. We caught the back end of the morning rush hour and also took a little detour down Rodeo Drive, but after an hour or so we arrived at the beach. We walked down Venice Beach and then paddled back up the beach. The beach is huge. It's so wide and goes on for miles. Jess could have stayed at the beach all day :)

Next stop was the Getty Centre. The Sat Nav tried its best to get us there but the major route that way was closed for roadworks. Sign posts and detours are crap in the States. We got there in the end though. We took the little tram up the hill to the Centre and the first stop was lunch. Jess had a half a salad which looked enough to feed 4 and I went for the healthy option of hot dog and fries. The views from here are great. We checked out a few exhibitions but it's not an easy place to visit for a philistine such as myself. There's only so much Renoir, Monet and Van Gough you can take.

 

After the Getty Centre we drove down the very windy Mullholand Drive. A nice drive with some awesome views. There are some huge houses up there and we kept passing loads of sight/star seeing tours.

We then got to take the classic Hollywood sign photo. I got a solid tip online on where to get this and it proved a decent spot.

 

The final point of call for today was the Griffith Observatory. Another place for great views and a pretty interesting set of exhibits inside. By this point I was starting to feel very flakey.

 

We headed back to hotel and I ruined dinner plans by losing my appetite all together. Even the thought of a nice juicy burger wasn't enough to get the belly rumbling. It's Friday night and Hollywood seemed to be filled with all sorts of crazies and tourists. We checked some of the Hollywood stars and the hand prints outside Graumann's Chinese Theater and then headed back to the hotel.

I forgot to mention. No crashes in the car. And driving on the right is more familiar. Still not a fan of turning right on a red light and then coming to a complete stop at the stop signs. I'm a tad more confident than I was yesterday, but still nervous for tomorrow :) I can see the attraction of living in LA. It's a pretty cool place and the weather is great. The 500 billion people living here would put me off though.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Day 1 - Arrive in LA

Thought I'd try a quick update to let people know that we made it to LA okay and we're at our first hotel which is the Magic Castle Hotel in Hollywood.

We boarded okay this morning despite Jess packing half the house in her suitcase. She was about 0.5kg under the limit. After a little delay we were airborne and to be honest the 10.5 hour flight went quite quickly and was very smooth. We flew over Greenland and Northern Canada before coming in over Seattle and down the Pacific Coast. Pretty cool.

Taking off in London

Greenland

Downtown LA with Hollywood sign in background

We landed, went through Customs and got the shuttle to the car rental place (Dollar). This was the worst part of the day. By far. We waited nearly 2 hours in line to sort out the paperwork to pick the car up. Then we waited over an hour to actually get the car. Dollar were terrible. We didn't get in the car until about 19.00 by which time I was crashing and it had gotten dark. Great. First drive in LA. In the dark. It was a bit tetchy to start with especially, when it looked like we were driving in the wrong part of Inglewood looking for the main route whilst praying for the Sat Nav to kick in. Eventually it did and 30 minutes later (which seemed an eternity) we were parked up at the hotel without even so much as an incident. Driving was tricky and I was very nervous, but we made it. The car seems pretty cool. It's a red Ford Mustang convertible. Pictures to follow tomorrow when it's light.

The staff at the hotel are super friendly and we were greeted with some sort of sparkling apple type drink. We have a heated pool outside which can use too.

We went for a quick stroll to get something to eat at California Pizza Kitchen. It's been such a long day. It's 22.00 local time but the body thinks it's 6.00 the next morning. We're both feeling very tired. It's time for sleep and it feels like I could sleep for a few days straight. It's a shame the alarm is set for morning because we got sights to see. That means more driving!!!!! Fingers crossed for Day 2.

Jess has proof read the blog entry and ripped it to pieces and mocked numerous times :)

 

Posted with Blogsy