Good news, we had a leg stretching bulkhead seat on the 12 hour flight to LA - even better, no extra person in our 3 seats, so we had lots of space - better again, some decent first release movies! The only problem was a lack of sleep... Arrived safely in LA and managed to pick up the hire car from Hertz (photo for A attached) a Sebring convertible is a Chrysler and quite nice too - gold with a black soft top that folds away neatly into the boot at the touch of a button. Then we managed to find the Hilton - and even better, they had our room available at 8am, so we could have a rest and shower before we headed out onto the freeways of LA.
Sundays are fortunately quiet and thankfully forgiving of antipodean natives travelling on the 'wrong' side of the road - so we headed down to Santa Monica pier - how cool is this place? (freezing today, with a blustery wind off the ocean), but seriously... huge timber boards underfoot and interesting restaurants and a fun fair and artists and a witchdoctor and fishermen ... all right at the end of the famous Route 66 across the USA - so very cool.
Lunch was at a Mexican place right at the end of the pier, Marisol - the nachos and enchiladas were fortunately much more palatable than breakfast on the plane and served with a smile by Jesus and his mates. After that we walked kilometres up the beachfront, along with bicycles, skaters, walkers and lots of dogs who wanted to stop every 10 seconds to overrule the latest mark on the legs of everything. Then we headed inland a bit to the shopping promenade. Homely touches included the Quicksilver store (just like the one in Paris) and Cotton-On advertising Aussies in the heart of LA.
Photographed the 'Hotel California' sign - just foro all the beach boys fans - it is right down on the Ocean Drive. Hollywood was fascinating - less impressive in many ways than I expected but with some outstanding parts such as the chinese theatre forecourt with the amazing concrete slabs with hands and feet prints of some of everyone's favourite movie-folk. We couldn't find the entrance to the Hard Rock cafe afterwards, so dared to try coffee in the restaurant further along the strip. Bad move really... but we drank it anyway :-) and then headed off following the 'star map' through the Beverley Hills with the top down on the convertible. Lots of fun as we identified the LA homes of everyone from Michael Jackson to Ronald Regan. I LOVED some of those homes - such a beautiful suburb :-)
After that it was back to the hotel just on sunset for a bottle of a fabulous Californian Syrah and an almost perfect medium-rare steak for me and grilled salmon for S, paired with salad and fresh veges - yum. Now bed - we seriously need some sleep!
sounds great so far! Glad to hear you're safe :)
ReplyDeleteLove Jess
Wow write a novel. I could tell you about what is happening in Scone but it would never go on for that long.
ReplyDeleteIts raining, your thinking yay for the farm, well yes but not for my hair. I looked up the Dr Phill show not sure if your even near where he is but anyways no luck cause the waiting list is bout four month. Don't know if your would even want to see it but i do!
So thats about it for scone, im going out to your place tonight to see the dogs and get the dresses. Might even get some food.
Happy traveling :) xoxox