Day 4 - Hollywood

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Day 4 and again, another great day. Although this time I will try to stop using words like amazing and great but it's hard not to!

Last night we had dinner at a restaurant close to the hotel that was owned by an Aussie as suggested by Vanessa and Anthony. Another great meal and we felt a bit funny when we found ourselves ordering a wine from the Mornington Peninsula and a beer from South Australia. I guess it was Australia day so that was our way of celebrating.

Walked back to the hotel and had a drink at the Sky Bar which is located around the pool. It is a great spot but as it was a Wednesday night it wasn't really busy although you could see how great it would be in June/July.

Checked out of the Mondrian this morning after the one night and literally walked across the road to our next hotel The Andaz which is a part of the Hyatt group. It really does pay to mention your honeymoon when booking, so far three upgrades from three hotels! Another great hotel with great views, it also has a rooftop pool which might get a working over tomorrow.

We made our way back to Hollywood Boulevard at about 11am and got on a 2hr bus tour which took us through various parts of Beverly Hills, Bel Air and Hollywood. It was well worth doing as they pointed out many famous peoples homes and certain hotels/restaurants that have been used in movies. Some of the highlights were seeing the club used in A Night at the Roxbury (one of my favourite movies), Aaron Spellings former house (123 bedrooms) and the magicians club which some of you would recognise if you saw Hamish and Andy's gap year on TV.

After the tour we went for lunch down at the Farmer's Market, a great idea from Katie and Hus. It was different to the rest of Hollywood that we've seen so far, very clean and like it's own little suburb. I think i'm starting to turn into a hamburger but when in America....

Back to the hotel and then taxi into downtown LA for the first time. Maybe I was a little too excited and made sure we arrived at the Staples Center at 4pm for a 7.30pm basketball game but i'm glad we did as it gave us the chance to take a tour of The Grammys museum, was very cheap and chewed up a bit of our spare time. Lauren brushed up on her music knowledge and even impressed me with a few things.

We then had a pre match drink at the bar across the road from Staples Center which is also where the ESPN building is. When the barman asks you whether you want a small or large beer, only have the large if you are in for a big session, one beer and I was going to and from the toilet all night. We walked across to the basketball and I know I am already a fan, but they just do it so well. When you're there, you're not just watching a sports game, you are involved in an entertainment experience. I guess it is easier to involve the crowd in a small stadium compared to the MCG, but we noticed how engaged the crowd were whenever there was a break in play. For the game itself, it was close and plenty of highlights, Lauren missed Blake Griffin's first dunk of the night because she was looking at her popcorn to make sure it didn't fall out of her hand! Luckily, he had a few more later in the game.

Another awesome day and the weather was perfect again. We've been getting plenty of photos and having heaps of fun. Although Loz bagged me for the idea of writing this, we actually had already started to forget little things that happened earlier in the week so it is serving its purpose. Was great to talk to each of our parents today, although we're not homesick just yet.

Tomorrow we're off to Universal Studios, looking forward to another good day.

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