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Published: April 19th 2012
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Hi All,
We flew on Thursday 22nd March and had a 10hr night flight which landed us in Los Angeles at 11:45am on Thursday 22nd March - we had to do the day again!! We were pretty tired and made our way to a Super 8 Motel just outside of the LAX airport. We spent the day trying to stay awake but I fell asleep around dinner time and woke up again about 8pm. That was a big mistake as Anton stayed up until about 10pm and managed to get straight to sleep but I was still on Fiji time and was still awake at 2am!
We slept until 9am but both felt like zombies! After breakfast we went back to the airport and caught a shuttle bus to our Best Western Hotel in the Hollywood Hills. The hotel was lovely and newly refurbished. We got settled and then headed down to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was strange seeing something that you see on the tv a lot! We headed down Hollywood Boulevard and stopped off in Gap to buy me some jeans as it was too cold for shorts or crops and the trousers I did
pack were now a little tight!!! Anton also bought a polo shirt and shirt so that he could be a bit smarter in LA or Vegas if need be. It was so good to be shopping again that I found it hard to pull myself away. After our small shopping spree we found the Chinese Grauman Theatre. It was so busy and the street was dotted with characters from the films and famous singers; all trying to earn a bit of money from people having their photos taken with them. We looked at all the famous hand and foot prints of the stars; some were from the 1930's! I managed to find Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner's prints from 'The King and I' which was my favourite film as a child. Anton found Arnold Schwarzenegger's prints and we both put our hands in Michael Jackson's print. It was getting dark and we were both a bit worried about being out after dark, do after a quick dinner at Macdonalds we walked briskly back to the hotel; stopping at the local mini mart to buy cereal for breakfast in order to save a few pennies! Back at the hotel we had
a shower, it had shower heads on both sides of the shower which created one great shower! We then settled down to watch tv before bed.
We both struggled to sleep again and then didn't wake up until midday - bloody jet-lag! We still felt like zombies but decided to head out down to Hollywood Boulevard again to visit some attractions. First we went into 'Ripleys Believe It or Not' which had lots of weird and wonderful artefacts. Next we headed into 'The Guiness World Records' which was full of amazing facts and reminded me of going through the Guiness book at Christmas! By the time we came out of the world records attraction it was late so we once again walked briskly back to our hotel. Every few meters we would see someone talking or arguing with themselves or someone dressed very strangely; it was quite surreal!
Finally we had a good nights sleep and woke up feeling like ourselves again! However, when we looked out the window it was tipping down with rain! We had a ticket to the Hollywood Wax Museum so had to get our rain coats on and brave the weather. It wasn't
just rain though, it was torrential rain and we got soaked just walking down the road. We decided to catch the underground to get us further along Hollywood Boulevard rather than walk. The Hollywood Wax Museum was pretty good, it was strange to see a famous star as a waxwork! Some of the pieces weren't that great though. When we came out of the wax museum the rain had got worse, so we quickly ran to a restaurant where we had some lunch whilst we dried off! After lunch we thought we may visit the cinema but when we looked at the films, none took our fancy so we headed back to the hotel. We got so soaked that we had to peel our clothes off and put the heater on full blast to warm up and dry our clothes.
The following day we booked a tour around LA. We boarded a mini bus and met our tour guide Donny. He was a strange bod who just couldn't stop talking, even if it was completely irrelevant! He had watched a film called 'Drive' which was set in LA and if he mentioned this once, he mentioned it probably a
dozen times! Anton and I ended up getting the giggles every time he mentioned the film. We were taken down Santa Monica Boulevard and onto Route 66 towards the beach. We stopped at Venice Beach and were given time to look around. The beach was beautiful and we walked along to find the famous Muscle Beach. It was a lot smaller than we imagined and wasn't that great. The weather was a little chilly so there weren't that many men out flexing their muscles! As we walked along we kept being offered medicinal marijuana, which we declined! We went onto the beach and saw the lifeguard huts where parts of Baywatch was filmed. As we were walking back to the bus, we noticed trailers like a film set. Anton asked a lady what they were filming and she told us it was for a programme called 'Breakers'. We hadn't heard of the programme and were a bit disappointed it wasn't something more well known. After Venice Beach we were driven to Downtown where we saw the Staples Centre and the Disney Concert Hall. We were planning to return to Downtown the next day but it didn't really look that exciting,
so we cancelled that plan. Next we headed up the Hollywood Hills and had pictures with the Hollywood Sign; although it was quite far away. Donny then took us around to view the stars homes in the Hollywood Hills and Beverley Hills. Quite a few of the houses ended up being the former houses of the stars rather than their current houses but it was ok. We did see a glimpse of the Beckhams house in Beverley Hills, although it was only a mere glimpse as it was far up in the hills. Nexr we headed down Sunset Boulevard which was much nicer than Hollywood Boulevard and onto Rodeo Drive. We stopped at Rodeo Drive and saw the shop where Julia Roberts wasn't waited on in Pretty Woman; that was a highlight for me! We walked around for a while and liked it so much that we decided to make that our plan for the next day! As Donny was driving us back to our hotel we passed the apartments where Richard Gere climbs up the fire escape to Julia Roberts at the end of Pretty Woman; another highlight of mine!!!
The next day we went back to Rodeo
Drive and enjoyed looking around the shops. It was much nicer than Hollywood and I felt more at home!! We had lunch in the Cheesecake Factory and were astounded by the vast amount of cheesecakes to choose from! They were delicious too! When we returned to the hotel we packed our bags ready for our flight to San Francisco in the morning.
Lots of Love from Kate and Anton xxxxx
Kisses to Thomas, Lauren, Erin, George, Niah, Evie, Matilda, Isaac and of course Jonnie! Xxxxxxxxx
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