Beverley Hills, Hollywood and Santa Monica.

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Breakfast this morning included a fresh fruit salad which was delicious and hamburgers and some sort of French toast which was disgusting. Andy said the burgers were nice but i didn’t fancy them. We were sorry to leave this hotel as it was our favourite so far. Drove into LA but had a panic on the way as we needed fuel and there were no gas stations on the interstate highway. Took a turn off and found ourselves driving through all the mansions in Beverley Hills which we would have enjoyed if we hadn’t been worrying about fuel. In the end we got directions to a gas station which was downhill so panic over. Caught up with a see the stars trolley bus so followed it. The houses were huge but you couldn’t really see much of them. Followed the bus to Rodeo drive which was a beautiful street full of designer brand shops. Managed to park for 20 minutes in the drive and had a wander. Took some pictures of a Bugatti which was crowded out by Japanese tourists. Went into Ralph Loren and Lacoste and window shopped in Cartier! Didn’t see anyone rich and famous but saw plenty of beautiful cars; Rolls, Porches, Ferraris and Nicks favourite, the Mustangs. Drove from there to Hollywood via Sunset strip which was a mass of huge billboards, and parked for two hours for $10. Hollywood was great, so full of life and packed with people. Found Manns Chinese theatre with all the hand and footprints in the foreground. The boys had not heard of many of the stars. The walk of fame stars were all over Hollywood Boulevard, we only saw a few of them. Looked in a couple of the trashy souvenir shops and then got back to the car and drove to Santa Monica. Santa Monica was not like i had imagined. I had imagined a fairly small cosy resort but this was MASSIVE. When you thought you were on the sea front there was another huge road in front of you. The beach was vast -in fact it is the beach where Baywatch is set and all the little lifeguard huts were there. The boys played with the rugby ball and i went off in search of shark teeth - according to Shark week which the boys have been watching all week on Discovery, on a bad day you can find 6 and on a good day 26. Well i found none! In fact the beach was bereft of anything interesting on the strand line. Walked down to find Venice beach and the famous muscle beach. No men strutting their stuff, just loads of apparatus that you can test your strength on. The boys climbed the ropes but couldn’t get the hang of the swinging rings. The town was pretty and a Sri Lanka parade was on when we were there, mostly children dancing and lots of lovely costumes. Nick found an Adidas store and bought a sweat shirt which i was glad of later as it got quite cold. Walking back to the car we found a Mc Donald’s so popped in for a burger to save time. Drove to Long Beach which was about an hours drive. Took a while to find the hotel and when we did we couldn’t quite believe it was our hotel it was The Regency Hyatt, huge and really posh, the foyer was the biggest i have ever seen in a hotel (but we haven’t been to Vegas yet!) Our room was nice but not as nice as the Hampton as we didn’t have a fridge, HD TV or free internet. We did have the best view so far though from the ninth floor - across the docks with the Queen Mary opposite.

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