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Published: November 15th 2011
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After leaving San Fran we hit the California coast in search of some stars . . . our next port of call – LA baby!!
Before we made it to the ‘City of Angels’ we had a couple of days drive ahead of us; down the scenic pacific highway. The day started off well with the view of the pacific on our side all the way. We had it in our heads that we would check into a random motel off the highway that night, just like you see in the movies. Unfortunately though we probably chose the worst part of the coast to do this – as it got dark we had hit the famous Big Sur (which we couldn’t really see by this time!!) which snakes along high cliffs for hours with no motels in sight. Starting to contemplate how comfy our car would be to sleep in, it was just a tad of a relief when we finally hit a motel in San Simeon. We continued our epic drive the next day until we were on the outskirts of LA.
We were a little apprehensive about LA – all we had heard was bad reports on
how dangerous it could be and the madness of the traffic. The night before we came across a hotel offer online too good to be true and hoping to save some cash we booked ourselves right up. A while later we thought we better check out where we were staying – and found out our deal definitely was too good to be true. The hotel was practically in the middle of a ghetto with record homicide rates, hmmn!! We were looking for an authentic LA experience but maybe not going as far as meeting the crip!!
After re-booking ourselves into a hotel in Santa Monica we headed into LA to see some sights. Before long we found ourselves driving along plush Mulholland Drive and then into Beverly Hills. This is the home of the famous and we probably looked a a bit out of place driving along in our wee yellow set of wheels among all the Porches and Mercedes. Somehow we didn’t think our insurance would be covering any bumps out here! Unfortunately we didn’t see any stars going about their business – Tina was gutted but we had to give up before she was in danger of
being arrested for stalking! As well as the endless streets of glamorous houses in Beverly Hills we also checked out from the car Rodeo Drive which is an upmarket shopping area for the rich and famous and lined with Versace, Gucci and Louis Vuitton. We didn’t have a shop ourselves, our backpacker budget wouldn’t have stretched to even a pair of Versace pants!
The most famous landmark of Los Angeles has to be the Hollywood sign so after the glitz of Beverly Hills we went in hunt of it. It was another one of those ‘wow’ moments when we finally seen the iconic sign sitting on its perch looking over Hollywood. The area itself is actually a bit rundown but it does have a real buzz about it. As you make your way along the walk of fame you come across amateur actors dressed as everyone from Batman to Mickey Mouse!
That night we headed out to the Venice area of Santa Monica for a sizzling Mexican which we barely finished – the helpings here are massive! We both really enjoyed Santa Monica and could see why it’s been the setting for so many films – it has
that LA feel to it as it sits on the coast with a long beach and its famous pier. We took a stroll down the infamous Venice Boardwalk which has been described as a ‘human freakshow’ with the type of characters that hang around here. We didn’t stay around for long, but enough to be offered a visit to the ‘doctor’ for some ‘medicinal’ drugs!!
Before we left LA there was only thing left to tick off the list – make a TV appearance, as you do! We had managed to snap up a couple of free tickets to the ‘Dr Phil’ show so we headed to Paramount Studios to take up our seats in the audience. Little did we know we would be placed right next to his wife in the audience so we pretty sure our mugs will have made their TV debuts! It was all for a laugh but it was actually pretty interesting to see all the behind the scenes workings of a TV show, our agents will give us a call when the studio want us back!
We left LA actually surprised at how much we had enjoyed it – although it might
Rodeo Drive
Not a celebrity in sight! have been a very different story (and news report!) if we had made it to the ghetto! All that was left of our Californian road trip was the drive to San Diego for our flight to a quiet little city called Las Vegas!!
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Dave Barnes
non-member comment
Superstars
Great report guys and glad to know by now that you survived LA in one piece. I wonder when the Dr Phil show will be aired, we'll check it out from tonight and hope to see our 2 world travelers. Well, we're definitely ready to welcome you to New Jersey, seems crazy and hard to believe but we'll see you guys tomorrow. Take care, hope your enjoying DC. Dad.