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Published: June 29th 2007
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Our trip to LA started off on the wrong foot…first we were stuck in the miserable traffic LA is known for, and secondly, the RoadFood guide disappointed us for the first time, sending us to an overpriced restaurant that had great décor but so-so food. Brian literally paid $18 for a cold ham sandwich….miserable. At least as we were driving to dinner we got a glimpse of a movie premiere! We have no idea if it was something big or not but we saw a red carpet, a crowd, limos, and lots of cameras flashing. It was pretty cool and I’m sorry I didn’t get any pictures, but we were tired!
Anyway, the motel we stayed in was located right in Hollywood so we had a pretty good location for the things we wanted to see such as the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Hollywood sign. Since we basically had one day to see everything, we started our day out by driving to a point where we could actually see the Hollywood sign before heading off to the famous, Rodeo Drive. Rodeo Drive is a really pretty street! It’s extremely clean and lined with the perfect combination of
palm trees and immaculate shops. We got there early so there weren’t a lot of tourists, which was good, but there weren’t any movie stars either…so what can ya do? We enjoyed a short stroll along the gorgeous street, not even pretending we could afford what was in the stores by actually venturing into them, and after about twenty minutes, we rushed off to our Sony Pictures Studio Tour.
The two hour walking tour of the Studio was pretty disappointing. There was absolutely nothing going on in any of the soundstages so we basically paid to walk around large, empty warehouses. The one cool aspect was seeing were they stored all the hand-painted backdrops and actually getting to see a guy in the process of hand-painting one. That was it. That was apparently worth $25. Later we were told that Warner Bros. is known to have the best studio tour (aka I could have seen a bunch of Harry Potter stuff!!!!)…but it was too late. I’m definitely making it there next time though!
So as you can probably infer from what I’ve written so far…our trip to LA was, up to this point, less than impressive and we
were basically just counting down the hours until we could leave. However, things finally started to look up when we went to Venice beach. It was phenomenal. There were basketball courts for the ballers, skateboard ramps for the skaters, and of course, the muscle beach area for the meatheads…not to mention cheap shops, restaurants, and the beach for everyone else! We had a great time just watching the many different types of people who frequent the area for awhile before we laid down in the grass to soak up the sun and rest for a bit.
After our short nap we got in touch with Brian’s friend, Josh, and went to meet up with him and his girlfriend to have dinner in Santa Monica. One of their friends also came along for dinner, and the five of us enjoyed a delicious Italian meal before heading back to Josh’s apartment to have some drinks and watch TV.
Overall, Brian and I preferred the Santa Monica area to the downtown LA scene and after our afternoon at the beach we began to realize why people would be tempted to live in and around LA. And while we ended our stay
on a good note, we were still ready to hit the road the next morning…anxious to see what awaited us in San Francisco.
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