California!!

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California

Los Angeles

23rd September 2010

We arrived in Los Angeles, I’ve really been looking forward to this, California is somewhere I wanted to visit for a long time and here I am! We arrived at 5.00am and had a good sleep until midday, the place we’re staying is lovely, clean, big bed and flat screen on the wall - i’m happy! Today we got a bus and headed down to Hollywood (we’re about 5minutes away in the car). We had to get change for the bus so we went into a little newsagent shop, a clear sign that the place is dodgy, is when the lady behind the till is surrounded by a plastic screen, we got our change and left asap! The weather is great, I thought it would be nice and cool, but its hot and summery and lovely, yey! We got off the bus at the beginning of the walk of fame and walked and walked and walked some more, it was so hot by the time we got to the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre (where celebrities have left there imprints and signature), we were exhausted. We went and got a drink and re-energised! We then did a star tour, the open top bus takes you around the tours houses, it was really very good. Some of the houses we saw were; Christina Aguilera’s house which is the Osborne’s old house that was in the TV programme, tom cruise and Katie homes house, frank Sinatra’s first house, playboy mansion, Michael Jackson house and the room were he died in faces out to the road, also a hotel were cher, Elton john, and Lindsey Lohan live. So it was a brilliant tour, we both really enjoyed it and we got a gorgeous view from up in the Hollywood hills of the sign “Hollywood” and of Los Angeles city. My first impression of Hollywood are a bit mixed because I had heard its a bit run down so I wasn’t disappointed when I saw this was true, but its definitely not glitz and glamour, its quite old and rusty. However if you go about 5minutes outside to Beverly Hills, it is gorgeous there, its looks like the most perfect place in the world to live. HUGE houses, i’ve never seen anything like these, perfect street, with green perfect grass and tall palm tree’s the place is like something out a movie!! I really enjoyed today, roll on California!!


24th September

Today we went down to Hollywood again with a bit more energy this time! We spent alot of time in the museums, you can get a package and do all 3; the wax museum, Ripley’s believe it or not and the Guinness book of records. It was really good, lots of cool things to read and look at!!! We also went back to the Chinese Theatre and saw all the celebrities hand and feet prints and signatures. There were some really old ones, like Shirley Temples was dates 1935!!! It was great to see, there was modern signatures too. We rented a car today which gave us more freedom, we had a drive down sunset strip and went to a cool restaurant “saddle ranch”. And for desert we got smores, you could roast the marshmallows over the fires, it was a cool place! We drove back through Hollywood and oh my god the amount of people out on a Friday night!! The place was packed with people everywhere and girls in none existent dresses, really I couldn’t believe it! We did intend to have a night out but we were just busy with other things, but we will still have a chance when we drive back to LA. So that was today’s exploring!


25th September

Today we went to Universal Studio’s and it was brilliant!! It was such a hot hot day especially standing in the que’s, but the place is just amazing!! We started with the studio trip that brings you around all the recording studio’s and set’s. We saw desperate house wives road and all the houses, and we saw lots of streets that so many films were filmed on even “to kill a mockingbird” was filmed there, it was really great. We LOVED it here, but the bets bit was that night and for the month they had holloween horror nights,

So we got tickets for that, it was 7pm -2am. It was amazing!! The whole place was transformed, there was a new map with different rides and each street had a spooky name and stuff on it and scarey people, like one street was of vampires, another had men with pig’s faces, it was disgusting and very disturbing! There was people everywhere dressed up that worked there, but they were so so so scary, and they chased you with chain saws (not real, but they made the noise). I really couldn’t stop screaming, I was really so scared. You couldn’t see anything cause it was dark and there was spoke everywhere and there horrible looking things jumping out and chasing you!!! By 10pm I had to leave, I just couldn’t stand getting scared any more. One guy snuk up on me, when I saw a knife over my shoulder I loafed him in the head, what the hell did he expect creeping up on me??? It was the best thing Ive ever seen in my life, absolutely amazing how they transformed the park, but it was a bit too scary for me, I was totally freaked out!!


Sun 26th September

Today we did a bit of sight seeing thanks to the LP (lonely planet) and my wonderful chuffer Stephen. We first went star gazing, following the LP guide we went to peoples houses that we didnt see on the tour. We saw Courtney Cox house, Simon Cowls, Tobey Maguire, Paris Hilton. Leonardo Dicaprio’s house is in a cul de sac and he owns the 2 houses on either side so no one has any reason to be on that street. Me and ste drove down to have a look and after about 5 seconds this big security guard came out I didnt even have time to take a picture, we were very quick to back that car up and got the hell out of there, he didn’t seem happy with our visit!

After this we drove to Rodeo drive and had a walk around, its gorgeous here. SO so many shops, I couldn’t resist a visit to Victoria secrets, I love that shop. It was a pleasure to stroll around, but the heat got the better of us so after an ice cream we got back into the air conditioned car and headed to Venice beach. This was an experience and I’m happy to say I survived it! There is a famous boardwalk were people have stalls and sell everything and anything, so we had a walk down and it was a culture shock! The LP describes this place as full of freaks, and if aliens fell out of the sky they would fit right in here and its so true! There all people of all colours, ill just say me and ste were in a minority! There was super skinny people, people pumped up with steroids, people looked like they were made out of plastic and every gangster in America was hanging out here. We didnt actually make it to the beach simply because I didnt want to walk away from the beaten track, as bad as it was it was full of people. But its good to get out of your comfort zone and see what else is out there in the world! After here we swiftly back tracked and visited the gorgeous Santa Monica, where we went roller blading along the beach. It was brilliant! Ste really wanted to do it to see if he still had the skill he had when he was 12, apparently he was savage (his words, not mine). But yes as usual he took of and was doing jumps and backwards skating and tricks just like an over grown 12 year old! Haha! We then went up to the peir and watched the sun set and yes there was even some dolphins, and a man singing with a piano, im not making it up, it was quite the romantic scene! We enjoyed the rollercoaster and some of the rides at the carnival and grabbed a pizza before heading home (wherever that is?!).


Mon 26 September

Today was the hottest day ever recorded in LA history, it was 113’f, which is 46’c!! It was so hot and what did we do, the most sensible thing stayed inside. Ha yeah right, we were in Disneyland fot the entire day!! It was so hot, I never drank so much! We didnt know at the time what degree’s it was, but my flipflops were slidding from under me from the sweat coming out of my feet, thats how I knew it was way to hot for us to be walking around Disneyland. But we did had a great day, we were in and out of rides all day mostly to cool down! The only ride I didnt do was splash mountain, a 50 foot drop is not fun for me. Ste did it though! We did thunder mountain 3 times, and space mountain, we were too late when we went back for a second turn! Space mountain was definitely may favourite, it was the fasest rollercoaster I’ve ever been on and it was in the dark, just all starts and randoms things, it was brilliant!! Unfortunately we were too late to meet the princesses, I wasn’t to happy about it, a certain someone thought we would have time to squeeze in a submarine ride! But I got over it and we made sure we were on time for the parade were we saw all Disney characters. Mickey and Mini’s house was brilliant, I swear if i could I’d have a house like mini’s, so girly and full of frills, haha!! We got home at 9pm, 12hours later and we were wrecked! Another great day out, I love holidays!!!


Cambria

Tue 27 September

We waved good bye to Los Angeles for now anyway, we will return in a few weeks. We drove for 4 hours and stopped in Cambria town and put our heads down for the night in a lovely place, The Bluebird Inn. While driving on the 1, if you drive pass the turn for cambria, there’s a sign post for moon beach drive, its a road along the coast, lined up with lots of accommodation looking out onto the pacific Ocean, some gorgeous views. We stayed in Cambria village as we just wanted to sleep for a while. We got a take away and that’s about all that happened today. Roll on San Francisco!!


Big Sur

28th September

Today we reached the big sur! The views up to this point have been amazing, the road run’s along the coast and hug’s the cliff sides, and although it makes me edgy the views are so worth it. There are so many opportunities to stop and take in the view, but if we stopped every time we would never get to San Francisco (which is almost what happened). One stop we took was to watch the hundreds of elephant seals. When we got out of the car we were greeted by really friendly squirrels, then we saw the massive seals, they were just chilling out on the beach and playing in and out of the water, cooling down. They were huge, like the biggest seals i’ve ever seen, it was really cool! After 5 hours we still hadn’t reached the Big Sur, but I started to think how can these views improve, what’s so special about the big sur?! Then I saw it, its amazing! All of a sudden it feels like your driving on top of the clouds!! The fog comes and goes, sometimes hovering in a dead straight line cutting the cliff’s in half, other times the fog is so low you feel like ducking your head as you drive under it, or sometimes all you can see is the top of the cliff you are standing on and the tips of other cliffs, there are spectacular views. We stopped right on top of the clouds and ate our lunch.

After the big sur, we took a de-tour and drove along 17 mile drive. This is something you can’t miss! It starts in the town of carmel-by-the-sea, we had to stop at this beach. We sat in the hot sand and watched the biggest and wildest waves i’ve ever seen! The sea and sky and cloud all run into eachother so you can’t distinguish were one starts and another ends, all you can see is these massive waves appearing from no where. They were so big when they cashed down it was like the sound of thunder, it was amazing. There was a sign warning people not to swim as the waves a life threatening! Here there’s a toll just to drive along 17 mile drive, that’s how amazing it is. The road drives along the coast and through some of the most exclusive golf courses in the world, including pebble beach golf course. Here’s what ste has to say about it;

We then popped into Pebble Beach Golf Course for a look around. Its every bit as pretty as when you watch it on TV. Got to stand up on the 1st tee for a look down the fairway and saw a couple of holes out by the sea as well. Everything about the place is just dripping with money. Beautiful gardens, Pro shop, putting green and several clubhouses. I bought a nice t-shirt and a pitchmark repair. Couldn’t be going there and not coming out without something. Ha !. Other courses in the same complex are Poppy Hills and Spyglass which are also class. Only regret is not coughing up the $500 for a quick 18. Yeah right. Ill be back for the US Open in a few years. All in all well worth the stop and look around.

Apart from the immaculate golf courses that it passes, there are also some great views of that wild ocean and fog. The road is so close to these waves, that the waves crash and sometimes land on the road, it has to be seen to be believed! I was so mad I had no camera for this whole time, my battery ran out!!!


Monterey

We were so caught up in the drive and all the views, that before we knew it it was 5’ o clock, so we decided to stop of in Monterey for a night. We stayed in Super 8 which was really nice motel! I’m so tired of eating food from restaurants, the food is either deep fried or covered in cheese. I love both, but my waist doesn’t!! So at 11.30pm, we were feeling peckish, so we went for a drive and found a 7/11, we got two cups of honey cheerio’s and pint of milk and plastic spoons. It was so nice and normal and not deep fried!!!


San Francisco

29th September - 3rd October

We made it to San Francisco, 2 days and another 3 hour drive later, haha! So my first impressions of SF is its foggy, it has the most strangest fog that magically disappears as quick as it appears. Sometimes you can’t see the top of the hill your walking along, then suddenly it disappears, its crazy fog! The LP (lonely planet), was right when it says if you don’t like weather then just wait a minute. It changes so quick, it can be freezing and then very warm. But just to point out in general its alot cooler than LA!!! Also SF is so hilly, the roads are very steep, its like a rollercoaster! But the roads are lined with lovely coloured and bright buildings. I noticed SF is big, bright, clean and fresh city, I do really like it here and I can see why so many people fall in love with the place. Its unique in its own way!

We stayed in north beach, its all Italian, with Italian shops, bakery’s and even flags painted onto the light poles. Its located right next to Chinatown, there’s no explaining there. We walked to union square and had a look around the city, and then got the famous tram back to our hotel. The tram is hilarious! It gets so packed people stand on the ledge on the outside and hold onto the poles, its so funny to see it going by. One night a tram passed and there was music coming out of it (i’m presuming someone had a radio), the majority of people were dancing and singing and shouting along, I so wanted to get on that tram! The city is nice and busy even at night time. We went out and had a few drinks in a bar, the band were playing all American classic’s like hotel California, sweet home Alabama. The American’s were either drunk or just wanted everyone to know they were from there, there was plenty of dancing and singing!

We also walked to fisherman’s wharf and had a loved it here. There’s a nice atmosphere about the place, lots of shops, restaurants and street entertainers. We spent alot of time on pier 49 (I think it was), it had lots of really old style, wooden carnival attractions and a photo booth, that’s where we got our black and white pictures taken. At fisherman’s wharf you can see Alcatraz, and the golden gate bridge, there’s plenty of places were you can rent bicycle, electronic bikes and cycle around, but we toured the city on the segaway!!! It was brilliant. The segaway’s are like stand up scooters, they have two wheels and they move by shifting your body weight back and forth (you would of seen them on the film “mall cop”). This was so much fun! There was a group of 8 of us and we went out on the road and toured around everywhere, it was a 3 hour trip. It was so funny because these particular ones were programmed to go no faster than 10mph, if you try go faster it tips you backwards. They are quite difficult to fall off, unless you hit a curb, then it falls straight onto its side. Ste isn’t happy until he’s falling of one way or another, what is it with boys, they have to make everything dangerous?! We really enjoyed this, it was something new and lots of fun!!

We took a visit as you have to do when your in SF to Alcatraz. This was really enjoyable, I would definitely recommend it! We got a boat over that had great views of the golden gate bridge, the bay bridge and SF city. While your walking around the prison you have an audio guide which explains everything. It’s given by pass prisoners and prison officer’s, they explain about the escapes that were attempted, and you can see the famous cell’s were the film “escape from Alcatraz” was made. It was also interesting to see Alcatraz, before the prison was build, when it was a military camp. We both really enjoyed it. After our visit to Alcatraz we hit the road to Las Vegas, I’m so excited about seen Vegas!! I did love SF, I would of loved to stay longer, but it just didn’t tie in with our itinerary.


Bakersfield

After a 5hour drive we stopped over here for the night. Stayed in a nice motel, nothing crazy, we were recharging our battery’s for Vegas.


Las Vegas

4th - 7th October

I LOVE LAS VEGAS!!!! We stayed in Bally’s hotel and treated ourselves to a deluxe room, the hotel is lovely and location is perfect, its right in the middle of the strip! When we were checking in we got a few funny looks, we were definitely the only ones with rucksacks on our backs, I never more felt like a traveller. But I didn’t care cause we’re in vegas!!! This place is brilliant, it exceeded all expectations I had. The strip is huge and full of action, we spent hours walking around. Each hotel has a different theme, and shops and a casino of course, so we had to try the casino out, just to see if its different than the others, but they all took our money!! I enjoyed the slots, especially when we got free drink the entire time we were gambling, haha! My favourite was hot spot, probably because my fiver used to last the longest in them, ha!

At night time the place came alive, I loved it, we watched the volcano erupting at the Mirage hotel, and the amazing water show at the Bellagio. There was so many restaurants to choose from, I couldn’t even recommend one because i’d say there all good quality. We did experience the all you can eat buffets that i’ve heard alot about. I’ve never seen so much different food in my life, there was a huge selection, but the desert section blew me away! I stuffed myself way to much, as a result I think I only squeezed 3 beers in, which is a bit disappointing considering I was in vegas, but I didn’t stop a great night!

We went to some shows, the first night we went to “the improv comedy show” that people like Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld performed at. The comedian’s weren’t famous this night but it was a great show, really really funny! The next night we went to the jubilee! I don’t know were to start, this was the most amazing show I have every seen in my life!! The show was jam-packed filled feathers and glitz and glamour and AMAZING outfits. I read that the opening scene cost $3 million, and I can see why. There was loads of dancers in the show, maybe 100, and they just kept appearing from the everywhere, the roof, stages came from the side walls, and platforms came down from the roof behind us. The stage and backdrops were just incredible, it constantly changed. I also read that the entire stage is the same size as half a football pitch and I can see why. I just can’t explain it and do it justice, the worse thing is we couldn’t take any pictures near the place, they took our camera’s off us. You just have to go and see it. Its better than any broadway or westend musical, amazing! Obviously I had to turn down a job offer, told them I was to good for the show, haha! I would jump at that job any day!

We had a few good nights out, but not enough, I wanted to stay for another week, there is just so much that we didn’t get to do and so many shows we didnt get to see! We wanted to see circle de soleil and a few other things, we’ll just have to wait till we go back, ha! The first night we went to a nightclub in Cesar’s palace called ‘pure’. We had a brilliant night, the place was gorgeous and upstairs was on the roof of Cesar’s palace, it was very surreal. Remember the ‘wolf’ speech alan in the hangover gave while standing on the roof of ceaser’s palace, well that came on in a remix, it was so so funny! I loved the club, but it was full of stuck up American people that think there so much better than you. They all had there reserved area’s sectioned off with a rope, it was interesting to watch, it was like something of the movies. We left at 4.30am and eventually made our way across the road to Bally’s!!! The other night we met with Chris and his sister Rebecca. Ste had played golf with Chris that morning, so we had one drink with them....that drink lasted until 6am. We end up going to downtown vegas, this place is so dodgy but has to be seen! I was taken a picture and a local wanted to take the picture, the local couldn’t walk straight so I insisted it was ok, then funny ste said let him take the picture but don’t rob it, the local didn’t take that as a joke, so we quickly moved on and out of that situation, thank god he was slower than us in his merry drunken way. The area with all the hotels and casino’s is cover by a massive roof, which is also used to project films onto, they had it on one section of the roof. So between all the lights from the hotels and the black sky covered at 2am in the morning it just looked like it was during the day. We did a bit of gambling in all of the hotels. The golden nugget was amazing!! This place has a swimming pool surrounding a massive shark tank, and it had a water slide that goes through the shark tank and into the pool. We chilled out here for a while and befriended the security guard trying to convince him to let us in the pool. The casino’s here are real old school, you can get $2 drinks and rib eye and eggs for $5, any time of the night! I gave the roulette table ago, ste went to the toilet and I won $90, that was from $20, so I said thank you very much and good night. We headed back to the strip where ste had a bit of fun at roulette, lets just say he won a bit, then lost a bit, then had the sense had to leave the table, unfortunately not with a profit though!! That’s all the fun of vegas though. That was our last night, we got to sleep at 6am, checked out of the hotel at 11am, and had a long 6 hours drive to San Diego!!!

We took turn’s driving and the other person would sleep. Ste was hungover and I was dien with a head cold, and we were seriously lacking in sleep so it was a long day! It took about 6 hours including a couple of stops. Once we got to San Diego we had to find the accommodation, we were in the 8th biggest city in USA and I had an address but no directions, it was getting dark and I had no idea how we were gona find hotel circle road?! But guess what, yep ste found it! I said it before, he has an amazing natural sense of direction and he just found it. We were both never so happy to see a bed, but it still wasn’t vegas. I really loved it, and look forward to goin back in about 20 years when i’ll be able to afford it!! Ste also loved it and even got a game of golf in!


San Diego

8th - 11th October

We finally reached San Diego after a long drive and a few dodgy street, although ste thinks I call everywhere dodgy. But in America I’ve made the mistakes of watching the tv, which shows realty programs for everything that could possible happen. So yes while in America most places and people do look suspicious to me. But don’t get me wrong I still love California, with their orange buff men and skinny minny women!! We stayed in Travelodge for 4 nights, it was perfect and close to most things. San Deigo was nice, its right next to mexico which was tempting, but we decided not to visit mexico this time. I don’t think San Diego made my top 5 places, but that could be because we just came from las vegas, also I have a cold so ive been feeling a bit in the clouds. We stayed in a very residential area so it wasn’t a big build up tourist place, its nice to get out of that environment and see the real America.

While in San Diego we visited the famous zoo. It was huge and a bit confusing, but it must of had 10 of every animal you can think of! The best thing was watching two polar bears play fighting, they were standing up on there back legs and pushing eachother against the window and playfully biting eachother, it was amazing to watch, I tried to take pictures but I was to close to the window, and I wasn’t given up my front row seat. We enjoyed the zoo, it was another hot day, so it was exhausting. I’m not complaining though, I love the weather!! Just beside us we discovered fashion valley. There are loads of outlet shops here, they should have a warning sign outside the car park, saying women with no money DO NOT enter!! They had all the great shops, and has been so so long since I bought myself something. When we’re travelling neither of us really buy clothes, first we have no room for it and second, id rather do something new and exciting than have a new jumper. But its getting close to the end of the trip and all these lovely American shops are infront of me, the temptation was to much so I treated myself a little bit! We also went to mission beach and Belmont park. Belmont park, is a very old amusement park, the rollercoaster was open in the 1920’s. Its a nice little place, that make nice little funnel cakes, yummy!! Mission beach is gorgeous, its very relaxed, there’s a lovely board walk we had a stroll down. There’s nothing more self assuring than passing bronzed muscle people with tiny clothes on jogging by. We got a subway and ate it on the beach. Its days like this that I love, because it just reminds us how lucky we are. After these 3 weeks I don’t think there will ever be a time again that ill just be sitting on a beach in California, relaxing, with no worries and absolutely nothing else to do! It feels good!

Nothing much else happened in San Diego, its a nice place. After our 5 days we drove one and half hours to Orange County, Newport beach. Its right next to Laguna beach, and both area’s are very very nice and posh! We didn’t do much here to be honest, a shopping trip in San diego ate into our spending money, so we just chilled out. We stayed for two nights, October 14th-16th.

After two days we drove the last stretch back to L.A. for one night before we flew out. It was another hour and half drive, then we had to drive around and get accommodation. That’s something I wont miss, driving into motels, ste will pull up, ill jump out and ask is there are any availabilities and how much, then onto the next place. We found the chain of super 8 motels are very reliable, clean and nice rooms with reasonable prices and a free continental breakfast. While back in L.A. we took a drive to downtown L.A. and had a walk down Santee Alley. This is like the American Thomas street, it was definitely an experience. I actually thought we were in Mexico for a while, because everyone was Mexican and speaking spanish. Instead of hearing “t-shirts two for fifty”, we heard “vente pantalone” (thats obviously the wrong spelling, but its suppose to be Spanish). They were genuine levis, straight out of a black sack! It was good to have a look around, I held onto ste and my bag but to be honest i’ve seen worse places. The street was full of shops and stalls, they sold everything you could imagine. I couldn’t believe the amount of different suits you could get for men, yellow, pink, red, pinstripe, sequence covered, any type of suit. I wont lie Joanne we were tempted to get a beautiful black tie suit for the wedding, but Olly might of got jealous of Stes suit so we didn’t. Something I also noticed was all the manikin’s in the shops had huge bum’s, must be a Latino thing, they like there curves, I fit right in here, haha!!! It was great to see, ste loves to get into the natural environments of places we go, it was even better to leave though. When he suggested we stop for lunch, I realised I suddenly wasn’t really hungry, haha! Downtown L.A. is very run down, old and gray. Its hard to believe 10 minutes away you have the most amazing, picturesque Beverly hills, were are all the middle class people?? It doesn’t seem right!

So that was California. I was really excited to see California, and it certainly lived up to my expectations. Its crazy and wild and anything goes! Would I like to live here? No, its just not for me, but definitely a good holiday destination. We got great weather, it didnt rain once, and walked along some gorgeous beaches and breathtaking scenery. We also endured some CRAZY freeway’s, they are so dangerous! Some roads were 7 lanes, and no one cares, you put your foot down and keep up with the traffic! Fair play to ste, he did most of the driving and most of the navigating, although I think I was a good co-pilot and my map reading skills have improved greatly! I did do a couple of hours driving, but mostly while on 3 or 4 hours stretch of highway. It took a bit of getting used to cause I was on the other side of the car in an automatic, but it was fine, something new but unfortunately not exciting!! So it was time to re-shuffle the rucksack. All the summer clothes and non-essential items were tightly rolled and packed away in the small bag. The winter clothes, scarf’s and coasts were gathered into big rucksack. I also managed to squeeze two pair of new heels in, dont ask me how or what shape they’ll be when I take them back out but I got them into bag somehow!

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Comments

[Janet]

Oh You Two, I just love following your blog. I've just been transported back 10 years ago to my honeymoon......Monterey, Alcatraz, Pebble Beach, Fisherrmans Wharf, Las Vegas..... Keep on living the dream!! xxxx