Venice beach

Today we headed down to Venice beach. The promenade has hippie after hippie selling wares and art (often junk) opposite normal shops like American Apparel and various food halls and snack shops. About half way down we get accosted by a couple of guys who offer us free cd's. Well almost free, after having a quick listen on their portable mp3 players they ask for donations. I actually quite like the track he played so we give him a donation but then they all swoop and we're suddenly surrounded by 2 more offering their own cd's. We back away as gracefully as we can :)
Further down the beach we pass numerous "medical" marajuana stores. It seems to me that you pay these 'shops' $40 and they basically sign you a medical note and give you an amount of hash. Its legal in LA to own less than a gram anyway so I guess this is all legal too anyway.
After a while we reach the famous muscle beach but as its after labour day its frustratingly empty.
We head back to Santa Monica pier for lunch and some sunning on the beach for the afternoon and then head back to the hotel for our final evening in LA. We head back to the Fathers Office bar and this time manage to get a seat and eat a really great burger that was worth the second chance.
Tomorrow we head to Santa Barbera, our first long distance drive and we're looking forward to putting the top down and having the wind in our hair.

Hollywood!

Today I'm off to visit hollywood. We set off down Santa Monica boulevard and all we can hear in our heads is a certain Sheryl Crow song. It doesn't look good at the start as its overcast but the fates are with us and after about 30 mins the sun does indeed come up.

Hollywood is ok but not mind blowing. We fail to find Bill Murray's star on the walk of fame but I do spot Ivan Reitman's and a host of stars belonging to Star trek cast members. We have a quite look at the hand prints outside the Chinese theatre and I'm happy to see that my hands are the same size as Arnie's although I'm a fair bit taller so maybe thats not a fair fight ;)

Lunch consists of a burrito from a food truck which tastes great and then its back to the car to head to Burbank for a free tour of Warner Bros studios curtesy of work. The tour is good fun. We get see the tricks of the trade and stand in Central Perk from Friends. Lots of the locations have been used in various films and tv. Theres a mini lake not much larger than a home pool that was used to simulate the ocean in free willy!

We head back to the hotel via Sunset boulevard looking at all the bars and shops. We pass the reasonably famous Whisky-a-gogo but it looks shut at this early time.

The evening is spent having cocktails and sliders (mini hamburgers for non-US people) and then heading out for a nice italian at a place called Laco. I order a chicken pesto lasagne which is delicious.

Paul

The Honeymoon begins

Today is the first day of our honeymoon! The day gets off to a rather hectic start when the taxi firm sends us an SMS to alert us to the imminent arrival of our taxi 45 minutes too early. Instead of risking the taxi leaving we rush out of bed faster than I think we've ever managed and are sat waiting 30 mins later with the taxi finally turning up.
We get to the airport 4 hours before our flight to raise the chances of being able to move seat as our pre booked ones are sat by the toilets, Yuck! We're in luck. The checkin assistant is able to move us to the front of the section and we get super leg room! Flight is fun given its an 11 hour journey. I watch 3 movies back to back and my wife manages just one although she reads most of her new book Big Sur. We've never flown Virgin Atlantic Premium economy (and probably won't afford to again) but its quite a change. The seats are bigger, theres way more space and the attention from the stewards is constant. Drinks and snacks are constantly bought round and the main meal isn't served in a plastic tray! Tastes really good too.
Finally touch down in Los Angeles around 3:30 and pick up our rental car from Alamo. Its a nice 2 door convertible but I thought it was supposed to have satnav but doesn't. Its not mentioned on the forms I have so I don't argue it, wish I had. We spend over 2 hours driving in circles looking for any kind of sign to Santa monica to no avail (the map we have is less than useless too it transpires). Eventually we use our phones to drive due west until we find the coast and then head north!
The Oceana hotel is excellent. We get a room upgrade on the first night and its huge! We're tired and weary but theres a nice surprise knocking at the door. Its a bottle of Prosecco and nibbles curtesy of my Best Man  Chris. Just what the doctor ordered.
We head out for a walk and dinner to try and stay awake till 10 to avoid jet lag. We feel like we've gotten a second wind of sorts. We find a nice Strada-esk italian called "Louise's" and order pizza and pasta. 5 mins in and we're falling asleep!
We stumble home and fall asleep as soon as we touch the pillows!

Paul