When you hear about LA, you're always told about all of the famous roads, celebrity homes and imagine loads of glitz and glamour - thats not really what we found. We took a drive around Beverley Hills to check out the swanky homes and it was alright, but you obviously had no idea who lived there. We cruised around Mulholland Drive for some views over LA (none of which were very impressive) and to check out some of the houses of the rich and famous - turns out you couldn't actually see very much and most of the time all you could see was the gated entrance to their very long driveways! Some of the houses that you could see were pretty excessively large - just like their massive motor homes which are the size of a coach but for just 2 people!
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| One of the large houses we were able to see - nice! |
We diverted off Mulholland Drive to a little spot we had read about on the internet that was good for photographing the Hollywood sign, turns out the internet was right! We were pretty close and got quite a good shot of it. That was one of the most interesting things we have seen in LA - how bad is that!
Rodeo Drive was designer shop alley and anyone who knows us will know that we're not really into labels, so a lot of it didn't really mean much to us and the whole area is pretty pretentious as well as very expensive. Rob did actually collect the new car he had ordered whilst we were there and as he was so happy that he treated me to cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory (I actually think he was hoping to bump into Penny & Sheldon - Bazinga!) The cheesecake was good but we did feel a bit sick afterwards.
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| Rodeo Drive |
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| Rob with his custom made Bugatti! |
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| Oreo milkshake at The Cheesecake Factory |
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| No wonder we felt sick! |
Before we had arrived in LA we had got some freebie tickets for a live recording of the Chelsea Lately show - we were hoping to get tickets for something like Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune but as they weren't recording those we had to settle for Chelsea Lately. We had seen Chelsea Handler (apparently she is a comedienne) hosting her show whilst we have been in the States, but I haven't really found her to be funny. Putting that aside it was the experience of being in a live studio that we were looking forward to.
We arrived at Universal Studios and waited around for almost 2 hours before we took our comfy seat in the recording studio, which was actually much smaller than we imagined. There were some right odd characters in the audience - some loud, some wannabes and some that were just down right weird! The warm up man came out to tell us when we needed to laugh, clap etc and told us a few jokes. After a while it was time to welcome Chelsea Handler, so we did and oh my god how cold was she?! Honestly I don't even think she realised an audience was there as she didn't acknowledge anyones existence during the whole recording and I think if she smiled her fake face would have seriously cracked! Leanne Rimes (with her troweled on make up) was the celebrity guest and she did at least wave to the audience. She came across quite warm and friendly but told us she wasn't wearing any underwear (ooh too much information!). All in all we really enjoyed the experience but would have preferred a show that was a bit more audience friendly. We now have our names down for some UK shows to see how they compare.
We also took a drive to Venice Beach = rough, visited the Malibu coast which was underwhelming and took a drive down Sunset Strip which also wasn't up to much (just loads of shops and places to eat - but not as posh as Rodeo Drive).
Santa Monica was a nice place and we did check out the pier and beach which looked OK but nothing extraordinary or worth spending a whole day there. We had been told and read many things on the Internet that it was a safe area and fortunately whilst we were there it was. Unfortunately for some others that all changed the day after we left. Sadly a loonie decided to go on a rampage with a gun and killed 4 innocent people - he was shooting at cars and then went to the Santa Monica College where he gunned down those poor people. We were really glad we had moved on as we were staying literally just a few blocks down from the college. Just goes to show how unpredictable things can be over here...
So, after moving hotels we handed the car back and relied on public transport for the last bits and pieces we wanted to do. To be honest we didn't really do very much as there wasn't really much left to do (that interested us anyway). We got the bus to Hollywood Boulevard to check out the 'walk of fame' and the famous Chinese Theatre. Now we had read reviews on this area and the reviews weren't great so when we arrived we weren't really surprised at how cheesy it was - nothing like you see on TV. There were loads of people dressed up as film characters/actors like Darth Vader, Superman, Marilyn Monroe (how she would have looked today as she was old with loads of wrinkles!) all just trying to get money for photos. As well as this there were lots of young guys trying to force their 'hip-hop' cd's onto you, loads and loads of seriously tacky souvenir shops and I can't count the number of times we were asked to go on a crappy sightseeing tour. It's absolutely nothing like the showbiz razzamatazz that is portrayed when you see it on TV. Suffice it to say, we didn't spend long there before we were back on the bus to the hotel for a beer!
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| Part of the Walk of Fame |
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| When she saw John Travolta she just could help Stayin Alive... She actually blended in quite well with the loonies! |
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| The real Hollywood Boulevard |
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| Yet more tackiness from Hollywood Boulevard |
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| Loving the new look ... if the hat hadn't have been so heavy I would have bought it ;-) |
So tomorrow (Sunday) is our last full day on our trip. We have decided that we are going to have a relaxing one and probably not do too much, but we'll be treating ourselves to a nice meal and a few drinks and finish our trip in style...
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