The Last City

It wasn't the first time this trip that we had come to Los Angeles, but it would certainly be the last, as we prepared for the last couple of days stay in the US of A.

After stopping off in Fresno (not much to tell about that place) the previous night after our jaunt into Yosemite, we began the last substantial drive of our road trip. It was bog-standard Interstate fair, and there wasn't much to engage us about the scenery, instead we focused on getting to the City of Angles, and finding a coffee house with free wi-fi so that we could find ourselves the last hotel of our trip, for the final two nights.

We found said coffee house, and had a quick cuppa with a certain Mr Adam Rogers who popped along to send his regards, and we found ourselves a small cheapy hotel called Westside Rentals in Hollywood. After checking in we headed off around movie-central, walking down Hollywood Blvd. where we sampled the many stars littered along the sidewalk, with many a famous name from yesteryear, and present day. Along we went to Grauman's Chinese Theatre, where we found the whole street cordened off, and a bright red carpet rolled out in-front of the iconic cinema, awaiting the VIPs for the X-Files movie premiere later that day. By this time we were pretty hungry, but luckily we found a great little place in the shopping precinct next door called The Dip, which did excellent lamb sandwiches with gravy for dipping. We enjoyed them muchly!




After our little snack we made the journey in the car to Century City, to do a spot of shopping, and to get ourselves out of the heat for a bit. However, the place did only one thing to impress us, which ended up being the DeLorean parked next our Mustang, but aside from that it was pretty dull, and so we headed back to the hotel to decipher what to do next. The 6 mile journey back took us about 45 minutes due to traffic, but did give us the chance to venture through Beverley Hills once more this trip, which is always entertaining enough.

That night we headed out to The Grove which was everything that Century City wasn't. A stunning place, with interesting shops, good restaurants (we tried the French Steakhouse), a rather nice looking outside area with water features, and even it's own little tram service. Would highly recommend anyone visiting LA to pop along and enjoy this little place. Afterwards we went along to St Nick's Pub and Grill to meet one of Adam's old school friends, Kerry, who is working out here. After a quick Corona with her, we arranged to meet up the following morning to have breakfast near to where she resides.

The next morning we did just that, and popped along for breakfast, and I was surprised to find the berry fruit bowl I ordered from the menu ended up arriving at the table with a mountain of whipped cream on top. I thought I was being healthy too! Adam thought it very funny as he munched on his weird combination of french croissant and omelette.

We said our farewells to the girl Adam hadn't seen since GCSE Physics class, and on her recommendation headed around 60 miles south to Orange County, and Laguna Beach. The weather was glorious, as was the beach itself, and we spent our last full afternoon of the holiday either topping up the tan (me) or snorkeling for sea-shells, getting hit by massive waves, and nearly being decapitated by a small boy on a surfboard (Adam). It was a great beach, and like many places on this trip, is a good location to visit.

The journey back to Hollywood was not a pleasant one, and took us over two hours due the traffic (again!), but once we were back, we weren't going to sit still for long, and we headed up through Griffiths Park, along little windy mountain-side roads up to the Observatory sitting atop Mount Hollywood. This really does give great views of the city, and we alos got to take a peek through the telescope at the star Vega, which was kinda small, white and blurry, but interesting all the same. The long and short of it is that if you want to see great views of LA, and the Hollywood sign, then this is the spot for you.



We made it back down the mountain, and headed out for the last evening meal of the trip, finding a place called Lucky Devils, where we were the lucky ones and enjoyed some of the best burgers we'd had all trip, together with a decent pint of English Ale! All in all a good foody finish to our meal times in America.

And so, the penultimate day of our journey is at an end. There is little more to blog on than us dropping off the car, heading into LAX, and maybe if we're lucky, catching just one more movie at the cinema before we go. So you'd think we'd stop blogging now right? Nope. Stay tuned for more!!!



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