Thursday 15 March 2012

City of Angels

As mentioned in my previous post, thanks to Liesl and our rented UFO, we were able to travel around the city and see all the sites.

Malibu

Malibu was really pretty - you could just smell the money as you drove through. Not much to do though seen as this is mainly a residential area. We hung around as much as possible, hoping to catch a glimpse of Barbra Streisand going buying groceries or having a coffee, but alas no sightings (I don't think she gets out much).

This is the house that Babs built. Also the house we didn't see... alas, we couldn't rent a helicopter for the day...



Paradise Cove
How cool is that ATM machine?

Paradise Cove
Paradise Cove
Because the maids have to live somewhere too...
The drive down to Malibu beach
Malibu Beach

Rich people at the beach

Me running to the "Baywatch" theme music...




 
 Santa Monica

Santa Monica is really beautiful place to visit. It has great shopping, great restaurants and bars, fabulous beaches, a wonderful pier .... assuming you can see past the hundreds of homeless people who line the beach.



Cirque du Soleil's in town (they are everywhere!)

Santa Monica beach front









The BIGGEST seagulls fighting over some food

Seriously, these are like nuclear tested seagulls, they are MASSIVE














Venice Beach

Welcome to the most disgusting place on Earth (well in LA anyway). I expected it to be bad, but I had no idea what I was in for. Venice Beach is dirty, smells like pooh, covered in grime, riddled with homeless people and drug addicts. I felt like I needed a Silkwood-scrubdown when I got home.
Ok this was a really cool house we saw on the way in

I wouldn't eat anything from anywhere in Venice beach even if you paid me...



Oooh, like the one in "Big"

Busker playing half a piano in the middle of the park... as you do

I have NO idea what that is...


Uh huh....




One of the most disgusting toilets ever... this is called "desperation"


This area really smelled like human excrement.


Where they filmed "White Men Can't Jump"

The Muscle Gym on the beach



  
   

Out and about...


Viper Room, where River Phoenix died

That's one titanic billboard

The Roxy A Go Go

Rainbow Room where Judy Garland met Vincente Minnelli

Rydell High

Venice Beach High school is where the filmed the school scenes in "Grease".


And we did not look dodgy AT ALL - driving past a High School really slowly, during recess, hanging out of our purple truck, taking photos... all that was missing was the "get free candy here" sign.
I kept expecting one of the kids to yell out "Stranger Danger!"



Beverly Hills Police Station

Rodeo Drive

So the whole time I was here, I was totally tempted to pull a Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman" and walk into a boutique and say, "Ive got money to spend here"...  but of course I don't, so I didn't.

We drove around for about 20 min looking for a place to park - that we could afford. Finally, we saw a sign for public parking, so we drove in. Straight into Valet parking... eeck! Turns out, VALET IS FREE! Who knew!







Naturally, we say these flags flying high in West Hollywood


The Dead Centre of Town

I really wanted to visit Forest Lawn Memorial Park - as loads of Legends are buried here. I wrote out my little list of who I wanted to find, and where they were. So off we toddled to the cemetery, list in hand only to find that there is more than one Forest Lawn... Ironically, the one person that I really wanted to see was Bette Davis... turns out she's the ONLY one buried here... the rest are in Glendale.
 



 Santa Barbara

I was really looking forward to our trip to Santa Barbara - even though I had the theme tune to the soapie stuck in my head for about 4 days before we went...


Liesl and I drove out to stay with her friends Joy and Eric (in the desert just outside of LA) and we all spent the day in Santa Barbara together.

It is such a beautiful town. The houses are beautiful, it's so clean, there are loads of restaurants and a stunning shopping area. If I could chose to live anywhere, it would be here. Just stunning and peaceful.

One of the mission-style churches




Pretty little mailboxes all in a row

Even the roads are friendly




The original Santa Barbara mission




View from the Mission





This is what Liesl would look like as a monk


Joy and Liesl at dinner
Eric, me and Joy

PS. I had to post pics of Joy's cat, Danny. He's such a beautiful boy! (and I miss Olive)
Sleepy time




WOW,  we did so much in Los Angeles. Hard to believe we were only there for 13 days.

Still to come: Hollywood Museum, Stars Homes and The Studios!!

Keep reading :-)



 xxx


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