It's a Hoot

Thursday 17th July

Another cool day in LA. A welcome break from the searing heat of Dallas and Vegas.

After fighting through the queue for breakfast, which was just a cardboard textured waffle and a cup of coffee it was time to plan my ventures for today.

I still had the 48 hour narrated tour to jump on because I had only covered one part of the route. Jacob joined me today and just as we were getting ready to head out we were asked (by housekeeping) to move rooms due to our knackered shower.

Today we headed back up to Hollywood boulevard and jumped on the bus for the ride down to Santa Monica. We passed Fox studios, TV and film company, and many other landmarks.

The ride took about 90mins to get down there but it was well worth it as we were greeted by the amazing view of sandy beaches, hot babes in their skimpy bikinis, blue sky and sunshine! After stopping for a few minutes to take in all these wonderful sights we headed down onto Santa Monica pier. From here we had great views of the Sierra Nevada on one side to Venice beach on the other. The pier was full of quirky gift shops and seafood restaurants and a healthy number of fishermen catching a variety of fish.

After walking this we headed back in the bus to our next stop, the famous Venice boardwalk. (which is concrete)
Again, much like the walk of fame, not as glamorous as you would think but still a vibrant happy place with Rollerblades, bikes and skateboards everywhere.  The place had a reggae, Bob Marley feel about it with the street entertainers. Headed into the beach for a few minutes, lovely sand.

All that walking made me hot and in a need of something cool and refreshing. I didn't fancy the sea so headed to a food kiosk and opted for.... A frozen banana, coated with chocolate. We were somewhat worried when waiting for it as we were watching the chefs prepare the wide range of food options available and whilst doing so happened to notice a plume of feathers raining down onto someone's pizza that was being cooked! I bet chicken was off the menu after that!
Anyway after some slight concern our frozen bananas were actually very nice, so refreshing, will have to try that at home!

Didn't realise how far the boardwalk went but we had to. Walk back to catch the bus back to Hollywood which would be a good 2.5hr bus ride back. The traffic coming back was horrendous. LA traffic is Bad. We moan back in the UK but LA is much worse.

Once back at Hollywood however we decided to have dinner.  There was a hooters opposite the bus top... Perfect!
Our waitress was stunning and the food was almost as good. My key lime pie was great!

So that was it.  LA was over!  Actually could have done with one more day here to visit the Griffith observatory which gives great views over he whole city including the Hollywood sign and would have liked to have visited the petersen motor museum.

Onto our final stop in San Francisco tomorrow, it's all flying by so fast.