FIFTY STATES AWAYDays 58 & 59: (1st and 2nd April) Rest Days
Both of these days were rest days, so we don’t have much to report. We drove minimally around California, staying in the southern towns and attempting to plan the rest of this state and make decisions on whether or not we’ll go to Hawaii. We enjoyed a meal and the obligatory cheesecake at the Cheesecake factory.
Day 60: (3rd April) Los Angeles
Today we woke bright and early we had a 30 minute drive to central LA, we’re we planned to take a city tour on a rather brightly coloured bus, named the Rasta Bus! After parking and crossing the road we met up with everyone, the tour company provided a table full of fruit and juices, which was a welcome refreshment. Boarding the bus our first stop was the Venice beach area, we’ve noticed a lot of street art here and it’s fantastic, arriving here we had a wander around the muscle beach area, finding the Arnie murial
Rather than head where most of the group did, down to the skate park we went on a little walk towards Gold’s Gym, a place where Arnie trained (you know Ben), on this walk we bumped into another couple on the tour who also treked off to find this, they were from Chicago, and had another awesome accent, it also turns out that they are moving to West Virginia soon, a place we loved in the snow earlier in our trip.
We swiftly headed on taking a short drive through the Beverly Hills area, it was beautiful, much tidier than what we’d seen of the city so far, today is jam packed and our tour is eight hours long! After this we headed to Rodeo Drive, famous for its celebrity shopping, we had a look around, there was the Louboutin shoe shop and the Mercedes apparel store! We took a few moments to sit on a bench in the middle of the shopping area and relax, it was not busy here and the streets were very tidy and pretty.
We headed back to the bus and off for some lunch at a place called The Farmers Market, at the Grove. It was full of different kinds of food and we struggled too choose with so many delicious options. We had about an hour to eat lunch before heading back to the bus, we had a lot more to see!
Our next location was Griffith Park, where we drove up the long Hill towards The Griffith Park Observatory, it was a lovely day out clear skies and sun, we headed in to take in the displays within the observatories museum. They had a real fun area which had all the planets lined up and a set of central scales, which you can use to find out how much you’d way on each of the planets! We were also lucky enough to get a demonstration of the Tesla Machine! It was a spectacular sight, seeing the ball in the middle light up and the bright blue coloured bolts of electricity stream out of it, Ben being taller than anyone got the best video!
The Observatory is built so that you can go up to the roof to view the two large telescopes they have, this area also gives way to the most stunning skyline views of the city. With the skyscrapers of downtown LA on one side, the famous Hollywood sign on the other and stunning mountainous scenery in between. It was truly magnificent, and incredible to be able to see so far across the land!
After this excursion we headed of to another stop on the tour one that had so much to offer, the west side of Hollywood. We passed several of the famous sights such as the Hollywood Studios & Capitol Records before reaching the beautiful Chinese Theatre, where the celebrity hand and foot prints are. We had a good look around snapping many of the famous ones, (Johnny Depp, Quentin Tarantino, Robert De Niro, Sly and Annie to name a few) we had great fun comparing the foot and hand size of these stars to our own.
We also passed the Dolby Theatre (aka Kodak Theatre) where the Oscars are held, and got to take a stroll down the Hollywood Walk of Fame on the hunt for our favourite’s stars! I found the one I had been looking for and Ben could not resist stopping by to see Arnie and Sly
Our last stops included cruising down the sunset strip to see the historic Whiskey, Viper Room and Roxy music clubs before heading back towards Santa Monica beach, we headed off to stay near LAX and saw a gorgeous sunset to end the day.
We’ve had a fantastic but busy day, it’s been a great way to see so much of a city in a hurry. There are some real pretty parts of the city, but it was not all like we imagined there are some real run down areas, it’s not as tidy as Washington or as grand as New York and it’s hard sometimes to imagine all the celebs rushing to live here. California has a different feel to the other states, whilst so far generally eating is healthier than most other states, and fashion is very prominent it does not seem as friendly to tourists than some of the other states we have visited. On a positive note the scenery remains spectacular and we are really enjoying the sunshine.
Day 61: (4th April) Santa Monica to Ventura, rest day.
We did not drive far today, we initially planned to reach Santa Barbara to go for a walk on the beach, however we only managed a short drive from the Santa Monica area to Ventura, where we checked into a motel at around lunchtime. Ben was feeling rather unwell so we decided to call it a day, once we got in and settled Ben slept solidly for around 8 hours! Bless him 🙁
