As we left the hilly city, we were overcome by the temptation of doing the touristy thing and drove down the very windy part of Lombard Street. It is pretty impressive and if you ever decide to do that you ought to be aware that you and your car will end up on
at least 2 dozen photographs taken by the many tourists at the bottom and the top of the hill. However, the gods of bad taste tourism got back at us by punishing us with a huge traffic jam out of the city...something was burning under a bridge and lady TomTom kept saying; 'Turn around when possible...turn around when possible...turn around when possible'...bloody thing! :)
We finally made it out and onto Highway 1, winding its way along the Pacific to L.A. We stopped for a shrimp lunch at Bubba Gumps in Monterrey. It's a place inspired by the film Forest Gump and the food combined with the stunning view over the bay were pretty amazing. A must for all Forrest Gump fans, because 'shrimp are like the vegetable of the sea.' :)
While Christine falling asleep in the car, Pat drove through Big Sur to Cambria where we stopped to look at the sea elephants lying (and stinking) on the beach. It's awesome to see those animals still in the wild and in their natu
ral habitat. After a quiet night at our budget motel in Pismo Beach, a beautiful and peaceful sea side surfer town, we soaked up the sun on the beach and the somewhat smelly and unfriendly restaurant near the Pier (won't go back there for sure).
We surely wanted to stay longer, maybe try our surfing, but we had to get back on the road to go to L.A. Passing through Malibu, we waved hello at David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson in their red swim suits and arrived at the Santa Monica Pier. It was here that the Route 66 came to say her final good-bye and we were so happy to see here one last time. We arrived in L.A. on our last leg of the trip in the US and Route 66 arrived with us in Santa Monica. It was good to see her again... (sounds silly, but it sure was like that) :).
We surely wanted to stay longer, maybe try our surfing, but we had to get back on the road to go to L.A. Passing through Malibu, we waved hello at David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson in their red swim suits and arrived at the Santa Monica Pier. It was here that the Route 66 came to say her final good-bye and we were so happy to see here one last time. We arrived in L.A. on our last leg of the trip in the US and Route 66 arrived with us in Santa Monica. It was good to see her again... (sounds silly, but it sure was like that) :).
ready to meet all the stars, we went to get a good night sleep after a disappointing dinner at Olive Garden...
LA itself is a huuuuuge city. It's acutally a collection of cities grown together to form this mega city...it's got a pretty unpersonal feel to it. We decided to go and sit on Venice Beach. A crazy place, with lots of crazy people. We fitted in well :) Watching the huge waves crash on the beach was really relaxing...
...but we had to get back to the hotel in order to get ready to meet Pat's friend Heather and her boyfriend Brian. They both work for Disney and gave us a tour of the studios...wow...we felt like we were taken back to our childhood, seeing original memerobilia and film sets, as well as old sketches of Snow White and the original Mickey Mouse...really good stuff. :) We ended up having yummy tacos from a corner truck and frozen yogurt for desert in Pasadena. It was a great night out. Thanks again guys!
The next day we packed up the car and headed up to Griffith Park Observatory to get a stunning view over the city. We tried in vain to look for a couple of homes where stars are supposed to live and since our stupid camera was acting up, we didn't manage to get a decent, close-up picture of the Hollywood sign...
On our way to the airport we discovered the joy of passing fast past LA traffic in the car pool lane on the freeway. This is the far left lane that can only be used by cars which transport 2 or more people. One should think that in a city the size of LA, many people could use this...but no. It showed us how many people are actully driving in their cars by themselves. While they crawled, we passed them at 60 miles an hour. :)
The last stress came when we managed to leave Pat's sunglasses in the rental car. We realised it when we were already on the bus to the terminal at LAX. We went all the way back, after having checked in our luggage, and the unfriendly lady at he lost and found wasn't able to help. So we checked the car, which we saw standing there, but they weren't in there. Christine then had the brilliant idea of askink the guy checking the cars when they first came in. And he had them in his desk...think of it what you will...at least we got them back...but they hadn't made their way yet to the lost and found in the 40 minutes since they were there... :) But always think the best in people, right...
Tired, we got onto our Air Pacific flight to Nadi, Fiji...
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