Loving Los Angeles!
We arrived at the extremely hectic LAX airport feeling very well looked after. Be warned the queues are pretty epic so be prepared to wait a while and leave plenty of time if you have a connecting flight. We emerged after 2 hours and had a hair-raising cab ride to our hotel - I've never seen so many cars!
We were staying 2 nights at the fabulous Grafton on Sunset. It's right in the middle of all the action but when we got to our large comfortable room, complete with pictures of Hollywood icons, a big round bed and leopard print pillows (opulent much?) We couldn't hear any of the traffic outside at all. It also has a lovely pool area - you'd never guess you were in the middle of the city when you're chilled out sipping a cocktail next to it!
We had a great night's sleep and decided to get the open top bus around the city the next day. Before catching the first Starline bus we had an enormous and delicious breakfast at Mel's diner on Sunset Boulevard - it was so big I thought I might never need to eat again! We hopped on the bus and headed to the famous Santa Monica pier which is great fun to wander round - we saw friendly sealions and had a good walk around. Then we hopped back on and started travelling back, listening to the commentary which they clearly keep very up to date.
We decided to visit LACMA on the way back - the Los Angeles County Museum of Art which was incredible - works by Picasso, Matisse, Warhol and many more. You could stay there for hours! Then we headed back to Beverly Hills and Hollywood. We saw many of the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame stars along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street - there are over 2,600 of them and we walked a long way that day! LA is huge and has a lot of traffic so be prepared for it to take a while to get between the different areas by bus and what looks like a small way on the map can be a big walk in reality - don't plan to do too many areas in one day.
After a luxurious shower it was time to get dressed up for a night out. We went to the early show at the Comedy Club - ridiculously cheap for the hilarious talent we saw - I laughed until my sides hurt! Then we headed back up Sunset to the famous Whiskey a Go Go where we saw an awesome band called Memphis Drawl - not famous yet but they should be! We met them afterwards and they were lovely guys. We then ended up at a Halloween party in the nearby Rainbow rooms which was a surreal but very fun experience which involved an Alice Cooper tribute band and quite a lot of gin. Partway through this we realised that Cypress Hill (the hip hop guys in case you didn't know!) had just come out of the building next to us where they'd been playing which was very exciting (well to us - all the LA folk were too cool to be impressed!) We wandered home much later than we'd meant to after a brilliant night.
The next day we checked out after a lovely stay and headed on the bus to Marina Del Rey which is a gorgeous little seaside community with a Marina (obvs!) As luck would have it they have a band on every Sunday and the locals come out and dance - it's like an elderly flash mob - super fun. We grabbed a bite to eat at a lovely Italian place where they were horrified that I put parmesan on my spaghetti al vongole - apparently cheese and seafood is a no no. I still think cheese is good with everything though! We then checked out the famous Venice Beach - fabulously bohemian it's the home of artists and poets and also men with big muscles who parade around working out on Muscle beach. There's great and original shopping on Abbot Kinney street and a lot of live street performers to keep you entertained. Sadly, after a couple of hours it was time to head to the airport to board our Air New Zealand flight for the next adventure in Rarotonga...
