Sarah is writing tonight's blog. Alan will undoubtedly want to comment on his fluky navigation skills and will do so in red. Fluky? I always know exactly where I'm going.
We had a late night last night as Alan made me watch Marley & Me again. Grrrrr ... I don't need to be that depressed on holidays. The hotel offer free dvds for you to watch in your room and although there were plenty to choose from, there were very few actually worth watching.
Although the hotel is in a lovely location, the walls are pretty thin so as everyone started getting moving this morning, it was hard to sleep in. We got up around 8.50am and got down to breakfast at about 9.30am. It wasn't breakfast as we've known down in Anaheim so we settled for just a bowl of cereal each.
It was a cool but clear morning when we got in the car and started driving, firstly to Venice Beach. As usual we picked the wrong way to go. We parked the car and started walking only to discover that the busy part of Venice Beach was a fair distance in the opposite direction so we walked the 15 minutes back to the car. One thing we noticed is that there are large piles of sand streets away from the beach. We remarked outside one residence how much sand there was up towards the door and how we'd hate to have to live with that. There were also crews with brooms and shovels trying to get all the sand back onto the beach.
Back in the car, we drove down to the main part of Venice and walked around. There were street vendors, muscle men at Muscle Beach, people riding bikes, people in the skateboard park, people throwing balls for dogs and homeless people. There was even a guy who was trying to convince people to listen to his CD by thrusting headphones towards your head.
After a walk around there, we got back in the car and drove to Santa Monica Beach and visited the pier. Unfortunately (or maybe that is fortunately) the rollercoaster wasn't going. It would appear to have gotten stuck on the lift hill part and they were trying to fix it. It would have been hysterical to see Alan get stuck up there. Poor me. I'm having rollercoaster withdrawals.
Unsure of what to do next, we started driving and found ourselves on Rodeo Drive and marvelled at the people standing on the side of the road with wine glasses in hand. We then found ourselves in the vicinity of the La Brea Tar Pits, the site for the 1997 movie Volcano. They are not that interesting and they smell pretty bad so we weren't there long.
We decided to give Hollywood Boulevard a miss and try to find Griffith Observatory. We had been there in 1999 and knew sort of which direction we wanted to go. So Alan kept heading east along Santa Monica Boulevard, spending the majority of his time looking left up into the Hollywood Hills to see if he could see it. How we didn't have an accident is anyone's guess. More awesome skill on my part. Eventually we saw it and thought we were heading in the right direction but instead found ourselves in Little Armenia. A few quick turns out of there and we were on the right road. By this time the cloud had come over fairly heavy although it was a reasonably clear day, smog wise. Must have been the tremendously strong winds we had overnight. I love a place you can drive to and they don't want to charge you for parking. A quick photo or two were taken and then it was back in the car (and the warmth) and we headed back to our hotel.
Before coming inside we decided to take a small walk around the beach/marina area where our hotel is located. I wished we had gotten here about 5 minutes earlier as just as we arrived, a guy was coming out of the water with his surfboard. For those who haven't looked at the photos, we are located on a beach at the end of a marina. There is only a small roped off section for swimming and the water is perfectly flat. What was he doing on that surfboard?
We made a quick detour by the Cheesecake Factory, the location of our lovely dinner last night, to get ourselves some cheesecake for later. With 50 cheesecakes and specialty desserts to choose from, I'm surprised we are not still there. We have bought ourselves a really decadent chocolate cake and a chocolate mousse cheesecake to have later for dessert. One slice of each, not the entire cakes.
After freshening up, we headed to another favourite restaurants of ours, Olive Garden, about 15 miles from where we are staying. Oh my lord. It is places like these which is why we have breakfast in the morning and then don't eat anything else until dinner. There was so much food. From their bottomless garden salad (topped with cheese), to their bread sticks, the appetizer of melted cheese and then the main dishes, also covered in cheese. Cheese overload. We ended up bringing part of a pizza back to the room which will probably be our breakfast tomorrow, considering we have cheesecake, chocolate cake and still fudge from yesterday sitting in our fridge. I ate all of my stuffed chicken marsala for dinner. The pizza was Sarah's so obviously her eyes are far too big for her tummy.
Tomorrow morning we are off early to the airport and then on to Vancouver. I wonder what the weather will be like there. It's been particularly cold down here, so no doubt Canada will be lovely and warm.
All photos are now uploaded.
We had a late night last night as Alan made me watch Marley & Me again. Grrrrr ... I don't need to be that depressed on holidays. The hotel offer free dvds for you to watch in your room and although there were plenty to choose from, there were very few actually worth watching.
Although the hotel is in a lovely location, the walls are pretty thin so as everyone started getting moving this morning, it was hard to sleep in. We got up around 8.50am and got down to breakfast at about 9.30am. It wasn't breakfast as we've known down in Anaheim so we settled for just a bowl of cereal each.
It was a cool but clear morning when we got in the car and started driving, firstly to Venice Beach. As usual we picked the wrong way to go. We parked the car and started walking only to discover that the busy part of Venice Beach was a fair distance in the opposite direction so we walked the 15 minutes back to the car. One thing we noticed is that there are large piles of sand streets away from the beach. We remarked outside one residence how much sand there was up towards the door and how we'd hate to have to live with that. There were also crews with brooms and shovels trying to get all the sand back onto the beach.
Back in the car, we drove down to the main part of Venice and walked around. There were street vendors, muscle men at Muscle Beach, people riding bikes, people in the skateboard park, people throwing balls for dogs and homeless people. There was even a guy who was trying to convince people to listen to his CD by thrusting headphones towards your head.
After a walk around there, we got back in the car and drove to Santa Monica Beach and visited the pier. Unfortunately (or maybe that is fortunately) the rollercoaster wasn't going. It would appear to have gotten stuck on the lift hill part and they were trying to fix it. It would have been hysterical to see Alan get stuck up there. Poor me. I'm having rollercoaster withdrawals.
Unsure of what to do next, we started driving and found ourselves on Rodeo Drive and marvelled at the people standing on the side of the road with wine glasses in hand. We then found ourselves in the vicinity of the La Brea Tar Pits, the site for the 1997 movie Volcano. They are not that interesting and they smell pretty bad so we weren't there long.
We decided to give Hollywood Boulevard a miss and try to find Griffith Observatory. We had been there in 1999 and knew sort of which direction we wanted to go. So Alan kept heading east along Santa Monica Boulevard, spending the majority of his time looking left up into the Hollywood Hills to see if he could see it. How we didn't have an accident is anyone's guess. More awesome skill on my part. Eventually we saw it and thought we were heading in the right direction but instead found ourselves in Little Armenia. A few quick turns out of there and we were on the right road. By this time the cloud had come over fairly heavy although it was a reasonably clear day, smog wise. Must have been the tremendously strong winds we had overnight. I love a place you can drive to and they don't want to charge you for parking. A quick photo or two were taken and then it was back in the car (and the warmth) and we headed back to our hotel.
Before coming inside we decided to take a small walk around the beach/marina area where our hotel is located. I wished we had gotten here about 5 minutes earlier as just as we arrived, a guy was coming out of the water with his surfboard. For those who haven't looked at the photos, we are located on a beach at the end of a marina. There is only a small roped off section for swimming and the water is perfectly flat. What was he doing on that surfboard?
We made a quick detour by the Cheesecake Factory, the location of our lovely dinner last night, to get ourselves some cheesecake for later. With 50 cheesecakes and specialty desserts to choose from, I'm surprised we are not still there. We have bought ourselves a really decadent chocolate cake and a chocolate mousse cheesecake to have later for dessert. One slice of each, not the entire cakes.
After freshening up, we headed to another favourite restaurants of ours, Olive Garden, about 15 miles from where we are staying. Oh my lord. It is places like these which is why we have breakfast in the morning and then don't eat anything else until dinner. There was so much food. From their bottomless garden salad (topped with cheese), to their bread sticks, the appetizer of melted cheese and then the main dishes, also covered in cheese. Cheese overload. We ended up bringing part of a pizza back to the room which will probably be our breakfast tomorrow, considering we have cheesecake, chocolate cake and still fudge from yesterday sitting in our fridge. I ate all of my stuffed chicken marsala for dinner. The pizza was Sarah's so obviously her eyes are far too big for her tummy.
Tomorrow morning we are off early to the airport and then on to Vancouver. I wonder what the weather will be like there. It's been particularly cold down here, so no doubt Canada will be lovely and warm.
All photos are now uploaded.
Excuse me but we were to SHARE the dinner. I had some of your chicken but you didn\'t eat any pizza!!!
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