Driveways of the rich and famous

The other weekend, we were in LA. Unbeknownst to us, apparently half our friends were as well.

We decided to take the scenic route down to LA, along the coastline of Highway 1. Last time we went, it was extremely foggy, and we couldn't see anything. This time, the cliffs of Big Sur and other gorgeous State and National parks were easily visible. Here is the same vista a year ago....



The same view a bit farther out on the ledge of the cliff:







OK, far too many pictures there. You get the idea. Click on the pictures to make them larger.

On the way, we stopped off at Hearst Castle. We missed out on the last tour of the day by about 5 minutes, which was disappointing, but I still managed to get a photo through the telephoto viewing lens.



Then we grabbed snacks at the nearby beach.... Hearst Castle is right above where Brendan's head is in the photo.



The next day, we went and hung around Hollywood for a bit.

Graumann's Chinese Theatre. This is the place with all the handprints and footprints in it.









There were lots of street performers whom you could get your phto taken with, for a tip. Here's Dumbledore from Harry Potter.



Ida was stalked by scientologists. Brendan and I were very suspicious of the 'free stress tests' they were offering.



Then we stuffed ourselves at Johnny Rockets (on the second level on the right of the photo above). The sign below the clock in the photo says "Christina eats here".



We jumped in the rental car to stalk the driveways of the rich and famous, and try to recreate for Ida the tour we did the year before. This time we were actually able to see the Playboy mansion.







This is Julie Andrews' house:



As we were driving back to our hotel, we decided to drive back through downtown LA. It's actually really dodgy and empty, with shady men standing on street corners. I think we also drove through the edge of a dangerous area, since downtown LA is right next to Compton, Inglewood and all these other places glorified in rap music.



I took this picture, and jumped back in the car.

We had the misfortune to visit Disneyland on the Monday, which was Memorial Day. This is the national holiday which marks the beginning of summer, and is one of the busiest days of the year for Disneyland. Luckily for us, we left Ida in Disneyland and only went to California adventure park, which was relatively empty.



The Hollywood Tower of Terror was a ride which dropped you several times over a few metres each time. It was pretty fun.



We especially enjoyed the Grizzly Rafting ride, which made extremely sure every member of the party climbed off the ride soaked.





The only unfortunate thing was that we waited in line 30 minutes for the roller coaster, and were about 10 minutes away from getting on the ride when it broke! We were very disappointed.



We bought some candy floss.... this is in the Bug's Life kiddie playground....