A mini American adventure: La La land

LA is one crazy place. We've been staying with a friend of Ad's on Venice Beach - whose apartment looks right out onto the beach. Sweet! The place is writhing with wackos: the beach wakes up at about 6am when the traders set up their stalls and then it's cleared and pretty much silent by 11pm. Needless to say it's quite like waking up at a music festival! But from the comfort of a real (air) bed.

One our first full day, Tuesday, we walked along Venice Beach to Santa Monica for a bit of shopping and some double scoop gelato (Banana Caramel and Almond Avalanche for me and Maple Mudslide and something chocolate for Ad, in case you were wondering).

Then in the afternoon we wandered to the canals of Venice. I've never been to the real thing in Italy, but I'm guessing there are fewer palm trees than this:

Then in the evening we headed to Dodger Stadium to see the LA Dodgers vs Atlanta Braves. I'm not a baseball expert, but the games are pretty long. Especially when no one scores... Luckily, I had a Super Dodger Dog to keep me occupied. It's super because it's 'ALL BEEF'. God knows what the un-supers have in them.

Wednesday was Disney day. Ad burst out laughing when he saw the castle. Apparently, it's about a fifth of the size of the one in Florida. Whatevs. It's the Disney castle!! We went on all the scary rides; Big Thunder Mountain was the best. And Adam has the slo-mo video of me screaming my way round (with my ruddy arms in the air) to prove it. We also encountered the most freakishly nice 'Cast Member' who sold us our caramel apples. Like a fully grown Child Of The Damned. *Shudder*

Today was our last full day. Randomly, some guys from work were in town for a shoot so we met them on Hollywood Boulevard and saw the stars. Only the ones of the pavement, though. Also saw some crazy get lairy with a poor tour seller. Time to leave...

Check out this sight from the car:

This is how they carry bikes on buses in LA, folks.

For lunch, we drove up to Griffith Park Observatory - a welcome respite from the madness at city level. Bloody brilliant. Hollywood sign, view of the sprawling LA County, cheese enchilada, fruit, chill.