Hollywood

Today we headed back into LA to visit Hollywood again.

We haven't had the chance to do the Hollywood stars tour as yet and as lame as it sounds it's something we both had on our bucket list to tick off and it was actually quite fun!

We were lucky and able to snag tickets for a fairly good price and ended up being taken to the open roof bus and had first choice of seats. We picked the back of the bus and had the row all to ourselves, it was great.
Given that it was an open-top bus I was afraid it'd be a little cold but today's weather was perfect, nice and sunny - fabulous for taking pictures!

The tour itself was great and the driver was excellent also. Surprisingly though we were the only two on the bus tour that didn't live in America, it was weird. We booked with the same company that took us to Mexico as we knew they were great and a trustworthy company too. Our tour bus driver "Ross" was American but had lived in Sydney for a few

years so was familiar with the place and kindy converted everything back into Australian terms for us on the tour today which helped. For example when talking about miles he also mentioned the distance in Km's for us "Sydney folk" ha.

We saw heaps of lovely houses, was taken to some nice look out spots on top of Bel-Air, in Beverly Hills and LA, we drove past some famous people's houses and saw the palm tree lines streets and then took a drive through Rodeo Drive and saw all the posh and upmarket boutique shopping there. We didn't see any stars, we were told they mostly just book times with the shops when they will be there and then the shop will close for an hour or two while the stars come in and shop around. Quite a smart way to do it I think.

Beverly Hills was amazing and the houses were incredible. We drove past Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch, it was massive! We also saw Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Denzel Washington, Beyonce and Jay-Z's rental house, Justin Beibers 2 bedroom mansion (before he got evicted), Judy Garland, Sylvester Stallone, Bruno Mars, Nikki Minaj and one of Donald Trump's houses. We also saw the hotel that Oprah Winfrey and Obama stay in when they are in town as well as

the motel that Whitney Houston was staying in before her death. Prince's house was also one we saw as well as the previous house of Elvis Presley.

My favourite was Sylvester Stallone's house, it was amazing - absolutely huge and the pool outside was divine. If only huh!

On our way out of Hollywood we stopped in at the Oakley store as Pete wanted some new sunnies. He ended up finding a nice Ferrari red pair in the new style not yet released in Australia. Pete's a massive Oakley fan, always has been since I've known him. He generally loves their snow gear but he also loves to buy their sunglasses so I knew there was no way we would be leaving that store without a purchase. The staff assistant informed me that they had a one day flash sale of 50% off all of women's clothing, that was me done.

I ended up walking out with a nice, fluffy puffer jacket for $90 - still more than what I'd like to pay but given that it was a $200 jacket and was amazingly comfy and warm there was no way I was walking out of the store without it. I would have had buyers remorse for sure.

We then went to visit an LA shopping mall and it actually wasn't that great. Everything in the mall was super-dooper expensive, I couldn't believe it. Even the Zara store was ridiculously over priced and I find in Australia, Zara's pricing isn't too bad. I think we will be sticking to the American outlets - we seem to have a bit more luck there ha.

Whilst on the tour this morning and again when we were in the Oakley store we were advised that we should go up the hill in LA and check out the Observatory that overlooks the whole of Los Angeles and is about the closest you can get to the Hollywood sign.

We decided to stick around in LA, had some dinner at a diner (very American, I know!) the food was great, we ordered two drinks each, an entree and two main meals for $40. I can't believe how cheap and massive the food is over here. Pete and I usually can't eat out for under $80 back in AUS.

After dinner we drove up to the Observatory and the views were as incredible as described. We arrived at about 9.30pm and the city lights shining just looked incredible. So amazing that we have decided to drive back over in the morning to see the views again in the daylight. The Hollywood sign didn't light up at night (we weren't sure if it did or not) so we will also be getting a picture there - isn't that the touristy thing to do?

Now back at the hotel, Pete is in bed snoring his head off. It's currently 2am here so it is definitely time for me to hit the hay also.

Another fairly big day tomorrow finishing off our sightseeing in LA before heading into Disneyland tomorrow afternoon and hopefully seeing the display of Fireworks at the park tomorrow night - fingers crossed the wind stays calm this time around as it will be our last chance to view it.

I can't believe we only have two days left in LA before our drive to Vegas. Chat Soon Xx