flickrphoto: 

Source: Flickr

Source: Flickr

Source: Flickr

Source: Flickr

I had arrived at the Fairmont the day before and was greeted by a concierge amidst a full team of valet drivers, waiting to take my keys and luggage. It is a strange feeling when your luggage is instantly taken out of the boot of the car and magically disappears, only to re appear several minutes later brought straight up to your room. The hotel has that feel that if you sneeze you have to pay for it, for example anything from the mini bar in the room required a minimum purchase of more than 7 dollars. Add to that the mini bar was not without some mild amusement, with the most expensive item at staggering 18 dollars being the couples’ intimacy kit, two condoms and some lubricant, I am sure if your that desperate….. well….

The rest of the hotel was stunning with a great view through palm trees looking towards the beach. A quick refresh at the hotel and I was out again, departing for walk around the local area and some drinks and dinner. Heading towards the end of the pier I was able to get some good shots of the beach and Santa Monica beyond from the piers edge. I strolled up and down the main town centre and stumbled upon a sports bar, the Yankee Doodles. The place was packed due to the Lakers vs. Phoenix basketball playoff game. Once the game had finished the place deserted fast and I mean fast, so much so the place had a happy hour from 10pm onwards. It seems that because LA is so far spread out and everyone has to drive everywhere, late night pubs become a rarity.

flickrphoto: 

Source: Flickr

Source: Flickr

Today my mother was heading back to the UK with a British Airways strike currently under way there was a suspicion that she would never get back as expected and would have to put up with for a lot longer. With that in mind we picked an easy straightforward activity and visited the Griffith Observatory a top the Hollywood Hills.

The Griffith Observatory (Just further down the road is the more famous Greek Theatre) observes over the city as an impressive over seer situated as a beacon a loft the smoggy down town metropolis of LA. Upon arrival the day was a little overcast but still presented great views of the city below and gave a different perspective on the Hollywood sign.

The observatory was packed with visitors and mostly school kids, ferried from various schools in those big yellow buses. The observatory seems to be very popular, but why is that; interestingly Colonel Griffith Jenkins Griffith who built the observatory and then upon its completion gave it to the general public which included all the surrounding park land for the general public to enjoy.

This means you can walk into the observatory and look around the various space themed exhibits they have set up there including a full solar system of planets to read about and learn from for free. The planetarium is the only thing that is not free but if you wish to participate it does not cost very much at all. With time running out and the flight looming we had to give the planetarium a miss and begin the journey to the airport.

Just quick note to say that I am home in Australia and really enjoyed the trip to America.

I got all the photos uploaded to the flickr page
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewtuffin/

I am still writing the last 4 blog entries, so they should start appearing before the end of the week.

flickrphoto: 

Source: Flickr

Source: Flickr

A fairly sunny day began with planning the afternoon event to paramount studios as you are required to book in advance for the tour around the studio lot. Booking the tour also dictated how the day would pan out, as I was informed the only available tour time was 2pm that day. This freed up the morning. So the decision was made to visit big ponds of tar directly in the centre of LA.

The La Brea Tar Pits (if I translate directly from Spanish to English The The Tar Tar Pits, Brea meaning tar in Spanish) is an area of almost downtown Los Angeles that has several open pits full of asphalt (commonly known more to mostly everyone else as tar). Buried deep in the tar preserved after a few millions of years are the remains of pre historic animals, your woolly Mammoths, Saber Tooth Cats and Sloths. If you have seen the film Ice Age this is the collection of animals we are talking about here.

The tar pits feature a park area with tar pits dotted around with a museum that is at the central plaza of the park. In the George C Page museum you can view the reconstructed fragments of all the bones and in some cases the complete skeleton of these beasts that roamed the earth millions of years ago and perhaps ask the question as to why these great creatures died out.

On a side note there are not many photos of either the pits or paramount some idiot (me) forgot to put the memory card back in the camera before heading out for the day.

Before grabbing a quick taco around the corner from the tar pits we headed for our tour appointment at Paramount. Not knowing exactly what to expect we proceeded inside the gates and passed security to the employee shop, where we met our tour guide. Two very large groups had departed before us and we were rounded up into a smaller group of just 4 people, me, my mother and two other people. This happened to work out much better than expected as a smaller group we were able to enjoy a much more personnel experience.

flickrphoto: 

Source: Flickr

Source: Flickr

Picking out an alternative route to drive up into the hills and then back down again into Los Angeles and along the coast through the Malibu, gave the opportunity to soak in more of the distance views in the hills and the grand Californian coast line.

Once we arrived in Santa Monica we hit the freeway going east towards the hotel situated just above Hollywood boulevard and there we sat in traffic for longer than expected. It is unbelievable there are so many cars here and they are everywhere. Jam packed on freeways, winding themselves down all city streets, such in fact I have not seen an empty street anywhere.

Exhausted from the drive but keen to venture out and explore the surrounding area we set out to investigate a place to eat for dinner. Walking down from the hotel on Franklin Avenue we passed the Capital Records building and then on to Hollywood Boulevard. As we walked up the street my eyes were fixed upon the pavement which had all the stars names in well a star shape alongside what they were made famous for TV, films, music or theatre.

flickrphoto: 

Source: Flickr

Source: Flickr

A fresh new day and not only were we not driving long distances but it was a glorious sunny day. Giving the opportunity to lower the top down finally on the car and drive a short distance up the hill to the Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens, a lovely stroll for an hour or so through the different plants and fauna native to California.

The gardens having witnessed a bad fire the year previous we were told, you did notice some burn marks but it looks like the gardens have recovered and hopefully will go on to give more people that visit them the satisfaction that we got.

We drove back down from the gardens and back up another winding track that went back up the hill side. Parking alongside the road we got out and began walking up the track that leads up to the mountain in the hope to get to Seven Falls, a set of seven mini waterfalls that go down the hillside. After a bit of searching once we were up there we finally discovered that you were had to climb straight up the waterfalls themselves rather than there be a path that went up to them, both of us wearing trainers we decided not to go to the very top of the falls.

None less it was an excellent walk and we got some stunning views and photos I might add of Santa Barbara and the islands beyond, Santa Cruz Island, Santa Rose Island and just faintly you can see the smaller one San Miguel Island. All in all Santa Barbara is a beautiful place out of any major city thus you are able to get some nice peace and quiet away from all the noises of the city.

flickrphoto: 

Source: Flickr

Most of the day was spent driving from San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara expect this time I pressed plan alternative route on the GPS. This had the effect of taking us all the way through the fun, twisty and windy roads to test the car with.

Stopping off only once to pick up a bit of lunch in a small village called Vandenberg Village we pressed on and arrived at the hotel we had booked the Cas Del Mar which happily sits right next to the beach and the pier in Santa Barbara.

Having just arrived before we knew we were heading out for dinner and along the pier, one of the oldest piers on this side of the Californian coast line. At a restaurant called Moby Dick, we had a huge platter of various battered fish things from squid to tentacles to shrimp. It was so big in fact we never finished it.

flickrphoto: 

Source: Flickr

Source: Flickr

We began the longest leg of our journey south, where for about a good 120 miles or so there are not many major settlements just forests and coast line. Before this undertaking we stopped on the way in Salinas a town just the east of Monterey, the birth place of the author of East of Eden and many other classics, John Steinbeck.

The John Steinbeck Centre gives you a look back at each of the books and the life of Steinbeck as he grew up and the changing world around him. A short walk from the centre we had lunch in Steinbeck’s original family home, now a small restaurant. Before I forget to mention Salinas is also the origin of the term Iceberg Lettuce as they grow lots of it out here and were the first to have the idea of shipping it by rail with blocks of ice to keep it fresh enough to eat in say New York the next day.

Southward, we approached the coast and a mighty road that snaked up and down and twist and turn along the side of the coast line. One false move driving at any point a long that route and you would be a mere stain on the rocks below. Tired from the long journey we stopped off at a strangely name town of San Luis Obispo which I can now remember to spell at last. There we had a huge dinner at F Mc Lintocks which included ribs, chicken, steak, baked potatoes, beans and garlic bread all on one plate!

flickrphoto: 

Source: Flickr

Source: Flickr

It was another washing day this was so I would have enough to wear for the remaining time I was here. Just before midday we booked a taxi to take the two of us to the airport, not to catch a plane but to pick up a car to travel further down south.

I had originally decided that I would rent something little sporty and thus chose a ford mustang, at the time looking on the website the convertibles were all a little too much for what you get. However they offered me an upgrade to a Chrysler Sebring convertible for a little bit extra and a lot less than what I had originally saw on the website. I decided to take it. This would be more like it I would be able to cruise in la style now.

As yet (writing this a day or two later) we have not had the top down yet, it has just been too windy to do so. Hopefully now we are much further south the opportunities will go up. I did not mention it is also a mechanical roof so the top disappears in to the boot of the car which I must get a video of. However with our two big suitcases we cannot have the top down unless the suitcases are strapped in on the back seats.

We stopped for a spot of lunch at a small village called half moon bay just on the coast after which heading further south we decided to pull into Santa Cruz for the night, Santa Cruz being just about an hour or so south of San Francisco. There we stayed at a best western hotel which was 20mins from the main wharf area and the sea. Walking down that evening we had a very good seafood meal on the end of the pier at a small restaurant down there called Dolphins.

flickrphoto: 

Source: Flickr

Source: Flickr

Source: Flickr

After an exhausting bike ride the previous day, today was spent doing a few more casual and laid back things, starting with a simple breakfast of crepes what we usually refer to as pancakes.

Catching a number 47 bus from just up the street from the hotel with in no time at all we were at city hall, a large domed building at the centre of lots other buildings with those large pillar entrances. Travelling on the bus can be an experience in its own right if a disabled person has to get on the bus. The bus driver lowers the bus so the wheel chair can move to the mini lift at the entrance to the bus. Then the bus driver shouts move back, wheel chair coming through and then lifts up one row of seats to make way for the wheelchair.

Proceeding on we took a lengthy ride on the number 5 bus to sort of the centre of the golden gate park, basically where the de young museum is. The museum itself was fairly interesting housing lots of modern art pieces. Of note a cathedral model made entirely out of bullets or parts of guns. The museum also housed a large portion of New Guinea pieces from various tribes that live or have lived on the island.

Being born in Papa New Guinea and my mother living there for a while we had a unique interesting in finding any thing that she may recognise. The only piece we found that was from the exact area that was born, Mount Hagen was a large red and white wooden shield.

The museum also had a lookout tower where you could get views of the rest of the park. Funnily enough the rest of the park is huge stretching for almost half the city across. Taking a few photos from the tower we finished up at the museum and headed back on the bus.

Leaving San Francisco the next day, I must admit I enjoyed my stay in the city by the bay, a strange and enlightening experience of which I hope to go back some time in the future to experience more of.