Highlights of our final two weeks in Los Angeles...

So we have finally come to the end of our leg in LA. Time has gone so fast, yet has felt so slow! It doesn't feel like a holiday anymore, it feels like this is our lives now. Travelling around, making homes in other peoples houses and enjoying the company of strangers!
Here are some of the highlights of our last two weeks in LA....

Runyon Canyon
We spent a day hiking up Runyon Canyon which is behind Hollywood Blvd. It's much less of a Canyon, and more like two big hills with a valley in the middle! It's a hot spot for dog walkers and celebrities so we went celeb watching! We managed to see Maggie Gyllenhaal and a Disney Channel star! We probably saw more celebs than we thought, but we just didn't know who they were!
The views from Runyon were beautiful though!

 We sat at the peak and watched the sunset...

It was a beautiful walk and very good exercise! We had to walk down in the dark though, and George convinced me to take a short cut. In the pitch darkness. Down a steep and rocky hill. I was not impressed! But we didn't die so it's all good!

Venice and Santa Monica Beach
We took a couple trips to Venice and Santa Monica beach with our new friend Ryan 'McLovin' Houchin last week. It's a really vibrant place and lots of fun to walk through! People dress up in weird and wacky costumes, just because they can! Street vendors selling african inspired art and indian silk dresses, it's an odd sight to see along the beach where Bay Watch was filmed!
I got a henna tattoo of a feather on my arm because I'm thinking of getting a real tattoo of a feather, but wanted to check how it looked first before committing. Annoyingly, the henna man did it too far up my arm, so it looked a bit silly! But I haggled with him about the price, and got it for $8 rather than $12, so I was happy!
George was desperate to buy a new skateboard in America, and there wasn't a better place than Venice Beach to get one! Venice is considered to be one of the biggest areas for skateboarding, and George found a really nice little shop to get his board from!

The image on the deck is by a local artist and it is an image of Venice Beach skate park, but with added graffiti (as it is now illegal to graffiti on the park). It's a really cool design and a good memory of the trip!  Too bad it is now all scuffed up from all the tricks he's being pulling!

Here are some photos from Santa Monica and Venice:

 George and Ryan

 Sunset over Santa Monica beach

 George doing what he does best! Flips!

 Venice Beachwalk

A Venice canal. 

Theme Parks

We were lucky enough to go to THREE theme parks in LA! First, we went to Universal Studios. That was quite fun, but it was just 4-D cinemas rather than roller coasters. But We did see a very cool King Kong 360 3-D ride which was basically a 360 degree screen that went above you and all around you, and you watched King Kong battle T-Rex in 3-D. It was quite fun, but nothing compared to...

SIX FLAGS! We went to Six Flags Magic Mountain with our friend Paul and his girlfriend Melanie last Sunday. Some of those rides made me feel sick! Like a ride called X2 which had lots of loop-the-loops and drops and stuff, but the worst part was, your seat rotated round too! So we didn't know where on earth we were! I hated it! But we went on some much better rides which were fast but not sickening! We also got a caricature drawn of us both! It's hilarious:

But the best theme park was by far..... DISNEYLAND CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE!! And the best part was, we got in for free!! Our friend Luci Romburg is a stunt woman and she plays Peter Pan in a stage show in Disneyland. She is also allowed to invite three friends to the park with her when she starts her shift. So we went to Disneyland at 4pm and stayed until midnight! It was amazing! We saved over $100 on park entrance alone! I wanted to stay for longer, but we had a really good six hours. Our friend Ryan came with us and it was just great! I have now been to Disneyworld in Florida, Disneyland Paris AND Disneyland California! I wonder if there are any more in the world I can visit....? 

Rodeo Drive and The Grove

The last big thing we did that week was Rodeo Drive. It was nice to see how the rich in Beverly Hills live! We had a really nice lunch in a little cafe and then went to a famous cupcake shop called Sprinkles and bought 4 cupcakes for a whooping $14!! but they were delicious!

 Rodeo Drive

 Sprinkles Cupcakes!

We enjoyed walking down Rodeo and recognising shops and areas from films. We then went to a place called The Grove which is a big shopping mall and I bought a lovely new dress and we spent a lot of time reading books in Barnes & Nobles! We also bought a cookbook which has lots of healthy recipes in. It was a really nice day!

Next post...... SAN FRANCISCO!