On our last full day in Los Angeles, we climbed into the car in order to visit as many sights as possible. Traffic is almost always bumper to bumper out here, so we barely scratched the surface of the rows of boutique shops and other cool districts in which to eat, shop and hang out. Nevertheless, we had fun checking out as many interesting spots as we could reach and we reached them all safely thanks to Sooze, who negotiated the manic LA traffic with aplomb.
As we were out east, we hit the Puente Hills Mall (aka 'Twin Pines Mall') for a spot of breakfast and shopping (and so that Dale and I could reminisce about the fact that 25 years ago, the DeLorean travelled back in time from this very car park!) Once back downtown, we headed to Rocket Video, a VHS emporium not far from where we are staying. With a huge selection of tapes, this place had Dale clicking his heels in the aisles. Likewise, Amoeba Music on Sunset Blvd was a truly magnificent experience for the pop culture shopper!
In the afternoon, we hit Venice Beach, which was interesting to say the least. Despite its cultural contribution, it's mainly a breeding ground for tranks, lobos, zipheads, sports, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies and dickheads. There are some very creative ways that people beg for money in Venice. One guy was holding a cardboard sign that simply read: 'Fuck you, pay me'. I hear from my friend Dan that the semi-naked rollerskating guitarist we saw working his way up and down the seafront has an agent and is doing quite well. Only in LA.
After checking out Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive, we took a look at the Sunset Strip. Our only celebrity sightings in LA were footballer-turned-actor Vinnie Jones, driving around Beverly Hills in his 4x4 and some guy from Fringe. There were a couple of other film and TV locations spotted in mid afternoon as we whirled around town; the girls spotted the house from Charmed and Dale and I made a bee-line for the building in Fox Plaza, Century City that doubles as Nakatomi tower in Die Hard.
We were pretty exhausted by late evening, so we had dinner and some of the incredible cupcakes available at Swingers diner, then packed for the long trip north to Santa Cruz.
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