Rodeo Drive and the California Coast
Trip Start
Aug 10, 2007
1
70
92
Trip End
Dec 27, 2007
Santa Monica,
California,
United States
Thursday, November 1, 2007
So - after finding a free parking space (WOW!) we walked down to the beach and were quite surprised to find that it wasn't really very busy. This was probably a combination of two things...it was Thursday and it was October. So - not the greatest time to visit. We decided that we would walk around a bit and rather come back to get the full experience of Venice Beach on the weekend. So - we looked through a few souvenir shops and then moved on to Santa Monica Pier where we had some lunch. I decided to try the all-American chili-cheese fries!! Not much fat in these babies!! They were pretty good but not good enough to warrant the 2000 calories they probably carry. That would be my first and last portion I decided. Greg had a more sensible chicken burger. After wondering around and taking some pics we moved on and drove towards Malibu beach. We got out here and walked around on the sand a bit. There were a lot of surfers out but not many waves in sight...I suppose they were just enjoying being out on the ocean. I was considering having a swim as I realized that the Pacific Ocean is the only one in which I have not yet swum, but was a woossie and decided against it!
After doing the beaches we decided to head on toward a more glitzy area of LA - none other than Rodeo Drive. We found it pretty easily and with little traffic, which was a shock after the night before, we were soon in a parking garage on Rodeo Drive itself! We walked along the chandelier streets with our mouth agape! Yes - the street lights on the road are chandeliers in little glass boxes!! No lie - see the picture! We walked past the likes of Gucci, Armani and many others and then found De Beers diamonds right on the corner ....
Malibu - Greg's feet in the Malibu sand
we felt close to home. Unfortunately after watching 'Blood Diamond' I now feel slightly sick when I see diamond shops...so lets move on. We did plenty of window shopping, but decided that we would rather save our money to use on more exciting things like accommodation and car hire and headed off in the direction of a more affordable looking sandwich shop nearby. We entered the "Sandwich Bag" and were quite amazed to find that this was obviously a famous hang out of the stars as they had loads of sandwich bags with messages or signatures from a range of movie & TV stars on the wall with pictures of those who had come here to get take away sandwiches. Even Pete Sampras was on the wall! So - that was pretty interesting. I saw a really cool looking cake shop next door and had to go and buy something. They sold only cupcakes and mini-cakes and they were all so gorgeous. I got a chocolate, cream-cheese cupcake which was very yummy! Greg decided to pass on this wonderful calorie-filled opportunity. We walked a few blocks further and found ourselves in the midst of a film crew setting up for later that day. They had all the food tables laid out and were busy putting up the camera equipment. It was right next to the big "Beverly Hills" sign and so Greg and I set up the tripod and took a shot of ourselves sitting beneath it. After this we went and got the car and decided that it was probably time to start heading out toward Newport Beach (along Pacific Highway 1) on route to San Diego.
Getting out of LA was not as bad as could be expected and we reached Laguna Beach without too much hassle. We decided not to stop here as we wanted to get to Newport Beach and see all the places which are shown on the TV show "The OC". We arrived there in the early evening and were amazed at the wealth that this place oozed! HUGE houses and boats and many other wealthy things....we headed for the pier though where we hoped to find some familiar sights - like the beach hut, the bait shop and the diner. But alas, alack! As we should have gathered most things created in Hollywood are fake and yes - whilst the town of Newport was the inspiration for the show - we soon found out that it was actually filmed at Redondo Pier in LA. So - we would have to make a visit to Redondo on our drive back from San Diego in 2 days time! Unbelievable! It was not all bad as the place itself was really interesting and we found a really great pub called "Sharkys" which served huge plates of cheap food. Greg ordered ˝ a chicken and I had a Mexican salad with Maui fish...it was SO good! It was SO large that I had the rest of mine for lunch the next day. After dinner we had the exciting task of looking for a hotel/motel in which to spend the night. We asked around a few places in Newport and decided that this place obviously only catered for the rich and decided to drive along Pacific Highway 1 and hopefully find some more affordable accommodation along the way....this was not to be as everywhere we stopped seemed to be just under $100!! This was a little above our budget and so we kept driving. It was getting rather embarrassing running into hotel lobbies and asking for prices and then leaving again and eventually we got to a little town called Dana Point, were tired of driving, and saw a really nice looking Holiday Inn Express. We pulled in and booked a room for $90. It was a really awesome room with a spa bath and heaps of room ...
Malibu - Pier Entry Point
we were happy and even happier when we saw that it included a lovely breakfast which we made the most of the next morning. They even had free internet which we used to book accommodation in San Diego (or so we thought) for the next night so that we didn't have to go around looking for a room again (lesson learned!) 
