Malbu, LA and Hollywood
Trip Start
Jul 17, 2008
1
19
24
Trip End
Aug 17, 2008
Malibu,
California,
United States
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Our last night in Santa Cruz was spent getting packed up and ready for an early morning departure. We departed the campsite by 7:30 and headed out for our drive to Malibu. Highway 5 took us most of the way. The highway is a most interesting route. The beginning section can be described as a sandy mountain area which led us to at least 2 hours of fruit trees and grapes. It was intensely hot and quite dry-easy to see how forest fires burn out of control here. When we got close to Bakersfield we came across the signs for "High Dust area for 40 miles"! That should explain everything. The dust was spinning like mini tornados in the fields-a first for us. It was the first temperatures over 23 that we had seen since we first arrived in California. Coming through the mountain pass it was 36 degrees. As we got close to Santa Clarita we began a steady climb. This was the biggest climb we've had so far. The signs on the road warn drivers to keep a check on temperature gauges, turn off air conditioning and stop at the various water turn-offs if necessary
An "Elvis" sighting
. We did see a few unfortunate drivers who were overheating. When we got closer to LA there were some amazing recreation areas with large lakes with surrounding mountains. These recreation areas are actually the water reservoirs used to irrigate fruit and vegetable fields. Of course, getting closer to LA the traffic increased immensely but lucky for us it was a Sunday and the traffic flowed very well. We arrived at Malibu State Park around 2:30. After a stop for groceries, we were set up, ate dinner and were at Malibu Beach at 7:00. The beaches are beautiful and the water is pretty cool. Erin did go for a swim and said it wasn't so bad. She said it was a little like her Easter swim in the Rideau. Malibu goes on for approximately 12 miles of beachfront. Malibu is Malibu-home to the rich and famous!! The homes here are unbelievable. The hills all around us are filled with multi-million dollar homes. Teenagers are driving Mercedes, BMW's and Lamborghinis! There is a residential lot for sale on the way to our campsite-one acre piece of land- not even close to the ocean-yours for only 550,000. No campfires allowed here with the fire danger so we had a quiet evening catching up on reading.Monday
The girls slept in and with the Starbucks being oh so close Albert and I went into Calabasas (the closest city to the campsite) for our caffeine fix. We found a mega mall for the girls to do a bit of shopping in Woodland Hills. We didn't opt for the Valet Parking but it was available! Erin bought the new Miley Cyrus CD. (Lucky for us all!) Next stop after lunch was the beach. The temperature was close to 30 this afternoon. Our evening was a quiet one since we had to get up early tomorrow for our tour of LA and Hollywood.
Tuesday
We had booked a full day tour- The Grand Tour of LA and Hollywood
Beverly Hills
. The tour departed from Santa Monica at 9:00am. We arrived in Santa Monica early so we had time to take a walk along the beach and boardwalk. We agreed the beaches are actually more beautiful in Santa Monica than Malibu. We saw many sites including homes of the stars, beaches, the famous Hollywood sign, Universal Studios, Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, downtown LA etc. etc. Erin thinks she saw Guy Ritchie pulling out of his driveway but the rest of us can't attest to this sighting. It was worthwhile as we had no desire whatsoever to drive in LA. Apparently, Chicago and LA have the worst traffic in the country. We got to witness both on this trip. The tour bus was a small one with 20 passengers so we did get to see a lot of things up close and had several stops where we could get off and spend some time. We are off to San Diego tomorrow for four nights. San Diego is a short drive for us-under 3 hours. It's hard to believe that this will be our last stop in California. It really is an exceptionally beautiful state. Everything is very expensive and we keep wondering how the average family can make a living here. There are many homeless people living in parks, on beaches, under bridges etc. This state is in a severe economic crisis and is facing a several billion dollar deficit. The sales tax is going to increase to try to cover some of the costs. There is widespread road construction everywhere but you can tell there have been years of neglect. We talked about our favourite places so far - Erin's favourite is the Redwoods and San Francisco, Albert's said the trip to Alcatrez and the Redwoods, Jennifer-shopping malls but she also loved San Francisco, For me, San Francisco for sure and the Sierra-Nevada Mountain area. We also talked about the fact that we all still like each other and nobody has gotten voted off yet!
Talk to you from San Diego.
