We’d been told not to get into LA during morning or afternoon rush…in reality it doesn’t make any difference. I am certain that no matter when you drive in LA it is inevitable that you’ll get stuck in traffic. Nick was not at all looking forward to driving here. There were a few things on our ‘to do’ list in LA. We took a walk along Venice beach, watching the body builders do their thing and then drove up into the hills of Malibu to look at the fancy houses. We also went to the Mann Chinese Theater area to check out the hand prints of the stars – there are some really old ones there!

I’ve made a little mix of US songs, and another one of road trip songs. It’s amazing how many songs have been written about LA! We rocked out to Weezer’s
‘Beverly Hills’ and the ‘Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ as we cruised through Beverly Hills and ogled the enormous houses (or more accurately their fences – they’re totally hidden for the most part). I am always astounded by the money in this part of the world – it’s just all such ostentatious wealth! Even the city hall – wow. what a building.

We also drove into the Pasadena area – so much calmer, but a really pretty city. I loved the cross-walks – you can cross the streets on the diagonal! I made Nick cross even when we only need to cross to the other side of the street, just for the novelty. We had been wanting to watch a movie, and sitting out the traffic seemed like a good excuse. We went to see the movie ‘Up’ – as usual, a great Pixar flick! I loved the dog and his squirrels. Too true.

We stayed with Kaitlin’s sister and brother-and-law and their adorable daughter who made a cameo appearance to ‘introduce’ herself to us – a see through ploy to avoid having to go to bed. They were awesome hosts, and it was fab to stay with them in their super cute house, rather than have to spend way more than our daily allotment on a room in a dodgy neighborhood. We took advantage of their internet access this morning to do a little planning and try and make some decisions on where to go next – I hadn’t really thought that far ahead. We did have to see the Hollywood sign before we left, since for some reason we hadn’t been able to see it yesterday (probably didn’t know where to look), so we took a little drive up to the observatory. What a great view, despite the smog!

On our way out of town today we made an obligatory stop at In-And-Out burger. I’d heard about them from all my West coast friends, but haven’t make a stop when I’ve been in the area. Since Nick is on his ‘eat every burger in the US’ mission, I knew we had to include it in the tour. As anyone who has been there knows, there are many more things to order than just the four things on the menu. We tried our hand at the ‘secret’ menu with success – super tasty! ‘Fries animal style’ rock.