LA - Day 2 Beverly Hills & Santa Monica

First up on our agenda for the day was to check out Rodeo Drive and the Beverly Wiltshire, which is the movie made famous by the movie Pretty Women. I love that movie and one of my favourite scenes is the one where she goes shopping on Rodeo drive, so I definitely wanted to make sure we checked it out. Rodeo drive itself is actually a long street, but the portion with the shops on is quite small. It was fun to walk up and down and check out some of the expensive cars and plastic faces :)

Beverly Wiltshire

After that we made our way to Santa Monica. This part of LA is really cool, and has a very different vibe to the rest. It's very beachy and everyone seems quite laid back. We checked out the Santa Monica Pier which was absolutely packed. We didn't actually realise that the next day the LA marathon would be taking place, and it ends in Santa Monica. So I think it was even busier than normal. We rented bikes from a place right by the pier and then cycled along the beach bike bath towards Venice beach. This was a really nice cycle all along the beach in a bike lane and was a nice way to see some sights. 

After about 15 mins we started seeing the start of Venice Beach. I know most people would've seen or heard of Venice Beach, but it's even more crazy than you can imagine. There are people everywhere selling all types of things and people performing and walking around. One thing Jeremy and I noticed is the amount of homeless people in the US. I'm not sure if it's just because you become so unused to seeing them while living in the UK, or because we weren't expecting it, but it is really prevalent everywhere we have been so far. Venice beach definitely has it's fare share of homeless people and a lot of them are along the street selling things or begging. Although in Venice beach it doesn't seem as out of place really. We stopped at the skate park to watch the people skating and some of the guys there were really impressive. We spent a good while watching them do tricks. One of the cool things about Venice beach is just the sheer number of things going on. There are the handball courts, muscle beach, people skating, rollerblading it's just endless. You basically spend most of your time turning your head trying to look at everything. It was fun, and the photos probably don't do it justice.

Venice Beach Walk

After we had seen all we thought there was to see, we headed back towards Santa Monica to drop our bikes off and hopefully check out the sunset. Unfortunately we couldn't find much in terms of bars along the beach, but eventually found a sushi place with an outside section where you could kind of see the sunset. It was really nice to relax and take everything in, but the place was a bit overpriced for what we got. It was nice enough though and one of the waiters was the guy that played the Sherminator in American Pie, which was the only 'celeb' we saw. Guess American Pie didn't pay that well after all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1CgGxPWyI0

Once the sun had set we decided to head to the 3rd street promenade which is a pedestrianised shopping area in Santa Monica. We had a good time wandering around and listening to the various singers and performers who were all playing on the streets. 

It was a good way to end of what was a really fun day in Santa Monica.

LA - Day 1 Sun Glorious Sun

For our first full day in LA we started it as any true star would... with a hike up Runyon Canyon!
With all the delicious food we have been eating we have been trying to keep active at the the same time, so we thought it would be a good way to kill 2 birds with one stone. Get some exercise and some amazing views at the same time. If you happen to watch any trashy E reality show, you would've no doubt have seen a 'celeb' kick start their fitness routine with a hike up Runyon. *cough, cough* Kardashians... (not that I watch that of course)

Anyway we got to Runyon, waited an age for some parking and then got hiking. There is 3 routes I read, the easy one, the difficult one and one called the hero. Unfortunately there isn't really a proper map so we went with one that looked difficult but not crazy. Turns out we took the hero one (I think) but luckily for us we did it the other way round to everyone else so I don't think it was as tough as it could've been. We were going down all the steep uphill bits that everyone else was dying on.

But it was a really good hike, and the views of LA are amazing from up there.

Views for days

Gotta get a selfie

After a quick shower and change, we made our way to the Hollywood walk of fame. Although it was very busy with tourists it was fun to see. The stars go on for ages, although the most famous stars tend to all be clustered around the Chinese Theatre. This was also interesting as in front of the theatre there are a lot of stars hand and footprints and signatures. We spent a good while just checking these out. There are also quite a few street performers along the stretch some of who are really good. We saw a girl doing some dancing to Michael Jackson who was impressive.

Griffith Observatory was next on the agenda, which is up there as an attraction on the LA lists for some great views. The views were good and the park surrounding the observatory looked like it would be a good place to explore, but I think after already seeing views in Runyon, we weren't as impressed. Although you did get some good views of the Hollywood sign which is cool to see! We didn't quite stay for sunset, although I'm sure that sunset from there would be impressive.

LA is known for good sushi, so we decided that's what we would have for dinner. The airbnb owner recommended a place called Sugarfish to us, and I had read it was good so we decided to check it out.
They have a few branches around LA, so we decided to check out the Beverly Hills one. The restaurant itself was quite low key, but the sushi was amazing. They have a 'trust me' menu that is recommended so that's what we went for. They choose a few different types of sushi and bring them out. All the fish was really fresh and very tasty. When we arrived we had to wait for a table as they don't do reservations. They have a bar outside though so we people watched all the rich people while we waited, which is always fun to do. We also got chatting to the people next to us about where to go for some drinks after and they recommended some places in West Hollywood to check out. So after dinner we hopped into a cab and made our way to Laurel Hardware but unfortunately the queue was crazy so we ended up in Hudson. This was a pretty cool place, sort of looked like an old train carriage and had some good music and very strong drinks! Most places in USA seem to free pour any spirits you order. We stayed for a few drinks and then headed off home.

SF to LA via Monterey and Pismo Beach on the Pacific Coast Highway

Sorry for the haphazard posting, between some dodgy internet (which I didn't think I would say while we were in the US) and too much time for adventures I haven't had time to post. Will hopefully be doing more posts soon!

After saying goodbye to the Silver Cloud, we were heading out of the city onto the Pacific Coast Highway...or so we thought.

We got stuck in a major traffic jam for over an hour, and the typically just as it the traffic started moving we realised that I had left my phone back in Napa. Major Fail. We turned around and did a 2 hour round trip to pick it up. The silver lining is that the traffic had cleared by the time we had turned back, so there's that!

On the way to the coast we stopped off at a few places in Silicon Valley where Jeremy's inner geek could come out. I must say all the places looked like pretty cool places to work. Unfortunately we didn't get too many pics of the places, so you will just need to trust me :)

Apple HQ

FB HQ

After the phone debacle we got into Monterey much later than we had planned unfortunately as the little we did see of it, it seemed like a cool place. Wish we could've spent a bit more time looking around.

Anyway just before we headed on our trip I saw a Diners, Drive - ins and Dives show which featured a restaurant in Monterey so I knew we had to check it out. We were not disappointed.

Rosines is a family style Italian place with some huge portions. Jeremy went for the lasagne and I went for the chicken parmesan. Both were really good and ginormous. We got talking to the person next to us, who told us that the original Rosine's son makes all the desserts they have on display himself and that we had to make sure to try some. So thats what we did! Chocolate brownie cheesecake. It was delicious and we had enough leftovers for lunch for the next day.

Chicken Parmesan

Lasagne

Delicious Cheesecake

The next morning we set out to explore Carmel by sea, which is a chocolate box town, with some cute houses. Some of them looked like they should be in England rather than the USA. 

After the exploring we got ready to drive down to Pismo Beach via the Pacific Coast Highway. Everyone you speak to who has done a similar trip tells you the PCH is a must do. And I would definitely agree. The drive is breathtaking, taking you down the coast with some sheer cliffs and some bends. Both the views and some of the hairpin bends literally take your breath away! 

On the way down we stopped to see some sea lions and eat our leftovers from the previous day. Although sea lions are similar to seals it's incredible how big and fat some of them are The males are on average  2.4m long and weigh up to 350kg, which is pretty impressive sight. 

Once we got to our hotel in Pismo we saw it has amazing views and a great deck for some sundowners, so we decided thats exactly what we would do. 

Drinks with a view

Even better we saw it had a jacuzzi too, bonus! After all that we head into San Luis Obispo which is a university town just outside Pismo. We walked around a bit and then headed to a bar called the Creaky Tiki, which made me feel like we should be in Hawaii somewhere. It had a pretty chilled and cool vibe. Jeremy had some nachos which once again are American sized and could've probably fed a small family. When will we learn?

Apparently we don't learn because on our last day on Route 1, we decided we have to stop for a proper breakfast, and thought we would give IHOP a visit. This place is known for pancakes and breakfasts and it didn't disappoint! The restaurant inside looks like the diner style eating you see in movies, which for Americans probably isn't fun but we found it really cool :)

Once again we got some generous portions so left feeling nicely stuffed. We made our way down to LA, going inland on through a lovely mountain pass and the stopped off at Santa Barbara on the way. This is a very chilled place, and with the sun shine blazing down it made for a nice stop before the crazy of LA.

We eventually made it to our LA base, after some typical LA traffic. The place we were staying in is another airbnb gem in an area called Hancock park. It was boiling hot in LA, we managed to arrive as an unusual for that time of the year heatwave, with temps at around 30+ celsius. We weren't complaining though, after the winter we've had in London, the heat felt amazing.

Gorgeous home from home!

We dropped off our stuff we headed off for some shopping at the Grove center which is a open air shopping center and is quite impressive. It even has a tram running through it! After a bit of shopping we headed home for an early night before exploring what LA has to offer for the next few days.

Napa Valley - wine tasting and then some

Warning: This post is pic heavy - Napa is a photogenic place!

So we spent 2 nights and about a day and a half in Napa.
It was very cool, and since travelling and wine are 2 things I love, I knew right off the bat that I would enjoy it. And boy did I.

A couple of tips/ things we noticed:
Napa is very similar to Stellenbosch especially in terms of scenery. Jeremy mentioned a few times how much he felt like he was home!
Most wineries in Napa need a reservation to do the tasting. We realised this the hard way as I had only made one reservation while we were there (which also turned out to be my favourite). It's not to say the others weren't good, but it was a bit hit and miss in terms of choosing a winery that didn't need an appointment.

We arrived in Napa on Sunday to check into the airbnb we were staying at. This definitely is my favourite place we have stayed in so far using airbnb. The space is a converted Airstream trailer set on the property of a guesthouse. The Airstream is true americana (in my mind) and has been done to a really high standard. The guesthouse also looks like the houses you see in movies which is also pretty cool!

Our home for our stay!

The guesthouse

Anyway after checking it out we headed to Oxbow public market for some coffee and to plan where to go. After refuelling it was time to hit the road.

The first place we visited was Clos Du Val winery, which although the setting was great, the wines weren't our favourite. They weren't awful, they just weren't amazing and didn't have us reaching for our wallets.

Oxbow Market

Clos Du Val

The next stop I chose purely on the fact that it had chocolate and wine tastings!  Rutherford winery was great, the people were very friendly and both the wine and chocolate was delicious especially the sauvignon blanc and the dark chocolate & cherry chocolate (both of which were purchased and we have been enjoying!) I would very much recommend a visit.

We went for dinner at Allegria restaurant which was decent fare and then headed home for bed.

Day 2 saw us going to Frog's Leap winery, which was the one I had booked before, and I'm so glad I did. The setting was beautiful and I loved the wine and the way you were under no pressure to drink up and get going. I could've easily spent the day there sitting in the sun sipping on the wine! You can walk around the winery while you are tasting and can see the farm at work, which was pretty cool to experience. By far my favourite, and I would definitely recommend a visit.

Frog's Leap

Yum!

Enjoying the sunshine

Peek-a-boo

Our second and final visit on the second day was Frank Family vineyards, which although probably wasn't the prettiest of the bunch it was the most fun. The winery is owned by Rich Frank, who was a Disney executive. This means the walls are lined with pictures of the rich and famous! The wine was good and we met a really sweet bunch of ladies from Arizona that we got chatting to which made it for me.

Frank Family vineyards

After all the wine excitement we headed to Walmart to get some supplies for dinner. Let's just say all the memes you see about Walmart are true - it was an experience :)