Day 277: Los Angeles
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Thursday May 12th
For my third full day in Los Angeles, I decided to purchase a ticket on the `hop-on, hop-off` tourist bus to explore the city. At $50 for a 2-day ticket, it seemed like a good deal, showing me the highlights of LA without having the pay for an actual tour.
The bus system was actually made up of four different loops, with the first starting in Santa Monica. This bus loop stretched through the exclusive community of Brentwood, including the homes of Shirley Temple and Marilyn Monroe; the prestigious area where Aaron`s Spelling 123 room mansion is located; and the University of California, home to 35,000 students (surprisingly, this is not the biggest campus in the US!)
Once we reached Rodeo Drive, I changed buses to the red line, the Hollywood line, and alighted at `The Grove`. This is a famous outdoor shopping mall and a well-known celebrity hang-out. It was definitely packed with celebrities today! My first celeb-sighting was of Mario Lopez, perhaps known to most people from his Saved by the Bell days. He is now the host of the show `Extra` which films at the Grove every week-day. He was joined by his Aussie off-sider Renee, who used to host the Top 30 alongside the `Big Kahuna` in Australia.
Tiring of Mario, I continued deeper into the mall when a promotional model handed me a flyer. The Victoria Secret Angels were appearing at the mall that day to promote the new Victoria Secret fragrance! In fact, they were already at the mall, giving interviews and just generally looking pretty for the 100s of TV crews and cameras present. Most exciting for me was the presence of Miranda Kerr, who is as beautiful and friendly as the media make her out to be. At one point, some of the crowd near me called out to her, `Miranda! Over here!` She stopped talking to the TV crew and replied, `I`m just doing an interview at the moment. I`ll be over when I`m finished!` Unfortunately there was no Orlando Bloom in sight, but Candice, Adriana, Erin and Alexandra, four of the other angels, provided entertainment for the large crowd who had gathered.
After two hours in the scorching sun watching the angels, it was time to get back on the bus. My next stop was downtown Hollywood – Mann`s Chinese Theatre. It was now 3pm and I hadn’t eaten since 8:30, so I called into the Hard Rock Café for lunch (hey, when in Rome … !) for a fantastic milkshake (but pretty ordinary burger).
I spent the next two hours strolling Hollywood Boulevard. Unfortunately the Kodak Theatre, home to the Oscars, wasn`t running tours as Cirque du Soleil were rehearsing inside. The tour was something I`d missed on my first trip to LA, and I had been keen to do it this time around. Oh well, I guess I`ll just have to come back again!
I found Britney Spears` star on the walk of fame and then had a cheesy photograph taken, comparing my hands to those of Tom Hanks` as immortalised on the footpath outside the Chinese Theatre. At the start of the day, I`d intended on doing a tour of the stars` homes from here, but decided not to (for several reasons – a), it was late in the day; b) I`d done it before; and c) I could do it during my 11 hour LA stopover on the way back to Australia in June). I also found a Napoleon Perdis store, where the make-up artist inside told me the lip lacquers I used are going out of production! (I snapped up one more, at an extremely cheap price in comparison to Australian prices).
Back on the bus, I made one final pitstop before returning to Santa Monica: Millions of Milkshakes. This was something I`d heard about on Perez – celebrities were always making their own milkshakes here. Much like Cold Rock, the premise was simple – choose a size; choose a flavour; and choose your mix-ins (mine was medium chocolate fudge with Kit-Kat). I need to remember to always order small in the US – my medium was massive!
I didn`t get back to the hostel until 7:30pm, meaning I`d spent 10 hours touring the city. The bus had been great – giving me a great perspective of the city – but the loops were really long and the buses infrequent, which was quite frustrating. Oh well – I had a 48 hour pass, I`d be back on it again tomorrow!
For my third full day in Los Angeles, I decided to purchase a ticket on the `hop-on, hop-off` tourist bus to explore the city. At $50 for a 2-day ticket, it seemed like a good deal, showing me the highlights of LA without having the pay for an actual tour.
The bus system was actually made up of four different loops, with the first starting in Santa Monica. This bus loop stretched through the exclusive community of Brentwood, including the homes of Shirley Temple and Marilyn Monroe; the prestigious area where Aaron`s Spelling 123 room mansion is located; and the University of California, home to 35,000 students (surprisingly, this is not the biggest campus in the US!)
Once we reached Rodeo Drive, I changed buses to the red line, the Hollywood line, and alighted at `The Grove`. This is a famous outdoor shopping mall and a well-known celebrity hang-out. It was definitely packed with celebrities today! My first celeb-sighting was of Mario Lopez, perhaps known to most people from his Saved by the Bell days. He is now the host of the show `Extra` which films at the Grove every week-day. He was joined by his Aussie off-sider Renee, who used to host the Top 30 alongside the `Big Kahuna` in Australia.
Tiring of Mario, I continued deeper into the mall when a promotional model handed me a flyer. The Victoria Secret Angels were appearing at the mall that day to promote the new Victoria Secret fragrance! In fact, they were already at the mall, giving interviews and just generally looking pretty for the 100s of TV crews and cameras present. Most exciting for me was the presence of Miranda Kerr, who is as beautiful and friendly as the media make her out to be. At one point, some of the crowd near me called out to her, `Miranda! Over here!` She stopped talking to the TV crew and replied, `I`m just doing an interview at the moment. I`ll be over when I`m finished!` Unfortunately there was no Orlando Bloom in sight, but Candice, Adriana, Erin and Alexandra, four of the other angels, provided entertainment for the large crowd who had gathered.
After two hours in the scorching sun watching the angels, it was time to get back on the bus. My next stop was downtown Hollywood – Mann`s Chinese Theatre. It was now 3pm and I hadn’t eaten since 8:30, so I called into the Hard Rock Café for lunch (hey, when in Rome … !) for a fantastic milkshake (but pretty ordinary burger).
I spent the next two hours strolling Hollywood Boulevard. Unfortunately the Kodak Theatre, home to the Oscars, wasn`t running tours as Cirque du Soleil were rehearsing inside. The tour was something I`d missed on my first trip to LA, and I had been keen to do it this time around. Oh well, I guess I`ll just have to come back again!
I found Britney Spears` star on the walk of fame and then had a cheesy photograph taken, comparing my hands to those of Tom Hanks` as immortalised on the footpath outside the Chinese Theatre. At the start of the day, I`d intended on doing a tour of the stars` homes from here, but decided not to (for several reasons – a), it was late in the day; b) I`d done it before; and c) I could do it during my 11 hour LA stopover on the way back to Australia in June). I also found a Napoleon Perdis store, where the make-up artist inside told me the lip lacquers I used are going out of production! (I snapped up one more, at an extremely cheap price in comparison to Australian prices).
Back on the bus, I made one final pitstop before returning to Santa Monica: Millions of Milkshakes. This was something I`d heard about on Perez – celebrities were always making their own milkshakes here. Much like Cold Rock, the premise was simple – choose a size; choose a flavour; and choose your mix-ins (mine was medium chocolate fudge with Kit-Kat). I need to remember to always order small in the US – my medium was massive!
I didn`t get back to the hostel until 7:30pm, meaning I`d spent 10 hours touring the city. The bus had been great – giving me a great perspective of the city – but the loops were really long and the buses infrequent, which was quite frustrating. Oh well – I had a 48 hour pass, I`d be back on it again tomorrow!
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