Married on the third day of December in our backyard, Canberra, Australia.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Santa Monica and Hollywood

I recently visited Santa Monica, which is near Los Angeles. It was during a heat wave, so the weather might have been more spectacular than usual. Whilst I was there I got a CVS disposable digital camera (well, I got two, one to hack and one to use) since Louise was using our normal camera.
Santa Monica is a 30 minute bus ride from Hollywood. I went there to check out French General for Louise, but they were overseas so I couldn't. I decided to try out a Hollywood tour, which was pretty good. They don't take you up near the sign, but they take you through Hollywood Land (the older part of Hollywood with nice (expensive) houses.) I didn't see any real celebrities.
Hollywood itself is a bit disappointing, there is really nothing to see and it's got a bit of a dodgy character to it. The wax museum demonstrated how difficult it must be to make was models with realistic colouring and dimensions. I found a good pizza shop.
Whilst in Santa Monica I got some $2 notes. They are perceived to be rare, and they don't work in some machines (the Santa Monica bus ticket machines don't accept them). It is a shame that tipping is expected here, but if I must tip $2 notes are definitely good tipping currency.

2 comments:

DadB said...

That last pic looks very familiar - did we spot something like it when we were Google-earthing a route to the Hollywood sign once?

Louise Burford said...

It was taken from Canyon Lake Drive, just west of the sign. From the same spot you can see Hollywood Reservoir (but not in the same photo.)