Stop 4. Los Angeles, the home of the disgustingly rich and also it seems, the unsupported poor. This is certainly a city of contrasts where one moment you can find yourself on a street lined with designer stores the next on a street lined with the homeless. We decided not to stay too long in Los Angeles (on the advice of nearly everyone we had spoken to about visits to America). We arrived early and hired a car (eeek!), Jess driving, not me :). After a little initial automatic car and right side driving hiccups, we were on the road!

First stop Long Beach to visit the Queen Mary, an ocean liner full of Art Deco, a glimpse into the days when steam ships were the hippest way to travel. Also very similar in style to the Titanic. We felt very privileged having our dinner in the restaurant, well, after all this is our honeymoon.

Next we hit Hollywood Boulevard. This area is unashamedly tacky, but lots of fun nonetheless. Of course no holiday is complete without the obligatory 'bus of shame' so we booked ourselves onto a Beverley Hills tour. The obvious highlight being Ellen and Portia's house :), we weren't entirely sure why they hadn't invited us along to the anniversary party they were having. Hmm, maybe they didn't get the message that we would be in town? :)

We finished the day hanging out in our rooftop hot tub chatting to some assistant producer from CSI (or so she claimed, Jess thinks she may just make the tea :).

Day 2, after picking up our mini camper we headed to Universal Studios. A fabulous and silly day followed. Well there's only so much culture you can do in one holiday. Plus we treated ourselves to some queue jumper passes to make the day even more awesome!! My own personal challenge for the day was convincing myself to go on the universal studios tour as I was really not looking forward to the 'Jaws' section. As it turns out, that shark looked a lot less impressive in real life. Hmm .... I think I feel a little better about my phobia.