USA - West Coast Blog

Flying in from Fiji to LA we actaully gained a day - taking off at 10pm on Sat and arriving at 1.30pm the same day. We spent our first night in a motel close to the airport (we had pizza out of the box for dinner, very American) and the following day we headed to the USA Hostel, Hollywood. Over the next couple of days we explored the area - we took pictures of the stars on the Walk of Fame, just 30 seconds walk form our hostel, visited the Chinese Teahtre, walked to the Hollywood sign and went to the Guiness Book of World Records Museum and the Hollywood Wax Museum. We also spent 2 days at Univeral Studios, the secod day we went with a couple of guys from our hostel, one of whom, Sheridan, we had met in Fiji a couple of weeks before (and he is from Nottingham). The hostel itself was excellant for night-time entertainment, with Comedy Nights and open mike performances by the staff.

After 5 days in Hollywood, we made the 7 hour bus journey up to San Francisco, to the USA Hostel there, which was right in the city centre. As the budget was tight for the West Coast, we decided to spend a couple of weeks in San Fran, as the hostel had a great lounge with Sky TV and free pool to keep us amused!! There was however plenty of free things to do in the city, we took a walk to Fishermans Wharf, and went to watch the seals sunbathing at Pier 39. We also visited the crookedest street (possibly in the world!), and walked to Twin Peaks for some pretty amazing views of the city. We picked a beautiful day to walk over the Golden Gate Bridge (quite a trek from our hostel - 6 hours in total) and during our second week, we took the ferry out to Alcatraz, where we took an audio tour of the Cell House, which was fantastic. We spent a couple of days with Caroline, a girl we also met in Fiji, catching up and playing cards. We were also in San Fran for Halloween - however, despite having two pre-Halloween parties, there was nothing going on at the hostel that night. That didn't stop us dressing up though, and we had a few drinks with a couple from our dorm with the intention of heading out to a few bars after, but we never quite made it out! A couple of days before we left San Fran, we actually experienced an earthquake - and not a small one at that - 5.7 on the Richter scale, the largest one in almost 10 years!! Thankfully it didn't cause much damage, but it was a bit scary at the time.

Our next destination was Vegas, and as we didn't want to be there on a Saturday night (hotel prices soar at the weekend) it meant a quick stop back in Hollywood - which we are pretty glad we did as that Saturday, the Fred Clause premier was on at the Chinese Theatre. So armed with the camera we picked an excellant spot right by the barrier and found oursleves face-to-face with, Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Rachel Weisz, Robert Downey Jr, Justin Long, Ludacris and Roselyn Snachez!! Other celebs we also managed to get a glipse of were, Andy Garcia, Seth Green and Kevin Sorbo, aka Hercules. It was brilliant, proof that the best things in life are free! After all the excitment, we jumped on the bus and headed for Las Vegas. We stayed on the strip at Circus Circus (a bit dated but cheap and cheerful), we spent the following few days checking out the large array of hotels and casinos on the strip, including, Ceasers Palace, Treasure Island, The MGM Grand, New York New York, The Luxor, The Ballagio (where we saw the famous water fountain to music display), The Paris and The Venetian. On our final day there we made the journey out to the Grand Canyon, an incredibly long day for a very small amount of time at the Canyon itself, but well worth the trip all the same - the photos (as always) don't do it justice. We had a great time in Vegas, but don't think we quite made the most of the 24hr life style and free-cocktails-if-you're-gambling setup. We think we need to go back someday with more money (even though they are fun, you don't win much on the 1 cent machines!).

Our next destination was San Diego, just a couple of hours south of LA, right on the Mexican boarder, San Diego was a great city with a really good atmosphere. Whilst there we took a walk down to the sea front and around Balboa Park. Unfortunately the budget didn't stretch as far for us to go to Sea World and San Diego Zoo (we need to save money for shopping in New York), but the hostel was well stocked with movies for us to watch to fill our free time!

Our final stop on the West Coast wes back in LA, at the weird and wonderful Venice Beach, our hostel was just seconds from Venice Beach boardwalk and Muscle Beach. You hear the stories, but nothing quite prepares you for the extreme mix of weirdos that hang out on the boardwalk! Definately an eclectic crowd, but a great place to spend our last few days in LA - the sun was shining most days and on our trip down to Santa Monica Pier, we saw a pod of whales, not far from the shore which was pretty special.

We are now on the East Coast of the US and the next time we get on a plane, we will be coming home (sniff, sniff). We still have loads to do however, and will write one last blog before we get back to conclude our adventure.

As always we miss and love you all

Dave and Rach xx