Flight of the Navigator

Here is a small insight into Paige and I navigating our way around California....enjoy!!

Meet Me In San Luis.....Obispo

Monday saw us drive from Ventura to San Luis Obispo which I must say is an absolutely beautiful part of California. We stopped by the beach en route (see horrendous foot tan lines above!) then went on to stay with Paige's relatives in their gorgeous home. We were only there for one night but had so much fun and a special thanks to Mendi and Lyle for their incredible hospitality. They took us to the most amazing place EVER (well, I thought it was, not sure if Paige was as convinced!) which was the Madonna Inn!! Don't let first impressions fool you, it is not a museum of artifacts from the archieves of Madonna's career, oh no. This place is a hotel which has 110 rooms which are all decorated completely differently - each as outrageous as the next! There were swing dance lessons going on when we got there which was really fun to watch and we had a good nosey round looking at all the amazingly tacky furniture and scary doll on a swing hanging from the ceiling......was certainly something like I'd never experienced before! I'm now desperate to go back just so I can stay in one of the rooms. But which one I ask myself.......

Vans Warped Tour - Ventura, CA

Today was the day of the Vans Warped Tour that we had so been looking forward to! We went to the one at Ventura, CA at the fairground....which didn't look remotely like a fairground that day! The first thing I have to say about an American festival in comparison to a UK one is that if you want an alcoholic drink then it HAS to be beer and it HAS to be drunk in the caged off designated drinking area.....yup....that's right! So we pretty much downed every pint we drank as to not miss the bands we wanted to see. So I don't bore you with too many details we saw the likes of Alkaline Trio, Sum 41, All American Rejects, 3OH!3, The Pretty Reckless (Jenny from Gossip Girls band - she was dressed very provocatively for a 16 year old - see pic above!), Attack Attack (American one, not the UK one) and Enter Shikari. The website said that the venue opened at 1pm when in FACT it had opened at 11am so we missed loads of bands we'd wanted to see like Bouncing Souls, Dillinger, The Rocket Summer and You Me At Six!! Luckily I got to see the YM@6 boys later on and we stayed for the big BBQ at the end where we met lots of great American folk and got the gossip from the tour so far. The whole day was awesome and I'd love to go again in the future. Oh and we were back stage when the band We The Kings were playing and when they were finished everyone left the side of the stage....including Disney star Demi Levato!! So me being the celeb hungry person that I am barged some kids out of the way so I could get my picture with her! Evidence above. She was a beautiful orange colour which helped me look very pastey.....

LA Told Me, You'll Be A Rock Star

I'm finally back online so can fill you in on the last few days in LA. On Saturday we met up with my friends Simon and Kysha and they were our tour guides for the day. First off we went to watch the USA vs Ghana match which was a sight to behold as Americans are quite amusing when watching a sport that they don't know much about! We did join in with some of the 'USA! USA! USA!' chants but unfortunately it didn't help them at all. We then went for lunch at Villa Blanca in Beverly Hills (Rodeo Drive to be precise) and had a beautiful meal followed by Simon's infamous Sticky Toffee Pudding that they sell there. And of course it was amazing! That was followed by a tour of a huge, expensive hotel that Simon used to work in then ended with us in the Formosa Cafe which was really cool. We had such a fun day and it was the perfect end to our LA adventure.

A Universal Success

Today was another day of touristyness (yes that's a word....well....it is now!). Paige, Leah (our awesome new Aussie friend) and I went to Universal Studios. It's been six years since I last went and most of it was the same but now instead of the Back to the Future ride they have Krustyland! It's actually pretty cool and it was the best ride of the day for sure. From the pics above you can see a yellow house which is one of the houses from Desperate Housewives (the studio tour takes you down Wisteria Lane - very cool!), a scene being reenacted from the film Psycho, the sign to the Jurassic Park ride and then our beautiful photo from The Simpsons ride! We had such a fun day! We're about to go out on Sunset Boulevard and head to The Standard then maybe the Viper Rooms as I'm yet to go there. Off to Venice beach again tomorrow this time without the bikes. Need to get back to work on that tan......

Hollywood Infected My Brain

We had a great day playing tourists in Hollywood yesterday. We spent the day looking at the Hollywood stars on the walk of fame and then the handprints and saw the likes of Marylin Monroe, Debbie Reynolds and Robert Downey Jr (not in the flesh of course!). Michael Jackson's star had some roses on it as it's now the year anniversary of his death. After that we wondered along Sunset and La Brea to go to LA Ink! I was sooooo excited! The pic above is of the outside of the shop and we were allowed in but weren't allowed to take any pictures as they were filming at the time. Kat Von D was in there tattooing and she was beautiful in person and had bright red hair which was a suprise. Really pleased we did the trek and went in there. Afterwards we wondered to Rodeo Drive and saw loads of massive and amazing houses before strolling to the farmers maket for ice cream. On the way home we saw the above poster about 'Jewtopia' which had the funniest tagline of 'Just Jew It' so obviously had to take a picture.....

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

Yesterday Paige and I rented bikes from Santa Monica Pier and proceeded to ride them allllll day! Was so much fun. We started out travelling in the direction of Malibu until the cycle path ended then turned back, grabbed a spot of lunch, then headed to the end of the cycle path at Venice Beach. I had forgotten how awesome Venice is. The houses are incredible and really quirky - two of my favs being the pink and purple house and one which had a crows nest with a chandelier (pictured above)! Only in America!

I Really Wanna be in LA

We're about to start day three in LA and so far......its awesome! There was never any doubt in my mind about that. Got here on Sunday after a Greyhound, bus, metro, bus combination (sounds worse than it was!) and got to the Banana Bungalows where we are staying with ease. This hostel is much bigger than the one in San Diego and there are more social areas. All of the rooms have patio doors onto the outdoor 'tiki lounge' which is pretty cool. When we arrived we walked for 10 minutes to The Grove (if you like MTV reality shows then you may remember it from Laguna Beach!) and went to the Farmers market where we ate MASSIVE slices of pizza and drank really weak American cider. Had our second celeb spot (forgot to say before that we saw Henry Holland at San Diego airport!) as we saw the guy who played Luke in the OC (the one who went out with Mischa Barton's character in the first series) and he really does look like the 'all America guy'! Back at the hostel we met our new roomies who have turned out to be brilliant fun. Two girls from Sweeden and a guy from Germany (so we're keeping in European). Paige and I introduced them to some classic drinking games (which you may recognise from the pics above!) and then we went to the Rainbow Rooms which were pretty cool. I forced Paige to sing Kareoke with me so we destroyed a bit of Green Day in the process! Yesterday we went down to Santa Monica for a mooch around and then today the plan is to go back and hire bikes so we can ride from Venice Beach to Santa Monica then potentially to Malibu! Will update you guys all again soon - can't believe we've not even been here a week yet! Seems like ages since we were in the UK......

First Stop - San Diego!

You can all rest assured that Paige and I made it to the states in one piece! It was a loooong journey but we got here in the end! Arrived in San Diego on Wednesday at about 4pm and headed straight to our hostel which has turned out to be really amazing! The people are all really friendly and we've had SO many laughs already! We are especially enjoying happy hour every day and can recommend pomegranate margharitas! Yesterday we went to San Diego Zoo (standard) and saw some incredible animals - I did look out for Marcel from Friends but he has definitely moved out boo. Ocean Beach is lovely and we're literally about to go lay out in the sunshine again shortly - factor 50 still isn't stopping me from tanning, it's that hot! Last night we met our new room mates (we had a couple from Hong Kong the first two nights who were lovely but not that chatty - mainly down to a language barrier) so we met our new roomies last night.....two 21 year old English medical students! They were our first British friends in America and boy can those guys drink! The night ended with them in the sea but don't worry, they made it out safely! So far, we really can't complain. We're fully involved in the American way of life now and are loving every second of it. We're off to LA tomorrow which we can't wait for and are going to meet up with some old friends. Bring on more of the fun, laughs, margs and sunshine :-)