Day 2: L.A.!

L.A... Home of nice weather, and a lot of tourism...

Of course,we had to visit Hollywood Blvd! Walk down the Walk of Fame, see Grauman's Theatre, the Hollywood Hard Rock cafe, the Dolby Theatre; Madamme Tussauds,... And of course no visit to Hollywood without seeing the famous Hollywood sign. We also strolled leisurely down Sunset Blvd and cruised around in the car as well. Traffic in the morning wasn't too bad thanks to it being a Sunday and Labor Day weekend.

I won't be posting every single picture I take since that would just be too much.
Some pictures we took in Hollywood:

After having a nice drink in the Hard Rock Cafe and watching some street performers (sorry Donn, no crazy Clooney Superman guy.. All we say was Chewbacca, Darth Vader, the guys from Pulp Fiction, Spiderman, Venom, The Hulk, Jack Sparrow,...) we decided to head down to the beach for some refreshment.
We decided we'd visit Malibu Beach on the way back to L.A. since it's on the Pacific Coastway anyway so today we went to Venice Beach.

A really nice beach, some good-ish waves and plain old fun to walk around. Especially all the little beachside shops and street performers (most of them just trying to hand out home made CD's with their rap and R&B music) but there were a few real performances as well. Muscle Beach was a bit empty since there was a good basketball game going on right next to it, so we watched it for a bit before strolling on. Of course, there had to be a lot of bong related shops and the like, and even a place that sells medicinal marihuana (though the outside people trying to get you in looked like they had too much of it themselves already).

I didn't really take any pictures of the shops since with such a crowd on that street I wasn't able to get a clear shot but the beach looks nice.

Enjoy a few of the Venice Beach pictures:

And George, I told you you'd be missing out! I'd want to post you some of the nice views we had on the beach but other people check this blog as well ;-)

After we enjoyed ourselves on Venice Beach we decided to leave L.A. for what it was right now, since the streets were starting to get very busy and there was something big going on in Santa Monica. So we took off to Palm Springs and after about 2 hours drive down the I-10 and CA-60 we drove the last 10km through what seemed like a sort of nomansland and we got into Palm Springs. Beautiful weather, a good 40 degrees Celsius, but you really feel it when the wind hits you.. And wow, that can hit hard, as if an oven is blowing right against you.

But at least our hotel is very nice and we jumped right into the pool after we got here. It didn't get any better than that.. After some R&R at the pool we walked around a town a bit, later had some nice dinner at Rick's Grill. Of course, restaurants and eating places in the US are much better. You immediately get a free glass of water (which will fit 4 to 5 Belgian restaurant water bottles) and free refills whenever you like. A nice big steak and some french fries later and we're just relaxing at the hotel for this evening. I'll probably jump into the pool or jacuzzi or sauna or steam room or.. (you get the point, it's a very nice hotel) during the night to cool down.

Well, more updates tomorrow! We'll be doing some stuff here in Palm Springs, not sure what yet, and then drive on to Laughlin. On the point of driving; I'll try to remember taking pictures of the car. It's a very nice, nearly brand new car (almost no mileage) with cruise control, Sirius sound system, everything worked into the steering wheel,.. It drives very smooth and I really don't want to go back to my old car anymore now :-p I'll think I'll stay here..