Day 2 - Hooray for Hollywood!

OMG what a day it's been, celeb spotting, glitz and glamour and tours galore!  So let me start with this morning.  Woke up at 6:30am bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, slept through from 10pm local time last night and fingers crossed the jetlag is now sorted!  The hotel provides breakfast so it would have been rude not to sample it on our first morning, bagels apently with good old Philadephia and a cup of tea - you can take the girl out of England but you can't take England out of the girl :-)  Something that made us giggle at breakfast like naughty schoolchildren were the tiny disposable cups of milk that were called "mini moo's" - do the Americans know that's what I call a woman's lady parts?!?!?!


Our hotel is situated 2 mins from the famous Chinese Theatre where the handprints are in the ground, within a second we were playing tourists and I was kneeing on the floor with my hands in Judy Garlands prints - for a moment there I felt closer to her!!!  The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a site to see indeed, bustling with people by lunchtime - luckily we were there at 9am so had the luxury of fewer people around.

We signed up to two bus tours, the first was in a v small open-topped people carrier, our tour guide was called George and I think he was bi-curious!  He was a charming and funny guide who I like to think was so because of his nature and not because he wanted bigger tips!  The tour was fab and consisted of the Hollywood celeb homes such as Tom Cruise, Posh & Becks, Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox and MJ's last residence - RIP!!

The Beckham's house

As well as stopping at classic star's homes such as Sinatra and Gene Kelly's pads, the guide was up to date with his reality stars - I let out out an over excited "whoop!" when we stopped outside Lauren Conrad and Audrina Partridge's home they shared during The Hills:-)  We did actually spot one celeb - Sandra Bullock was out jogging, the bus went quiet in shock and motormouth here shouted "I love you Sandy"!  In amongst the celeb houses we took a drive through Beverly Hills, seeing famous restaurants and clubs and cruising along Rodeo Drive, baby!  The tour completed with a stop up on the Hollywood Hills with a photo op to take snaps of the famous Hollywood sign.

Spot the Hollywood sign!

The second tour was on a small traditional trolley (a tram on wheels) exploring the history of Hollywood.  The tour guide John was super excited when he found out we were from England and at once put on a Liverpudlian accent and took on the persona of John Lennon, he practically wet himself when I told him I had George Harrison's autograph!  John was the 7th person to ask us if we saw the Royal Wedding - it's usually the first thing people have asked us once they find out we're from London.  The highlight of that tour for us was going in the Hollywood Bowl (no not bowling at Surrey Quays), the famous amphitheatre where major artists have performed - John was delighted to tell us the Beatles played there twice:-)

We had dinner at a lovely place called Bossa Nova on Sunset Boulevard, where I can confirm I had my first Brazilian!  It was a combination of chicken and rice, the description of the sauce sold it to me - "our own recipe, with spices and a PINK sauce" - it was delicious!

It's now 10:30pm local time (6:30am for you guys) so we're off to get some beauty sleep - another early start as we're off to Universal Studios during the day and Oli has booked us a restaurant in the evening (keeping it secret from me) for our second wedding anniversay - eek I'm excited :-)

Wish you were here!

J&O

Note to self - wear higher factor sun lotion and don't wear bangles!