Day 11

Los Angeles de California.

I’m going to Hollywood! But not for American Idol. We arrived in the city of angels around noon, drove around downtown, and headed for Hollywood. The traffic there is crazy! Not in the sense that it back’s  up (which it does), but the speed and lane changing everyone is doing. Every highway is 65 MPH and the merging lanes are nonexistent. Katie decided she would never live in L.A unless she was a celebrity and someone drove her around everywhere. We walked around Sid Grauman’s (spelling?) Chinese Theatre where the handprints and signatures of movie stars are in the sidewalk. Katie was finally able to take a picture with the Harry Potter hand print block after waiting for several people to walk off of it. It was a lot of fun to see so much history in one area. That was our favorite part of Hollywood. Our second favorite part was Beverly Hills; mansions and outrageously priced shopping, Go Amuhrca (for all you Al Gore fans out there). We found it funny how the celebrities with big houses put up walls and very large shrubberies to keep the tours from seeing their homes. Why did you build such a nice house if you don’t want anyone to see it?  We drove all around the Hollywood area trying to get a picture of the Hollywood sign and I was on a mission to find the Hollywood Bowl, which we even though I spent a lot of time trying to follow the signs and Edna the GPS, we just happened to come across it later that day when were not even trying. Eventually we made it to our campsite at Leo Carrillo State beach off of the Pacific Coast Highway, just south of Santa Barbara. What a beautiful beach. Other people must think so as well because a movie was being shot there along with a fashion model photo session. They even have Baywatch style lifeguard towers. I don’t know why they need them though; the water is too cold to swim in. Maybe it’s better in the summer. We stayed out on a really windy but beautiful rock face to watch the sunset. We got hot showers (our first in three days), ate some mac n’ cheese, and went to bed.