After a fairly easy overnight bus ride in from Las Vegas, we arrived at Los Angeles Union Station around 6am yesterday morning and caught one of the local metro buses over to Santa Monica Boulevard, just down from our hotel - the Chamberlain West Hollywood Hotel. Luckily we were able to get an early check-in, so grabbed a couple of hours sleep then headed up to the pool roof-top pool for some sun, a swim and a bit of breakfast.

After a quick change if clothes, we headed out and met up with Si and Suzie along the Hollywood Walk of Fame, on Hollywood Boulevard. I expected it to be a bit more concentrated in a smaller area, but basically spans 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street. We walked some distance along the Walk of Fame and up to the TCL Chinese Theatre, a popular and well known movie theater along the Walk of Fame, which opened in May 1927. It's probably best known for the nearly 200 Hollywood celebrity handprints, footprints, and autographs in the concrete of the theater's forecourt.

The Woolley's had booked the Rockin' Hollywood Minibus Tour which covered the Hollywood and Beverly Hills sights and tourist attractions. They had advertised that the tour would pass more than 70 sites around the streets of Bel Air, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, and West Hollywood, which I guess they did, even if most of them were from a distance, behind bushes or just a corner of a chimney in the distance. But still, we did get to stop and view the Hollywood sign, the Jim Henson Company lot (the former home of Charlie Chaplin Studios), and the Playboy Mansion - albeit from a distance. We also were taken down the famous strips and passed by Whisky A Go Go, the Troubadour, and Capitol Records studios. From there we headed into the residential areas, passing by the past and present homes of celebrities such as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Eddie Murphy, and Nicolas Cage. It was good to get an idea of the place, you certainly didn't get to actually see many of the houses, but at least our tour driver gave us a good laugh with his weird tourette's mumbling over the mic.

After the tour we decided to hear down to Venice Beach, so the four of us missioned over to Si and Suzie's hostel, hopped in the car and made our way down to Venice Beach which receives millions of visitors a year, and has been labeled as "a cultural hub known for its eccentricities". It includes the promenade which runs parallel to the beach, Muscle Beach, handball courts, paddle tennis courts, Skate Dancing plaza, numerous volleyball courts and the bike trail. After a slow stroll up and down the promenade and popping into a few of the beach front stalls, we made our way over to the Venice Canal Historic District. The man-made canals were built back in 1905 to recreate the appearance and feel of Venice in Italy. However, over time, as the automobile gained in popularity, the canals were viewed by many as outdated and the bulk of them were filled in 1929 to create roads. Then back in 1992 the canals were eventually renovated and re-opened so what they are today.

After a fairly slow walk down the Canal District, we headed back to the beach to watch the most spectacular sunset where the sky turned a multitude of colors such as red, orange, purple and yellow, and held those colours for what seemed like hours. The colour, plus the beach, as well as the sea and the palm trees really made for a stunning sunset. I'm just a bit annoyed I happened to run out of battery on my camera just before that all happened, but I still had my phone :(

After the sunset we returned to the car and headed back to Hollywood, with Si dropping myself and Uns back at our hotel. We figure figured since it wasn't all that late we'd take a walk down the Sunset Strip to check out what was happening around there. We walked past the Viper Rooms, The Roxy and Whisky a Go Go - all which I know from various autobiographies, but none of which were awfully busy... I guess it was just a Monday after all. After grabbing a few snacks from a random corner shop, we headed back to the hotel to grab some much needed sleep.

This morning we were up at the crack of dawn to watch the sunrise from the roof-top deck, which slowly appeared from behind the buildings of downtown Los Angeles. Once the dawn had broken, we figured we'd take a walk down the Sunset Strip for me to grab a photo of the famous view of the Strip (third and fourth pictures below), followed by a coffee at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

After our walk it was back to the hotel and straight up to the pool for more sun, swimming and breakfast before getting picked up by Si and Suzie in time for our roadtrip up north along the U.S. Route 101.