So two days in LA, what does one do with two days in LA and a rather rainy two days at that.

We managed to get ourselves a two day pass for the sightseeing bus, which seemed to be the only slightly hassle free way of getting down to Venice beach. If you read the blog from the last time I was here, you'll know of the public transport mess I undertook to get there.

Rainy Venice beach wasn't much better that Venice beach at dusk, (that's the time I managed to get there last time) half the shops were closed and most of the freaks were at home in bed. We did manage to get lunch at the famous Danny's restaurant which has one of the first wooden surf boards on the wall and I had one of the best burgers of my life, or perhaps it just felt like that after all the average food in Mexico.

We walked down the incredibly long Venice beach so that Darren could touch the other side of the Pacific Ocean and then we walked for miles back to the bus stop and waited ages for a bus that would only take us about two stops to Santa Monica pier. I'd always wanted to ride the ferris wheel at Santa Monica, but alas it was so wet now, that I could barely see the amusement park.

That's was pretty much all she wrote for that day as it took us about two hours of waiting around for buses to get back to Hollywood and we were both too tired to do anything else. Well…almost anything else. I did go and have a bit of a shopping spree at Hot Topic.

The next day it was still a bit rainy but only up until about 10am, we got the sightseeing bus to Beverley Hills and had breakfast at the Cheese Cake Factory of Big Bang Theory fame. We had a look down Rodeo drive and had a peak into the Beverley Wilshire, Darren was highly amused at my singing songs from the Pretty Woman soundtrack. We spotted a few cool cars, lots of Porsches, a Corvette and a Mercedes completely done out in chrome.

I did something a little bit practical and sorted out a phone, so I now have a US SIM card to add to the bag of SIM cards. We got back on the bus again and headed off to the La Brea tar bits, where tar bubbles up from the surface and trapped prehistoric animals who ventured into it. I could actually see a big bubble of tar about to pop and the oil slick over the top of the water. Fascinating. We also went past the chicken shop where Brad Pitt had his first job in Hollywood, dressing up as a chicken and standing outside advertising the specials. This really amused Darren, "you have to start somewhere", I said to him.

We spent the remainder of our day in Hollywood, I confess I went back to Hot Topic and bought more stuff and then had dinner in Johnny Rockets.

Overall, I've enjoyed staying in Hollywood, but I confess I've now seen its seedy side. It is an absolute s***hole in the morning and my god there are SO many bums and crazy people. One guy even jumped out and Darren and I, pretending to bare claws and yelled at us "Godzilla! Raaaaah!" After we got over our initial shock, we were in fits of laughter. There is also the Scientology church we had to walk past every day that keep offering us free ticket and offering personality tests. To which Darren replied, "What if you fail? What happens then?"

Tomorrow were are off on our epic road trip across America. Driving! Eeep!