Its the last blog from thr US of A, and it only took me until Australia to write it!!!

Well we set off from San Diego, sun burn now feeling good thankfully and made our way up the Pacific Highway towards LA. It was a nice drive, we got a little lost and nearly drove onto a Naval BAse but the nice Soldier let us turn round and we soon found our way again!

This was about the time that kel started to get really excited, the reason, we were entering Orange County, also known as the OC, AKA kels favourite TV show. We passed through Newport, where its set and then made our way to Redondo Beach where its actually filmed. Like an eager little beaver kel parked up the Chevvy and skipped off on a frantic search for the Bait Shop, which to you non OC watchers is where all the little rich high school kids hang out on a weekend. It didnt take too long to find and in reality is just a derelict old building that looks like its about to fall down but Kel was mightily impressed and snapped away with the camera for a while.

After we were done in Redondo we carried on up the coast til we got to Laguna Beach where we looked for somewhere to stay for the night. We eventually found a decent enough looking motel but disaster struck...........Kel got a cold sore!!! Now this wasnt your usual cold sore, it was a monster, and worse, it was breeding!! Not to be out done by the little virus we headed down to the beach, (with suntan lotion this time) and stayed on Laguna beach for a couple of hours. It was really nice! We went out that night to get some food, and feeling like a taste of home again we got ourselves a nice curry!! We had a nice walk about the town which was really nice and then turned into bed.

The next morning, the cold sore had become 3 cold sores and Kel was not to happy!! The zovirax type cream she had bought only seemed to accelerate the breeding process and it looked like she had gotten a very bad lip job, just her luck as we were heading into Hollywood, where she could be amongst her own!!!!

We arrived mid morning at our hostel which was right off Hollywood Blvd and about a 5 minute walk to the Kodak and Cinese theatres - Brilliant!. We checked in to our room, from which we could see the hollywood sign, and met a couple of our roomies, a middle aged couple from Australia whose names I cant remember but i do remember that the guy only had 2 fingers and a thumb so that made shaking hands a memorable experience.

We went out shortly afterwards as the hostel had no air con and it was roasting (please see the photo of my wet bum and legs which I acquired writing blogs, see I really put my sweat into these things, its hard work!!) and we wanted to do the touristy thing. We walked down the walk of fame to the theatres and took loads of photos and did our sightseeing then we grabbed some dinner that night and had a few drinks before returning to the hostel. When we got there we got some of our drinks from inside and sat outside to have a few drinks with everyone. Our car was parked right outside the hostel, which was right next to a brand new nightclub which had just opened with Paris Hilton doing the honours. Kel went to the car to get something out of the boot and she was told by a police man that she couldnt park the car there. We'd made sure that we were before the sign that said "no parking" when we got there so we knew we were ok, so kel started to argue, I was still in the hostel so didnt know what was happening. As it turns out as kel was complaining to the policeman, Koby Bryant (LA lakers basketball player for all you non sports fans) had parked behind us and as he got out was told by the policeman to move, obviously he didnt want to cause a scene so he did as he was told. Kel then came and got me to speak to the police officer who was by then realising that we were in fact legally parked, so when the club owner came out and tried to tell us to move, the Officer told him that he couldnt inforce the no parking sign as we were in front of it. Anyway that was our only famous person spotting while we were in LA and I didnt even get to see them!!!

Next day we took the car back, it was an emotional goodbye to the Chevvy Cobalt who had served us so well for 18 days. When we were back in hollywood we went on a "Homes of famous people tour" (guess whos idea that was) so for most of the day we stalked around famous peoples homes while all the girls on the bus had their cameras glued to the windows in the hope of spotting Brad Pitt showering. We stopped of in Rodeo Drive (which i'd never heard of before but apparently its quite famous because Julia Roberts shopped there in Pretty Woman) and had a look around. We were going to have a look in a shop called Bijon but apparently you have to make an appointment, and if you dont keep your appointment the nice guy there charges you $15,000, so we decided not to, it was probably rubbish anyway. So after a few hours of looking at nice houses owned by the rich and famous we were back at the hostel getting ready for the Hollywood bar crawl! We had a few drinks in the hostel bar and met a really good guy from Australia called Kurt, he ws into the same sort of music as we were and we got on really well and had a really good night around Hollywood. It was quite expensive as you'd expect but then there were scantily clad girls wriggling around in a glass bottomed ceiling above the dancefloor so we let them off.

Next morning we signed up to the hostel tour to the hollywood sign. It was a bit of a hike made worse by the fact that Kel broke my flip flop and drank all my water (she didnt bring her own even though the sign is in the hills and it was 30 degrees) but we eventually got there and it was really cool to see it up close so we took a bunch of snaps and walked back!! We didnt do too much else in the day other than shop in second hand clothes shops for somthing to wear that night. It was a friday night and we'd found a place that looked like it was going to be playing good music. So we met up with Kurt at the hostel and of we went to Bang! At the Disco, bit of a cheesy name but the music was awesome and we had a really good night, we'd finally found a place that played good music and wasnt a gay bar, result!!

The next day, our last in USA, we all went down to Venice beach in Santa Monica. Our flight wasnt until almost midnight so we had all day. We walked about doing more sight seeing, I felt like a bit of a tourist as id put on a vest that says Santa Monica on it without even thinking and must have looked like a right loser walking about in Santa Monica!! We decided that we should get something to eat and, I promise you that this is the truth - she'd been pestering me since we left England, Kel wanted to go to Hooters. Well, no complaints from me and Kurt. So off we went to Hooters, had a few drinks, (I had a grand plan to get quite drunk so that i could sleep on the 11 hour flight to Fiji as i can never sleep on planes) some food and some photos with the girls (Kels idea, and again no complaints!) and then we headed back to Hollywood and had a few more drinks in a bar by our hostel before we decided it was time to go and pack. Once we were set to go we were all waiting outside got talking to Kurts room mates who all went to Wolverhampton Uni!! Then our airport shuttle came and it was goodbye to Hollywood and off we went to LAX.

When we got to the airport I was feeling pretty tired, my plan was working flawlessly, that was until we got into the terminal. Its by far the worst airport ive ever been to. We queued up to check our baggage in, but instead of them taking the bags off you and off thety go down the conveyor belt you ahve to join a queue of everyone in the terminal to get your bags checked. When you finally get to the front of the queue you get told that unless you have a special padlock (I didnt, Kel did!) you have to wait in a separete queue to wait for your baggage to be scanned incase thay need to open you bag (alternatively you could leave it unlocked for the journey, but as everything I owned was in the bag I reluctantly joined my 3rd queue). Everything was fine of course with the bags so it was all a complete waste of time. But it didnt end there. Normal airports have duty free/bars/restauants after the hand luggage check point so you can relax after you've queued up. Not LAX thats all before you get your hand luggage checked. So if you want to but something in duty free you get a ticket and the product is then handed to you as you board the plane. Its a completely backwards system that seems designed only to make the experience as frustrating as possible. So by the end of it i was so annoyed that I was wide awake as we boaded the Airplane. So much for my grand plan.

All in all we had an amazing time in LA/Hollywood, we were told by everyone we met before LA that we would hate it and that it was a really awful place but, despite the cold sores and airport, we loved it!!!

Fiji blogs to follow soon so get excited!!!!!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx