Santa Monica, Santa Barbara and Santa Claus

Hi All, well today we officially started our road trip by being on the road. We left Los Angeles this morning after scoffing ourselves on a buffet breakfast. We did a little tour of LA (Hollywood bowl and the Hollywood sign).


Here we see Mrs B at the Hollywood Bowl


And the Beaney Girls at the Hollywood Sign


We then had our first warning of dangerous animals (more to come I am sure!)


Now that we are on the move, we can start to look back at where we have been. Todays image shows a view back to Los Angeles, you can see the skyscrapers in the distance.

The funny part of the day was that we were heading to Santa Barbara and decided to call into Santa Monica for lunch on the way (which was lovely), although Victoria thought it was too much like Amity Island and she is still scared of Jaws! Mrs B particularly enjoyed Santa Monica because we found an English Pub where she gratefully accepted the English Hospitality by downing two pints of Storngbow. The beaney babes also enjoyed shopping in bloomingdales, victoria bought a bag so that she could get the designer carrier bag. (Go figure! - it must be a girl thing!) We then saw a sign for Santa Claus and all roared laughing (I guess you had to be there). We then had a lovely drive up route 101 to Santa Barbara, by which time the sun was setting. Hodge (Amateur Photographer) would have had a great time with shilloettes over the ocean - and no need for his extraordinary long arms.

We are now in a Hotel in Goleta, slghtly north of Santa Barbara and have sorted out the laptop so uploaded several posts tonight. Tomorrows plan is to spend some time in Santa Barbara before heading up the coast to St.Luis Obispo, where we hope to do another posting....

Universal Studios and Sunset Boulevard

Today we got our 'car' aka a small bus.




then had a little drive about Sunset Blvd and Hollywood Blvd and Santa Monica Blvd.







After dads skilled driving we went back to the hotel to get changed. can you tell which car ours is from the odd parked car??



once we were ready, we went back to universal studios and city walk, this time we walked. when walking around universal, we saw a hummingbird. can you spot it?



Last night we enjoyed a meal at a cowboy/ranch themed resteraunt called Saddle ranch where we scoffed a lot of pig!



And proof mam does eat elaine:

before:

After:

Los Angeles

We woke up this morning and this is the view from our hotel bedroom.



Julieann here, just want to add an amendment to the little story about when we landed, picture the scene, a beautiful view from the plane window, absolutely gorgeous. So we are coming in to land, and Samantha is puking in the little bag! You know the one that’s in the back of the chair that you always check is there when you get on a plane, well not just that, yes when I turned to check Victoria and Paul were okay Victoria did have tears streaming down here face as she couldn’t believe where we were, but she was not alone! Pauls eyes were full to the top and he had a wobbly bottom lip! So there I was with puker and two crying!!! that’s the point when I suddenly realised I was alone with this lot for the next 20 days!!! Paradise or what!!!


Today we got the shuttle bus to universal studios which actually is just around the corner and then we ran to get on the mummy first.



After the ride taking a hideous photo of samantha and dad screaming like a girl, we went on another two times. we then decided that we needed a cool down since it was 9am and the temperature was already 26C so we went on the Jurrasic Park ride and got a tad bit soggy. in places that should never get soggy!

After going on the mummy 4 times, jurrasic park once and the simpsons ride twice, we went to city walk and decided we'd try some new food. subway :D (p.s. meatball marinaras are much nicer at home.)

When we landed, finally!

Well we finally arrived at about 10pm USA time, about 6am Thursday GMT. We had a lovely moment on landing when Victoria broke out into tears, not because she was scared or anything, quite simply she could not believe that she was landing in LA - priceless moment! She says she still expects to be woken up and told it was a dream!

We were all exhausted and went straight to bed in the most comfyest bed ever! We could not get over the size of Los Angeles, when we landed we were flying over the city for well over an hour and it was just sprawling for as far as the eye could see.

First question, for a slice of cake to accompany Hodges cup of tea, is what is the population of LA?

Leaving little olde England

Well, here we are at London Heathrow Airport, waiting for our flight to Los Angeles. Julieann and the kids smell gorgeous after trying all the ‘tester’ perfumes in the airport.



Only half an hour to go to take off and the 13 hour flight. I wonder how long I can sleep for? Billy Hodgson could probably sleep the whole flight through, if he was on billy time. There is free booze on the plane, so if you work it out at the speed I drink, I might just be finishing my second as we come into land. Spotted a bear already and gave him a sound thrashing as you can see from the picture below.