Friday 27 September 2013

Hollywood!

Since planning this trip, we (and by we I mean mostly my mum...) had decided that since we are passing by a village named Ojai (a short drive away from Santa Barbara) on our travels whilst the lovely Byron Katie is holding one of her 'The Work' life changing workshops there at the same time... well that it would have been rude not to book ourselves onto the half day workshop too!


So on the Friday eve we rolled up to the adorable village of Ojai (spelt Oh Hi! Which I loved...) booked ourselves into a B&B and got some good zzz's for the workshop starting on Saturday morning...


The village itself is so sweet... with breathtaking mountain views around it, lots of pretty hippy and vintage style shops and people who generally seem happy to be alive and living there!
And the workshop itself... well that was on another level!


We couldn't take any pictures unfortunately as it was being broadcast onto the web and all over the World (something I wasn't expecting!)
But it was truly eye opening and pretty much life changing! 
My mum is a holistic therapist and so loves to constantly broaden her mind and thinking... where as although I do too, I always thought I was a bit more down to Earth.
So Katie with her simple, blunt and -now that I see it- pretty obvious ideas on controlling your thoughts and enjoying life without resentments, spoke wonders to me!

If you haven't heard of her, I promise she is really worth a look- her books are super to read and the best bit is that even though you may discuss other people and situations... it's actually all about you and how you view life... everyone's favourite topic!


So after our Katie come down... we grabbed our beach gear (my fruit salad tote was so happy to finally get an outing!) Got back in the car and carried on down the coast towards L.A!
On the way we passed all the places we've seen on 80's cop shows and music videos or have heard about in songs by Sheryl Crowe... including Malibu, Sunset boulevard, (which coincidentally is the picture I got above of the beautiful Sun setting there...) Venice Beach, Muscle beach (oh yes!) And the lovely Santa Monica Boulevard which is pictured here...


All of them were so vibrant and eye opening and I was excited to finally see all these places in real life!
As it was getting late we searched (quite hard) for a hotel and eventually found one where we could settle for the night (at a pretty whopping cost- Santa Monica is expensive man!)
Then the next day it was up bright and early for our continued trip to L.A...


First up we hit Beverly Hills and hopped out for some gorgeous breakfast on Rodeo drive (I mean lets be honest we could hardly shop there so this was the next best thing!)
Then it was off to Hollywood... but we couldn't go without dropping by Mulholland drive and Bel Air first and seeing some of the Millionaire houses (whilst also playing the game 'I know you wouldn't... but if you COULD which celebrity would you like to rob?' which actually turned into quite a serious conversation about how there are no size 12 celebrities under the age of 50 with clothes that would fit me!)


When we got to Hollywood itself, we grabbed a frappacino and strolled the pavements looking at all star's names. I like to think Hollywood is pretty much like Blackpool on acid (and a few more sex shops...) and although it was interesting to finally see it, I think we may have been spoilt by all the beautiful places we had been to earlier in the trip, so we pretty much went in search of the sign (you have to don't you?) Then we high tailed it out of there to our next stop of Long Beach!


Long Beach is a very pretty harbor  town with a lovely pier and pretty beach themed shops.
We were only there for an evening but could see that it was a very nice place to visit (it is also where the Queen Mary ship is now stationed!) So we strolled the late night pier shops, had some DELICIOUS pizza and then headed back to the room again to prepare for our final Coastal stop the next day: San Diego


The next morning we couldn't set off without first having some yummy breakfast aboard The Queen Mary (apparently yes you can do that- it's now a full blown hotel ship!)
Then we accepted that we still had a couple hours of driving left before we reached San Diego... so we jumped back in our super cool rental car and set off down the highway...

I've always been intrigued by San Diego (mainly because of Anchor Man...) so I was happy that this was our final Coastal place.
We spent a couple of hours chilling by the pool there (the first proper sunbathing yet!) Before popping into the vibrant centre for some dinner- which was super nice and fun (I get the impression that it is quite a good party town... mainly because most of the bar and restaurant names had some kind of drink in them!)

The next morning it was time to say goodbye to the car and then we caught our final internal flight to our final destination spot... Las Vegas (that's right!) 


So this is where I go off and catch some much needed Nevada sun... but watch this space as will have more on this fab part of our trip very soon!

Now I am off to lose all my money on slot machines... toodles!
X

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