We packed our suitcases and left the crazy house in West Hollywood that hosted us for this past week.  (Crazy high tech toilettes, the microwave in a drawer, not enough glasses and a motorcycle in the hall… need to say more?)

Lunch was had at In n Out burgers, a California institution…

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(jury is out on that one… let’s just say the boys were happy…)

Then I went to the LACMA and had a fabulous time…

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Interesting Korean artist

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… furniture…

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Ed Fella, a new one to me but loved it

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and great modern art… my favourite stuff…

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And the boys?

Well.. they went to the Petersen.

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…a whole funky building full of cars.

Of course.

 

We’re now at the airport waiting for our flight.  I can’t believe it’s time to go home already.

It’s been brilliant.

 

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Our last full day… we had to head to reach the ocean… a symbolic end to our journey… the end of the line, the end of route 66 too if you’re interested.

First up Venice beach…

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The Pacific.  The ubiquitous palm trees..

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albeit with graffiti!

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and Muscle Beach…

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and the skate park…

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… and crazy people along the boardwalk where anything goes…

We then moved to Santa Monica, where I merely dipped my feet in the cold water and No 3 went full in and played with the waves.  Crazy dude.

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… and we waited for sunset, because we thought it might be magical…

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(That’s Jessie J…!!)

…and it was…

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It really was.

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…summer nights… and ballpark lights…

There was crazy traffic and the biggest car park I’ve ever seen, people in blue everywhere, hot dogs and nachos and garlic fries, signing and clapping and cheering, singing and Mexican wave… oh and baseball too!

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Mr M came home without even knowing that the score was… but knew… and the Dodgers beat the Minnesota Twins 6-5 (in the ninth inning… exciting stuff)…

 

 

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We’ve been taking it easy… lounging around the pool, a little shopping… lovely times with friends…

Yesterday however I started to get twitchy (it happens if I’m in one place for too long and I know there are places to go and interesting things to see nearby) so we decided to take a Warner Bros Studio Tour.  When in Rome…

Utterly fascinating.

They boys ‘tried’ to be miserable, but when faced with the sets of The Big Bang Theory … even the 11yrs old let slip a “this is so cool”.  He thought I didn’t hear it… but I did.

Ha.  Mum 1 – Children 0.

The place is huge.

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Equally it’s incredibly small; this for example, is the Jurassic Park jungle:

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behind me is where Lorelei hits the deer in the Gilmore girl… the laguna?  Think Tom Cruise and last Samurai.

Bonkers.

Can’t trust anything, right?

Talking of Gilmore Girls, the next three photos are all sets used in the series, now repainted for other shows.

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Do you recognise Luke’s diner? I didn’t… sigh…

And the we rounded a corner and I might have squealed a little! (Boys almost threw me off the cart… geesh… so sensitive…)

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The coffee shop where Emma Stone works in La La Land!! Given that Mr M categorically refuses to reenact the dancing scene with me… this is as close as I’ll get to the fantabulous movie.  Sigh.

This is Chicago.  Of course.  But for me will always be/mean ER and George Clooney.  (I used to work in a room full of girls and on a Wednesday – the day ER aired on TV – we used to pull out Dr Doug Ross’ posters and pin them on our boards.  Wednesday was Doug’s Day)

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There was a really cool exhibition of all the mad Batman’s cars and bikes, a drive through the workshops and all along the sound studios… and of course the Big Bang Theory sets, but we weren’t allowed any photos there.

And at the end…

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And I really wish I’d bought a mug… you know… just because…

We braved the hot California sun and headed downtown to take a graffiti tour.  (We booked through LA Art tours, you can find them here.)

Fascinating.

Our guide was the super knowledgeable Shandu (founder of the graffiti crew L.A.Bomb back in the 80s)

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Cool dude.

We learned about ‘bombing’ and ‘tags’,

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about graffiti writers and graffiti artists,

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about ‘crews’ and respect of each other boundaries and work… absolutely brilliant.

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I can highly recommend it, even if you’re not a mad fan of graffiti… it’ll give you a background idea and a different perspective.  We shouldn’t judge what we don’t know.

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We then had lunch at ‘Wurstkucke Restaurant, not far from there.  Delicious sausages and super ‘chips’  or fries… (don’t ask for ‘chips’… you’ll get ‘crisps’…. it’s all very complicated).

I was going to take a photo… but I was so hungry I forgot…

 

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part 1.

I’m sitting at the counter in the kitchen of our rental home for this week, drinking coffee out of one of those machine you see in movies with the glass carafe, a pack or Oreo staring at me and everybody else asleep.

It’s not as idyllic as it sounds, though.  I can’t turn the air con off and the fan is blowing at hurricane sleep and I can’t turn the bloody thing off.  I’m wearing No 2’s fleece top on top of my night dress.

Also it took me about five minutes to plug in the coffee machine.  It turns out you can put the plug in the socket straight… oh no.. you must push it in at a slight angle otherwise it doesn’t go in no matter how hard you push or swear. Who would have thought, eh?  Who thought of it, more to the point?

It’s always the simple things that make you feel like a stupid foreigner.

Sigh.

Also, since I’m in moaning mood I might as well spill it all, the coffee I’m drinking is pretty horrible.  No doubt Mr M will pour it down the sink and start again… I never seem to be able to judge the right ratio of coffee to water and what comes out it either blows your brain off or it tastes of washing up water.  This morning I’m drinking washing up water.

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Sigh.

Actually I’m not really complaining, the sun is out, the sky is cloudless, I can see a palm tree out of the patio doors…

We’re in Hollywood people!!

Last night when I wore my favourite new dress for our first night out… food shopping, but that’s irrelevant… we bumped into our first Hollywood star… Sean Penn!  How cool is that?  We played it cool and pretend we always brush shoulders (literally) with famous people.  Also he had one of those ‘I’m not looking at anybody/of course I’m Sean Penn but I’m busy face’ so I don’t think that asking him to help me out choose the perfect avocado would have gone down to well.

We played it cool.  He moved on.  We moved on.

But seriously? It was one of those Truman Show movie moments … “guys, there’s new folks in town, release the token famous person in the fruit isle of Whole Foods, by the avocados, next to the silly English tourist in her new dress… move for a close up of her face…great… look like she tries to play it cool!… priceless, that’s pure entertainment…”

Do you know what I mean? It was like… scripted.

But I don’t care.

AND and and… tonight I’m going to see Tim McGraw in concert (Soul 2 Soul tour). OH YES BABY!!  Mr M is coming too, not too thrilled about it – he’s not exciting the cowboy boots/country fan type (although he does wear jeans rather well – and most likely to make sure I don’t run away with the circus… BUT ISN’T IT EXCITING?  I can’t wait.

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We did make it out, once we managed to get this one out of the pool…

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We only drove a couple of miles up the road to North Fairfax Avenue… the capital of streetwear.  (If only I could add the emoji with the eyes to the ceiling now…)

We queued (QUEUED!! IN THE HEAT!!) to get into the ‘Supreme’ store

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(and I managed to get totally told off for taking a photo… WHAT?? you have a skateboard bowl nobody can even see, never mind access and I can’t take photos?  Whatevs..)

The boys were hyperventilating with excitement, so that should have given me brownie points, right?

I remember when we were last in New York a few years back and No 2 made us go to Hoboken and queue for over an hour in front of CakeBoss bakery for a cannoli and a cupcake because he was obsessed with the tv program.  (re-insert the same emoji as before please).  We moved from cupcakes to clothes.  Still queueing.  Whatever next?

So anyway, the shopping was on point (if you’re a boy), the lunch was on point

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(if you’re a mum).  We ate at Paramount Coffee Project, really nice place – burrata with sour dough toast, two eggs, kale and a slightly curried sauce, delicious.

And the graffiti game was on point…

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… as you can see they were thrilled to be posing under that one!

 

 

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When we organised our holiday many months ago we found ourselves with nowhere to stay for a night in between Yosemite and LA.

I literally picked a place randomly on the map mainly because it had a cute hotel we could camp out.  I know a few eyebrows were raised when I mentioned Bakersfield… but it turned out a perfect choice.

We rocked up to the Padre Hotel in the later afternoon, tired from an early get up and a long driving day… but they couldn’t have made us more welcome and we ended up on the roof terrace, listening to live music, drinking rose wine and eating a fabulous burger.

Also, I won both the Monopoli Deal and the UNO matches we played whilst waiting for our food, which is unheard of in the history of both games so… it must have been a good luck place.

If you’re ever in the area and are looking for a place to stay… the Padre Hotel is your place.

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This morning we strolled around the place looking for breakfast and admiring all the old signs and buildings.

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then we had a massive breakfast (three eggs omelettes? oh boy….) at ‘Tina Marie’s Cafe

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and strolled some more… and that’s when we discovered the huge vintage stores dotted all over the place.

I had to really restrain myself.

Really.

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So, if you’re passing through Bakersfield… don’t just pass through… stop for a while.  Promise?

 

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I spent all day looking upwards.

(And driving.  Lots of driving through wonderful landscapes)

Oh and donuts.  I ate fabulous donuts for breakfast from ‘Judy’s donuts’ in Oakhurst, just outside Yosemite.  Totally delicious.

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Anyway, donuts aside, we drove from Yosemite to Bakersfield (long story) via King’s Canyon National Park and Sequoia National Park.

Stunning.

Totally stunning.

Again.  I’m running out of adjectives.

What can I say about these trees?

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They’re not simply ‘big’ or ‘huge’ even… they’re so old… it’s almost incomprehensible how old some of them are… older than the Colosseum? Seriously?  You’re faced with your own pitiful mortality and yet you feel an overwhelming desire to protect them and look after them.

I guess I fell in love with the sequoias.

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There’s no other explanation.

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I just couldn’t get enough.

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Mr M and I… we’re so tiny and insignificant… and 50 years from now we’ll be gone and General Sherman will still be here, being photographed by our grandchildren or something…

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We didn’t do that much walking today but the driving alone was mesmerising.  Like being in a fairy tale…

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And it’s hard to put the scale of these giants into perspective… photos just don’t do them justice… suffice to say I spent all my day looking up..

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Quite bonkers.

 

Now we’re tucked up in bed in Bakersfield (our rental won’t be available till tomorrow) at the Padre Hotel, which looks really cool and serve really really good burgers.

 

 

 

We said we were going to do it… and we did it.

Go Squad!  (the boys hate it when I say that… which makes it fun, right?)

Up ‘before the chickens’ to see the sunrise over the Half Dome at Glacier Point.

Worth the grumpiness.

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We waited patiently with few others (I’d have thought it’d be more crowded… get out of bed people, it’s beautiful out there!)

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Me and Mr M… awwww…

 

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And then… the whole world turned gold…

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… and the beasts demanded food… of course…

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Breakfast with a view.  And a half.

Back at the hotel we all collapsed into a somnolent heap.  We’re rubbishly weak without sleep.

 

Lazy day.

I got sunburned.  Turns out I’m not very good at putting sunscreen on myself.

 

Sigh.

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