The City of Angels

One of the most amazing things about touring America is seeings familiar sights for the first time. We've come across so much incredible stuff that we'd never dreamed of seeing, but the sights we recognise and feel we know are equally awe-inspiring. Pop-culture and the entertainment industry have made this country so ubiquitous that we sometimes feel like we've been here before, and nowhere is this feeling present like in Los Angeles.

We truly had a perfect day here, unexpectedly and mostly by chance. We hit the freeways at 0730, and being a Sunday morning it kind of felt like we were the only people in LA. Then the Boulevards - Santa Monica, Sunset and Hollywood, with Rodeo Drive thrown in for good measure. Our destination was the base of Runyon Canyon - a Hollywood Hills "hiking" spot popular with all local sorts including celebrities and the actual real housewives of 90210. Why this place isn't on more "must-do in LA" tourist lists, I don't know. It's got to have one of the best views of the Hollywood sign, at the very least. The trails have a reputation for kicking one's bottom, but we didn't find them too bad at all - either we're surprisingly fit at the moment or we took the path in the easier direction (no prizes for guessing which). It had rained the night before, which cleared out the fog and meant that the view from the top took in most of Los Angeles. And Los Angeles is one behemoth of a city.

View from the top of Runyon Canyon

As seen from the Canyon

When we got back to our car we realised just how close we were to the touristy part of Hollywood and decided to walk in and have a look around - we figured we at least needed to see the pavement stars. Much to our amusement, we stumbled across the premiere of Happy Feet 2 outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre. It was 1030 by this point, and the red carpet (actually ice blue) had been set up and people were lining up along the barricades. We were torn between excitement and embarrassment -  would never have made an active effort to go and see something like that, but when in Rome... Most of the cast turned up - Sofia Vergara, Pink, Robin Williams, Hank Azaria, Common, Elijah Wood, and we had Billy Bob Thornton thrown in for good measure. At the very least it made for exceptional people watching. We weren't the only Aussies around - Ruby Rose (MTV) was in the press line.

Mayhem

So very L.A...

Pink

The roads were much busier by lunchtime, and we crawled home through Beverley Hills and Bel Air behind many a Maserati. We ditched the car and walked down to Venice Beach, through the Venice Canals, about twenty minutes on foot from our accommodation in Marina Del Ray.

Venice

 It really is a place like no other. There aren't words - or I'm going to need some time to come up with them. Muscle Beach, "medical marijuana" dispensaries with "doctors" in bright green scrubs, basketball courts, handball courts, beach volleyball courts, skate park, circus school, freak shows (both intended and not).

Venice Beach Skate Park

We walked all the way up the beach to Santa Monica Pier (3 miles/4.8kms) and got there roughly half an hour before sunset. We won't inflict any more sunset photos on you - at least not yet - but it was spectacular.

Santa Monica Pier

From the ferris wheel

By the time we'd had dinner and been on the ferris wheel it was dark, our feet were sore and we were freezing cold because we hadn't taken jumpers out with us. Somehow we managed to hail a cab and called it a night.