Day 315: Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo

The Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) is one of America's most iconic drives. Also knows as Interstate 1 (I-1) it stretches along the California coast for over 650 miles and covers a vast stretch of the western edge, providing an altogether nicer drive than the shorter, functional, but ultimately boring I-5. 

Ideally, it is taken slowly on a sunny day and in a sporty convertible, allowing you to appreciate the natural beauty and bathe in the warm rays whilst simultaneously being cooled by the wind. We had none of that. It was grey and humid, we were in a Toyota Corolla, and the air-con was on full blast. That's the beauty of backpacking, folks!

We took a drive up to Malibu Beach, which - in the murky weather - looked like pretty much every beach does in such conditions: drab and miserable. We made the most of it, and not far past it found a massive sand dune that just begged to be climbed. It took a good five minutes to scale it - as you can see from the size of me in front of our car at the base, it was a fair old distance.





We were heading to Santa Barbara, where our friends Wayne and Martine got married. By all accounts, it was a perfect slice of Americana and we were looking forward to experiencing it. It took just under 2 hours to get to the city, and by then the sun was shining and the whole place felt a bit more like California.

Santa Barbara is an interesting place. It effortlessly bridges the gap between "tourist haven" and "upmarket cultural centre" by offering ample instances of both. Art galleries line the streets alongside ice cream parlours. Beachwear shops take their place next to pizza restaurants housed in lighthouses. The city brings in a billion dollars a year in tourist revenue, and it's not difficult to see why. Wouldn't you love this view?





A walk along the pier threw up umpteen choices for food, but I'd already got my heart set on freshly caught shellfish. So without further ado, we planted ourselves on a table outside the Santa Barbara Shellfish Company and I got stuck in to some lobster spaghetti.



It was lovely, but the high winds took some getting used to - we soon understood why there was a huge queue for the inside tables!

Dessert? Well, we were on a pier, so naturally it had to be ice cream. Once again, we made the mistake of ordering a double scoop. In England, a double scoop is two scoops. In America, a double scoop is two portions of whatever a scoop is, which turns out to be about two English scoops. So we ended up with a literal mountain of ice cream perched precariously in a cone.



Sadly, it didn't live up to its impressive appearance and the cone tasted like cardboard, but at least we didn't feel as huge as we would have if we'd finished the whole thing. Still, a digestive walk around town was in order.



We stopped into a hotel/art gallery for a mooch around, but there was no chance of us staying the night in Santa Barbara as even the cheapest digs were more than our entire daily budget. It'd be a nice place to visit for a holiday, but the city makes no pretension of being backpacker-friendly.

We picked up the wheels and drove on. Lake Cachuma was a recommended stop-off point from Wayne, and it was lovely.





We were slightly ahead of schedule as we'd originally planned to stay in Santa Barbara, so we decided to find a hotel in San Luis Obispo instead, a university city an hour and a half north. Paul had spent many a drunken night here when he lived in California and highly recommended it. We found a Ramada at a reasonable price and set out to the centre to see what was around. It was early evening, and we were in luck: we'd arrived on a Thursday, and the weekly Farmers' Market was in full flow.





Umpteen food stalls lined the streets, along with buskers and arts and crafts stands. There was also an animal welfare booth which was offering to pay a dollar to anyone willing to sit and watch a four minute video they'd put together. We were on a budget but not that desperate; I glimpsed some pretty horrific scenes at one of the TVs of animals being slaughtered. I'm under no illusions as to how my meat gets to my plate, but I prefer to leave the act of preparation to those with stronger stomachs. For the man on the street, I think buying ethically is the best way of making a stand against dubious practices. Shock tactics have their place, but in many respects they do more harm to their cause than good.

It made me feel peckish anyway, so following the tried and tested method of picking the stall with the biggest queue, we stopped off at The Rib Line to get some eats.





Were they delicious? Oh my, yes.

Like many "cities" on the west coast, SLO (as it's locally known) had more of a small-town feel and I can imagine it being a fun place to spend a couple of nights with a group of friends. We were focused on getting up north though, not least because we wanted to spend a decent amount of time with Lev and Julie, the couple we'd made friends with in Laos and who were based in Mountain View. With that in mind, and with a CouchSurfing offer on the table from a kind chap in Monterey, we set off early the next morning back onto the I-1.

Day 313 - 314: Los Angeles, Part Two

Our good friends Wayne and Martine come to California pretty much every year, and know LA inside out. Wayne was kind enough to put together some highlights for us to hit, and given our lack of other itinerary we decided to follow his suggestions for our remaining time in the area. On the way to pick up the car from where we'd parked it the previous evening, we noticed that one of the roads was filled with bizarre leaning things, be they trees or signposts. It might seem like I've just taken this at an odd angle, but you'll see what I mean if you compare the angle of the signpost on the right with the straightness of the wall directly behind it. It was all very strange, as if a strong wind had battered through there during the night.



First up: The Getty Centre. Not to be confused with its little brother, the Getty Villa, it's as close as California gets to the Louvre. Whilst not on the same staggering scale, it's still mightily large and it's unlikely you'll get around the place in a day.





There is no entrance fee; you just pay for parking and take a gondola up to the main complex. There are a number of free tours running throughout the day, and I'd highly recommend taking at least one. We decided on the garden tour, which talks through the stunning architecture and gardens, the latter of which are designed as a work of art themselves.

















The heat was, as usual, blistering. Gilly was glad of her umbrella (provided by the museum, of course), but it was a great time to visit as we could hop in and out of the grounds between exhibits. The two main exhibitions we saw were the line drawings of Gustav Klimt, which I was a little disappointed by, and the photography of Herb Ritter, which was astoundingly good. If there was a celebrity of note between 1980 and 2000, it's likely he'd snapped them.

The Getty provided our lunch (mmm....burger), and we took a drive to Hollywood Boulevard in the afternoon and parked up on a side road a few minutes away. It's the tourist heart of the city but it pales in comparison to Vegas when it comes to souvenir tat shops and pushy ticket touts, so we felt pretty immune to their hard sell. We were in the area to see the Cirque Du Soleil show Iris at the newly renamed Dolby Theatre (Kodak went bust and the sponsorship was changed) but there are a few sights to enjoy on the same road - not least a few crazies, including a man who sits in a bin.



The gaudy Grauman's Chinese Theatre wasn't accessible, since it was cordoned off for a red carpet event - the last ever performance of the Dirty Dancing stage show. Lots of people who were probably famous were getting screamed at from a distance by fans, but we didn't recognise anyone.



Also on this road: The Hollywood Walk of Fame. Yes, if there's a film or music star, they're likely somewhere on the walk. I tried to find the late, great Peter Falk, and failed. Probably because, as I later discovered, he doesn't have one. This is an outrage. However, two important people I did spot were Dean "Al" Stockwell, and hyper=creationist and gun rights-lobbying conservative karate king, Chuck Norris. Contrary to popular belief, behind Chuck Norris' star is not Chuck Norris. Or even a fist. There's a sewer, probably.





The most important star was saved for last though:



Into the Dolby Theatre we went, grabbing some massive muffins en route and listening to a band playing in the main shopping area. The Theatre is the home of the Oscars, but it seemed surprisingly small to me.

Iris was superb. A much different beast than the spectacle of KA, it felt much more personal and less bombastic, but no less of a delight. There were a lot of acrobatics, some very clever props, and some Chinese contortionists that quite possibly had spines made from Silly Putty. All told, it was as enjoyable as the previous Cirque du Soleil show we'd seen, but for very different reasons. I wouldn't hesitate to see another. Sadly, Iris didn't perform as well as other shows and is closing in January 2013 after 2 years in the Theatre, but there are plans to take it to other cities in the country.

For our final day in LA County, we took a trip to Griffith Observatory in the morning. This is an iconic building which has featured in many films, including Rebel Without A Cause and a couple of Terminator films.







We were early - it opens at 10am. Even then we were a little unsure how to get in, as the signage was somewhat confusing.



Some of the exhibits include a Foucault Pendulum, and a wall with boxes containing all of the elements currently discovered (though I suspect the gases may not have been in their respective boxes). Downstairs, you can find a planetarium of sorts, which we skipped over since we'd seen a similar thing in Kuala Lumpur.





The ability to actually "observe" anything was sadly missing though, the one telescope that is open for public use was closed off.



Now, for lunch. Ever since I mentioned going to LA, Wayne had been insistent that we visit his all-time favourite place for pizza: Sotto.



Apparently, the pizzas here are created by angels, and some of the ingredients include faerie tears, the sparkles from a will-o'-the-wisp, the laughter of a dryad, and powdered unicorn hair. Such is their position in Wayne's esteem, that I imagined that upon consumption I would be instantly compelled to move to California, just to be within easy reach of such sublime cuisine. Having scanned the menu and found it to be slightly pretentious, I opted for Salsiccia e friarielli (sausage, broccolletti and chilli), whilst Gilly went for a mackerel sandwich.

My verdict? It was OK. I'm not really a fan of burned bits on a pizza (Wayne assures me that this means it is done in a Neapolitan style, and probably means I'm just uncouth). However, it was good enough that I ate it all, and that's praise enough consider how MASSIVE it was.



Gilly's sandwich fared equally well in the size stakes.



I certainly wasn't disappointed in Sotto; I knew my enthusiasm for the place probably wouldn't match the heady heights of esteem my friend held it in, but then such is the beauty of opinion. It certainly didn't compare to Vientiane's Aria restaurant, which I would rank as making one of the best pizzas I've ever had.

Much exercise was needed, so we drove up to the next item on Wayne's suggested itinerary - Greystone Mansion - and had a a walk around the grounds. Another popular movie location, this one has been featured in X-Men, Ghostbusters 2, and the Spiderman trilogy to name a few.











A wonderful place to stroll around, the mansion's grounds are quite extensive and have plenty of water features, and nooks and crannies to explore over the space of an hour or so.

We topped off the day with a visit to the Annenberg Space for Photography, which was running an exhibition called "Who Shot Rock And Roll?" - a huge collection of "before they were famous" shots of everyone from Nirvana to the Rolling Stones, taken by some of the world's greatest photographers. A free audioguide is definitely worth getting to make the most of an exhibit like this, as it provides a lot of background to the artists and their relationship with the snappers.

We got back to Santa Monica, and Bill put together some fantastic cheeseburgers and fried potatoes for an evening meal, and we settled down to watch a film for the evening. A more charitable host, you cannot wish for. I say that about every CouchSurfer we have stayed at, and it is never not true.

It was our last night in the city; we were heading up the Pacific Coast Highway the next day on our journey, which would ultimately end in Seattle.

Day 311 - 312: Los Angeles, Part One

The Walt Disney Concert Hall was the first item on our LA agenda. It was built by famed architect Frank Gehry and is a shiny, curvy bank of metal which, for better or worse, can genuinely be considered a "modern" building. The metal used for the plating was originally so reflective that on intensely sunny days it set fire to opposite buildings in the neighbourhood simply by bouncing beams of light through their windows. The panels had to be coated in a matte finish to counteract the effect, and ensure that half of LA didn't go up in smoke.











The interior is similarly modern, with the design focused on acoustics. The main concert hall has an organ with 3,164 pipes, most of which are hidden. There is also a performance area which has walls padded out with specially designed tiles to best reflect sound.






The building is free to visit, and you can get an audioguide narrated by John Lithgow included which takes about an hour and a half to complete. The gardens are equally nice, have a number of performance areas and apparently make a good venue for both wedding photos and odd-looking pigeons which appear as though they may claw your face off when you least expect it.









We'd worked up an appetite, so headed over to Grand Central Market for lunch. As close to an Asian hawker market as you're likely to find, it has a wide range of different stalls selling food of every ethnicity. I got a bento box from Bento Ya, whilst Gilly chose a tostada from Ana Maria's Mexican Food.



The portion sizes were, as you'd expect, huge.

Just opposite the market is the Angels Flight Railway - the world's shortest railway. After taking the world's steepest railway in the Blue Mountains in Australia, we couldn't pass up the chance to board the shortest. Plus, it saved us climbing all the way back up the hill we'd come down. And at a mere 50 cents, it is approximately 2850% cheaper than the ride in Oz (this is an estimate).







Just up the road (well, by US standards) is the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). It had what looked like the remnants of several Transformers welded together outside.



Like many contemporary art museums it was hit and miss, but did have some funky carpet to walk on, which was one of the exhibits. The ticket included entrance to the Geffen Contemporary museum too, so we trundled down past the LAPD headquarters and through Chinatown in the blazing heat which showed no remorse.











The Geffen was mainly focused on hydrology and geology and wasn't really my cup of tea, but it did have some excellent videos of several firework displays made by a pyrotechnic artist. One of his displays was in Bath, but his attempt to set it off was postponed for weeks thanks to the fantastic English weather.

It was getting close to sunset so we took a drive up to the Hollywood hills to try and capture the iconic sign. Here's a tip: go at sunrise. The evening sun is in exactly the wrong place to get the best photos, and despite our efforts they came out either too dark, or hazy and washed out.











In the evening, Santa Monica's famed pedestrian area - the 3rd Street Promenade - comes to life. Street performers, live music, dancing lessons, monkeys who shake your hand for a dollar - you can find it all here.



The restaurants in the area are slightly more expensive than normal, but there are dozens of them crowding the promenade so you're bound to find something to fit your budget. We went to Johnny Rocket's, a decent enough hamburger place which also does a mean pasta.

It had been a packed day, so we decided to scale back the itinerary for the next day, and took a leisurely stroll around the California Science Centre for a good few hours. Like every other science centre we'd visited, it had more than enough interesting and unique exhibits and things to play with to keep us entertained for the day.



They had an extensive space section which housed some of the pods which various animals and people were sent up to space in.



To my delight, there was also a live mini-lecture given by a resident ex-teacher on light and sound. I love stuff like this. I find it engages me far more as an adult than it ever did in school. We got to learn about tuning forks, and how telephones work. Brilliant.



Amongst other things that made you feel like a kid again, there were infra-red walls, a hands-on aquarium where you could stroke starfish, the chance to create your own slime, and another aquarium filled with luminescent jellyfish and leopard sharks.













I topped off the day by using my immense strength to lift a pick-up truck fully off the ground, completely unaided. Science is great.



We stopped off at a supermarket on the way back and picked up some wine and veg to accompany the simply fantastic chicken wings that Bill had prepared. He could probably sell his secret recipe to KFC and retire comfortably.

We had two more days left in the area, and plenty more to pack in.