Day 7: Drive down to Malibu

Day 7 was supposed to be sunny, because we rented a Chevy Camaro convertible just for this day. We were out of luck, because it was the only day during our LA visit which had absolutely no sunshine, but nevertheless we made it to it’s fullest.

We started the day at the Santa Monica Pier. This is the end point of the famous route 66, coming straight from Chicago. Maybe one day we will do the historic drive, but this time we just checked in in the beginning and at the end of the route due to the lack of time.

After Santa Monica we took the Pacific Coast highway to drive down to Malibu. There were quite some cops on the way, one was particularly interested in our license plate, which simply stated “Beverly Hills”. How cool is that, if they catch us speeding, they will never track us down:) Nevertheless, it is quite useless to have a muscle car in the USA. It is awesome to drive, to get the V8 engine scream up during a couple of meters’ acceleration, but after all, driving more than 100 miles per hour is considered a felony and you might find yourself in prison.

In the evening we met Kahlier, Frank and Mike to see the new Star Trek movie in the Grove and had some drinks after at Frank’s place.

Day 6: Los Angeles

In the morning we headed back to Hollywood Boulevard, we had an American style breakfast (pancakes and French toast) at Mel’s drive in, then we were ready to see the stars. We didn’t have the opportunity to see the boulevard last time with Paul, and it was a little bit different from our expectations. In fact, the street is quite dirty and a lot of bums are hanging around day and night. The entry to the Chinese Theater, where the famous hand and footprints are, was closed down, because Jackie Chan was arriving to some kind of event.

After the Hollywood stars we headed over to see the tar pits and the LACMA museum. The tar pits were surrounded by police, because they were searching for evidence inside. Apparently someone dumped into the pit a gun or something, and poor police divers were to find it. With the visibility of zero in the thick tar they had absolutely no chance.

In the afternoon we visited the Farmer’s market and The Grove. The Spanish bar at farmer’s market was showing Barca playing, so we stayed for a while. The open air stage of the Grove was hosting a show with a guy who is called Mario Lopez and is apparently famous. OK, ok, Yure knew him!

In the evening we visited Venice beach. The part where the canals are with little houses is beautiful and worth to walk around. The beach itself is a little bit junkie, and like 3 years ago we already experienced, completely dead after 7 PM.

Day 5: Vegas

After a good night sleep we headed to the airport to pick up our rent a car. Coupled with a second hand GPS that we recently obtained from Amazon, we were invincible. No place was unreachable any more.

We started our casino tour on the beginning of the strip, in Luxor and Excalibur. We had lunch with Kim in the Venetian and we were ready to gamble! Contrary to the gossips that I put Yure’s salary on the red, I was purely gambling with my own money! :) I quickly lost 60 bucks at the blackjack tables and accompanied Yure to the slot machines to give her support in the confusing world of fruits and stars and bonuses. No need to say, after an initial successful cash out of 2 dollars (beginner’s luck! :) ), she slowly but steadily lost. It was time to leave Vegas, but just before leaving we had to see the wedding chapels.

We drove down till the little white wedding chapel, which is possibly the most famous of them all. Some years ago it has been enabled to facilitate drive-thru weddings for the handicapped and for the ones who are way too drunk to get their ass out of the car to say their oaths. A wedding here costs around 150 dollars at minimum, and takes an average of 8 minutes. According to Jerry, a guy who works there, the busiest day was the 7th July, 2007. That day only they carried out 800 weddings. Jerry never got married himself. He says he doesn’t take work home.

Leaving Vegas behind it was time to hit the road and conquer the 270 miles of mostly straight asphalt stretch between Vegas and Los Angeles. We arrived around 8 in the evening, took a short trip to Hollywood Boulevard and headed back to our place to prepare for the next day.

Day 4: Goodbye Chicago, hello Las Vegas!

In our last morning in Chicago, we hit the road to get to Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. After that we took a bus to reach the beach, get a last glimpse of the fabulous skyline and eat a Chicago style beef sandwich.

Goodbye Chicago, we rushed back to the airport to get on a flight to Vegas. We only had one night there.Our friend Kim received us warmly and so did the city. At last nice temperatures! We drove straight to Las Vegas Boulevard. We took some pictures at the “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign, enjoyed the fountains at the Bellagio and had some dinner at the Cheesecake factory. Unfortunately, Penny had the day off and she works at a restaurant in Pasadena anyway.

After dinner, we went to Kim’s place to have some sleep. Last time when we visited her with Paul, she had some scorpion issues in her home, luckily this time there were none, so we could enjoy a worry-free night.