LA rising

So far we're doing alright for accommodation in the USA. After Cameron and Jessica's hospitality, Ming is our next host. I used to work with Ming in London at WATG and Ming now works in the Irvine office. Despite having just returned on Saturday from a job site in India, Ming kindly puts us up and organises for Ric, another WATG veteran, to come out for a few Sunday beers. They went down well after we learn that the cheapest way to buy beer in Orange County at least, is to buy it by the pitcher. After boring poor Mike with all the gossip of who's doing what at WATG, it's time to head up to LA proper.

After getting Mike's rear shock serviced in Anaheim in the morning, with his bike repair bills adding up, its time to stop with the bikes and enjoy ourselves.

Venice Beach is our first stop in LA proper. After sharing a delicious hotdog, we stroll along the boardwalk, checking out the 'weirdos' that give Venice Beach it's character. During the week it's not so busy and there seem to be more tourists than characters, but it is still enough to keep us entertained. Then for a change of scene, we head to the canals, what Venice was named for. It is a beautiful and quaint little area and if it wasn't for the heat, I'd of thought I was in the Cotswolds of England. This is where I'd live in LA, because I could afford to of course.

Getting 'into' Venice.

I saw this little fella and now I know where all of my worn spare parts to the bike have gone.

Mike had arranged our accommodation for the next three nights and as we ride in the direction of Irl and Marnie's home, we happen along Santa Monica Boulevard. Sheryl Crow's song goes around in circles in my head. And just to keep the music theme going, as we head to San Fernando Valley, where Irl and Marnie live, it switches to 'She's a Valley Girl'.

With all of this musical influence, it makes sense that Irl and Marnie are both muscians, working in the 'industry'. Marnie works on movies - while we were there she was disecting the scores for 'Chicken Run', while Irl composes and produces music for TV, Funiest Home Video style of thing. Irl invites us to check out the studios where he works. Pretty cool stuff. And we also get the low down on some music venues to check out whilst in LA. Despite Roger Waters playing at the Hollywood Bowl, we opt for the low key (and more affordable) Baked Potato. Scott Henderson, a bit of a guitar hero of Mike's, is playing there and we spend the evening eating oversized and delicious baked potatos and watching Henderson wield his guitar.
And not to leave Mike and I out of the music scene, Irl and Marnie have Playstations 'Guitar hero'. I'm rubbish and stick to the Base guitar on the easyiest setting but still, one can dream of being in a rock band.

Other cool sights and scenes we checked out in LA were of course, the Hollywood walk of Fame, the Porno Walk of Fame (this was Mike's idea), Rodeo Drive, I wasn't quite feeling like 'Pretty Woman' but the movie title did lead to Roy Orbison's tune by the same name getting stuck in my head for wee while. Griffith Observatory - as seen in James Dean's 'Rebel without a cause', was also very interesting and a beautiful Art Deco style building. There was the Getty Centre, another beautiful, but modern, building set overlooking the vastness of LA. We also rode along Mulholland Drive (passing Jack Nicholsan's house), conjuring up yet another tune to go around in my head (REM this time) and took a trip out to Malibu. Long Beach was also on our list and by the time we had finished it was hard to decide where we wanted to live. Venice Canals, Malibu, Hollywood Estate or Manhattan Beach, the list goes on.

Whether it was the fact that we didn't have any bike maintanence to do, Irl and Marnie's hospitality and extremely comfortable spare bed andnot forgetting their adorable dogs, Lady and Roco, or just that recognising so much of LA from the movies and seeing it for real was exciting, we both fell in love with LA. But as with all journeys, you have to move on at some time.