Almost time to go home

Santa Monica Pier

This was our last day in the United States, we are scheduled to fly home tomorrow!  At first, only our overseas flight was going and there was talk of how we would get from London to Glasgow to pick up our car.  But today we were told that British Airways, who are on strike at the moment, have arranged for us to fly with British Midland to get us home.  How nice! 

The weather was very foggy and dismal this morning so Alan suggested going on a bus tour, it had three loops we could go on - catching the yellow loop at the pier, go to Rodeo Drive to catch the red loop and catch the blue loop at Hollywood Blvd to go into Universal Studios.  Although I had looked forward to just hanging out at the beach, the weather convinced me to do the bus tour instead.

Before going on the tour, we ate breakfast at IHOP.  I noticed that the senior special was for anyone over the age of 55, so I got it!  French toast and bacon!

On the bus tour one thing we learned is that the original movie studios were actually located at Santa Monica!  This was during the silent movie era.  At this time, they were dependent upon the weather to be sunny for decent lighting in their movies.  The studios realized early on that Santa Monica's weather is very different than Los Angeles itself.  They moved the studios to Los Angeles as a result.  And we learned this first hand on the bus!  Chilly, foggy and dull in Santa Monica versus sunny and hot in Los Angeles!  This found us on the top of a double decker bus for 4 hours, in brilliant sunshine during the most dangerous time of day, applying sun block regularly so we did not fizzle away!

The tour was very interesting, when you could hear the monologue telling us about where we were.  These buses had taped information and were not dependent on guides like they were in San Fransisco.  We saw where Ally McBeal was filmed, the shopping mall where a scene from Terminator 2 was filmed, the beach where Bay Watch was filmed (actually Santa Monica!) and loads of other places.  We also went by the Chinese theater, the church where Elizabeth Taylor got married the first time and even went by the cemetary where Tyrone Power is buried. Since we stayed in his room at Parry Lodge, I felt I should really make a note of where he is buried!

Unfortunately, we messed up our transfer from the red loop to the blue loop and got back on the red loop bus!  It was part of the loop we had not done, but it caused us to miss Universal Studios, which was what we really wanted to do! 

I didn't watch Bay Watch enough, but they said these were the lifeguard stations they used.

So we made the best of the situation and returned to Santa Monica.  Since it had been a long time from breakfast, we decided to get something to eat.  We found a great little burger bar right at the edge of the pier, called Carousel Cafe.  They had everything from corn dogs to salmon burgers. I got a corn dog and enjoyed every bite.  I think these are for kids, but I just love them! 

While we were eating, we could hear a loud crash and "splat" every so often, followed by applause. We investigated this and it was a lone skateboarder trying to jump about 6 stairs.  He kept crashing very impressively, but I could not watch more than a few times because he never made it and always landed in a way that looked very painful!

Since I consider myself to be a Florida girl, it is impossible to be this close to a beach and not stick my toes in!  So I did go down to the beach, close to the surfers of course!  And walked in so the waves hit me just below the knees.  That water was cold, but the sand was warm and it was a really good feeling!

Just as you get onto the pier, there is a big carousel, and this is the one Paul Newman ran in the movie "The Sting".

We wandered to the Third Street Promenade after this to do some last minute shopping before meeting at Barns and Nobel book store. The perfect place to meet, so no one had to sit around and wait!  Nothing like a good bookstore! 

Jim and Jennifer had the responsibility to find a place for us to eat dinner and Yankee Doodles was their choice.  and it was a good one!  another sports bar, but we sat outside so we could still be part of the promenade.  We each got starters so we could get desert!  They all got nachos, even Alan!  But I am intolerant of cumin so I got a spinach and artichoke dip instead.  Then we got New York cheesecake with chocolate sauce. Sounds disgusting, but it was really good!

These beautiful trees are all over LA, but I don't know what they are

Came back to the hotel to pack. One thing about moving about so much the past 15 days is that our packing is pretty much under control.  I don't think it took more than 15 minutes to get it all organized and we are not overweight (in our bags at least!).

Since we will be flying tomorrow, I probably will miss a few days since there won't be much to say,  that is what we hope anyway!

"Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster."  Theodore Roosevelt