Hollywood/L.A. – American Roadtrip Honeymoon

We set off through the desert on our way to L.A., by now following the legendary Route 66 (I15), and came across this awesome place called Peggy Sue’s 50s Diner! It’s full of memorabilia, and has a diner section and a shop with loads of retro stuff for sale. Definitely worth the stop! We picked up a Kirk/Spock salt and pepper set for a friend’s birthday and had some really good food before getting back on the road.

The Mojave Desert is actually full of scrub and not at all like the sand dunes of the Sahara, but it is definitely very hot and we were glad of the air con. We passed places we’d heard of, like Baker (showing how hot it was with the biggest thermometer in the world), and others we hadn’t, like Zzyzx. Yeah. We were pretty sure the sign makers were just having an off day on that one, but it definitely exists.

We were feeling pretty tired by this point. Katherine was dozing in the passenger seat and I was trying to stay focussed on the road (it had been the other way around earlier in the day), but as we got closer to L.A. I got a bit of a waking up. The freeways around L.A. are a crazy, 6 lane wide, adrenaline pumping nightmare. At least, the first time you drive on them they are. I had the freeway scene from The Matrix Reloaded in my mind as huge cars and lorries weaved in and out of traffic, and was glad when we could get off!

We stayed in a hotel in Hollywood on Franklin Avenue, just north of Hollywood Boulevard. We wanted to be close to what we thought the main tourist attractions were, but it wasn’t quite the glamorous location we had expected. We went for a walk along Hollywood Blvd and saw the “Walk of Fame”, and to be honest, I can’t imagine anyone famous hanging around there for long. The Hollywood Heights shopping centre was nice enough though, adjoined to the Kodak Theatre where the Oscars are held. You can just about make out the Hollywood sign from the north side of it – during the day at least.