Our final day in Los Angeles was upon us, and with a late evening flight to come, we had the whole day to enjoy.
We had a lazy morning, starting with a trip to a local Greek cafe - Heather and I enjoyed some breakfast burritos (inexplicably not gyros!) and got chatting of the staff, turns out he’d previously lived in Durham! Perhaps he doesn’t live in as picturesque a place these days but certainly gets better weather!
A quick trip back to the hotel to pack our bags and check out before heading to the Metro. Los Angeles has a weekly spending cap of $18 on all underground and buses, we hit this total yesterday so we spent the day reaping the benefits of free travel!
Our first destination of the day was the Academy Awards museum, just before we entered I jokingly suggested to Heather that we would be in the museum far longer than we’d expected - I was proven correct!
The museum was really interesting, it gave a deep history of Hollywood, filmmaking, and the awards themselves (yes, that Will Smith slap was mentioned…) My favourite part was the sound mixing, using the iconic boulder temple escape scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark they demonstrated how the different layers of sound (dialogue, footsteps, sound effects, soundtrack) were all created and added one at a time.
After we left the museum much later than planned, we headed to the centre of Beverly Hills and I quickly learned why there’s a TV show there called 90210, it’s the postcode! Heather and I strolled along the famous Rodeo Drive past all of the luxury stores (think Julia Roberts’ shopping spree in Pretty Woman). It was very strange to see each shop fenced off and guarded, but you know when nothing in the window has a price, you’re going to be ripped off!
Leaving Beverly Hills we caught a bus to head towards the deep dish pizza restaurant recommended to us yesterday. Unfortunately by that point, the rush hour had hit and we were stuck in traffic, but it was a comfortable air conditioned vehicle and gave Heather chance to have a quick nap!
Arriving at the restaurant we were quickly “warned” that we’d have to wait 45 minutes for deep dish pizza, they’ve clearly never enjoyed a meal back in Europe where you’d happily sit for hours and spend an evening in a restaurant! We ordered the smallest pizzas (10”) and were advised that we probably would be taking some away - they’ve not seen my appetite!
The pizzas were served and they were magnificent! Helped by the menu description of “Lots of cheese” I managed to bat my way through the whole pizza, although there was no room for dessert! Heather heeded my advice and avoided the super thick crusts, she tried a small sample and then left the rest to make the most of the inner filling. Impressively Heather managed to eat the filling of all the slices too!
We then grabbed our bags and headed to the airport ahead of another night flight, ready for Houston. The temperature of Texas is that of Cairo, but with the humidity of Seoul - hopefully Heather can hold out for the swansong of the trip…
