Day 142 - Santa Barbara to West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Time to move onto the next place for the last time today. We hit the road at around 11am to head to La La land, leaving the wonderful and beautiful Santa Barbara behind. We pick up a Starbies for the road and head South. The plan is to go along Pacific Coast Highway all the way to Santa Monica with a stop off in Malibu along the way. 

More classic American scenes along the way...

The route back to LA is lovely. It has to be one of the most scenic coastal drives around with some truly amazing properties right on the beach. God knows what they would cost. 

Arriving in Malibu. 

The hills either side of the road are peppered with the most amazing homes all with panoramic views of the oceans and big decks and pools. Would not be a bad escape from the city for the weekend. 

One of the many beaches in Malibu, most of which are actually private. We see quite a few for sales signs which say "includes 30 ft of beach". Different world. I'd love to be able to say includes a second bedroom let alone 30ft of beach! 

A very true sign. 

Slotted a new BMW 4 series on the way. Looks really nice. 

We tried to find "the centre" of Malibu where we could stop and have a drink, preferably overlooking the ocean but couldn't find anywhere that was either public or didn't charge $30 valet which would be punchy for a couple of diet cokes. So we carried on down the coast and did manage to find a cool little coffee shop albeit in a shopping centre. 

It had loads of really cool surfing memorabilia and pictures over the wall 

AND a picture of a young idol - a young Arnie. 

After a very tasty smoothie we continue the short drive down the coast to Santa Monica where we left the coast to head towards West Hollywood. 

We head down Wiltshere Boulevard through Beverly Hills passing the Beverly Wiltshire and then turned down Rodeo Drive. 

I locked the doors on the car and put on the child locks so Nat couldn't jump out. 

We then head north to Sunset Boulevard. The mansions around here are just another level of wealth. Absolutely phenomenal. Like being in a scene of Fresh Prince of Bel Air. 

We finally arrive at our gorgous hotel - the Andaz. We have decided to go out with a bang and pimp it up here for the last four nights of our trip. 

The Andaz is a really cool hotel and actually has a lot of music history. Back in its day (not that it is passed its day by any stretch of the imagination now) it used to be a the Hotel Continental and as LA rose to be one of the leading places in the world for bands to play with the likes of Whisky's, Hollywoood Bowl and the Roxy, this hotel, the first 'high rise' on sunset quickly became THE place where bands and musicians used to stay. Jim Morrison himself actually lived here in 1966 before being evicted for hanging off a balcony by his fingertips. 

Then in 1967 the Hyatt took over and it became known as the "Riot Hyatt" and there are loads of legendary stories from the likes of Led Zep and the Stones who used to stay here which have since become "rock and roll' folklore such as Keith Richards throwing his TV from the hotel window and Robert Plant shouting "I am a golden god" from his balcony.

Nowadays the Andaz, which is one of the  newer hotels on sunset has stayed true to its rock past and created a similar sort of hotel to the Hard Rock. Very cool place. (Thanks to Jono for the recommendation). 

Although not happy with arriving to find out that parking is valet only and costs $35 per day. That's $140 down and I haven't even checked in yet!!

We head straight up to the roof top pool and order a nice Sierra Nevada. Fantastic views of LA from the great pool. Hello LA! Oh how we have missed you. 

Views up towards Chateau Marmomt. 

Not a bad view of some amazing houses up on the hill from our room either. 

That evening we have tickets for a televised Nirvana tribute act at Whisky a Go Go which meets two things high on the to do lost of visiting Whisky's to watch a gig and seeing Nirvana which for obvious reasons is no longer possible. This is the closest we will get. 

Whisky's is walking distance from our hotel so we head down there, past the house of blues and grab a subway on the way. 

Passing the Viper Room across the road. 

There she blows. Very excited!! Such a legendary place. 

The show kicks off at 8pm and is streamed live. The brand are absolutely brilliant, particularly the lead singer who eerily looks like Kurt Cobain and has perfected his mannerisms, getting them down to a T. Dave Grohl looks like he has let himself go though (and become a little but camp) and Krist Novoselic has become a hybrid of himself and Pat Smear who had been in a fight. 

Spitting image in the shades and white coat. 

The rip through a great set of pretty much all of their classics and nearly all the songs from Nevermind. 

The inside of Whisky's surprised us. It is a tiny venue. I was expecting it to be a lot bigger. It would have been phenomenal to see the Doors here or any of the countless famous acts that have made their names here. All the old fixtures and fitting are pretty much as they were. 

 

The host who we think looked like an 80s Gemma Stokes!

After a five min break (yes surprisingly only five mins for an American TV show - I am sure there were more for the viewers at home) they come back on, this time Kurt look a like donning the famous black and red striped jumper. 

Naturally they finish on Smells Like Teen Spirit and Kurt-a-like really gets into character smashing up his guitar at the end. Pretty awesome. 

They then play a few more songs for us once the show has finished including some of their grungier stuff and do a fantastic version of School. NO RECESS!!

Portrait of Mojo Risin on the wall with an aptly places bottle of Whisky. 

After the show me and Nat get interviewed for the show - need to try and dig this out. The channel is called AXS TV. We were so lucky we got this week and not the Abba tribute next week!!

We then head next door to a superb bar called Rock and Reiley where we end up spending the rest of the night. They have a karaoke on which in this part of LA is literally open mic night for budding singing professionals. There were some fantastic acts and as per usual there were no shy retiring types. Most were out into the middle of the room really working the crowd. 

Me and my homies singing 50 Cent 21 Questions. These guys were hilarious and looked proper gangster!

If anyone wants to put money in Nat's meter you can have her for 30 mins for $5. Bargain. 

At around midnight we head back towards the hotel passing Whisky's on the way. 

Love sunset. Such a cool street. 

On the way we pass my favourite breakfast place in all of America - Mel's Drive Thru and can't resist a bagel as a cup of tea before bed. So rock and roll. Nat is even more rock and roll going for the chicken soup. 

Had to take this for Karl and Gem as this is where we met them five years ago on our honeymoon when Karl pulled up in his red convertible mustang. Good times. 

We then head back to the hotel satisfied with being out past midnight!

Surprisingly the Daily Mail online is advertising quite heavily out here. Pretty good adverts as well although they appear to be ripping off the Economist - but at least they are true to form of nothing original coming out of this paper!