All the way to LA

After such a gloriously sunny day the one before, we woke up on Thursday morning and put on summer outfits ready to hit the hotel breakfast. Upon opening the door though, it was about 10 degrees cooler than our hotel room and the fog had rolled back in. D'oh!! So we went to breakfast where there was a machine where you could make your own waffles which Ryan mastered with ease. After a quick brekky and then changing back into warmer clothes, we checked out and hit the road. Destination, L.A.!

The weather on the first part of the drive was very patchy - thick fog one minute then sunny blue skies the next. This part of the drive was more inland so instead of ocean views there were rolling hills and mountains and endless fields farming all kinds of things. We could see huge amounts of crops of capsicums (or peppers as they would say) with thousands of red, orange and yellow peppers that had just fallen off the crops, ready for the bunch of people out there with baskets to collect them all. Now that's a lot of salsa verde!

 

We stopped into Santa Barbara, a large seaside town which had a lot of spanish architecture (which I love) and even more palm trees (which I also love). But it was cool and overcast and so our walk along the pier was not entirely pleasant, so after a brief visit to Santa Barbara, we pushed onto Malibu where we hoped the weather would be slightly better. So another hour or so on the road and the fog did subside, but Malibu, which is a huge stretch along the coast with lots of mansions perched on the hill, was still a bit overcast. We stopped into Duke's for lunch, a Hawaiian-style grill place and I had some pretty yummy fish tacos while Ryan had some fish and chips. 

Cloudy and cool in Santa Barbara

Pretty much as soon as we left Malibu, the sun came out, and it was all blue skies (with a touch of smog) for the rest of the day! It wasn't far until LA and thanks to the trusty iPhone we safely navigated our way along the freeways and boulevards of LA, past Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, to our hotel in West Hollywood, Le Montrose Suites. And a pretty cool hotel it was! The room was huge and looked over the palm trees of West Hollywood, and there was a rooftop pool area with a view over most of LA. So after settling into the room and chilling out for a bit, we got dressed up for a night on the town and walked up to nearby Sunset Boulevard. Famous clubs such as the Viper Room and Whiskey A-Go Go were within 5 minutes walking distance from our hotel. Up the road we stopped into Shiro Kuro (meaning Black and White), a cool-looking Japanese tapas bar that was, not surprisingly, all black and white. We had a drink and some tofu in meat sauce as well (not quite a vegetarian dish then I guess). Heading further up Sunset Boulevard we were early for our dinner that I'd booked at trendy Katana, so we stopped in for another drink at the nearest bar we could see which was over the road at House of Blues. We needed wristbands to get in, and the drinks were about double the price of everywhere else we'd been, so we weren't really quite sure what the deal was with that place (although 2 nights later we saw a queue to get in there that wound around the block, so I think it must be a pretty popular live music venue).

Leaving the clouds of Malibu to LA with Santa Monica in the distance

View from our hotel room

So it was finally time for dinner at Katana, an uber trendy supposed Hollywood hotspot which I found online (and which I also just read is where Brad Pitt threw some big party for Jennifer Aniston which must have been nearly a million years ago). Anyway, after passing two separate bouncers/maitre'd  types who asked for our names (even though they didn't have a list) and then nodded us in (what - they had memorised the night's guest list?!), we were in! The restaurant looked pretty nice - set up in a big grand-looking sandstone building with lots of sleek decor. The place was buzzing and we were seated out on a patio by staff which were surprisingly not snobby at all (they can't afford to be when they live off tips I guess). So we got comfortable and ordered a sake tasting flight (3 samples of different sake types) and a bunch of small plates to share including a sashimi tasting plate, salmon carpaccio with truffle oil and a bunch of skewer things which are the specialty of this "robata grill", like shitake stuffed with minced chicken, chicken cartilage (Ryan's choice) and jumbo shrimp wrapped in bacon with chilli garlic sauce. It was all pretty tasty, but to be honest Toko and Tokonoma in Sydney are just as good if not better (although the costs are about the same with the current Aussie dollar). So after Katana it was pretty late so we strolled back down Sunset Blvd to our hotel and slumped into bed after a long day!