A Birthday, Boobs and Beaches

We arrived in Santa Monica really late and got straight to sleep for a full day ahead of us the next day. This was the day I had been planning for - James' birthday. The morning got off to a great start with coffee and birthday presents, mission accomplished - James loved his watch!

We headed down to Venice Beach at around 10am and found a place to rent bicycles, rollerblades, cruisers and who knows what else. It cost $10 each to hire a bicycle for an hour and we are so glad we went with that option. The sun was blazing down on us and thinking we could walk along the promenade was rather ambitious. There really would be no excuse to be out of shape if you lived near Venice Beach, the whole beach looks like it is catered for exercise. There were so many people jogging, cycling, rollerskating and using other contraptions to get in shape. Venice Beach is an eclectic mix of smoke shops, t-shirt stalls, tattoo parlours and bohemia. We got to the end of the promenade and realised we missed Muscle Beach.

Luckily we could make a stop on our way back and Im glad we did. It was really cool to see but I can only imagine how hot those guys must get lifting weights in the baking sun like they do. It costs $10 per day. I only say that 'cos I thought it was free, I guess they need to pay someone to wipe down the equipment. Trust me on that one.

Once our hour was up we headed back to the car to go and get some 'birthday brunch' in Malibu. We found a place called Marmalade Cafe. Lucky for us they served breakfast until 3pm, so we got to finally have a breakfast worthy of such a birthday and it went down a treat. After taking a look around we saw everyone else was eating salad. James and I were the only ones with a hearty plate of eggs, bacon, potatoes and toast. They do have an amazing variety of salads in most places in the states, even McDonalds can offer a chicken salad with berries and walnuts.

The strange thing about visiting L.A is you feel like you are constantly on the look out for a 'celebrity'' - funny thing is, it looks like everyone else does it too. Some people walk into places looking around hoping to be noticed. It kept us entertained and it felt a lot like some parts of Johannesburg.

Malibu is cool - if you live there. Every road we wanted to turn down to explore was gated off to non-residents. This pretty much leaves you with one road to go on which is the freeway. After searching a little longer we found one road we could go down and on our way out of the road James spotted a pair of girls tanning topless. Nice! Happy Birthday James!

We hadn't booked any accommodation for ourselves but had an idea on where to stay. A friend of ours recommended The Grafton on Sunset Boulevard. This was a pretty cool hotel and we got a free upgrade to a room by the pool. Faaaabulous!!! We sat by the pool and enjoyed a Spiced Gold and coke, for those of you who don't know, this is James's favourite drink. We searched the net for a suitable birthday dinner and found a place called "Ago". This is Robert DeNiro's restaurant, they serve classic italian cuisine and it was delicious just really simple classic tastes. I saw Stephanie Pratt known from the reality show The Hills walk into the restaurant. It was noticeable 'cos she took a walk around the whole restaurant before deciding on a table in the far corner. As we finished up our evening another celebrity walked in but James and I cant think what his name is or what he is known for, we just recognised him.

After dinner we headed back to our hotel to enjoy a nightcap at the pool. Another Spiced Gold and coke at the pool on Sunset Boulevard to finish off a great birthday.

We checked out of our hotel, another day another dollar and we headed for the Hollywood sign. We took a slight detour and enjoyed a take away from Wendy's - another burger joint. They had the most amazing iced tea and it was massive! I ordered a medium which Im sure was about a litre of iced tea.

Hollywood sign done, picture taken, NEXT. We then drove down to see the "Walk of Fame". Parking was scarce and the walk of fame is soooo long. It was also really busy - you could easily spend about 3 hours looking at all the star's names. After the walk of fame was Rodeo Drive. This was cool to see. Its not that long at all and you don't see anyone go in or out of a store to buy anything. It is lined with the likes of Chanel, Cartier, Juicy Couture and Gucci. Still no celebrity in sight! The traffic in L.A is really congested 24/7 which is why up next was The Grove. This was a really luxurious shopping centre. The had a tram within the shopping centre and 80% of the stores are outside with gardens and fountains in the centre of the stores. James and I shopped up a storm, my second visit to Victoria's Secret. I could buy everything in that store only because it isn't available in the UK or SA. I had to point out the photos to James of our very own gorgeous Candice Swanepoel - Victoria's Secret model, born and bred in South Africa, Kwa-Zulu Natal to be specific. Go SA!

After The Grove we headed to Caffe Roma for one last attempt at a celebrity sighting and some great italian food. Prior to our holiday I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger being papped on two different occasions eating at this restaurant. Only arriving at 3.30pm I knew our chances were slim. The food was great and a perfect pit-stop before our five hour drive to Las Vegas. We didn't see Arnie (sad face) but as we walked out Jake Gyllenhaal passed us. Thats as good as it was going to get and we needed to hit the road!! Bye Jake x