However, a shock was in store! On the Friday I had parked the hire car where I thought it was all right, and then left it there all weekend, while Tony and Nick drove us around. In fact, I had parked near a fire hydrant, but I thought it was all right, as there were no markings on the kerb, and it was the only available spot, and in any case, I wasn’t directly in front of the fire hydrant, I was about a foot away. We put all our stuff for the day into the boot, and I got into the driver’s seat. It was then I noticed the piece of paper stuck under the wiper, and my heart sank. "Oh shit, what’s this?" I said. I got out and took the piece of paper out from under the wiper. "We’ve got a parking ticket!" I groaned in disbelief. At that point, none of us could tell what the penalty was, or how much we had to pay. All these traps set by the Burbank Police Department for the unwary tourists! When we later returned to the apartment and told Tony and Nick, as it turned out, we were penalised for parking "within fifteen inches" of a fire hydrant, and the penalty? Thirty-five dollars! We would have no choice but to pay the fine - the hire company had my home address in England and would have sent me the bill plus an administration charge if I didn’t pay up. So for the sake of about three inches, it cost us $35, but Ian and Vince disputed that it was less than fifteen - before we had got in the car that morning, Ian, with his continuing obsession for fire hydrants, had taken a photo of the hydrant itself, and the car nearby, and ever since, we have been closely examining that photo, saying we’re sure it’s more than fifteen inches away! You can even see the parking ticket under the wiper before we even noticed it was there!
Well, feeling slightly miffed, we made our way back to Culver City - I managed to get straight onto the freeway this time, and got all the way there without a hitch. We found that the big event that we were missing was in fact the "Breakaway Brunch with the Stars", and that was it. We had already decided not to book tickets for that. By the look of things, a lot of people had in fact booked for it, so what would they get, we wondered, with more than thirty tables, and only about five or six stars? One course only with only one star? We had thought it would be quite an exclusive event, with only a limited number of places! So we decided we weren’t missing much. So, it was still only about eleven in the morning, and we decided to forget the rest of the con! The tiny dealer’s room wasn’t even open again for the Monday! There was only a "Charity Table" in the foyer, so while Vince looked at that, Ian and I looked at the maps and decided what to do for the rest of the day.
Marina Del Ray (of Quincy fame) looked not very far away, and Venice Beach was just above it, and so we decided to try there. We found our way to Marina Del Ray quite easily in fact, and we found a public car park and went inside. It was quite misty and cloudy down by the sea that morning, but we strolled along the marina, past luxury yachts and seabirds, taking photos. We worked our way back to the car, going in and out of the souvenir shops, mostly T-shirts and trinkets, so I didn’t buy anything here, but Ian did buy me another local delicacy on my list - a frozen, chocolate-coated banana, on a stick! Well, that was an experience! It was getting towards lunchtime, so we began to look at some of the restaurants, but they were mostly serving fish. We returned to the car, and drove the short way up the coast to Venice Beach. We parked the car on a beach car park this time, and by now it was glorious sunshine, glistening deep blue sea and golden sand as far as the eye could see!
We walked down a little street lined with restaurants and there were so many, we couldn’t make up our minds! While we were looking, a police car drew up and two policemen got out! Before I knew what was happening, Ian was saying, "excuse me, are you busy?" And I was thinking, "what on earth is he doing?" I was having enough brushes with the law for my liking and this was too close for comfort! But they smiled and one of them said, "why, do you want a picture?" seeing we were tourists with all the cameras. I got ready to take the photo, still not wanting to get any closer to the policemen. But the first one said to me, "do you want to get in the picture as well?" So the other one took the camera and I went and stood beside them for the photo. Once the picture had been taken, they went on their way - I think they were looking for a place to eat lunch as well!
In the end we settled for an Italian Trattoria, but the tables were outside, and we chose one next to a deliciously cool fountain. We were brought water to drink and little "garlic rolls", hard, crusty bread nuggets, coated with a garlic glaze, and these were delicious - very more-ish! I ordered pizza, which was one of the specials, and it wasn’t that big, but I just couldn’t eat it all - I only managed just over half, but I saw a lady at a table nearby have hers "to go" so I asked to do the same rather than waste it. Then, Ian and Vince decided to have dessert, so I was glad I didn’t totally fill myself up, as this was one of the only times we ate dessert on the whole holiday! Vince ordered a dessert he had wanted to try since seeing it on "The Sopranos", and not to be outdone, Ian had the same. I had my old favourite, Tiramisu. Then, feeling thoroughly full-up, we returned to the beach for a leisurely walk.
Venice Beach really was like something off a film or a T.V. show - like Baywatch! There were palm trees and beach houses, and lifeguard towers. The beach was practically deserted. There were a few people sunbathing, but not many! It was now out of season, and this being a weekday, all the local people were back at work. Ian and I went to stick our feet into the Pacific Ocean for a paddle, but Ian was caught by a vigorous wave and got his feet, his sandals (yes, sandals - I persuaded him to buy some of those trendy Velcro ones before we left), and the bottom of his jeans soaking wet! He was not impressed!
We walked along the sand, by the edge of the water. Then, some time later, we could see some souvenir shops, past some people playing basketball, and so we went over for a look. There were dozens of T-shirt shops, and people busking at the side of the promenade - one lady looked about eighty if she was a day, and you could pay for her to remove the robe she was wearing and see her in nothing but a bikini underneath! And one guy had several lizards, snakes, tarantulas and the like, so we made a quick getaway from there! In the end, after going in and out of many of the T-shirt shops, which all had very similar designs, but in different colours and styles, I managed to choose two I really liked. I bought a khaki one with palm trees and a turquoise one with embroidered, brightly coloured, fierce looking fish wearing an assortment of sunglasses! Well, it just appealed to me!
One of the highlights of the holiday was next. As we strolled back the way we had come, we noticed a crowd had gathered, and as we got closer, two tracksuit-clad guys with fake padded muscles were pretending to flex their muscles, and this was all being filmed by a film crew! One of the guys was Dana Carvey, and they were filming for a slot in the show "Saturday Night Live".
So Ian and Vince were well-chuffed - what a story to go back and tell the guys tonight, and everyone back home! Unfortunately they weren’t able to ask for his autograph, but it was exciting nevertheless! After we had finished watching, we returned to the car - it was time to start making our way back as I had to prepare dinner that evening - and it would probably take us nearly an hour to get back!
The journey back was uneventful, we managed to find our way back to
the freeway, and then the going was quite slow due to the heavy rush hour
traffic. Dinner that evening wasn’t a complete success! The meat sauce
was a bit too runny, and there wasn’t enough potato to cover it all, and
what potato there was sunk! But it still tasted good, and I’m sure Tony,
Nick and Lulu were slightly amused by the English cooking! They had certainly
never heard of eating the potato on top of the mince like that, and I think
Lulu in particular probably found it a little bland, being, as she is,
used to spicy Mexican food. She was dipping tortilla chips into hers! There
was a helping left over however, and Tony must have liked it, as he took
it into work the next day to reheat for his lunch. He said all his workmates
would be very interested in his "English food"!
We got back on the road, and a short time later it began to slope back downwards. There were "escape lanes" for "runaway trucks"! Eek! But luckily we didn’t come across any! We supposed we could put the air-conditioning back on - it was getting rather hot in the car! We saw a sign saying "Grapevine" just as the land began to flatten out, and I realised that Grapevine must be the district or village at the base of the steep incline on the return journey, from San Francisco to Los Angeles, which is the route Tony and Nick would have taken the very first time they went to L.A. So that’s why they had told us to look out for it! We soon saw a sign saying San Francisco, 296 miles. Oh dear. Tony had said to us it was "about 300 and something miles", but we had already done at least 60 miles by this time, and having travelled for over an hour and made one stop already, the news that it was another 296 miles to go was not welcome! Still, by this time the road was a lot less busy, very easy going, long and straight, and it had become only two lanes now, like one of our dual carriageways, except the opposite carriageway was further away than a central reservation and a crash barrier! There was just the odd truck to overtake, and these were fascinating - huge American style cabins and trailers - Ian thought they were really wicked! We saw trucks with fruit piled high, tomatoes and melons, and the trailers were just open to the air - I wondered how the fruit didn’t fall off! We also saw signs saying the speed limit (which was now 70 m.p.h. as we were out in the country) was aircraft enforced! However, the only aircraft we did see was in fact crop dusting, we think. In America, the measurements are still all imperial, miles, inches, pounds, ounces, and they have not the slightest interest in going metric! (Lulu had this giant paper sack of tortilla chips with "TWO POUNDS" printed on it!)
After another hour or so we were all getting peckish and so we pulled off at the next services. Even the service areas were massive! There was a choice of about five different petrol stations, several inns and hotels, restaurants and fast food places. We decided to eat in "Jack In A Box" as we hadn’t eaten there before. We collected our food and sat down, and we were just eating when Ian noticed a man standing in the queue with his family. He leaned across the table and said to Vince, in a quiet but excited voice, "Vince, hasn’t that guy been in T.V. shows? I’m sure he was in Galactica, and he was a biker guy in ‘Every Which Way But Loose’ and he’s been in loads of eighties T.V. shows!" Vince agreed it was him. "Shit", Ian said, "I left my Battlestar signed poster back at Tony’s apartment - I never thought we would run into anyone like this out here!" Well, the guy got burgers with his family and they all sat down at the table directly behind us! Ian and Vince could hardly contain themselves but all the while, they knew the worst thing they could have done was approach the guy while he was having a quiet meal with his family! However, shortly after, while his wife and teenage children were still eating, he got up and went outside onto the yard, to have a cigarette on his own. Ian thought, "it's now or never", and so he followed him out with Vince hot on his heels, and they discreetly approached him and politely said, "excuse me, I hope you don’t mind us asking, but weren’t you in Battlestar Galactica and some other T.V. shows", and the guy, who was big and tall with long, white hair and a beard laughed and said, "my - you must have been in diapers when that was out!" His name was John White, and he was really nice to talk to as it turned out. He was talking to us for a good twenty minutes, about his acting career, and how he was trying to get back into it, after an unsuccessful spell in politics. He had also been to England many times, and loved it, said his ancestors were Scottish (as did several other people we met during the holiday!), and he knew more about English history than we did! Eventually, his wife and children came up and said, "we’re going now, are you coming with us or not?" He just shouted back, "Honey, these people are from England!" In the end he went and got in the car however, but not before he had wished us an enjoyable rest of our holiday! So although Ian never did get his autograph, he had something even more special - the memory of meeting this guy in a fast food restaurant of all places, and talking with him for ages! They were on their way to Los Angeles.
Anyway, we got back on the road, still in disbelief at the famous people we kept finding! A few more miles / hours went by, and then we went past something which, to be honest, we could smell before we saw it, a huge expanse of cattle which went on for miles, and the tan-coloured cattle were literally packed in shoulder to shoulder - it was a most unbelievable sight, and smell! Too late, we switched off the air-conditioning for a few minutes.
We made a couple more stops, at a McDonald’s for an afternoon drink (I had another McFlurry with honeycomb bits), and shortly after at another service area to get some more petrol! We must have gone about 300 miles by this time - and these pumps were a lot easier to operate - I even paid with my switch card into an automated payment machine! We went past a few miles of land dedicated to wind turbines, hundreds of them, generating electricity, and then Ian spotted a sign at the side of the road saying "Target" at an area of shops and houses we were travelling through. We knew Target was a massive superstore which we all wanted to look at, and so we got off the freeway at the next exit and came back one junction. We were now about 35 miles away from San Francisco itself, and this place was called Livermore, and as we could see there were several inns about we decided we would call it a day for travelling. There would be plenty of time later to book ourselves into an inn for the night (it was getting on for 6.00 p.m.), so we headed straight for the Target store.
Well, what a treasure trove this was! The store was situated in a parade
of other shops - there was a Mervyns (clothes), K-B Toys, several Toiletry
/ Chemists type shops, and an enticing looking Craft and Leisure store
that I was determined to look in before we left. But first we went in Target,
and it was huge! There were clothes, shoes, books, C.D.s, accessories,
toiletries and cosmetics, and food, oh and toys, and housewares - it was
wonderful! I could have spent hours in there alone! I spent ages looking
at all the nail polish colours (and wowing at the prices - so cheap!),
while Ian and Vince were looking at the toys.
However, all I bought at this time was the "Oreo" cereal I had been
desperate to try, and some cinnamon flavoured Tic-tacs. Vince decided to
drop his camera films here for developing, so I knew we would be coming
here again on the way back. Then, while Ian and Vince headed straight for
K-B Toys, I wandered in and out of the other shops, looking in Mervyns,
and savouring the moment when I would go into the Craft store at the end
of the parade. Ian and Vince were still nowhere to be seen, and so in I
went. It was like Hobbycraft with aisle after aisle of beautiful things,
but of course they were all different to what I had seen before. There
were even Christmas things out already! But the most interesting things
for me were some wonderful doll’s house kits, and what prices! I was really
tempted - but there was no way I could have got something like that home!
They were less than half of what we might pay for an equivalent house over
here, but they were quite heavy - so the postage would have more than likely
been astronomical. What a shame! The styles were different, too - it seems
to be that American doll’s house collectors prefer the houses to open at
the back, not the front of the houses like ours. Even Ian tried to
convince me to buy one, but I was sure there was no way to get it home.
Something to think about, though for a future visit?
Having exhausted ourselves and all the shops, it was now getting on for 7:30 to 8 o’ clock, so we thought we’d better go and find ourselves an inn, and then somewhere for dinner, in that order. By this time it was dark, however, and the streets were not that well-lit, but I was certain that the inns I had seen as we arrived were across the bridge, on the other side of the freeway, so that’s the way we headed. Well, this was the beginning of a nightmare. We could see the signs for several inns lit up from a distance away, but trying to actually find our way to them by road in the dark was entirely another matter! When we managed to find the first one, we enquired about the price, to be told it was $55.00 each! This seemed a bit steep, so we decided to try somewhere else. We could see "Holiday Inn" lit up not far away, just across a car park and some waste ground, but could we find the road to it? Could we heck! We spent several more minutes driving around, through a housing estate, around the back of where we had been, trying to get to it. In desperation I tried one last little lane we hadn’t been down, which didn’t look as if it went anywhere, certainly not to the Holiday Inn, it was merely marked with a little arrow, but lo and behold, it actually did take us right up to the Holiday Inn! I despaired at the complete and utter lack of adequate signposts and street lighting! In we went, only to be told that they were absolutely fully booked! I implored the receptionist to try and find us somewhere for the night, and they even phoned Holiday Inn Express in a neighbouring town, but they were full as well! We had to keep looking, and so we went back down the little lane, trying to find another inn we had seen on our way in. We couldn’t find our way to that one either, so we headed back across the bridge towards the main town, thinking there must be some more inns that way. We saw a couple of what looked more like motels, but one looked like it was totally closed, all in darkness. We went back across the bridge, determined to find that other one, and this time, across some really confusing traffic lights, and down another small road, we managed to find our way in. Only to find they too, were full up! We couldn’t believe our rotten luck! We began to wish we hadn’t spent so much time shopping - we should have made a place to stay for the night the top priority, but we seriously never expected everywhere to be full up like this, on a Monday night! It was now between 8:30 and 9:00 p.m. and we were starting to panic! We sat in the car, considering our options. We didn’t think it was a good idea to go further towards San Francisco itself - we would just as likely get lost. We would prefer to find one of the freeway stops, but I was certain that the ones we had seen with many inns we quite some distance back. Then we remembered that the freeway had split some short way back, and one route carried on all the way North, towards Sacramento. Figuring that it was likely there was more services to be found on that route, we got back on the freeway and headed back the way we had come. We were all really tired, worried and hungry by this time, but we had to keep going. We took the other freeway when we reached the junction, and shortly after 9.00 we found another town, quite brightly lit this time. We could see what looked like a large out of town mall with inns and restaurants adjacent to it a short distance away, but to make sure we could find the way to it, we went inside a petrol station and asked them how to get to it. They looked at us rather puzzled as to why we wanted to get to the mall at this time of night, but they explained we needed to go back towards the freeway and turn right just before it. We found the way there without further ado and there was a choice of two, brand new, beautiful inns, opposite each other. We went into the "Fairfield Inn" (part of Marriott Hotels), and looking tired, bedraggled and dejected, asked if they had any rooms. Well, this was a most welcome port in a storm at last! The young man on reception was pleasant and friendly - they had plenty of rooms, only $65.00 per room - we weren’t about to argue now, but that was certainly affordable, and well worth it considering the place was bright, clean, new, and comfortable. There was even a swimming pool, had I brought my costume, or had the energy for that matter! "There’s freshly baked cookies and coffee over there, help yourselves, hey, have you guys eaten?" asked the young man. We replied that we hadn’t, and he said, "there’s I.H.O.P. just over there, that’s a really nice place to eat". So we collected our room keys and without stopping to drop off our stuff or even look at the rooms, we almost ran across the field like area between the hotels and the I.H.O.P. We didn’t even know what I.H.O.P. was however! We went inside, and at about twenty minutes to ten, we just had time before they closed at ten to order some food. We were starving! I ordered a "country-fried steak" which was a thin steak dipped in batter and fried. I was so hungry I would have eaten just about anything but it was really delicious. I.H.O.P. stands for "International House of Pancakes" we found out, and decided there and then that we would be there for breakfast the next morning as well!
Having filled ourselves up at last, we strolled back to the hotel - able to relax and not panic, now. We collected our bags from the car and went back inside. The young man on reception was now watching television in the resident’s lounge, but he leaned back on his chair as we staggered through reception with all our luggage and said, "did you guys like I.H.O.P.?" and we replied gratefully that we did, very much. "Come and have some coffee and cookies when you’ve dumped your bags!" he said. What a wonderful place - we were so glad to have found it! The rooms were really nice, so clean and new, and the pool looked so inviting, but we returned to reception and had some of those delicious cookies and hot chocolate, before collapsing into our beds.