LA la Land is covered in tin foil…

So after much excitement and a little sadness of Disneyland we make our way to West Hollywood in Los Angeles.

We arrive at the hotel and check in to the very rude shock of a $500 authorisation required for "incidentals". Not only that, but the authorised limit increases each time to charge something to the room such as eating at the in house restaurant. So you have to ask "WHAT THE HELL IS THE $500 FOR?!?!" That aside the hotel is nice and the location great, but I would never stay there again due to the financial screw up they did (including charging our credit card for a second $500 without our knowledge or consent!).

West Hollywood is a great little area with some interesting clubs, and a few good places to eat, including the Abbey which we only found the day before we left.

My major issue with LA is, unless you are fully into the Hollywood scene including celebrity hunting & TMZ there is very little to really see or do. On our first day in LA we took the tour bus from Hollywood; where we saw Spiderman & Darth Vader among others; and 90% of the info on the tour was related to Stars and Films, very little was about the history of the city.

A few of the more interesting things that we did whilst there were to visit the Tar Pitts, LA Museum of Contemporary Art (LA MOCA), The Wall Project; which is ten sections of the Berlin Wall on display to the public; Walt Disney Concert Hall, Cocktails at the Westin Hotel revolving lounge overlooking the skyline of LA at night and even caught a screening of Immortals in 3D, which was not a bad flick.

We did reserve one day in LA to visit the Universal Studios theme park, where we rode the Simpsons ride, Revenge of the Mummy & Jurassic Park. We also took the Studio Back Lot tour which included the new King Kong 3D show (very cool!), and it was very interesting to see where some to the most famous films and shows were filmed and the sets used. About half way through the day at the theme park I was feeling that it was a little… lame. However, I started to think it through and realised that all the rides in Universal Studios are based around the technology that they know and do best; sight, sound & special effects. You see, almost all of the rides are indoors, including the only "real" roller coaster in the park, so once I shifted my thinking I realised that it was really pretty good, but you do need to understand that you are not going to be getting a Disneyland of Six Flags experience.

Our last day in LA was a bit of a mixed bag of experiences, beginning with a trip to the Annenberg Space for Photography, one of America's most important photography centres. One of my main reasons for coming to America was to see as much of their fantastic photographic works as I could in such a short time, and I was really excited to be visiting this home of some brilliant photographic art. Fate, it would seem, had a different journey for us, as the Annenberg was closed! Now I know what you're thinking; those dizzy queens haven't bothered to check the days its open, but we did! It turns out that the gallery was closed due to prepping for their upcoming exhibit to open on Dec 17. It would have been really good for them to update their website to notify the public. Grrrr…

But all was not lost. This gave us the time to go out to the other side of LA and visit a few private photography galleries, including one that was exhibiting works from Bob Gruen; famous for his backstage rock music artists photographs; and Terry O'Neill for his celebrity photographic portrait works. After taking in these great art works it was time for some trash. So we walked down to Pink's Hot Dogs. Pink's Hot Dogs is "world famous" for their many different types of dogs on offer. While these dogs get a huge celebrity endorsement, are they really that great? In short, no.

Overall, I was left feeling underwhelmed by the city of angels and I have to say I probably would never go back unless there was some specific reason for doing so, like going back to Disneyland! Please, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my time there, I just wasn't impressed. I did find it really disappointing that a city that was on the forefront of the photographic movement in America in the 60's & 70's and had such a huge impact on the art form itself, had such a limited selection of photographic art available to view or celebrate.

Next, we drive up the coast and the 101 to San Francisco…