LA in two days

Molly Newborn

With the recession in full force, travel is a luxury fewer and fewer of us can consider. This past holiday season I opted to stay home in Los Angeles, which has an average of 263 sunshine days a year. Many of my travelling friends passed through our little house, nestled in the Hollywood Hills, to explore the City of Angels. Five of them visited us, each for no more than two days.

How could I show my friends this massive and sprawling 1,291-km² city in just two days? We would hit only the must-see attractions – in a very sporty car, a rental of course.

Many people don’t equate LA with beautiful hikes, but the locals take full advantage of them. The trendiest hike in LA might just be the one in Runyon Canyon Park, located in the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains, in the celebrity-rich Hollywood Hills. The easiest and shortest hiking trail opens in the centre of the hills on Mulholland Drive and takes you through breathtaking views of the city from the Pacific Ocean to downtown, about 30 kilometers away.

We zipped through the hills and down Lauren Canyon Blvd., which used to be (and still is, to some extent) the heart of counterculture activity in the 1960s. The street twists and turns down the hill, passing the former houses of legends like Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Wilson, Cass Elliot and Neil Young. It is rumoured that in the late ’60s Jim Morrison lived just behind the Canyon County Store. Not to be missed is the Houdini mansion, which is said to be haunted by Houdini himself.

The Griddle Café on Sunset and Fairfax is where the locals go to see and be seen. A line forms on Sunset Blvd. as early as 9 am on the weekends with people eager for the café’s trademark gigantic buttermilk pancakes. Gluttony is the trend in this diner-style Hollywood breakfast joint. Epic portions are served by gorgeous actors – oops, I mean waiters. The “Yellow Brick Road” pancakes, filled with butterscotch, caramel, and walnuts, are a crowd favourite, while I always enjoy the Chocolate Chip Cookie Crusted French Toast, filled with cookie dough and sprinkled unsparingly with cookie crumbs.

Strolling down Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica

The Hollywood sign is one of Los Angeles’ most famous landmarks. On a clear day it is visible all the way from the beach. We drove up Beachwood Canyon into the winding streets with several “No Access to the Hollywood Sign” signs that seem to be put up just to confuse and deter the tourists. From up close the Hollywood sign looks surprisingly small.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame at Hollywood Blvd. and Vine was next. The walk, with 2000 blank stars embedded in it, was formed in 1953 as part of a Hollywood “facelift.” Now those stars are filled with the names of celebrities, in honour of their contributions to the entertainment industry. Some of the most visited stars are those of the Beatles, Mickey Mouse and Britney Spears.

The Walk of Fame took us to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. The theatre is nice, but the real reason tourists flock there is to find out how their hands and feet compare to those of their favourite celebrities. The forecourt holds about 200 sets of handprints, footprints and autographs, along with such prints as George Burns’s cigar and Whoopi Goldberg’s dreads. Some of my favourites are the prints belonging to Shirley Temple, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe and ’60s heartthrob Paul Newman.

We bought a Map of the Stars for $6 in a souvenir store along Hollywood Blvd. In my five years in LA I had never seen one before. The map not only indicated famous celebrity houses, but also

locations of famous celebrity scandals, landmarks and even burials. How exciting to find out that William Shatner is my neighbour!

Catching a wave

Next, we drove down Sunset into Beverly Hills. We felt like paparazzi as we took photos of Ringo Starr’s house, Madonna’s house, the Playboy mansion and, of course, the public restroom in Will Rogers Memorial Park where singer George Michael was arrested in 1998 for performing a “lewd act” in front of an undercover policeman – always a crowd favourite.

On Day 2 we headed west. Our first stop was Rodeo Drive, the epicentre of luxury fashion. It spans three blocks from Santa Monica to Wilshire. We began at Santa Monica, hitting Crumbs to indulge in the trendiest treat to hit LA since frozen yogourt – cupcakes. A stroll along the street and you’ll rub shoulders with Louis Vuitton, Roberto Cavalli and Yves Saint Laurent. Make your way south and you’ll end up at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel where Julia Roberts worked her magic on Richard Gere in the penthouse suite in Pretty Woman. The $5 hot chocolate at the hotel’s patio café is worth every dollar as you watch the hotel guests return with their Gucci and Prada shopping bags.

West of Beverly Hills, just past UCLA, on a hilltop off Sunset Blvd. with one of the most spectacular views of the city is the Getty Center – a free museum filled with paintings, sculptures and decorative arts. The building is a work of art in itself. It is an architectural landmark made from travertine imported from Italy. Vincent Van Gogh’s Irises is one of the museum’s most famous possessions.

We then drove west to the ocean. Venice Beach, aka Muscle Beach, is a tourist hot spot famed for its circus-like boardwalk filled with street performers, fortune-tellers and tattoo parlours. I, however, opted for a more relaxing walk down Ocean Ave. in Santa Monica.