La La Land

The day began with a geeky location spotting tour for naughties American teen drama 'The OC'. Thankfully both Kate and I were big fans so were equally excited when we found the diner the gang used to hang out in and the corresponding Pier in Redondo Beach.

From there we headed to Tinseltown to see the infamous Hollywood Boulevard. I had a slight lump in my throat when I glimpsed the Hollywood sign for the first time in the smoggy distance. It's the first time I've seen it for real since I started dreaming about being a big filmmaker. It certainly didn't mean quite the same to me when I was 9 which was the last time I was here.

It has to be said, Hollywood Boulevard is a dive. It got off to a bad start as one of the first stars I happened across was for Donald (not Duck) and I was a tad outraged. The streets are swarming and generally lined with tacky merchandise and badly dressed up movie characters. However, it had to be done and there was a big change of heart when we reached the TCL Chinese Theatre and saw all the hand and foot prints of stars gone by. That moved me somewhat - especially seeing some of the greats such as Jimmy Stewart and Harold Lloyd.

We attempted to watch the sunset from Griffith Observatory but it seemed the rest of LA had the same idea so we glumly retreated to our next Air BnB, dropped off the car and got ourselves ready to join our 'Trek America' tour to the Grand Canyon in the morning.

Looking forward to returning to LA on Saturday night for my self-indulgent studio tours and long awaited trip to Disney. Til then. Sorry for the lack of photos - most of them are on the big camera today!Read more