Our USA Adventure - Days 63 to 66 - Santa Barbara, Malibu, The Getty Villa, Santa Monica, Venice Beach, Hollywood

Seals on the beach near Carpinteria

We weren’t going far on Sunday, so posted the last blog before we left Santa Barbara, to head just down the coast to Ventura where we were going out on a boat to the Channel Islands, not to land, but to go on a wildlife watching trip. We stopped on the way to look at a rookery of seals on the beach, there was a nest of them and a nest of pelicans but they weren’t talking! Glad we stopped and saw them, because apart from some sea lions on the harbour and a few seals ‘porpoising’ alongside the boat, that was it. No whales, no dolphins, no orca, who had apparently frightened everything else off. We still enjoyed it, and were the only ones hardy enough to remain outside for the whole journey as it was not very warm! We arrived at our accommodation, where, for some reason, he upgraded us. Well that’s what he said, it did have a kitchenette, with an oven, but without knowing this in advance we hadn’t brought anything to cook. It also had three double beds, which is excessive by anyone’s standards, with nowhere to put our luggage, let alone if there had been more of us!

There were lots of seals (on the left) and lots of Pelican's (on the right), but on separate parts of the beach

Saw this little guy scratching around in the sand

Tuesday, again we weren’t going far. Santa Monica, to tick off some of the places we’ve all heard of. Malibu, Santa Monica Boulevard, Venice Beach, muscle men... Santa Monica Boulevard is just a road. Venice Beach is a huge beach, with a great walkway, with bohemian stalls, and seaside tat, and homeless people. Though apparently not as many as on Malibu Beach. We didn’t actually stop in Malibu, there didn’t seem to be much there so we took a very scenic detour up into the hills and back. The feeling of Venice Beach was good though, there were lots of people cycling, skateboarding, roller skating, just as you imagine. We got to the muscle beach section, which was very quiet. Perhaps a Tuesday afternoon isn’t good for showing off your biceps! We continued on to the canals. Who knew that Venice Beach had an area with canals? Though I guess it’s not a surprise. The houses and bridges were all very pretty it has to be said, and we did talk to the only couple to have a Venetian style property! We came back via the skatepark, which was really interesting. Perhaps it’s now cooler to skateboard than to flex your muscles? We’d stopped for a coffee and a little something when we first arrived, I’d asked her to chop the pizza in half for us to share. She did this, but apologised as all the cheese had ended up on one half. Come back when the pepperoni one is cooked and I’ll give you another piece... so in three days we’ve had a fabulous half price crab dinner, a room upgrade and a free slice of pizza. What will happen next?

The Channel Islands as shown on an information board (the sun's glare blotted out the top right). We were going round Anacapa, which is the smallest island at the top

Today is L.A. proper, we are staying (in a rather rubbish place, chosen because it had free car parking) just off Sunset Boulevard. We came via the J Paul Getty Villa, built by Getty (at one point the world’s richest man) in the style of the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum to house his huge collection of Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquities. According to Wikipedia the collection has 44,000 Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities dating from 6,500 BC to 400 AD, of which approximately 1,400 are on view. All sorts of jewellery, pots, statues.... Having visited lots of ruins it was fabulous to visit a realistic recreation of what a Roman Villa would have looked like. We arrived early so managed to see it without the hoards that later descended, which was all to the good. It was free to get in, hurrah, we thought, but they did charge $20 for parking which was a bit of a shame!

But first we had to have the obligatory photo

On arrival in Hollywood we walked along Hollywood Boulevard along the Walk of Fame to Mann’s/Grauman’s Chinese Theater where they were laying a red carpet for what appeared to be a showing of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. There are 2740 stars on the Walk of Fame, but whether this includes the blank ones, waiting to be filled, I don’t know. We were surprised to see the same name more than once, on more than one occasion, but I’ve looked it up and you can be there, for TV, radio, recording etc, so can legitimately have more than one star! Gene Autry is the only person to have 5, one in each available category. It did however all feel a bit tawdry, but hopefully we have enough planned to keep us out of mischief, and out of our room!

And off we went

Past one oil rig with a number of others in the distance. Not quite sure how they square that with them being in a marine conservation area!

Anacapa island coming into view (it's actually three small islands grouped together)

The arch is the iconic feature 

This is the landing stage with, it has to be said, exceptionally clear water. Apparently the diving and snorkeling here is spectacular, not only for marine life, but there are a number of wrecks here. We decided not to land, there are hiking trails on all the islands and you just get another boat back later, but we decided a wildlife trip might be better (we saw almost nothing as it happened, but we didn't know that at the time)

This was the highlight, a pod of sealions leaping out of the water

It was, however, a very pleasant 3 hour trip 

We stopped at a viewpoint on the Pacific Highway 1 and spotted this bird of prey. Not sure what he is, but he has in his talons his lunch. Not sure what he's got but you can see it poking out to the right. Jackie watched it fly off clutching its kill

Here we are in Santa Monica enjoying afternoon refreshments while watching beach volleyball. We walked from here to Venice beach and back. Have a look at our short Relive video with lots of photos: click here

The whole promenade on Venice Beach had a good vibe about it

This was the muscle beach but nothing much was going on. All around were weight lifting and muscle training machines. There were a few people, some with ghetto blasters pumping out music while they exercised, but on the whole it was fairly quiet on a Tuesday in late November

A lot of murals on buildings

We walked on to the canals of Venice

Its quite a serene, laid back place with hardly a soul to be seen

Didn't get a photo of the couple who had built the Venetian house, but did get this mock Tudor type house

The skatepark was where it was all happening. Didn't manage to get a photo of the really good skateboarders who really knew how to skateboard and could get those boards to do almost anything. They were the real cool guys

Glad we made the effort to get to Venice Beach, it had a great vibe about it 

This mornings trip was to J Paul Gettys Villa in Malibu. The house he lived in is behind this building, but he built this as a museum for everyone to visit to appreciate the antiquities he collected. The museum is of a Roman villa buried under lava at Herculaneum and we loved this place. We spent a lot of time in Pompeii and Herculaneum on our honeymoon nearly 20 years ago and had to imagine what a complete building would have looked like from the ruins that were left. Getty went a stage further and built a copy of one as far as could be ascertained and, for us to walk round and see a complete building in all its splendour was fabulous. The antiquities were an added bonus. It was a real worthwhile trip and all for free (except for the car parking)

Amphitheatre and stage

A peek of their house behind, still private

An original marble statue of Hercules (it has been repaired but is largely original)

No expense spared, this room is covered in coloured marble as they believe the original would have been

J Paul Getty died in 1976 and, although the building was finished in 1974, he never saw it complete. It hasn't become a museum since his death, he built it as a museum for all to enjoy, which is fabulous. What we liked about it was that it's not his creation to satisfy his ego (as Hearst Castle that we visited last week was), it's a recreation (as far as he could tell) of a historical building from an important era of the Roman empire that was buried under Vesuvius' lava in 79AD. Many people had told us that, if we only visited one building, make it this one. They were right!

Now we're in Hollywood and, this afternoon we walked to see the Hollywood Walk of Fame (you can see a short Relive video with lots of photos: click here)

There's the Hollywood sign on the hill in the distance. We've booked a guided walk up to that on Saturday

We have walked not all, but quite a lot of the walk of fame and seen many, many famous names. It's funny as most people are walking around looking down at the stars most of the time. We didn't bump into anyone, but could easily have done so. We may have walked past many famous people but didn't notice as we were looking down! This is on the famous crossroads of Vine Street and Hollywood Boulevard and, on each of the four corners is not a star, but a memorial to the astronauts of Apollo XI that made the first moon landing in 1969

Even Winnie the Pooh has a star!

This Jennifer Lopez one was the 2500th star to be laid, as the little plaque says

Oh look, we found this one too! Only joking!!

Did find this one though. Didn't know my brother in law was famous!

The Capital Records building, its a bit of an icon apparently. We've got a better  one I think at home in Birmingham UK. It's called The Rotunda

The Chinese Theatre, where all the celebs go to view a premier. There's a red carpet being laid and advertising for Michael Jackson 4. He definitely won't be attending though

Paramount Pictures studios

The Dolby Theatre. That's enough excitement for one day! Not quite the glitz we anticipated, but glad we've been there. Open top bus tour round here and Beverley Hills tomorrow, Warner Brothers studio tour on Friday and a walk up to the Hollywood sign on Saturday. Action packed few days, better get to sleep!