After Beverly Hills, we arrived at LAX.
It was time for Marlise, to check in.
I saw a police car getting a ticket.
I walked around on the parking deck of the airport.
so we could go to Las Vegas again.
California
Beverly Hills
It was already the last day already for Marlise.
She had to get her flight at 4PM.
Jan decided to go to Venice
and I went with Marlise to Beverly Hills.
To check out the shopping street
and have a lunch.
When we drove to it, we took a wrong turn
and we ended up in the residential area of Beverly hills.
I had seen some nice villas in my life,
but these are part of the better villa’s I’ve ever seen.
When I had a look at my phone,
we saw we had to drive in the opposite side.
Then we saw rodeo drive!
And immediately you see the luxury cars,
beautiful stores and nice restaurants.
but I felt a little bit ashamed,
because we were driving through the desert the day before.
The car was looking extremely dirty.
The valley guy looked at us,
With a face like he didn’t saw a dirty car before in Beverly hills.
When he parked our car,
you could see my car between all the clean luxury cars.
We parked in the middle of rodeo drive,
so when we exited the parking,
we were immediately in the center of the shopping street.
It’s such a beautiful shopping street,
it looks so clean.
I even heard Marlise say,
that it was the most beautiful shopping street she ever saw.
All the A brands are located in Beverly Hills.
They all have beautiful stores, with doorkeepers.
Here are some pictures of the stores and luxury cars.
we didn’t had much time for shopping.
Then we decided to have lunch at The Blvd.
A nice restaurant/hotel,
located at the end of Rodeo Drive,
with a terrace with a view over the shopping street.
we celebrated her last day in Los Angeles.
there are constantly exotic cars passing by.
we drank one last aperitif and went back to our car.
Our parking was located in this beautiful shopping center.
Joshua Tree National Park
We decided on going to Joshua Tree Park.
To get to the park,
was around 2 and half hour.
When we were driving towards it,
we didn’t planned anything there.
So we were free to explorer it, on the go.
First we made a stop at the visitor center,
to check-out all the possible view points.
We decided on viewing as much as possible,
so we chose to visit all the things with the shortest walk.
When we entered the park,
we entered a desert again.
We saw a sort of mountain,
created with all kind of different sizes of rocks.
To have a nice view,
we decided to climb it.
Jan choose to take the mountain on the left,
and Marlise and I the one on the right.
It was a harder climb then we initial thought
It was worth it,
because we had a nice overview over the desert.
We took a lot of pictures,
of the surroundings and of each other.
After marlise climbed down,
Jan climbed to the same mountain as me.
In the meantime Marlise took some pictures of us.
After our ‘photoshoot’ was done,
we climbed down and started driving again,
towards the dam.
Our next stop was a dam.
The walk to get there was around 2 Miles.
From one side it had a rock feeling.
Here’s a picture of the dam,
but it contained almost no water.
Because that was one of the only places with water,
there was some animal life.
But they disappear as soon,
as they heard people arriving.
If you walk the other way back to the parking,
it had the feeling of a desert park.
After we saw most of that viewpoint,
we planned on going to a cactus viewpoint.
When we arrived at the cactus viewpoint,
We had a beautiful view over the scenery.
The sun was setting.
They were a special kind of cactus,
who loses a lot of funny balls.
Because the cactus park was located at the end of the park,
We chose to take the highway back to LA,
instead of driving through the park again.
Because there are no lights in the park and from the moment it gets dark,
you have to drive extremely slow in the parks,
because the wildlife comes out and walks over the street.
But before we left the park,
I took a picture the sun set.
After that it was time to drive back to Los Angeles
Griffith Observatory
After we had our walk on the Walk Of Fame,
we went to the Griffith observatory.
It was unbelievable crowded.
There where cars parked on the street everywhere,
some promo tents, police giving directions, and people walking.
We thought it was all for the observatory.
Because there was a road block to observatory,
we had to park on the street.
When we finally found a parking spot on the street,
it was located really far away from the observatory.
And we didn’t feel like walking the whole distance,
so we checked out the city, from our parking spot.
After we decided to go and started driving again,
we saw we had to go the same way back as we came.
Luckily we had to,
because now we saw the roadblock was gone.
We could access the observatory by car again.
We immediately found a parking spot,
close to the observatory.
You have the possibility to look at the stars,
or check out the city.
Because there was a huge line to see the stars,
we decided to just view the city by night.
We were lucky that we had a clear view,
because some days LA has a kind of fog/smog,
hanging over the city.
This is the view we had.
After we walked around, and went to different viewpoints,
we decided to go to the store and get some food,
to have a BBQ at my place.
Hollywood – Walk of Fame
We planned on going to Hollywood.
We finally found some street parking,
and it was time to check out the Walk of Fame.
We started at the beginning of the Walk of Fame
but did not recognize any celebrities.
The neighborhood was looking shady and weird, a
nd there was nobody there.
When we finally made it to the recognizable stars,
we ran into a promoter.
We went off into a nice side street
to have some burgers and beer.
The promo lunch: burgers and beer.
Interestingly enough they had this leftover green beer from St. Patrick’s day.
It looked disgusting but it tasted just fine!
After the burgers and beer,
we walked over to the TLC Chinese Theatre.
When we saw it getting crowded,
we knew we were headed in the right direction.
Here we are walking on Hollywood Blvd.
When we arrived at the TCL Chinese Theatre,
we went inside of the outdoor mall that was next to it.
The mall was decorated for the Kids Choice Awards of 2015 by Nickelodeon.
Children could slime themselves!
…Or take pictures, with the ‘Real Life SpongeBob’,
in front of a SpongeBob car.
Here are some pictures,
inside the mall:
When we were done in the mall,
we continued down the Walk of Fame.
When Jan saw a Hooters he made this look and said “Let’s get in!”
The TLC Chinese Theatre was extremely crowded but we did not know why.
Then, we found out it was the premiere of Get Hard.
We walked by and saw Kevin Hart, the main character of the film.
At the same time T.I. was also giving an interview.
Because it was so crowded due to the Premiere, we were not able to see the TLC Chinese Theatre up close.
Here are some hard working cops:
There is also a Ripley’s Believe It or Not,
on Hollywood Blvd.
After we saw most of Hollywood Blvd,
we headed to the Griffith Observatory, to look at the nightly view of LA.
Here are the stars we saw on our walk:
Manhattan Beach
After Marlise and Jan visited my company,
we went to Manhattan Beach.
For a lunch and to relax on the beach.
But first, Jan had to figure out how the parking meters worked.
Quite a strugle, so after a few times trying, he gave up.
But after I gave it a try,
we noticed something was wrong with his credit card.
When we had some credit on our meter,
we searched for a restaurant with a terrace, for lunch.
Eventually we decided to try out the Kettle.
Jan liked it so much,
that he wanted his whole face to enjoy it.
After lunch it was time to chill at the beach.
We walked downwards on Manhattan Beach Bvld,
towards the beach.
Manhattan Beach is a really nice beach,
with a pier and a lot of surfers.
So you always have something to look at.
After we had some sun,
a swim and looked at the surfers for a while,
it was time to go.
But first we went on the pier,
to check out the view.
After that we went back to my place.
Had a fight in the office
This is what happened.
Jan Martens, my cousin arrived in Los Angeles.
Because it was a long trip for him as well,
we planned on having a relaxed day.
First we went to my workplace,
so they could meet my colleagues and see where I work.
But from the moment we entered the floor,
Jan wanted to fight me.
After he won fighting with the Rock ’em Sock ’em Robots,
they found other things to play with, a soccer table, the game room, a ping pong table, …
But they had the most fun,
spinning around in the lounge chairs.
After they met everybody,
it was time to chill at the beach.
Santa Monica
After we saw Venice Beach, it was time to go to Santa Monica.
Because every beach has his own typical feeling to it,
it’s worth to see them all.
The most famous part of Santa Monica is the Pier,
because it has an amusement park on it.
While we were walking on the pier I thought I saw Kelly Rowland,
but i’m still not sure about it.
The view from the pier of the beach is so beautiful!
And when i looked at Marlise,
I had the feeling she liked Santa Monica a lot.
So we sat down to see the sun set,
while listening to a crazy hippie sing.
After the sun had set,
we went to Tar and Roses for dinner.
It is a cool restaurant,
with an open kitchen and a small selection of food.
Venice Beach + Street Performers
We went to Venice Beach.
Venice Beach is such a cool beach!!
There’s always something to do or to see.
This time we took the time,
to see the full show of the break dancing and flipping street performers.
Here are some pictures of the show.
A day in Death Valley
It was the second day for Marlise and we planned on going to Las Vegas,
but first we wanted to make a stop in Death Valley.
So we had to wake up early in the morning and start driving.
During the trip we made several stops, to enjoy the views and stretch our legs.
We also made a stop here, because of the incredible amount of windmills, in the middle of nowhere!!
We weren’t even in Death Valley yet and it was already 94 Fahrenheit.
So we had to make another stop, because Marlise wanted to change her pants.
It was just too hot for normal pants.
Because we saw an open road and we had the feeling we were alone on the road, we started speeding.
And when you drive with an average of 110 MPH, you get around fast.
But our fuel tank was thinking the same, so we had to make a quick fuel stop in the middle of our trip to Death Valley.
And I’m happy we did it!!
Not only to prevent finding ourselves without fuel in the middle of the desert,
but also when we left the gas pump and started speeding again, Highway patrol past us.
We were so lucky that we just left the gas station,
because we were only driving 87 MPH at that moment (and the speed limit was 60 MPH).
They can even track your speed, while they are driving themselves, in the opposite side.
So he made a U-turn in the middle of the road with his big pick-up and started chasing us.
It was quite impressive and shocking at the same time, because I didn’t knew what to expect.
What would the price be for driving 27MPH above the speed limit,
would I lose my driving license,
did they had a radar on another point,
how much time would it take to get it fixed, …
After we stopped, he walked towards us with one hand on his gun and the other hand on the car.
He asked for my driver’s license, papers of the car, and some extra information.
Then he asked ,with a poker face and those typical police glasses, why I was speeding.
So I responded that I wasn’t paying attention and he gave me a weird look and went back to his truck.
When he came back and he gave me the good news.
I would get away with a warning.
But he also told me from the moment they catch me speeding again,
I have to go to court and I would receive this speeding ticket ($400) an additional ticket and some other additional costs.
So like a good citizen, I promised him I wouldn’t happen again and thanked him several times for giving me a warning.
But if you have been speeding most of the time 60MPH feels soooo slow.
But I did my best to keep it as an average speed.
After driving 4 hours we finally arrived at the entrance, of Death Valley.
So it was time to make a picture again.
And of course take some extra pictures of the nice view.
When you drive through Death Valley there is so much you could go to and see.
You could go to the Sand Dunes
Or go to Badwater Basin
Where we took the time to make a “selfie”.
Or climb to high points, so you have a nice overview.
Or check out (like they advertise) the “incredible rock bridge”.
First time we just walked by it, because we couldn’t believe that was it.
Or the dried out waterfall.
But after a while I had to do something more exiting, so I started climbing rocks.
Going up wasn’t that hard.
But the getting down part, was much harder.
But eventually I made it down, without falling, breaking something or ….
That made me so happy.
So after “a little adventure” back to the sightseeing,
The views where breathtaking.
The sun was setting so I it was time to take the bull by the horns
But then she got the upper hand.
So I started running away and hit the camera by accident, but the self timer made a nice picture by itself.
Eventually the sun vanished behind the mountains, so it was time to drive to Las Vegas.
But first I had to made some extra pictures of the stars, because they are really visual in Death Valley.
After our last photo was taken, we were back on our way to Las Vegas.
Las Vegas Here we Come!