First stop was breakfast at IHOP. For those who aren't familiar with IHOP, it stands for International House Of Pancakes. Yeah, pancake lovers, u've touched base. They have chocolate chip pancakes (which was what we ordered as can be seen below), blueberry pancakes, banana pancakes, strawberry pancakes, cinnamon apples pancakes, grain & nut pancakes and the original buttermilk pancakes. One order/ serving of pancakes typically comes with four to five pancakes - how to finish that by yourself???
I think this was the very first IHOP we visited in the States and later on in the trip, whenever we wanted breakfast, we would search for nearby IHOPs in our GPS :)
There are four different syrups available at each table, blueberry, strawberry, boysenberry (nice!) and original maple syrup.
We ordered the chocolate chip pancakes and an omelette to share. After that we were absolutely stuffed to the brim.
Santa Monica beach was crowded like mad! Probably because it was summer and everyone was out getting a tan. The sun was scorching mad that day, must have been like almost 40deg C at the beach.
We got ourselves a spot on the sandy beach to lie for a bit before getting up to walk to the Pier area. The Santa Monica Pier was also packed with people, kids, entertainers, beach goers...
Not far off from the beach (about 5 minutes walk away) was Downtown Santa Monica, or more specifically, Third Street Promenade where there were some boutique shops and restaurants.
We didn't have too much time to linger around too long and soon made our way back to the beach where we were parked. Parking at the beach costs about USD$8 per entry by the way. This is the bridge connecting Downtown Santa Monica to the beach.
We left Santa Monica to return our car at Budget, which was located along Hollywood Boulevard. As we were nearing the Hollywood area, there was massive tailback traffic and me, being the impatient kancheong spider behind the wheel was panicking over the time we were taking to JUST CROSS ONE TRAFFIC LIGHT! I was so super worried we couldn't make it to Budget in time and return the vehicle, and then we would have to pay for another day of rental just because we were late! Deja vu Sydney, i think some would know I had that experience with Hertz in Sydney.
The BF was really patient and knew that I was getting really impatient and anxious so he tried to lighten the mood and reminded me that this was a holiday, so be it :) i love it when YOU know when and how to calm my nerves... Anyway upon arriving at Hollywood Boulevard (we made it just in time!), we found out that the road was closing soon. We asked the people over at Budget why the bad traffic and road closure, and realised that there was gonna be a premiere happening that evening. So that was why they closed the car park next to Budget (because there was supposed to be some sort of private party post-premiere event) and why they closed the road (for the red carpet).
After we returned the car, I went shopping at the Hollywood & Highland Center (which was really next to where the premiere was held) while the BF lingered around the streets to catch the red carpet action. The premiere was held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, where they usually hold movie premieres. Check out the crowd in front of the Kodak Theatre, next to Grauman's!
There was a photo frenzy when some famous people arrived. I don't know who the guy with the white hair is though.
Finally the man of the show arrives to give autographs to his fans.
I recognise this girl in the black dress after I got back from the States actually. I was watching this brainless reality-tv show called Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane on cable starring this American model-mogul Kimora Lee after the National Day parade on Channel 5 with the Sista and BF. Then he suddenly exclaimed, "Hey that's the girl in the black dress at the Inception Premiere!" Ahhhh, so that's her... She looks much bigger on telly though.
So this is how the red carpet looks like for Inception...
Check out the line of limos and black-tinted window cars dropping the celebs off:
After the red carpet had ended (and after I was done with my shopping), we met up to take some pictures of the famous Hollywood sign from the 2nd floor at Hollywood & Highland Center.
As usual, really difficult to take a photo together since there were only two of us. I realised we could have just gotten someone to take the photo for us but most of the times, we didn't really trust JUST ANYONE to do it. U know how usually when u get someone to help u take a photo, it's either blurred, weirdly cropped or not the angle u wanted? So we just kinda took a gadzillion self-taken shots to get that ONE perfect shot, which usually doesn't happen. But oh well, the fun is there la.
After that, it was adieu LA and hello San Fran!
The journey there on the Greyhound wasn't fantastic, make that rather bad, but we made it to San Francisco in one piece. U could say we were really glad to see the Bay Bridge after a six-hour cramped (& quite unsettling) journey on the Greyhound. I guess he wouln't be taking the Greyhound ever again =P
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