Well, we arrived in Santa Monica on Saturday and had a little look round the shopping area, which looked rather nice, and then it was back to the motel room for takeaway pizza and beer! Sunday, we had time for a proper explore. After doing our washing in a real American laudromat, we spent the rest of the day looking in book shops and drinking coffee. It was excellent.
Monday we thought we'd do a real touristy thing and booked a bus tour of "Hollywood and Star's Homes". We were picked up from our motel and driven to Downtown LA (which looked a bit grotty and reaffirmed our great decision to stay in Santa Monica). After a tour around Downtown, we went to Hollywood. We were allowed out of the coach to look at Mann's Chinese Theatre and all those stars on the ground. We then went to have a good view of the "Hollywood" sign - just about visible through the haze. Lunch was at the Farmers Market - which used to be a real Farmers Market, but is now a big mall and food court. After lunch, we went to Beverly Hills and Bel Air and stared at the gates of various star's homes. We didn't see any stars, but, if the aim of the tour was to spot Hispanic gardeners, then the tour was a big success.
It was very tacky, but great fun! It's been ages since we did something really touristy and we enjoyed it immensely.