West coast tourin'

San Francisco was definitely a change from the hustle and bustle of the east coast however for me it had one major downfall...I was eaten alive by bed bugs - AGAIN!! Last time this happened in a very budget/sketchy "hostel" in Cinque Terre, Italy so I was not too surprised however the hostel in SF was by far the nicest we had been at thus far so I was not too impressed. 2 tubes of cortisone cream later and the ones on my face are finally fading so that I no longer look like a pubescent teenager.
One of the best parts of SF was meeting a very lovely couple from New York named Jess and Tom on the boat back from Alcatraz. They were heading to LA the following day as we were so offered us a lift (instead of taking the bus) so we would have been foolish not too accept. The ride was amazing and we were up to altitudes of over 4000 ft through the mountains. To be honest LA has by far been the biggest disappointment of the trip. It is really spread out and can be tough to get around if you don't have a car. We stayed in West Hollywood so had quite easy access to the sunset strip and Hollywood Boulevard however there are two things worth noting 1. NOBODY walks in LA so every five steps taxi's are pulling over to see if you want a lift and
2. It POURED rain for the majority of our time there. One rainy day walking down Melrose a seemingly nice chap stopped to chat with us. His name was Darwin and we soon found out he was the be all and end all of Los Angeles, not to mention he had been part of the Montreal Ballet and had lived in Vancouver, Denmark, New York, had a brother in Perth etc, etc. This all seemed innocent enough until he started telling us how he had lost 150 million dollars because someone had stolen the songs we had written for Leona Lewis, Beyonce and Amy Winehouse. Didn't you also know that he introduced Brad and Angelina?!?!? I should have known this would happen because Dan tends to attract crazy people (a ninja on an LA bus to name another) and before I knew it Darwin was dragging us by the hand into fancy boutiques and shops trying to get me to try on Isaac Mizrahi shoes (a very fancy/expensive designer grandma). Had I not been soaking wet, wearing hiking boots, smelly socks, my stinking yellow coat with bed bug bites all over my face this might have only been slightly embarrassing however I was mortified. Dan on the other hand was enjoying this man's craziness. We managed to lose him just after he told us what Oscar party he was attending.
The rest of our stay in LA was enjoyable enough and we did enjoy a nice walk down Santa Monica beach the one day it was sunny (and a not so brief stroll down the side of the Pacific Coast Highway but that's another story). We then headed to pick up our rental which ironically, was almost exactly the same as Courtney's.... good thing I have practiced driving on hers many times so I will be an old pro...
Happy birthday Jim and Jenn! love ash and dan

(photo thingy wont work...will post later)!!!