One of the many things I had on my list of "must do's" whilst over in the US, was to go to a proper Hicksville diner, and have coffee, waffles and a piece of pie. Last night I went over to the diner and discovered the joys of Santa Maria - for Santa Maria appears from what I've seen of it yesterday and today to be true "Hicksville, USA". Everything about the place, from the decoration (strange pictures of babies dressed up as vegetables and teddy bears... 'nuff said), the "your sure talk funny" greeting, to the waitresses outfits that could have walked into Happy Day's and not looked out of time. A truly strange experience.

Last night I went to a local Latino club (at the invite of one of the hotel porters) and had a fun evening - the music was fantastic (and some was live), the people very friendly, and the atmosphere electric. It was a fantastic way to end my stay in LA. I got up this morning, had breakfast and set off for the Pacific Highway. The route unintentionally (yeah, right!) took me through Beverley Hills and then onto Sunset Boulevard. The houses were magnificent, as I plunged down Sunset Boulevard, and the roads (for once) were twisty and rather fun to drive on. Clearly you've got to be rich to have fun roads to play with in LA. The roads to the sides are named after the other playgrounds of the rich, such as San Marino and Monaco. Eventually, the road took me down to Malibu, where I stopped for a while.