For those of you who don’t remember, Pennis was a journalist for BBC’s Sunday Show, who upset a string of celebrities as he gate-crashed movie premieres and press conferences in the nineties. Several of his victims stormed off and Steve Martin famously fell into depression and didn’t speak to the press for two years after Pennis asked him at a movie premiere: "How come you're not funny anymore?"
Other classic Pennis moments included asking Cher: "Has anyone ever told you you're really beautiful - and meant it?", inquiring with Demi Moore: "If it wasn't gratuitous in any way and it was tastefully done, would you consider keeping your clothes on in a movie?" and of course last but not least he gave Naomi Campbell a taste when he asked her: "Can you confirm or deny reports that you said something mildly interesting in an interview once?". Unsurprisingly Dennis’s nose was broken on multiple occasions.
On that happy note, US West Coast Roadtrip: Part II.
Monday 17 May 2010 – Saturday 22 May 2010: Las Vegas – Los Angeles
Having survived the Grand Canyon, we went back to Vegas for one night to win our money back, this time staying in The Wynn gaming resort to maximise damage. We also managed to go to one of the shows called Le Reve. Think of it as Waterworld meets Cirque de Soleil without Kevin Costner or the crap reviews. It was spectacular and wet.
After trading in our big-ass SUV for a little red Ford Mustang Convertible we started to make our way over to California, first stop Los Angeles. Luck was on our side as the LA Lakers were playing the Phoenix Suns in Game 2 of the Western NBA Finals. So what exactly does a $120 ticket buy you? Well approximately the same view as what I imagine you get from space when looking at Palm Island in Dubai back on earth. Nevertheless, Kobe Bryant’s Lakers spanked Steve Nash’s Phoenix Suns 124-112.
Being thirty-somethings, we felt slightly out of place in Disneyland. Best part was probably getting Emma to go into the rollercoaster ride (aptly called California’ Screamin) although the picture with Goofy was pretty decent as well. Being bullied by a nine-year old because we showed some hesitation with regards to the Maliboomer (a modern version of being ejected into the air, while sitting on something that resembles an electric chair) must have been the highlight of the day.
In between Disneyland and Universal Studios, we did a round of “Meeting the Fockers”: we met up with Emma’s US cousins.
Knowing no shame, we invited ourselves for nightcaps on Thursday and dinner on Friday (special thanks to Talia and Lauren for convincing us that 22:30 on a Thursday is a perfectly normal time to invade Martin and Klara’s home). It was great to meet the Shandling clan, and having learnt a thing or two about the Thundering Herd and baseball statistics we left Beverly Hills behind and drove our Mustang up to Highway 1, next stop Santa Barbara.
Saturday 22 May 2010 – Thursday 27 May 2010: Santa Barbara – Big Sur
Santa Barbara is just the ultimately chilled out place. Our hotel (The Canary, special thanks to Fatboy James for the recommendation) was just around the corner from buzzing State Street, which itself is full of trendy bars and restaurants. We spent a full two days in Santa Barbara and basically did nothing. It was great.
The ride on Highway 1 from Santa Barbara to Big Sur is apparently considered one of the best drives in the World, and to be fair, rightfully so. The landscape is fantastic, on the left hand side you have the Pacific (including the occasional sea lion), on the right hand side you have the rough Californian landscape of Big Sur.
Another recommendation from Fatboy James landed us in the spectacular Post Ranch Inn, just south of Monterrey. Literally staying three meters up in a tree, we had our own fireplace and sky view (the latter being a bit more straight-forward than the former). Having been told the occasional mountain lion is spotted in the forests surrounding the Post Ranch Inn, we couldn’t resist to check it out. So after two hours hiking through the rain we spotted the grand total of …. one lost Californian squirrel.
After three days of chillaxing, we drove our Mustang up to our final destination: San Francisco.
Thursday 27 May 2010 – Saturday 29 May 2010: San Francisco
In San Francisco we traded in our Mustang and checked into the Clift Hotel just off Union Square. Somebody who will remain unnamed vetoed my proposal to go and see the San Francisco Giants play the Washington Nationals in favour of going to Alcatraz. How can you not go and watch a baseball team, which used to have a pitcher called Gaylord Perry on their books?
Anyway, Alcatraz was quite interesting, besides ‘Big Al’, a guy called Joseph 'Dutch' Bowers spent some time on the Rock. Leave it to the Dutch to try and get out. Full points for initiative, less so for execution. Bowers was shot twice and fell head first over a cliff.
In between riding the original San Francisco street cars, we of course couldn’t resist checking out the San Francisco restaurant scene, making sure Ricky and AJ had something to work with once we got back (Ricky and AJ are the poor bastards we pay a fortune to whip us back into shape in between our food frenzied trips). We had lunch at The Slanted Door, which apparently is Bill Clinton’s favourite restaurant, dinner at Ozumo (piece of advice, make sure you stay well clear of the black pepper cocktail) and had our last SF meal at La Mar which has a killer Pisco Sour.
After three weeks of touring Nevada, Arizona and California, we dragged ourselves on a non-strike BA flight back to rainy London. So it only feels right to finish this blog with a quote from former US president George W. Bush:
“To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you, too, can be president of the United States.”
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