Today we drove from Lancaster to Anaheim with a slight detour into the heart of Los Angeles and Hollywood to do some sneaker shopping.

We Left Lancaster , drove through Palmdale and soon ended travelling through the Angeles National Forest. Yet again it was a gorgeous drive through sweeping bends, up and down hills and valleys and occasionally dodging Porsches speeding towards us ! Pretty soon we were dropping down in to Burbank and Glendale, lots of it looked very familiar from films and TV.

First port of call was Sunset Boulevard and Undefeated – a great shop for sneakers and fashion and as they don’t ship to the U.K this as the perfect time to call on them. We left with a T-shirt and a cap for Oz and then sat outside in the searing heat drinking coffee at a near by cafe.

We  then jumped back in the car to drive the couple of miles across to Melrose avenue which has a whole host of fantastic trainer / sneaker shops and quirky fashion and assorted shops. On the drive we passed by Paramount studios ( which Oz instantly recognised from playing GTA lol ), the CBS studios and various other landmarks which were recognised from TV, Film and a certain violent video game.

On Melrose Avenue we visited several she shops and one of my favourite shops in the world for sneaker shopping, Sportie LA. The shop is essentially a jumble sale of rare and hard to find Kicks (the header image above shows how they rack them up ! ). I could spend hours searching through the shelves and keeping my fingers crossed that what i found was in my size. I left with a pair of 2007 Adidas Superstar End 2 End’s and a pair of baby size Adidas Superstar Lumberjack’s for a mates new born son. We wandered off up the road to find the Adidas originals store, where i got a new school bag for Oz, a couple of pairs of socks and another Cap, and along the way we found a pop up Bape store – this is pretty much my Nirvana and i could of spent all the money we had on us. Alas i left with nothing ! its always a bitch that a Japanese XL equates to a western medium ! I left the Bape store promising to return after losing several lb lol.

There are far too many shops too mention along Melrose, so i wont bore you with the finer detail. after an hour and half spent there we drove another mile across to La Brea and the second Undefeated store of the day.I purchased another pair of Adidas superstars that i cant get in the UK (Consortium x Kasina if you wondered) and then it was time to drive the 30 miles over to Anaheim and our hotel for the night and first glimpse of Disney Land.

 

The drive across to Anaheim too the best part of two hours and we drove through some pretty awful traffic. We had expected it however so it wasn’t too much of a shock. The route we took , or that the sat nav took us, threw up a few surprises. The route took us through Korea Town, past the Staples Centre and downtown LA, through the Toy District ( LOTS of pinatas and warehouses) Vernon, Maywood, Downey and Norwalk before getting us on to the freeway for the last 15 miles.

We were staying at the Camelot Inn and Suites which was ideally placed a couple of minutes away from the entrance to Disney Land. The hotel was decked out on the outside like an Arthurian Castle and the family suite we had was large and very comfortable. We did however have a few incidents on arrival. Firstly my Credit Card got refused on arrival and when i tried to phone the card company they were closed for the night. Fortunately we had an emergency card so used that with no problems and i called the company at midnight USA time ( 8am UK) to find out what the problem was. They had put a stop on the card as they were worried about how much it was being used in America !! Problem sorted and all has been good since then. The second slight, errr, mishap happened when i was trying to get into the impossibly small (by US standards) parking space with a pillar next to it outside the hotel.. Luckily i jammed the anchors on at the first scrape sound !! and reversed out again. I have taken a small chip of paint off the rear door handle and a slight scrape on the door ( which will thankfully polish out). We should be fine, i think we have fully comp insurance lol.

That evening we had a quick wander round the area, ate some great pizzas from The Pizza Press and then retired early for the wonderful, day of magic we had lying in wait for us at Disney Land Park tomorrow ( Yes, that is sarcasm you detect in my voice)