where in the world is kelly?: Mum, I'm gonna be a wizard!

I had an image in my head of LA being sunshine, blue skies, palm trees and wide clean streets full of the wanky and famous.

Reality was a stuffy, grey, smoggy morning driving in 7-lanes (yes 7!) of peak hour traffic on the wrong side of the road.

But with a lot of windscreen wiper swishes instead of indicators and wondering who the hell is supposed to go when there are Stop signs on every corner we arrived at Robina's friend Camille's place.

Camille was lovely, she put us up for a couple of days, drove us around to see the sights (including the wide streets and palm trees I was expecting) and took us to a club called The Abbey where she works as a dancer so we could see her strut her stuff.

Robina and I also went to Santa Monica, Universal Studios and The Getty Museum.

In Santa Monica we started off with breakfast at a little cafe on the Promenade (a little shopping area). Ugggh! it was the worst, Robina's overdone poached eggs were brought to her in a bowl of water, my coffee taste like burnt toast AND it cost us about $60AUD!

So the next day (and the day after that) we went to a place Robina heard about that was opened by a couple of Aussie guys called Bondi Harvest. My mouth is watering just thinking about their amazing pumpkin pancakes, topped with smashed avo, fresh berries and yogurt.

Anyone in LA get to Bondi Harvest and anyone in Sydney the original cafe is in Bondi Junction!

Santa Monica pier was a little underwhelming, it's a big jetty with a carnival on it, crowded with people but kind of rundown and with a lot of hobos about and the nearby park has squirrels dashing about everywhere but smells like piss. Apparently Venice Beach is similar so I'm glad we didn't waste our time with both.

However I am glad to have wasted my time on Universal Studios and more specifically The Amazing World of Harry Potter!

Universal Studios is just a whole world of outrageous things - Waterworld had lots of big explosions, real life-size buildings from the Simpsons and Despicable Me fight for attention from cartoon characters like Spongebob, Betty Boop, Donkey and Shrek and the Steve Irwin-esque dinosaur tamer was scaring the crap out of tourists with his life-like roaring and moving dinosaur.

But we spent the most time at Hogsmeade - it was so so cool. I was expecting shopfronts like in the movies and a themed rollercoaster, but got full-scale buildings complete with snow-covered rooftops, wonky chimneys and interiors matching the movies, and an entire castle, inside and out replicating Hogwarts and the rollercoaster was inside!

I drank butterbeer, visited Honeydukes, Zonko's and Ollivanders and went to Hogwarts where the 3D rollercoaster has Dementors chasing you and you get to fly around on a Hippogriff after Harry and Ron.

Driving out of LA we were getting more comfortable with the driving on the wrong side. We headed to Joshua Tree which Americans like to pronounce Josh-ur Tree.

Once you leave the city you drive for hours on highways 3-lanes each way with no sound barriers to block your view and nothing to see in all directions. After a an hour or so the barren, scrubby, yellow hills are broken up by massive wind and solar farms.

Joshua Tree national park is a big hot desert full of Joshua Trees, their quirky shape messing with the landscape and giving it an alien feel. Robina and I did lots of the little hiking trails around the park which was fun despite the heat.