By Lucy Evanglista.

Week three of life in LA and Matt and I are really enjoying observing all the quirky goings on in the Hollywood Hills.

If you are ever in Los Angeles, you should take a trip down to Santa Monica. It is an unforgettable seaside city. Also know as the Bayside District, this neighbourhood hosts some of the city's biggest stores and has two weekly farmers markets.

Santa Monica is home to the very cute and very popular Vanilla Bake shop and Yes, I did pop in to get some cupcakes called "4th of July Babies".

Santa Monica caters for everyone and even caters for your dog. Walking past a window, I noticed many dogs enjoying a day inside Doggy Day Care known as "Healthy Spot". This is a grooming parlour and healthy shop for your dog. At Healthy Spot, they care about the overall well-being, health, and happiness of dogs.

They have styling salons and spas which only use the highest-quality natural, Eco-friendly and biodegradable products for all your dog's grooming treatments. In addition to Healthy Spot's complete Spa Packages, they also offer a menu of a la carte services ranging from anesthesia-free teeth cleaning to nail trimming and nail grinding. I took a look at the range of services they provide -  I love animals but even I was shocked!

Healthy Spot consists of obedience courses; reiki healing, animal communication, which means you can hire a communicator who uses pet psychology and psychic abilities to read your dogs mind. If that isn't enough for your dog, they can have their own styled photo shoot focused on modern, editorial portraits. Voodoo IMS for dogs?!! I'm not an animal communicator but I think my German Shepherd enjoys chasing the pigeons and hens around the garden rather than being the Next Top Model. Hilarious!

No matter where you go inthe world you always seem to come acros people from Northern Ireland. In West Hollywood, I bumped into Jennifer O'Neill from Belfast who is now living the California lifestyle in The Beverly Hills area for 3 years. It was lovely to hear a Northern Irish accent.

Jennifer used to work as a buyer for Carter in Belfast but wanted to pursue her career in the fashion capital of the world, Los Angeles. So far she has been working as a styling consultant and buyer for Shock Boutique. Jennifer is also working very hard on a new online fashion store but she tells me that she still misses home and gets a little homesick every now and again.

Shopping in LA is a fashionistas dream and I'm loving the all the different types of boutiques in LA. I found a shop called Artisan de Luxe, which is a new Men's and Women's label and boutique.

The overall vibe is distressed luxe - lots of denim, reworked vintage leather with hand painted elements. Nepalese prayer beads incorporated into heavy silver jewellery.

Not particularly my style but I found some cute shirts, plus I didn't want to pay $100 for my mum to say it looked worn and old, but I think that we will see more and more of this style appearing in Belfast over the next 12 months. www.artisandeluxe.com

We decided to do a bit of sight seeing so we took a trip up to Griffith Observatory - the crown jewel of Los Angeles!  The observatory is top of Mount Hollywood, which is very close to the iconic Hollywood sign. The panoramic views of the city are stunning and it's free to visit.

If you have kids with you in LA it is a must see. The planetarium show is a state of the art show and takes viewers on a trip through time, space, using imagery, light and the viewers imagination. You, and your kids, will not be disappointed.

Sport is huge in LA so I decided to check out the local talent and headed down to the track at UCLA and found Eric White. Eric has been pole vaulting for 8 years now and is hopeful for the 2012 Olympics. He started in High School, as he didn't make the basketball team.

Thinking it looked slightly dangerous he tried to teach me but I wasn't keen on breaking my neck. Eric explained how the sport consumed his life and more importantly, it taught him about determination and work ethic, which are key to his success.  

So from a hunky athlete to another less muscular guy. I thought I'd share this random dude with you (pictured left). Having spotted a man in his American Flag shorts (almost being the 4th July) I got into the Hollywood way of papping him.. Then when I got home and looked at the picture, I noticed, not only is he wearing next to nothing, he is carrying his trousers and a security tag is on his pants!!!

Just another day in Hollywood. (N.B. The beach is a 45 min drive.)

Til next week!

Lucy xx

Lucy Evangelista McCullough is one of Northern Ireland's most familiar faces on the modelling scene. A former Miss NI and Miss UK Lucy now juggles her own modeling career with her Voodoo International Modelling School in Belfast. Click here to become a fan on facebook.