California Musings – Day 2 (July 5)
We awoke Monday morning, July 5th with excitement. We’re headed to Hollywood! After a breakfast buffet downstairs in the hotel. We loaded up in the Suburban, turned on the GPS and headed to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre where we planned to catch a tour bus. In less than five minutes we were on Ventura Blvd and on our way. We had purposely waited a bit so we would miss the morning rush hour and traffic went smoothly. Parking in the parking deck we locked up, loaded up ourselves and took escalator up to the street. We bought our tickets for a hop on hop off tour and quickly got on the bus (after a quick look for John Wayne’s hand/foot prints). An open air top had plenty of seats on an unseasonably cool morning. Off we went. We have found that tours are the best way to see a new city. Beverly Hills, Hollywood Hills, Rodeo Drive, we saw it all. We got off planning to catch a connector to Santa Monica, but it was late and we feared we wouldn’t get back in time to do the downtown tour – so back on the bus we went (after a mad dash across 4 blocks to the Starbucks to use the bathroom). This time we went through The Grove, saw the LeBrea Tar Pits, and then got off to eat lunch at Pinks Hot Dogs. Took us probably 30 minutes in line, but it was well worth it! Then it was back on the bus to finish the tour and take us back to Grauman’s Theatre. With only a few minutes, we made our way to the downtown bus (also open air top) and waited to head downtown. The beauty of the architecture of downtown Los Angeles was revealed as we traveled all around. I saw lots of Art Deco buildings which I really enjoyed. The most exciting part was the trip back to Grauman’s Theatre – 10 minutes on the freeway in an open top bus! During the trip back I was busy texting some extended family that lives in LA, we were making plans for dinner. After we got back into our Suburban we turned the GPS on which led us right to the address I programmed. unfortunately, it was the wrong address! A quick look at my notes and I found the right one (just a similar street name mistake) and we headed to Mexico City to eat. We met our family and had a great authentic Mexican dinner – best guacamole ever! Saying goodbye we made our way back to the hotel where we retired for a good night’s sleep.
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Wow What a whirlwind day! I would have loved to ride on the top of a bus! Ours was much calmer than that when we went to the chinese theatre last January. We parked about ten blocks away (okay, maybe not that far, but let's just say, I didn't feel too great about where we left the car…). We followed the stars (the literal pointed stars on the sidewalk, not the people.) toward the theatre. We did a lot of window shopping as we went into town. The shoe stores were the most amazing places! I felt like I was back in the era of fabulously colored platform shoes and boots! I've never seen such an array! We also passed a man who was pretending to be a statue. (We saw him move- some kid was poking him in the face and he moved so that he could stop him.) When we got to the theatre, we spent about an hour looking up all of our favorite stars on the pavement. Yep, got lots of pictured of cement that day. 🙂
So glad you guys took the time to take this trip as a family. I know the kids will remember it always!
How fun!