Hollywood

Okay, every once in a while, we let the kids decide where our next adventure will take us. It was our 14 year old daughter’s turn and she decided that we needed to explore Hollywood. Specific points of interest for her were Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, the Hollywood sign and finding Ellen DeGeneres’s star.
We stayed at a hotel within walking distance to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and then we WALKED Hollywood Blvd. Since Ellen’s star is a little newer, not very many people knew exactly where it was. The walk itself was quite interesting! Let’s just say Hollywood Boulevard isn’t the most attractive tourist spot and in some of the areas you walked a little faster than others due to the permanent residents and foul-smelling stench. Needless to say, we did end up finding Ellen’s star and our daughter was enthralled!

Something else you definitely need to do when you are “walking amongst the stars” is to stop at the Chinese Mann Theater. We spent time looking at all the famous handprints and messages left by an assortment of stars. An extra treat was that we also decided to stay and watch a movie in the theater. You can’t help to think of all the premiers shown here….it was very cool.

I recommend the drive through Beverly Hills. The gorgeous homes were set in an established area where trees created an inviting environment. As you drive through, you can just imagine all the luxurious and posh events that once took place here. An added bonus is that UCLA is right there amongst the affluence and prosperity so to add an educational element to our trip we made a little stop and walked around the campus and checked out the John Wooden Center….it was a religious experience for one of us!

Rodeo Drive was well, Rodeo Drive. There was no sense for us to get out as we knew we couldn’t afford the products inside. So, we drove through, drooled and then headed to Santa Monica Pier. The Pier was smaller than we expected (doesn’t hold a candle to our Santa Cruz Boardwalk) however, it was fun to imagine Forest Gump running down to the end of the pier to mark his journey across the U.S.

A drive up through some winding hills led us to a point close enough to get a picture of the impressive and nostalgic Hollywood sign. Even though we couldn’t get any closer, it was definitely worth the drive up.
Okay, so that checked everything off of our daughter’s list so that meant we could sneak in a stop for us…Pinks Hot Dog Stand!
You might think that a hot dog is a hot dog…not at Pink’s! It took us a while to read the menu and then even longer to decide which assortment of hot dog delicacies we wished to indulge ourselves in. The hot dogs were GREAT! And so was our timing, because when we left (around 11:00) the order line was increasing down the street.

To appease our son, we decided to spend the afternoon at Universal Studios. The last time we were there, he was too small to ride the “The Revenge of the Mummy” and “Jurassic Park” (two great attractions!). To our surprise, “Transformers: A 3-D Ride” had recently been added. The crowds were light that day and we were able go on each ride several times. The Transformer Ride was a Winner!!

So, next time you are driving to LA and you happen to pass by Hollywood think about pulling off and spending a day…you might be pleasantly surprised.