Hollywood - Day 1 - Thursday 26th June

Thursday 26th June

Day 1 Los Angeles

(how weird is it typing Angeles or me as my fingers just automatically go to type Angela sorry for any typo errors or maybe we’ll just go with LA save my fingers any confusion ha ha!!!)

Ok so we are planning just having a chilled out day as we are all tired from our information overload, zany world of Las Vegas!!!

 

 

Our suite price also includes Continental breakfast, bargain!!  Here is Amy in her element croissant and chocolate muffin!!

 

And then the breakfast lady says take some food back to your room, okay then more Chocolate muffin whilst watching TV, Amy is now in ideal chilled out mode!!  What else would an 8 year old want????????

 

Oh yeah a dip in the heated pool with her Daddy!!!

 

Here are the scally wags getting up to mischief before I went in the pool!

 

How many noodles or woggles do you need the pair of you??  The pool is 3 foot one end and a whopping 8ft at the deep end, so they are in their element diving in!!

 

Our little water baby!!!

 

So Colin was planning growing a beard when he could with no work to go to but he has had enough of no kisses from his two girls!!  We don’t like the feel or look of his stubbly beard so enough is enough, his final shot of being beardy!!!

 

Ok what kind of face are you going to find with Daddy, Amy?!?!?!

 

Oh maybe this is the new look half and half.  I have heard of half chips and half rice but not half beard or half not!!!  We prefer the smooth side not the rugged side!!!

 

We head out for a wander and a couple of minutes later look the Hollywood sign is still up on the hill, whoooah!!!  We have only ever seen that sign on TV and here we are seeing it with our very own eyes, amazing!!!

 

 

And we walk another 2 minutes and here we are!!!  The Walk of Fame!!  This suite is in such a perfect location

 

Looking down Hollywood Boulevard.  It is weird as when we are walking along the Walk of Fame our eyes are down looking and pointing out all the stars names and we don’t really notice any of the shops on the street

 

 

Sing along everyone 'I am dreaming of a White Christmas' good old Bing but sorry wrong season!

 

This must be his Sunday name, Charles instead of Charlie Chaplin, maybe his mum got him the star!!

 

One of Amy’s heroes, Walt Disney sorry the sun is shining on the star!

 

His name has sprung up a few times over the past few weeks!!

 

We are a touch peckish so we head into the Rusty Mullet for a snack.  While we are looking at the menu outside the restaurant a man comes over to tell us about the Hollywood Tours which takes you past celebrity homes, Colin and I are still looking at the menu and this guy is still chuntering in our ears so we take a leaflet and then go inside but as we are away to walk away he says he will give us the tour for half price, now you are talking MR!!  But we are planning doing the Hop on Hop off tour tomorrow but it doesn’t go past any celeb’s homes so we go in for a snack to have a think about it

 

 

Nachos for snack, yum washed down with a beer and the biggest glass of water Amy has ever been given!  It is funny the bar stools look like bottle tops of Budweiser and Bud Light, funny Colin won’t even sit on a Bud Light one only a real Budweiser stool!!

 

Do you think the World Cup is on or something as there are different games showing on the screens and some Belgium supporters at the bar! GOAL!!!

 

Maybe this is how we would end up if we carried on travelling hee hee!!!  Just a moustache might be better facial hair design for you Col rather than a full beard ha ha!!  And we haven't had a haircut since we left Isle of Man, mid April either so won't be long until Colin has the picture perfect hair too!! 

 

Awh Amy we knew you would appreciate and show your gratitude to us somehow for taking you on this once in a lifetime journey ha ha!!

 

 

Jemima is out of the suitcase as she got jilted when Yorkie came along but look to make up for it her name not really in lights but on a Pancake and Waffle Mix, nearly as good Jemima!!

 

So we decided to take the guy up on his offer of half price Hollywood tour as we can chill out in a car and see some celeb’s homes.  So we go to the area for pick up and see a car/van/truck thing that we will be going in and think it is our car but then we realise there are loads of cameras filming something????  Wow we are in Hollywood and they are shooting a movie or something so I ask one of the guys what they are filming.  They are filming  for ‘Tour Wars’ that is funny!!  We are out of the shot as I don’t think they want extras ha ha!!  We could have earned some money but it’s a no!  Shot 6, camera action, start filming and then CUT the guy walked the wrong way to the car!!! Oh man this is going to take forever to shoot this one scene!

 

Tomorrow’s plans for this bus but back to today with our driver and tour guide called Doug, so we start off and the music is pumping out of the speakers really loud with great music so we start the tour!  This is going to be cool as when we get near celeb’s homes Doug is going to play the music to correspond to the celebrity!  We are all pumped up and ready to go…….

 

The first thing we see is the shopping area that we walk through to get to the Walk of Fame is actually where the Oscars are held and they put curtains up in front of the shops to set the scene for the awards, wow like Doug says everything in Hollywood is fake or they make it to what they want it to be!!  Funny we thought we had left the fake city of Las Vegas behind but it has continued!

 

 

As we are climbing up the hill look at these houses on stilts, no thanks what if there is an earthquake and also Doug tells us that landslides are common in this area, there would be no hope!!

 

 

LA Basin where 12 million people live, wow!!!  LA is massive!  Doug tells us that in LA there is the largest population of Koreans and Persians in the world outside of their own countries!!  We noticed that on the public bus along with many other nationalities, cultures and religions!!

 

The one and only stop we made was to get a photo of the Hollywood sign

 

We managed to get a selfie with the hills in the back and on the right hand side of the photo you can see a little bit of white near the top of the hill with the spire on top and that is the Hollywood sign!!  It is quite a distance away really!

 

Here is Doug and our car/truck/van thing not sure what to call it!!  Doug is cool but we think he must have been a 'wannabe' and just didn't make it, but he is doing a great job as our tour guide!

 

Good seats we had too, we went by Katy Perry’s house which was hidden behind loads of trees and then onto……

 

Orlando Bloom British Actor from Pirates of the Caribbean and the Hobbit then ………..

 

MGM studios, Disney studios and Universal Studios and then ……….

 

Justin Timberlake where Doug said 'oh the trash cans are out I wonder what we would find in there?', we weren’t sure whether he was joking or not as it does feel a bit peculiar peering into people’s gates and over the hedges to see their houses!

 

We went through an area where we were driving on the edge of the cliff face!  The music was fast and rocky, hee hee!!!

 

We went by the homes of Bruno Mars, a famous American Architect who we didn’t know and can’t remember the name of, Halle Berry (Colin's favourite actress!!) and then the driveway of …..

 

 

Ringo Star, but then the best picture of a celeb’s home is of …….

 

Julia Roberts, wow that is an amazing home she has and she has 3 in LA, WOW!   All sing together now ‘Pretty Woman walking down the street’ hee hee!!!

 

We also went by the home of Courtney Cox, we saw the Recording Studio where Garfield and Batman were filmed and then the previous home of …..

 

 

Ozzy Osbourne who then sold it on to Christina Aguilera

We saw the homes of Tom Cruise in the far distance and then …..

 

Dr Phil, TV Psychologist discovered by Oprah Winfrey - music to this one was 'Crazy' real appropriate!

 

Oh dear poor Jemima is finding the music a bit loud!!!

 

 

The home of Janet Jackson then …….

 

 

David & Victoria Beckham’s home and the gateway of ……

 

 

Michael Jackson’s rental house where he died and took his final journey out of these gates 

 

The entrance to the Playboy Mansion which covers 5 acres of land with tennis courts, pools and other sports areas and a complete contrast to the next house .....

 

Somewhere over the rainbow

The house where Judy Garland used to live with the flowers smelling so sweet xx 

There is no place like home, click your heels three times! 

 

And the cover of the album for the Eagle’s Hotel California

 

And then we turned onto Rodeo Drive, how cool is that!!!

 

Designer shops altogether in a row on each side of the street, wow and tour buses are not allowed to stop on this street we are just not cool enough!!

 

Bugatti Veyron parked on Rodeo Drive it is only worth approx. 2.2million dollars!!  Well no wonder they don’t want tour buses parking on the street make room for people who actually have money to spend in the shops!

 

More shops just dripping of $$$$ signs

 

 

And there we have it the hotel at the back of the photo where Julia Roberts was paid by Richard Gere to be his guest in Pretty Woman, cool!!!  Can you tell I used to love that film when I was younger and I will confess to watching it every day of the summer holidays when it came out on Video, sad but very true and I can still recite some of the words!!  Amy has no clue what Pretty Woman is and also what a video is!!!  The education she is getting is endless but it will be a fair few years before she gets to watch Pretty Woman film that is for sure!!!

 

The Jail, Fire Department, Police Department and the library

 

The famous Courthouse where George Michael to name a few got their jail sentences or fines dished out for being naughty and getting caught!!

 

And the finale was Justin Beiber he has recently just bought the top floor of these apartments and boy he has caused a stink already as he had a party over the weekend until 4am.  It was funny as there were 2 woman standing in the street with hands on their hips shouting ‘show them what he did the other night!’ but Doug was saying this was a nice neighbourhood for families etc and now no-one is happy as all the tour buses are coming by to see Beiber’s apartment.  That would be a bit annoying really as Doug had the music pumping out and other tour buses were coming behind us sure to cause a traffic issue with the neighbours, oh dear but that is the price to pay for having a celeb move into your area!

 

Look at this cool, cute car for supermarket Pink Dot.com order by phone or online and then they deliver in approximately 30 minutes I would order just to have the car pull up outside my house if I lived in LA as it is soooo cute!!  It’s a girly thing!

 

Then we went through the Rainbow part of the city even the walkway was a rainbow!!

 

 

 

Rainbow flags everywhere and the ‘Gayest store on earth’ ideal location!!

 

This is where Charlie Chaplin and the Muppets were and are filmed The Jim Henson Company with Charlie Chaplin painted on the door and Kermit pride of place on the gateway!

 

Here we all are with the reflection on a window, tourist alert, tourist alert hee hee!!!

 

We also went by Hollywood High School where Dustman Hoffman graduated and

 

 

 

 

We saw where you lived today!

 

 

 

The Highland Donuts no I mean the shop not us!!  Oh yes sorry Amy corrected me that she is Manx and theoretically Colin isn’t from Highland’s either being born and bred Aberdonian so that makes me the Highland Donut then when Elgin, Moray is included in the Highlands and Islands catchment!!!

 

We are seeing some nice sports cars around!

 

Amy fancies this motor for herself when she is older, they don’t wear helmets here so not sure Daddy would allow his princess a motorbike!

 

Here is what Colin is fancying a Yute!!

 

We are walking along Hollywood Boulevard, walk of fame it is around 6pm-ish and it is starting to get very busy and the buskers are out….

 

singing their hearts out but they were absolutely rubbish!!

 

Even though it is busy we can still spot the stars!!!

 

Amy you are famous!!!!!

 

One of Amy’s favourites Sir Elton

 

 

 

We walked past the Chinese Theatre which we weren’t sure what it was but it was cool as outside was the Hands of Fame see who we spotted….

 

 

 

Cher with her high heels on!

 

 

Tiny feet of Dean Martin

 

 

I don’t think we will be back Arnie!

 

One of Colin’s favourite actors

 

As we are walking along there is a large amount of things right in the middle of the sidewalk so we wonder who’s star this is???  It is Michael Jackson’s star, wow a shrine to him in the middle of the sidewalk, wowee!  Hard to believe that he died the day before my graduation in Dundee when we were involved in a 7 car pile-up crash a couple of hours before my graduation was due to start!  Not recommended trying to give people first aid in a dress on the central reservation of the dual carriageway!!  We managed to get to my graduation on time, with only well as it transpired about £3,500 worth of damage to the car and only whiplash injuries to me, Colin had slight neck pain and Amy was all good she enjoyed seeing the fire crew, ambulances and police all with sirens and flashing lights around us, remember she was 3 in 2009!  So back to the story when we came out of my graduation, which we didn’t really enjoy as I wanted to be with Colin and Amy not sitting with strangers around me.  My Masters course was distance learning so didn’t know anyone so I put on my phone and had received some ‘sick joke’ text’s about MJ but we didn’t know he had died so we went to buy a newspaper to find out what had happened to him!  Nothing like seeing that shrine and putting us back to hearing when he had died!

 

One of Amy’s favourites!!!

 

 

 

 

Oh Amy is your dress blowing up ha ha!!!

 

 

We had to get an Oscar for something when we were in LA!!! 

 

Oh yeah you deserve that Oscar Amy!!

 

Amy saw this star and was oo oo oh you have to take a photo!!! 

 

Another one of Colin’s favourite actors but on the Hollywood tours Doug told us that Nicolas Cage used to own a few properties in LA until he went bankrupt, we didn’t know that he had gone bankrupt!!

 

 

Oooooh I like Morgan Freeman

 

Wow Citizen of the Century!!!

 

 

We managed to find a Fresh N Easy supermarket so we bought things for pasta bake, oh yum, we have been missing home cooked food as it has been a while!!!  So as we are walking back along the boulevard people are trying to thrust CD’s of their work in our hands, no thanks and especially as we have our hands full of grocery shopping do you not realise it is home cooking tonight, yummy!!!  They think we are being rude when we say no thanks, we don’t want their CD’s but if they looked at us we have no spare hands duh!!!  Wasn’t the best experience of walking on the boulevard but thankfully we are only about 5 minutes away from our suite so that is okay.  It does say on our information in the suites not to wander about when it gets dark on the Boulevard or surrounding area but we won’t be out after dark as that was enough for us!!!  Sometimes it is good having Amy as it makes us get back to our apartment, hotel or suite before it is dark and too late so we don’t get ourselves into anything dodgy or risky!!!

 

 

 

Oooh we have met Big Bird!!!

 

Feeling at home now with the ‘make do’ kitchen utensils and supplies that we have!

 

If you have read previous posts Amy’s favourite tea is Cajun chicken and pasta or rice so here is one happy bunny!!!  We had to buy more Cajun spices along the way so the last time I made Cajun chicken Amy said it wasn’t spicy enough so I made it spicier and look what happened …………

 

Spicy enough for you now Amy ha ha!!!  Amy nearly drunk the whole bottle, only joking but drank quite a lot of water as it was spiky!!!!  What a yummy tea!!!

 

As we were sitting eating tea at our dining room table we saw the sunset out of the window, beautiful end to our unplanned, very good day!!

Tomorrow is the Hop on Hop off bus tours and there are 4 routes, busy day tomorrow then as lots to see and do!!!