So Long Hollywood

We left Hollywood, headed north to Oxnard where most of the strawberries we eat are grown. The fields go on and on forever. The weather here is conducive to growing food all year long. Since we got a late start today we ended up in a Walmart parking lot in Lompoc and in the morning will go to Vandenberg AFB.

Hooray for Hollywood

Lights, camera, action. We are in Hollywood. First thing, we jumped on an open air double decked sight seeing tour bus. Did you know that the Hollywood sign first read Hollywoodland. Here is the plaque that is on the City marker.     When the “land” part of the sign fell away, the area residents liked the sign better just reading Hollywood, so it was never resurrected.  The sign was in need of a refurbishing at the cost of $250,000. Since the State would not pay for this the residents took up a collection for the cost. They could not raise enough money and Hugh Hefner stepped in. He was the major contributor to save the land mark. Then, several years later, investors bought the land the sign sat on and construction of homes was set to begin. The town was very distraught that they were  losing their beloved landmark. Again, Hugh Hefner stepped in with one million dollars to purchase the land to save this national landmark that is known world wide.

Musso and Frank is the oldest restaurant in Hollywood and is still frequented by well known actors.                                                                                                        It doesn’t look very fancy does it?

 

 

 

Jim Carey lived at the Sahara Motor Hotel when he first came to Hollywood.                       Outside the Chinese Theater there were actors galore.

   

We were walking down the walk of fame and these Chinese people, who were not speaking English, but you could tell that they were so excited just laughing and giggling. Each person in this group got their picture taken touching the Jackie Chan star.   We all know about the Hollywood Walk of Fame by the Kodak Theater.  Memories of great actors and radio personalities from days gone by

 

to the current                 line the streets here. But did you know about the Rock Walk?    This is where Rock and Roll musicians have their hand prints to immortalize them.   Capital Records are still having hit after hit.    Chateau Marmount is where John Belusi died of an overdose. This hotel, The Standard, with the upside down sign to show that nothing is standard at this hotel, was used in the making of Oceans Eleven. Carney Express is Art Carneys restaurant. Sunset Tower Hotel, built in 1929, is where John Wayne liked to stay. He kept a cow on the Penthouse balcony when he was a guest. The Comedy Store is where Roseanne, Jim Carey, and countless others got their starts. Whiskey A Go Go is where Go GO dancing got it’s start as well as Goldie Hawn. In Beverly Hills, Millions of Milkshakes are popular with many actors and some of them have stepped behind the counter to make their own signature milkshake.                  Also in Beverly Hills each street is lined with a different species of tree and their fire hydrants are not yellow as the rest of Hollywood, theirs are silver, so not to take away from the beauty of the area. Huh!                                               This Domed building is City Hall. There is a strict ordinance that if you don’t pick up your pets mess, you could spend one year in jail. Zha Zha Gabore only got two months in jail for slapping a police officer. Gotta keep up the appearances here and they take that serious. On Rodeo drive, this Bijon store is the most expensive store in the world. Suits start at $15,000. The Beverly Wilshire Hotel is the site where Pretty Women was made. Wilshire Blvd is the first street to have traffic lights in the USA. Stella McCartney, daughter of the Beatles Paul McCartney, has 5 stores in the world, one of them being here.     On this tour we were stopped at a red light. A man in a sliver, 2 seater convertible Mercedes beeped the horn and waved. I looked at him and did not think twice of it. The couple sitting next to me on the bus, who were from France, said in their sexy thick French accent “Did you get the picture?” I asked “picture of what?” They said “ Of Jim Carey, he waved to us.”  They showed me their picture and sure enough there was that big smile that Jim Carey has. He bent down just enough to show his whole face in the windshield and was waving. Can you believe it? I have taken 3000 pictures of everything. But here I am in Hollywood, the star does everything he can to give us a shot… beeps the horn, waves, bends his head down in the car for a full face shot and I am like …uhhh look at the nice car. Oh boy! The French couple took my email address and said they would email me a copy when they get home to France. I hope they do.

We stopped and asked how do we see a show, any show would do. The guy directed us across the street where they just stopped handing out tickets for the Jimmy Kimmel Live show, which by the way isn’t live. It is taped daily, Monday – Thursday, shown that night. There is no taping on Friday. To get Fridays show, they tape an extra interview Monday through Thursday and put it together for Fridays airing.  We were told to go to the back of the studio and stand in the “stand by “ line. We had our hopes up high to see the show. After about one hour we were told that they did in fact have their limit of audience members for the night. It was fun though to see the “line hosts” do their jobs. They told us about giving Jimmy a standing ovation when he walked in. They wanted lots of energy in the crowd and to clap vigorously. We could not shout out obscenities but a good Whoa or whistle would do the trick. Also we were reminded that we are in Hollywood and even if something isn’t funny, laugh and laugh hard anyway.

Great day in Hollywood and the sight seeing tour is a must do to.

Driving the PCH – Pacific Coast Highway

We are up early and on the PCH – the Pacific Coast Highway. I have always heard of Venice Beach as being muscle beach with the big burly men lifting weights on the beach and the in shape girls roller blading all over the place. Could not wait to see it. Well there is a small area to lift weights, and there were 2 guys there, love the bracelets on this guy, he had to be at least 70 years old

 

 

 

 

we did see 2 roller bladers, but mostly it was homeless people, musicians trying to hock their latest homemade CDs,

 

Salt Sha ka would not leave me alone until I took his picture

 

                   and people carrying signs showing you where you can go see the doctor for Medical Marijuana (Kush). They were everywhere telling us to try a “new side of life”.       Oh if they only new that I have spent the last 18 years of my life in rehab nursing and believe so much in recovery. I wanted to stay far far away from the  “new side of life”. Other than getting some pictures of course. This guy made a point it to come up to me, as I was exiting a public restroom, to let me know he was the best thing that I would see on Venice Beach.        Hey I needed a picture of the best thing on the beach. Venice Beach was a disappointment except for the Skateboarders. Wow these guys are good. They made it look so effortless that I wanted to try it. But I came to my senses and thought better of it. These guys were incredible. 

We had to get out of the nasty and continue on the PCH to Hollywood. We found the Hollywood sign and of course pictures had to be taken. We drove through Hollywood Hills. I expected to see homes on top of some hills but these homes were IN the hills.    Can you see how the homes are tucked into the hills?            The roads were steep and narrow with switch backs all through this beautiful “neighborhood”. I had packed a picnic basket before we left this morning.  We were able to to find a road with just enough room for us to pull over to have dinner in the Hollywood Hills under the Hollywood sign. Tomorrow we will be back to tour the town.

The Greatest Generation

Before we leave San Diego this morning we wanted to run downtown to see the USS Midway,

These aircraft carriers are massive

 

 

 

the Bob Hope Memorial,             and the other works of art for the tribute to the Greatest Generation.

Click on the picture to enlarge

 

 

 

 

Tommy, stop looking up her dress!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      What a beautiful area this is.

I won’t use this blog as a political platform other than to say this: America we better wake up. The crazies in Washington, who don’t know what it is like to earn a regular living and who have most things handed to them, are slowly taking away our liberties that our forefathers fought so hard for. Use your voices, don’t sit idly by and then wake up one day and say What Happened?