Jeffrey made me do it, but it’s almost free for our three!! **Updated 5/19** About This Page:

[tammyd_rn]

Great video update. That was a great way to share your memories.

[DyanKJ130]

for the compliments, everyone! I so enjoyed making videos! I find I stand a better chance at completing them, than I would a scrapbook. I'm so thankful for the creation of YouTube so I can share them in my TRs.

Now playing: “The Road to Hollywood”

Saturday, February 16, 2008 – Day 2/Part 1

Due to the 3 hour time difference, I was up bright and early. While the boys slept, I took some photos of our view and then took a shower before waking them up. (Since most of our toiletries were packed, I used the shampoo provided by the hotel. It was peppermint scented and it was so refreshing! I saved what was left in the bottle; I need to see if I can figure out what brand it is and see if I can find it locally or online)








I just learned from reading bradk’s blog, that the building with John Ritter on the side is Hollywood High School.


Once I got the boys up, moving and showered, we headed to the club lounge for our complimentary breakfast. We found a spot at a table and pulled up a 3rd chair, then headed to the buffet. It was a small buffet, but there was a nice selection of hot & cold items, including some delicious fruit. When we went back to our table, my chair was missing. Apparently, the people at the next table had additonal people join them and they decided it was appropriate to take my chair knowing very well that we were sitting there. I just and went to get another one. But, seriously, how rude!

After I finished eating, I went to take a look out the window and had to take some photos! It was a beautiful day!




Then I took some photos of the lounge.




The rude people had left by this point, as their table is now empty in this photograph. We celebrated when they left! They were actually kind of comical to listen to, as they talked so loud. They were very into themselves.


We went back to the room and figured out how to check out using the TV. A quick check of the room and we headed to bell services to check our luggage with them for the day, as we figured it would be safer with them, than sitting in the car all day.

We walked towards the Hollywood & Highlands Center to ‘cut through’ to Grauman’s Theatre, where we would be able to purchase our tickets for the Starline Tours Hop-on, Hop-off Double Decker Fun Tour.


The walkway was really neat. There were all of these ‘tiles’ to create a winding pathway. It represented “The Road to Hollywood” and the struggles to get there. We actually experienced it starting from the end to the beginning. At the end was a ‘chaise lounge’, with a distant view of the Hollywood sign in the background.
One of the few photos of me.


The view


Some of the tiles. (There will be more in the video)




Trying to get the two of them to look at the camera at the same time is always a chore. Sometimes I just keep them the way they are and then just chuckle when I view them.

Kyle’s turn


Jeffrey’s turn


Ahhhhh, success!




Right as we finished, I noticed this sign promoting “Meet the Oscars.” We would be doing this later on, so I had Kyle pose with the sign.


We were right at the Kodak Theatre, so we ventured in. We couldn’t go inside of the theatre because they were getting ready for the Academy Awards, but we did get to peek inside the lobby area through the glass doors.







I don’t know what it is about this photo, but I really like it


One of the many stars I photographed. (There will be more in the video)


View across the street


One of the photos Kyle took. We’re not quite sure what happened with his photos. We didn’t realize until nearly the end of our trip that his settings were different. So, instead of noting which photos are his, any of the photos this size are ones that he took.


When we were on our way to get tickets for the tour, we were stopped by a woman carrying a megaphone. She was with Starline Tours and she offered to let us purchased our tickets from her. She wasn’t too far from a little booth, which was also advertising the tours. I was a little skeptical at first, but something told me it was okay. So, we bought our tickets from her and, in doing so, we were also able to save $5 per ticket! Instead of $75, the tour cost $60. Like my father would say, “It’s better than a poke in the eye, with a sharp stick!”

With tickets purchased, we had about 20-25 minutes to kill, as the trolleys left every 30 minutes. We decided to head over to Grauman’s Theatre and check out the forecourt area.




For you Johnny Depp lovers!




Kyle was thrilled to see Adam Sandler represented!




This is the only photo Kyle took in the area. Not quite sure why he only took this one or why he chose this particular one. I’ll have to do my best to remember to ask him when he gets back from his band trip tomorrow evening.


There will be more photos of the forecourt area in the video. The area was rather crowded with tourists, so I have lots of feet off to the side of some of the squares. (You had to be really fast at taking photos to avoid feet on the squares you were trying to take photos of! ) It will be easier to crop most of them out using the video software, rather than edit each photo individually.

In addition to the tourists, there were all sorts of interesting (actually, they were rather creepy & sweaty looking) merking about the sidewalk area in front of Grauman’s Theatre. We had expected this, but I didn’t realize just how many there were. There was an employee with a microphone standing outside the door of the theatre making repeated announcements, that the characters had no affiliation with the theatre. He must have said it every 5 minutes, so everyone was forewarned of their ‘sliminess.’ There was Homer Simpson, Marilyn Monroe, a few Batmans, several Jack Sparrows…you get the idea. They would try to get you to take a photo with them and then ask you for money. We were pretty much successful in avoiding them. Homer Simpson approached us, but left when we said, “No, thank you.” There were plenty of police officers around, so we didn’t feel threatened hanging out in the area.

It was about time for another trolley to arrive, so we made our way over to board.

Up Next: Our first stop – The Rock Walk

[chezp]

What a great view from your hotel - it looks like you had some beautiful weather. Yes, I remember thinking the same thing about the "interesting" characters at Graumann's.

[Colexis Mom]

What great pictures Dyan Beautiful!! Looks like you guys are having a great time

[PrincessSharon]

Great update, Dyan! The pictures are great too. I've seen "characters" at several touristy places in NYC as well. It seems kinda bizarre to me ("here we are in Times Square, where we met Homer Simpson" ) but I guess they make money at it. Can't wait for more!

[mcc0313]

What a wonderful update...my daughter is enjoying all your pictures as going to CA is definitely on her list...

Can't wait to hear more...

[Lemap760]

Great update. Hollywood certainly looks different through the eyes of the average Joe rather than the glitz you see on television.

[DyanKJ130]

Originally Posted by chezp

What a great view from your hotel - it looks like you had some beautiful weather. Yes, I remember thinking the same thing about the "interesting" characters at Graumann's.

Cheryl! We the view from our room. I only wish we had more than one night to enjoy it. The weather was gorgeous. This day was actually one of the warmer ones, but there was still a bite in the air, which wasn’t a bad thing; it was certainly much warmer in California than it was back home in Rhode Island!

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

What great pictures Dyan Beautiful!! Looks like you guys are having a great time

Marnie! It really was a great day!

Originally Posted by PrincessSharon

Great update, Dyan! The pictures are great too. I've seen "characters" at several touristy places in NYC as well. It seems kinda bizarre to me ("here we are in Times Square, where we met Homer Simpson" ) but I guess they make money at it. Can't wait for more!

Sharon! I thought for sure you’d be meeting this guy in Times Square! Blech! Every time I mention him to my brother, he has to tell me how smelly he is. (The Naked Cowboy, not my brother ) I also heard people like this make quite the living!

Originally Posted by mcc0313

What a wonderful update...my daughter is enjoying all your pictures as going to CA is definitely on her list...

Meg! I’m glad your daughter is enjoying the photos! You’ll never believe the grand total at the end of the trip!

Originally Posted by Lemap760

Great update. Hollywood certainly looks different through the eyes of the average Joe rather than the glitz you see on television.

Pam! You ain’t kidding!! One of the reasons we chose to stay at the Renaissance for that one night was because I had heard, and our travel agent confirmed, that there are some pretty seedy areas surrounding where we were. I figured we’d play it safe and stay close to where we needed to be.

[DyanKJ130]

Now playing: Our first stop – The Rock Walk

Saturday, February 16, 2008 – Day 2/Part 2

A map of the tour we’re about to embark on. We took the red route only. Originally, we were going to take the blue route as well (which was included in the tour), but we decided against it as the day went on.


We boarded the trolley and decided to sit outside on the top deck, since it was such a beautiful day.


I took some photos while we waited for others to board and for the trolley to start moving.




When the trolley started moving, an audio recording gave us details about what we were seeing as we drove by. It was right in sync with where we were. Never once did it skip ahead or fall behind, even with all the stopping we did at stop lights and such.





We got off at the trolley’s first stop: Guitar Center’s Hollywood Rock Walk.


The hand tiles are located in the alcove under the overhang.








This was Kyle being artistic. I think he had a great idea. (He says he wanted to do this because his friends were all telling him he looked like John Lennon – this was before Kyle cut his long locks off.)


Some of the tiles (More to come in the video)






Jeffrey, my drummer, had to get a photo with the drum set.


All the way to the right, you can see a door. That door led into a museum/gift shop. I purchased some postcards and Jeffrey got a set of drum sticks. There was a lot of neat rock memorabilia in there. (More in the video)






We spent about 20-25 minutes looking around and then got ready for the trolley to come. Kyle broke out his Rubik’s Cube to pass the time. While we were standing there a man and his son, about 5 years old, came walking up with a Rubik’s Cube. It was a different one, with smiley faces on each face. The boy had been trying to solve it without any luck. Kyle offered to help them and was working on it, when the trolley showed up. He wasn’t able to finish it for them, but it was fun interaction with some of the locals.

When we were getting on the trolley, the people we met from Boston while we were checking into the Renaissance were getting off. We said hello and then carried on our way. We were at stop #2 and were not going to get off again until stop #8. Again, we sat outside on the upper level.

From Ocean’s 11 or Ocean’s 12…one of those movies.


House of Blues


The Viper Room. They mentioned River Phoenix’s untimely death here.


The infamous Beverly Hills sign. Apparently, it is copyrighted. You can take photos of it, but you cannot use the photos in any type of advertising, marketing, etc. (I don’t remember the exact details)


One of the more interesting facts learned on this tour was about the streets and the trees. In Beverly Hills, a tree is chosen for each street and then only that tree can be planted on that street. Now I totally understand why the streets look so pristine in movies, television programs, etc…it’s got to be because of the trees. I thought the streets looked beautiful.


The police station from Beverly Hills Cop, which is actually Beverly Hills City Hall


We’re coming up to the next stop where we disembark, so I’ll break here.

Up Next: Who would have thought the La Brea Tar Pits/Museums would be that interesting??

[disneydani]

Looks like you are off to the start of a great day! Love all the pics of your tour, how awesome the weather was cooperating, too.

danielle

PS...thanks for the pic of the Naked Cowboy, it has been awhile since I have seen his famous posterior!

danielle

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures Dyan! What a great tour More please

[PrincessSharon]

The Naked (Smelly) Cowboy! Now I'll really avoid him. That tour looks like fun. Can't wait to hear more.

[MyRapunzal]

Great update!

[DyanKJ130]

Originally Posted by disneydani

Looks like you are off to the start of a great day! Love all the pics of your tour, how awesome the weather was cooperating, too.

Originally Posted by disneydani

PS...thanks for the pic of the Naked Cowboy, it has been awhile since I have seen his famous posterior!

Danielle! We did get really lucky with the weather. It was a change from trips to WDW, when you know that it is pretty much going to rain everyday! And, you’re welcome for the photo!

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Great pictures Dyan! What a great tour More please

Marnie! The tour was well worth $20 per person and a lot of fun, even if we got pretty windblown outside on the top level – it was totally worth having bad hair! (Not that much different from an ordinary day, as my hair has a life of its own! )

Originally Posted by PrincessSharon

The Naked (Smelly) Cowboy! Now I'll really avoid him. That tour looks like fun. Can't wait to hear more.

Sharon! The tour totally lived up to its name – Hop On, Hop Off Double Decker Fun Tour! I would definitely recommend it to others!

Originally Posted by MyRapunzal

Great update!

Melissa!

[DyanKJ130]

Now playing: Who would have thought the La Brea Tar Pits/Museums would be that interesting??

Saturday, February 16, 2008 – Day 2/Part 3

When I left you we were just getting off at stop #8 – The La Brea Tar Pits/Museums. I figured we’d spend about 30 minutes to an hour here.


We made our way into the park area and towards the museum. Admission was a bargain at $7 for each of us.




We decided to go into the theatre that was just to the left as you passed the admission booth. We were shown a video that was about 10 minutes long. It gave a history of the tar pits and told of the things they were doing there. It was really quite interesting and I’m glad we watched it prior to viewing the displays in the museum, as it gave us a further understanding of what we were seeing.

What its like to be trapped in tar. This thing was really hard to move!






Just some of the wolf skulls they have discovered.


This was very interesting to watch








After we spent a good deal of time in the museum (tons of photos to follow in the video), we headed outside to tour the grounds. If these elephants in the tar pits look familiar, its because they were featured in the movie Volcano – I think that’s the name.


I think I’m missing some photos. In walking the grounds, we came across tar pit #61 and a current site they are excavating, but I can’t seem to find them on my laptop or Jeffrey’s (where the photos were originally uploaded). That’s odd. Anyway, we continued walking around.




There was some kind of festival or something going on. I think it was sponsored by Target. We each got something to drink, then we sat and enjoyed these guys perform for a little while.


Musicians at the LaBrea Tar Pits - February 16, 2008 <--- video of the Musicians - only 1 min 10 sec. (A funny note about this video. I uploaded it to YouTube a few days ago. I told Jeffrey that he was on YouTube and then linked him the video through an IM. He wanted to know how it got there! He thought some random person took a video, posted it and then I just happened to find it! )

After listening to the band, we decided we should head to the trolley stop and finish the rest of the tour. We ended up spending 2.5 hours there! Who would have thought the La Brea Tar Pits/Museums would be that interesting?!? It was a lot more interesting than we were anticipating.

We crossed the street and waited at the stop for the next trolley. We must have just missed a trolley because it was about 20 minutes before the next one came along. We took that time to relax and just watch what was going on around us. Jeffrey & I took turns mixing up Kyle’s Rubik’s Cube, while we waited for the next trolley to arrive.

When the trolley arrived, we boarded and made our way to the upper level again. I couldn’t resist another shot of identical trees on a street




A famous street


And, Jeffrey was very quick to point this street sign out, while we sat at a traffic light, and told me to hurry up and take a picture!


We arrived back at the starting point of the tour around 3:30pm or so. The tour was definitely well worth the time & the money. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so we were now in search of some place to put food in our bellies.

Up Next: A touch of Disney and a visit to the famous