Hollywood Highlights - The beginning

I will start off by saying that if Joe ever feels the need to switch careers, he'd make a pretty good travel agent.  Co-ordinate with sister Jennifer and they could set up an awesome business for those wanting to see the world.  Joe had everything arranged and figured out, it was incredible.

We flew out of YEG and went through US Customs in Calgary.  They DO NOT have a sense of humour at any level. Our agent was abrupt with glaring eyes as we answered his questions.  He asked when was the last time we were in the US...I hope I gave the right answer...I was sweating bullets when he looked at his screen and then back up to me.  I hope everyone who got on our flight had the same treatment.  Did I mention I don't like flying?

Why this pic?  In case we ever lost it!!!!
We arrived @ LAX on time and the weather was beautiful and the skies clear.  I was totally unprepared for the aerial view.  Houses and roads nestled in and among the hills/mountains along the Pacific coastline. No straight roads like you find here.

We hopped onto the car rental shuttle bus & picked up our rental. Armed with maps and GSP we were off into rush hour traffic. We found the hotel easily but had a heck of a time making a left turn into the parking lot against 3 lanes of oncoming traffic.  Where were they all coming from?  Little did we know that it was directly off one of the freeways at the top of the hill!

Our room was very nice, loads of closet room to hang our dress up duds.  A quick pee and we were back in the car to see where Dr Phil was taping the next morning.  We had to be there for 8 am and night falls ~ 6:30 so we didn't have much time to dally about.  Found that and then we back tracked to the hotel.
 (People, parking is a HUGE issue in LA.  Parking lots are all patrolled...no sneaking in.  They have people in golf carts zipping around checking to make sure you 'qualify' for their parking lot.Hence why we went back to the hotel.)



We walked 2 blocks down to Hollywood & Highland...past the hotel Dr Phil uses for his guests... and started taking in the sights.  First up... Kodak Theatre, home of the Academy Awards. No red carpets for us but it was a spectacular sight to walk in & up the stairs.


View of a huge arch inside the courtyard of the Kodak Theatre.  There are shops all around the perimeter.
It wouldn't be Hollywood without actors!  I didn't find Joey Tribiani but these were impressive Avatars! We seen Michael Jackson, all the superheros, and Marilyn.
 We walked up and down Hollywood Blvd until it was dark.  Then the strange people seemed to come out of the woodwork.  People wanting you to take their bus tour...not just passing you a pamphlet but walking along side you to the point of a pursuit. Not fun, we headed back to the hotel for a quiet secluded supper in The Hideout. Seems all the food portions were on the supersized plates!
View from our room.  The pool and jacuzzi were nestled in at the bottom of the hill.  Access was from a pedway from the 2nd floor. Beautiful homes up the hill. But in the case of an earthquake...is it better to be at the top coming down or the bottom looking at what's coming at you?  

One last bit for today.  Because of the parking issue and not wanting our rental towed...we decided to cab to Dr Phil.  It was only 5 minutes away so it wouldn't cost to much.  When we went down for breakfast we had the concierge call a cab for us.  The cab looked beat up but hey what do we know.  The driver spoke poor English but had a GSP and punched in the address.  We headed south on our way, everything's cool until he sees the GSP has him going on the freeway, not the surface streets.  SO what does he do?

Pulls a power U-turn at the intersection of a 6 lane road in front of California Highway Patrol AKA CHiPs!  And it was a bad u-turn! So whoopy lights and siren go on, our cabbie finally pulls over.  Doesn't understand the problem, can't find the registration & insurance, just had his license, he 'rented' the cab from someone and on and on.  This guy wasn't good.  When the officer finally came back with the citation the driver didn't know what to do with it. I had visions of the cab being towed and us standing on the sidewalk instead of in the Dr Phil line up.   We finally got to our destination as they were starting the audience processing.

How's that working for ya? 

More on our adventure tomorrow. Thanks fro being so patient and thanks Krista for that gentle hint!  Gotta love family!

2 comments:

Debbie Pietrzykowski said...

Too funny, you'll have to write a book when you're done travelling.

Alberta said...

Thanks for stopping by Debbie! Maybe I'm waiting for YOUR travel hints!!!