Los Angeles
We flew from Oahu to L.A. International and landed just before midnight. We had the opportunity to enjoy a quiet and traffic-free taxi drive from the airport to our hotel on Sunset Blvd. By this point all we cared about was getting some sleep, so we all crashed into bed and slept in until 9:30. We had less than 24 hrs from the time that we got up to check Hollywood and Beverly Hills.
Hollywood
Setting out on our walk to Hollywood Blvd, one street down from our hotel, we noticed the filthiness and garbage on the streets. The second thing that came to our attention was the number of homeless people. It was a sad picture of tents, shopping carts, and people sleeping under bushes and store fronts. We also saw many people standing in allies and corners talking to themselves.
The first thing that we did was the Walk of Fame and joined hundreds of people staring at the ground and reading names and occasionally squatting and taking a photo. After a few blocks of this, I have to admit it got addicting.
The boulevard is lined with stores and many people dressed up in costumes as movie characters, all asking for a tip if you take a picture of them. We did some window shopping and then the kids got tired of walking around.
The chapel where the Sister Act was filmed
House where Iron Man 2 was filmed (the house blew up)
Fun Fact: its not even close to the ocean!
Chinese Theater
As we were walking around, we decided to take a 2 hr tour in an open top van and take a break from walking, which also got the kids really excited! It turned out to be an awesome tour with Sammy as the guide. He kept in interesting and made sure that we saw everything that we wanted to see. It was a small group of people and it was nice that nobody had any crazy requests.
Touring Mulholland Drive & Hollywood Sign
During the first portion of the tour we drove to one of the hills overlooking the city and it also offered a better view of the Hollywood sign.
We also drove on the famous Mulholland Drive off of which live many Hollywood actors. For the most part it was "hey look over there, thats were so-and-so lives" and occasionally we drove up to the gates that protected all these important people from tourists and paparazzi. We saw the super wealthy and the "humble wealthy" as our tour guide called them. It was fun to see it once in a life time.
Amphitheater on the hill
City of L.A.
Burbank, California
Justin Bieber's house
Bruno Mars-"humble wealthy"
Crazy building style
Tour of Beverly Hills
Former Versace House
The Pink Palace
House where Matrix 1 was filmed
The Witches House
Beautiful streets--nice and green (no drought here)
"Rapunzel's house"
Dr. Seuss house (front)
Dr. Seuss (backyard gate)
House of Bijan
Strip mall on Rodeo Drive
Once in Beverly Hills we saw nicer cars such as Mclaren's, Tesla's, Lamborghini's, and hundreds of Porsche's. In fact it would have been fun to see a drag race but we weren't as luck.
On our tour we noticed that Beverly Hills was a much prettier place to live, however most famous TV actors, singers, etc. lived in Hollywood. After the tour Lesya and I wondered why not choose a nicer place to live like Beverly Hills? Maybe the big attraction is the views offered on the Hollywood hills.
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