LA and Hollywood

How does this ticket machine work?

So after an ok nights sleep we enjoyed a complimentary breakfast of bagels, toast, gallons of coffee and fruit and head on out to the bus and metro to explore Hollywood before our 11.30 pm flight to Fiji. We bought a day pass for the metro, meaning we could hop on and off as often as we needed to. The metro is simpler than trying to negotiate the bus system and really efficient, regular and clean. There is a strict no eating, drinking and no feet on the seats policy in operation and we were amazed at how readily people gave up or at least offered their seats to older folk, the disabled or those with children. Not like the London underground.  

Look closely... yes we did see the Hollywood sign!

Nicole spotted the Hollywood sign in the distance, much to the delight of the girls! And we did wander along the walk of fame, which stretched for what seemed like miles and also now disappears down side streets. Managed to spot a few famous names  along the way but was very hot and sticky and we were all a little jaded. 

 At the end of the walk of fame we reach Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Really busy and a bit tacky in terms of random people dressed as various characters (Captain Jack, Darth Vader, Spiderman,  etc) all trying to extract $ from unsuspecting tourists for photo opportunities! Lots of foot and handprints in the cement and most significant was finding Robin Williams. He'd obviously left his mark at the time of Dead Poet's Society - the inscription reads simply "Carpe Diem".

Lunch was in a typical US diner complete with table top jukeboxes for a dime playing fab music from the 50s and 60s - Bill Haley, Little Richard, The Ronettes to name but a few. The girls had delicious chocolate malt shakes and sang Lollipop,Lollipop for the rest of the afternoon. All in all, Hollywood was a bit of an anticlimax, not what we had been expecting, far from a glossy, shiny operation. But, atleast we can say we have been, seen and got the keyrings!

The rest of the afternoon was spent meandering back to LA airport to collect our stuff and go to the airport. We stopped at Union Station and the Mexican Quarter and stumbled upon the oldest house in LA - an adobe building. Rowan was thrilled as she has just been learning about Mexico at school. Very hot and sticky by this point though and the shade in the adobe courtyard was very welcome.

We make the decision to head to the airport early and although check in is not scheduled to open till 6.30pm we join the queue already forming and manage to check in by 5! We head to the departure lounge and spend the rest of our time watching planes coming and going, writing journals and reading. Just enjoying the down time before the final leg of our journey.