We spent our last day in Hollywood today as we head to Anaheim tomorrow, and it was a BIG day! We bought a Hollwood tour book on Friday and still had 3 of the 4 attractions to do from it. We started this morning with a tour of the stars' homes, Rodeo Drive and Beverlly Hills. This was quite fun, but mostly it was on a bus so our feet got a rest. We took lots of photos of the homes lived in by our favourite stars. We then grabbed pizza for lunch and ate it whilst uploading our photos to the computer as we had a half hour to spare before our next tour and were just by the hotel. The aim was to get some of the names to the correct photos before we forgot them. :o)
After lunch we took a tour of the Kodak theatre. We have walked through this building everyday to get to Hollywood Blvd from our hotel, so it was good to see inside. The Kodak thetre is only about 7 years old and is the new home to the Oscars. We got to see the VIP areas, backstage, stand on the stage and sit in the same seats as the likes of Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman on Oscar night.
We had decided to take a trip out to see UCLA in the afternoon, after hearing that it was worth the trip. It was huge and we only saw part of it. The buildings are lovely and mostly quite new; many of the facilities were also used for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. There were lots of people around considering it is the middle of the break; some were locals, others were tourists. Found a great gift shop on the way back down the hill, but Phil is still disappointed that he hasn't managed to find a decent toy shop.
Somehow I managed to misplace our bus/train guide at some point in the afternoon so we were flying blind for the rest of the day. We had passed (unexpectantly) the Tar Pitts on our way to UCLA and so decided to make a stop there on the way back. This was definately worth it and we got some great pictures and avoided being eaten by any sabertooth tigers!
Our next plan was to get ourselves out to Griffith Park. Luckily Phil had commited the bus route to memory and so we headed off. Upon arriving at the bus stop for bus 96 to take us up the hill, we were informed that the bus wasn't running this week, so back on the bus we just got off to go back down the road a few kms. At attempt number 2 we knew we had a 10 minute walk up the hill; of course it is closer to 20 if you follow my advice and take the road past the pretty houses. Upon arriving at the gates to Griffith Park and heading in a bit further we concluded the Observatory was even further up the hill. Lets just say I am a little out of condition and was finding the walk rather difficult. We decided to wait at a shuttle bus stop to get to the top, but after the bus drove straight past us and we had had a 20 minute rest I agreed to finish the walk. It was worth it with great views of the city (coincidently, it was dark by this point, but the view was pretty) and a lovely new observatory, built of course by the Governator - Arnie. The shuttle bus did get us down the hill and infact all the way to the train station, avoiding a whole other bus ride!
We finished the evening with BBQ ribs, coleslaw and maccoroni cheese, a bottle of Merlot and a piece of Pecan pie. This did make up for the big walk!
Highlight for the day: Getting to the top of the hill!
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