Thursday, 9 October 2014
Where are we? USA, California, Hollywood.
"Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul"- Marilyn Monroe.
We woke early and headed down for continental brekkie - tried some American brekkie foods - cherios, a bagel, and cranberry juice. Kaine and I weren't big fans of the bagel, a bit to heavy, tomorrow we'll return to good old toast. Raven and Darius struggled to wake, so brekkie happened in shifts and Dar's brekkie consisted of a stolen banana coz he just didn't want to wake up and come down to breakfast. We then lined up outside to be transferred on our tour for the day.
We are in Hollywood, so it only makes sense that we try and find some celebrities to hang with right? Best way to do this, pay good money to try to
TMZ tour.
Our guide Stacy was lots of fun, and very educational. Yesterday we explored our surroundings completely ignorant of monumental places we were passing, but now I am somuch wiser. For example yesterday we walked past Hollywood high without the knowledge that David Arquette, or Debbie Rowe (Michael Jackson's baby mama) and some other celebs that I cant remember attended that high school. Or bigger news on the way to Ralph's yesterday we passed by an eating establishment called Pollo Loco, at the time I commented to Shane, "does that mean crazy chicken?". Well today I learned that at that very Pollo Loco, Brad Pitt, had his first job in Hollywood, dressing up as a crazy chicken to lure punters. Are you jealous? I have stood where Brad Pitt was once a chicken! Ahhhh!
We saw so many places where celebrity antics have gone down, all captured on my camera, I only hope I can remember at least some of the detail later. We went all over, through Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive. At each stop we'd hear stories about celebs, then watch videos of it happening. Kaine particularly enjoyed watching footage of Justin Beiber get hit in a head by a bottle. Another highlight was seeing the hotel where several celebs dwell, including Jonny Depp when not in France, Keanu Reeves, Lindsay Lohan (or Lilo for those in the gossip industry).... depending on whether she pays her bills of course. But the funny bit was learning that Josh Hartnett (Pearl Harbour) made a 911 call from there - coz he had well.... gastro. TMZ played the 911 call for us, poor celebs...
We also played games to win T-shirts. The five hours rushed by. Darius slept through most of it though. I have so many photos and stories to add, but right now, not a lot of time... this will get updated later.
After the tour we stopped for lunch at a very cheap fast food place called In n out. The kids liked it. It was like a very simple Maccas. Then it was off to our next adventure.
Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum
http://www.madametussauds.com/Hollywood/
We saw lots of Hollywood stars here, and we have the photos to prove it! A lot of fun, but I think the Jet lag kicked in with Raven, who got cranky half way through and refused to be in any more photos.
The Marvel super heroes section was Darius's favourite, which was at the end, which was fortunate as it took a while for Dar to warm up to standing anywhere near the very life like and a little creepy models. We also got to participate in a 4D Marvel show which was incredible. The best of it's kind that I have ever been to. A 3D show (with glasses), plus a laser light show, plus shaking chairs, and bits of the chair that poke you in the back, and bubble and water spraying at you, and stuff that comes out of the floor and attacks your feet. Darius is a huge super hero fan, who we expected to love it, and he did at first, but it was a bit too intense and towards the end he got scared and ended up in my lap and arms.
After the wax works we checked out a few cheapo tourist shops, then had a little sit down break at a cafe, before navagating our way on the subway and walking to Staples for basket ball.
Basketball
In the evening we saw our first basket ball game. A Pre-Season game, Los Angeles Lakers vs Golden State Warriors, at the Staples Centre, Los Angeles. This is what Kaine had been begging us to go
to America for. The game was good, the stadium absolutely amazing. We were seated right up the top (in the cheapest seats), I got a bit of vertigo looking down. There was music playing, and a live band playing cheer music (e.g. snippets of the Adams family and other clapping beats to get the crowd going). Kaine was gasping and chattering excitedly as he recognised players and would explain to me who they were and their life histories.
Raven however was exhausted and kept falling asleep. She kept clapping along with the crowd when something exciting happened but her eyes were closed and her head on my shoulder. Darius slept through the whole thing. The exciting bit for me was watching Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson in the crowd. So cool!
We then walked back to the subway station, where cameras were set up filming the crowd. I walked over to a map on the wall nto try and determine which train and where to go, but a man came over to me and laughed and told me it wasnt a real map, and that I needed to go downstairs. I then realised it was part of the set up for whatever the cameras were filming. You never know I might have fulfilled my dream to be an extra on TV or a movie without even knowing it.
Around 10:40 pm we caught our crowded train home, then wandered past batman and the riddler. To Darius's delight the riddler interacted with Dar, as though Darius was Batman (he was wearing his bat man jacket. It's such a crazy but fun town. Darius unfortunately woke right up it's now 2 am US time I am typing this while Shane attempts to get Dar back to sleep again.
Hopefully we will get our clocks on US time soon as we have another big day planned for tomorrow.
Take care, thanks for reading, editing and pics to come later.
Enjoying your posts, brings back memories
ReplyDelete