After flying through the night we arrived at LAX early. We were happy and grateful all our luggage met us at the airport. I called the hotel shuttle and we entered that cooler air outside to wait for the shuttle to pick us up. I had been told when we checked out of this Los Angeles hotel as we began our vacation that they would pick us up with the shuttle anytime of day or night. However, they could not check us into a room as early as we would arrive on our return trip home. We were assured they would hold our luggage for us for the day until we they had a room to check us into. I understood this from working in a hotel for 3 years. We found information on a company named VIP Tours in the lobby of the hotel and before leaving LA to head to Honolulu I booked us on a day long tour of Los Angeles. We figured we would get to the hotel and rest in the lobby until time for our tour.
When we arrived at the hotel the young man behind the front desk just looked at the two of us and said, "Let me see if there is any room available." He had a suite and upgraded us to that suite and checked us in. We were so happy and sooooo tired. We hurried up to our room, set an alarm, and hit the pillows for a few hours rest before our 9am pickup to go to VIP Tours. That was just the sweetest sleep I had enjoyed in a long time.
The VIP Tours people make a round of the hotels in the area and pick up the guests to take them to the VIP Tour office. When the tour is over they drive you back to your hotel. The tour we chose was titled the 'Grand Tour of Los Angeles'. Our tour bus driver was a colorful man that spoke over his intercom set in a way that seemed like we were hearing a revival preacher calling us to repentance. Claude and I just grinned at each other. The tour guide was a retired LA Police Officer. He knew the area and could share lots of interesting information. We would drive through several cities and have several stops to get out and walk around and view the area.
Claude and I lived in Sunnymead, California many, many, many years ago. Claude was stationed at March Air Force Base. We arrived in California with one baby, Nissa. We left with two more children, Andie & Jacob. We saw many things while living in Southern California but this day we would see parts I never saw before. It was a really good tour.
We drove past LAX. The tour driver explained that the 'X' in LAX stands for Annex. This portion of Los Angeles was annexed into the city. We drove around the back side of the airport property to Marina Del Rey. This cute community is built around a man-made marina. This is the world's largest man-made small boat harbor. Along one of the dock areas is a little area with shops and restaurants called Fisherman's Village. Most of our tour group wanted coffee and so it made a great stop for them. Claude and I enjoyed being out in fresh air after spending the night in a plane and then a few hours in a hotel room. Fresh air by the water is a great way to start a day.
We boarded our tour bus again and headed to a very laid-back part of the Los Angeles area. You see it in movies a lot. It is Venice Beach. I never remember going there before. Claude said he remembered being there but he has traveled to LA on business before and may have seen things then that we didn't see when we lived in California. This was another 'get out an stroll' spot. Now our tour driver was really cute when he would pull of to a bus parking sign. Quite often he would point to the sign and in his best revival voice say, "You see that sign. There is a $____ fine if you don't obey that sign. I don't want to have to pay that penalty. So I'll meet you back here in _____ minutes." Then he would write on a tiny white board the time we were to be back at the tour bus stop and hold it up for all of us to see. Then we would get off the bus and he would drive away. It occurs to me that this takes a lot of trust on his and our parts. Will he return and will we be there on time. We had our watches synchronized with his and we always met him at the appointed time. He didn't lose any of us or have to pay a single fine.
I'm posting 6 pictures of Venice Beach on this blog entry. The 1st is of the sign over main street stating you are in Venice Beach. We were dropped off on this street where the sidewalk that runs along Venice Beach is located. This is where a big V symbol is located on the beach. To the left of the big V symbol is the concrete wall and cone you see in the 2nd picture below. This wall is painted with graffiti. There is a sign posted there that says you can paint after getting permission. Then Claude and I walked down the beach to the left to the Skate Board Park. There were some young people but mostly mature men doing some fun skate boarding here. We didn't see any women skate boarding. I'm thinking they were surfers and this is practice for riding the waves. The park was really well made with several types of courses spread over a large area. The guys would just get on their skateboards and fly down into the shapes molded down in the concrete. They would ride the sides of the walls and when they were done they would literally fly over the edge to the top and meet their skateboard at the top. Great fun to watch. The 4th picture is of a life guard chair between two palm trees. The 5th picture is a guy in full clothes sleeping on the beach. I guess he was getting a winter tan. He did not really look homeless just resting on the beach. Venice Beach is really a laid-back city. The 6th picture is the basketball court used in the shooting of "White Men Can't Jump". I didn't see that movie but this is where it was shot. We had ample time to walk up and down and peek in some shops along the sidewalk before meeting the bus driver so he didn't get any tickets.
We would drive along the beach at Santa Monica and then through to see some different types of homes. This area has no graffiti and is clean and very neat. An entirely different feel that Venice. A bit more uptight.
We would drive through Beverly Hills. The tour guide pointed out the sign created for the TV show Beverly Hills 90210. They now use that sign on lots of stuff in Beverly Hills. I believe this church was in Beverly Hills. It was a very pretty church and it seemed familiar, like I saw it in a movie or TV show.
The driver took us to Rodeo Drive. We started at the end with Brooks Brothers and drove up the street (or should I say Drive?). Very upscale just as one would imagine. Body guard muscley men in the doorways. Except for this cute little shop. I can't remember the name of it. But I found it interestingly decorated for Christmas. It's bright yellow paint really made all these Santa's climbing in and out of windows pop. I really liked this decorating job.
From the funny little yellow store to these elegant ones decorated with HUGE ribbons and bows there was lots to see on Rodeo Drive. At this intersection there is a road that you can walk that V's off between the two buildings with bows. Up that road is Versace's. And at the bottom of the Versace road was this interesting sign. Please note it says 'free parking' before 6pm. I'm not sure, but most people that actually shop in these stores should not need free parking. The rest of us are on tour buses that drop us off on a side street and have you walk up and down and return as a specific time so the tour bus doesn't get a ticket. I mean REALLY!!!
Rodeo Drive was tastefully decorated for Christmas. I truly enjoyed the poinsettia Christmas trees in the center of the each block on the island running down the street.
Not to be outdone by what we would see later, Rodeo Drive has the 'Walk of Style'. I snapped a few pictures of some of the plaques cemented into the sidewalk. This one I found particularly cute. It is for Edith Head. When I was younger it seemed like Edith Head did the costuming for ALL the movies. The quote by her and written on her plaque says, "Your dress should be tight enought to show you're a woman and loose enough to show you're a lady." Now that was cute.
Claude and I are walking around in our traveling clothes and sneakers and I'm wearing my homemade quilted purse on my shoulder. We passed stores with price tags more than our lifetime salary on items that were just gaudy beyond belief. We passed one store with the bulky guard standing just waiting for a weak lady for him to bounce out of the store. I looked inside and told Claude, "You know what those ladies are saying? They are looking at my beautiful quilted handmade purse and saying, 'I wonder which store she got that in? I really want one of those!!'" We both got a chuckle. I truly did not see a purse I would have carried out of any of the stores that I liked better than my quilted homemade purple purse. Rodeo Drive was a fun to experience. But I would take JC Penney's or Kohl's any day of the week over these stores. And that my friends is why my hubby thinks I'm a practical person. Our bus driver would take us past the Beverly Wilshire Hotel which is located at one end of Rodeo Drive. In the movie 'Pretty Woman' movie Julie Roberts is given money to shop on Rodeo Drive. She was staying at the Beverly Wilshire. It was neat to get the location of these in my mind and realize how closely the are located to each other. We made a stop at Farmer's Market. I can't tell you if that was Los Angeles or some other city that is part of the metropolitan area. This was where we could find something for lunch. Once again Claude and stumbled right into a great place to eat, Moshee's, a Greek deli. I had a most wonderful falafel. Claude had a gyro platter. My falafel was just wonderful. The women working in this eatery all looked like they could have starred the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". There were awards all over the wall for their food and I can promise you they deserved them.
We had time after eating to walk through the Farmer's Market. Lots of places to eat and some to shop. It was a fun place to spend some time. I found a man and dog made out of left over metal parts in front of a kids toy store. Then I found this traveling angel.
Our tour bus would drive us past many other things before we came to the street with the Walk of Fame, Mann's Chinese Theater and the Kodak Theater. Again we got off the bus with the caution of the cost of this ticket and a little white board sign emphasizing the time to be back at the stop. By this time we would see our fellow tour group people and say, "What time did that white board say??" I'm sure this is why the driver was so careful to emphasize in word and writing the times for us.
We walked down the Walk of Fame. This is where the stars have a star set in the concrete with their name on it. The thing I noticed was that each has a symbol that signifies what their fame comes from like a TV set with antennae if they were TV stars, the comedy and tragedy masks if they were stars in the theater, a camera on a tripod it if was film and something else if it was music that I can't remember right now. I knew the stars were there with their names but I didn't know about the identifying symbols on the stars. These stars are on both sides of the street. They are even for cartoon characters and puppets. They were getting ready to set a new stone. That is the first picture. The guy working on this told Claude and I two times who it was for and we never understood his accent. The bottom two are both for television and have a TV set on them. One is Kelsey Grammer and the other is Big Bird.
We walked down to Mann's Chinese Theater. When I was younger it was Graumann's Chinese Theater. The theater was sold and now goes by the name Mann's Chinese Theater. However, the Grauman's sign is still up in the air. I took several pictures of the concrete squares where the stars hand and feet prints are. Many of them Claude has his hand or foot by the stars hand or foot for a perspective on size. For instance Claude's foot is every bit as big a John Wayne's. The one I'm posting Claude pointed out to me and reminded me it is from a very silly Mel Brooks movie called 'Blazing Saddles'. At the end Harvey Korman is runny in front of Mann's Chinese Theater and looks down to the Douglas Fairbanks square. He says, "How did he do such great stunts with such little feet?" This is the square.
We crossed the street and got a picture of the Kodak Theater where they hold the Oscars and right next to it Mann's Chinese Theater. I didn't realize they were beside each other. All the time we were on this street I'm trying to remember the set up of the street for the Red Carpet at the Academy Awards. I'll have to check that out in 2010 to see how in the world they did that.
Then we went out to the freeway and stopped on the freeway (very illegal by the way!!!) but this is the best view of the Hollywood sign according to our driver and guide who had constantly warned us of all the fines if we didn't get back to the bus stop to be picked up in time. My oh my!! Sometimes we pick the fines we are willing to pay. But it was a great view of the Hollywood sign. We sat there long enough on the side of the freeway for me to take two pictures and my camera is very slow to set the picture after you take it.
Our tour would take us through many of streets to see some landmark buildings. We didn't get out of the bus for these but drove by so we could try and snap pictures through the bus window. So -- Off with the flash and away we go. These are the buildings in the pictures below. Top row on the left is the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Hasn't been there very long. It was Walt Disney's dream and his daughter made sure it was finished after Disney passed away. It is a very interesting design and it would be neat to see the inside some day. Top row right is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Today it is used for conferences and weddings. Middle row left is the building used as the place where Clark Kent worked and would become Superman on the old television series. Middle row right is a subway stop in Chinatown. I just thought it very interesting they went to all the trouble to design it like Chinatown architecture. I didn't see any of the other subway stops so I couldn't compare it. But I appreciated the effort to make this one fit its surroundings. Bottom row left is the U. S. Post Office Terminal in Los Angeles. And bottom row right located just down the street is Union Station (trains). We saw many other things but these were the ones I got the best pictures of.
Our final walk outside of the tour bus was Olvera Street. This is where Los Angeles was born in 1781. A strong hispanic influence in everything at this location. Top row left was our first walk through. This is a Mercado full of all things hispanic. Then we walked across the square to where the center (top row right) of focus was a beautiful gazebo. It was filled with a Nativity scene. Again, giving us a moment to remember it really was December. There was action going on as we rounded the corner to arrive at Olvera Street. Trailers were set up behind the building in the picture on the bottom row left. These were full of clothes and let us know they were shooting something that day. When we rounded the corner we could see the cameras and lights set up in front of this building. Not sure if it was for television or a movie or a commercial but we paused long enough to watch them rearrange the set and move actors into place. I was surprised there was no "Quiet on the set!!" commands. Across the street was the bottom right picture of a little Catholic church painted yellow. This was a fun stop. I really enjoyed walking through the market and watching the filming crew.
As we waited on the tour bus for the final people to arrive, our driver shared with us this little man who looked ancient. He was a street person with a cart and boxes and bags of belongings. Our driver told us he is always on this street during the day. He takes a few things and moves them down the street a bit. Then he goes back for some more of his things and moves them down to the other things. When he has all his stuff together, he repeats the process moving a bit further down the street. Our driver said he is there rain or shine. He told us there is a city ordinance that during the day there is NO sleeping on benches. After a set hour in the evening it is allowed. I'm thinking this little man is moving stuff so he doesn't look like a street person. Then at night he settles in somewhere.
We would begin the drive back to our hotels. The driver wanted us out of Los Angeles before 4:30 or 5pm. The freeways were already beginning to fill up and it was only 3:30pm. One very interesting building I noticed still had some construction going on in a tower. This building was just not right looking to me. Look below and see what you think. The rectangular lower portion is actually the JW Marriott Hotel. The tower that is attached at the bottom and rising ridiculously tall and oddly shaped next to the Marriott is the Ritz Carlton Hotel. Go figure.
We got back to our hotel in good time. We took a walk across the street to a Mexican Restaurant. Pretty good food and something we had not had a lot of in the previous two weeks. Then it was back to our hotel, check the luggage to be sure it was ready for our trip to the airport the next day, and then curl up for a good nights rest.
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