Hooray for Hollywood!

O.K. Hollywood may have been the most exciting and fun part of the trip for me. I certainly took alot of pictures. I'm going to try to narrow down the picture posting but please bare with me.

When we first got there and parked our car it was under a mall which was also connected to the Kodak Theatre. American Idol, anyone?
Then we went to sign up for a tour of some sort. Ours ended up being of star's homes and also some famous landmarks, etc. On the way to our meeting place on Hollywood Blvd we saw all the stars on the walk of fame. There are also tons of struggling actors dressed in costumes that you can take your picture with for a tip. After the boys saw Barney & Elmo they refused to take any more pictures despite seeing Batman, Spiderman, and Bumblebee. Our waiting point was at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. This is where all the handprints and footprints are. I'm geeky about Harry Potter (& cannot wait for the last movie to come out next month!) so I had to take a picture by theirs. All three main characters did hand prints and wand prints. Hugh Jackman's was the newest one there and it was done in April.

The first part of our tour took us to a good overlook spot of all of LA. It was also a good place to take pictures of the Hollywood sign. Of course you can barely see it near Chris's head in my picture. (That's Chris's mom in the picture with us.)
Our view of LA. You can see the Hollywood Bowl near the bottom right. Our tour took us through Beverly Hills and other swanky neighborhoods. Although I didn't get a picture of it, Michael Jackson's house (which he rented there) was the only one that had people standing around outside hoping to catch a glimpse of him. Alot of the pictures I got of homes show just a peek over a big wall or gate but here are a few.

David & Victoria Beckham
Madonna (purchased after her divorce from Guy Richie)
Michael Douglas & Catherine Zeta-Jones
Matthew McConaughey (he also has a place in Austin, Texas!)

Heading down Rodeo Drive (which is only like two blocks long or something) we actually saw a famous person. Michael Clarke Duncan (John Coffey in The Green Mile) was crossing the street and waved to us. I was a little slow on the picture taking but still, here he is.This is the store from Pretty Woman where the sales ladies were mean to Julie Roberts and wouldn't sell her anything.
We also drove past the tattoo place from LA Ink. I couldn't believe that there weren't people outside but I guess they weren't filming. I would have liked to have gone inside to look - not for a tattoo. Chris and I went back to Hollywood a few days later to see a show at the Pantages Theatre. Chris was a very good hubby and we saw Dirty Dancing. It was beyond great and I had the best time ever. Of course I did have to pay him back by letting him go play poker at a casino one night. It was worth it! Actually that show was probably the best part of the whole trip......