Hooray for Hollywood!

(with pictures)

Morning folks!

As I write this post, I'm waking up after my first full day here in Southern California.  The big event of the day was my trip to Hollywood for the first time ever.  I'll tell you a little bit about the trip and what I saw with some pictures here.  

Yesterday morning around lunchtime, I went and got a month-long Metro pass, ate lunch, and got on the bus headed toward Hollywood.  I didn't know what to do with my bus pass when I got on; I was looking for someplace to scan the barcode or something, but soon the busdriver told me to just show it to him.  I did, and we were off.  I rode the bus to the stop I knew I had to get off at to transfer, got off the bus, went to the other side of the corner, and got on the bus to Hollywood.  Surprisingly, I did everything right on the bus.  I got off and on when and where I was supposed to, and never got on the wrong bus.  I'm already a pro. 

 

In Hollywood, the bus let me off at Santa Monica Blvd, just a few blocks from my office.  At the corner was a giant mall-like structure.  And yes, this mall-like structure was home to the Hollywood Target.  It wasn't just any target, it was up on the second level of these shops with all kinds of greenery and designed structures around it, including spinning targets on the roof.  I was excited to see it and had to go to the bathroom, so I went in and used the public ones there.  

From target, I walked a few blocks to my office, where I start work on monday.  The place looked very classy and cool, and from across the street, you could see the Hollywood sign.  Here's a picture of the advertising studio.  See if you can make out the Hollywood sign off to the far left in the hills.  

Next I walked up the street a good many blocks past Hollywood High (which has paintings of famous people on the side of it including a great John Ritter) and past Sunset Blvd until I got up to Hollywood Blvd.  There was a lot of action going on up there.  Tourists were crowding all of the sidewalks, performers were dancing and singing, people dressed like Gorillas, Darth Vader and Zorro were posing for pictures.  I saw lots of tacky but cool things I want to do, like the Hollywood Wax museum, but I decided to wait until some other time. Instead, I just wandered around exploring for about two and a half hours.  Here are the highlights:

One of the first buildings I saw was the Kodak Theatre, where the oscars are held.  Hopefully they end up having the Oscars this year.  I'm still working on resolving the writers strike.  Anyway, what they don't really show you during the academy awards is that most of the Kodak Theatre is pretty much a mall with a big theater at the way back.  

Across the street from the Kodak is the El Capitan, Disney's Big Old Classic Hollywood Movie House.  It looks very cool and is now showing Enchanted, but I've already seen Enchanted 3 times, so I'll probably wait for 101 Dalmations (the next movie) in a few weeks before I see something at the El Cap.  Also, the building is home to Disney's Soda Fountain and Studio Store.  I'm looking forward to eating ice cream there.

Back on the other side of the street is the Granddaddy of all movie theaters, the most famous movie theater in the world: Grauman's Chinese Theatre.  She sure is a beauty.  It's a very cool building, even though most of us have seen an exact replica of the building at the former Disney-MGM Studios.  Unfortunately, I am Legend is playing there, which I've also seen.  What's the deal?  I'll have to wait for the next movie, too.    

In Hollywood, I saw this.  It was nice to see some familiar faces.  I'm not planning on seeing it now, but we'll see if I can live in LA for 3 months and not see Wicked.  

Here's a shot of me taking a picture of myself with downtown LA in the background from the top of the Hollywood and Highland Complex.  I haven't been downtown yet, but I might go tonight for church.  I should've worn my new sunglasses in this picture.  It would've looked a lot cooler. 

 

Well, that's about it for this post.  Today is Sunday and I might try and head to the beach.  We'll see.  

Right now I'll leave you with a nice shot of the Hollywood sign from right in the heart of Hollywood.  It's pretty funny how you can see that the sign is much further away than you would imagine and doesn't really even face Hollywood.  Ha, anyway, thanks to everyone for reading and enjoying this blog!  I hope you're doing well and I miss you all!

-Alex