Hollywood and Griffith Park Observatory
Today Cliff, me and the girls ventured to Hollywood and Griffith Park. We took off at about 10am.
We parked at Hollywood Blvd & La Brea Blvd. Get this, these rip off tour operators want to charge $39pp adults and $29pp kids 3-11. Hmmm, I smell a RIP OFF. The tour consists of taking you to walk along the stars, driving around a bit and hear about interesting facts of Hollywood history and then go on a tour to view movie stars homes. We could choose from an A/C bus, a double decker bus or a van that has an open canopy. The offered us a discount of $30pp adults and $19pp child 3-11. Triplets would be free. Adding that up, it was about $120 bucks for us!! Ummm, I don’t think so buddy, we will do our own tour.
Because I am such a smart woman and an awesome planner, I did my homework a few days ago. I printed out a diagram of where all of the movie stars were and what streets they were located. I found an awesome website about where all of the movie star homes and their physical address locations. The research I did in advance was very helpful and useful to us on our self-guided tour. What do you expect – I do own a travel agency…LOL!! This is the kind of stuff I love to do!!
We began our personal tour of the Hollywood walk of fame and look at the starts on the sidewalk. Right at that corner where we began, is where Mickey Mouse and Micheal Jackson’s Stars are. There was a beautiful vigil located at Micheal Jackson in his memory – it was beautiful and put tears in my eyes. We took some pictures at his star. Then the character Mickey Mouse was right next to his star and he was doing photo ops, so we said hello to Mickey.
About 1/2 a block further down, we came upon Grumman’s Chinese theater. Mindy and the girls put their hand and feet where Donald Duck’s star was as well as Star Trek, The Enterprise. We got lots of great pictures of the kids and of Grumman’s.
Further down another block we came upon the Hollywood Wax Museum. Cliff and I decided Mindy had to experience the Wax Museum. So we all ventured in and the girls had a blast in there. It was so hot outside – 100 degrees in Hollywood!! My sunburn was killing me and made me feel even hotter and twice as miserable. It was so nice to be indoors with A/C.
We did a little shopping. Mindy picked out an Oscar that says “Best Cousin”. We also got her some post cards so she could mail back home.
Then we headed back to our car. We prepared for our Tour of the Stars’ Homes. We drove into Beverly Hills, and drove past the famous Beverly Hills Hotel as well as famous homes on the streets of Roxbury Drive, Hillcrest Drive and the super famous Carolwood Drive, where Michael Jackson’s mansion was. We stopped at his house and took some pictures. Then we drove up the block and marveled at the homes of Walt Disney, George Harrison. Rod Stewart, Burt Reynolds and Loni Anderson, and some other stars. The homes were perfectly manicured and had a good amount of privacy. Just awesome to look at.
We stopped and grabbed some goodies to snack on and headed up to Griffith Observatory. Boy, was that a hike…literally. We had to park at the bottom of the hill and walk up the hill. It was…tiring and HOT. I wanted to take the skin off of my body and lay in the closest bathtub of cold water. The heat was truly unbearable which didn’t help my sunburn any.
Anyway, Amanda bonked her head on the steps..so 2 ice bags later (thank you First Aid!!) we got tickets for the planetarium to see Water is Life. The youngest age requirement was 5, so the triplets couldn’t see it. So Cliff, Savvy and Mindy went to see it while I took the triplets on an adventure.
We went all over the observatory!! This weekend happened to be the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 Landing on the Moon. So they had some extra special exhibits and lectures for us to see and hear. The girls got to see a REAL rock from the moon!! As well as REAL Meteor rocks – they even got to touch the meteor rocks!!
We met 2 guys that wore the same uniforms that the astronauts did. The photographer of the Observatory was so taken by the triplets, they took photos with the 2 astronauts in front of the Apollo 11 display!! The pictures will be displayed in their special edition article of Apollo 11 for the Griffith Observatory.
After about an hour of exhaustion with the triplets, the show in the planetarium had finished and we met up with Cliff and the girls. Then we did some more touring and everyone decided they were hungry for dinner.
So we headed over to their restaurant. We grabbed some sandwiches, hot dogs, chips and drinks…((Gasp, Gulp, OMG!!) The bill was a whopping $66!! I almost fainted. We should have just gone to McDonalds. I couldn’t just tell the cashier, never mind, I don’t want any of this food you prepared for us, so I had to suck it up and pay the bill. Gosh, that was a painful purchase.
After everyone ate, we took a potty break and then I took Mindy for a quick shopping for souvenirs. She got a nice necklace, some glow in the dark planets that she can hang from her bedroom ceiling, and a couple of pencils that turns colors when she rubs them. I got the girls cute astronaut play figures to observe the special 40th anniversary of Apollo 11. I got Cliff a couple of birthday presents too.
So it was an exciting and exhausting and HOT 10 hour day.
