FTJ, Entry 94: Hooray for Hollywood -- I Guess?

Before getting to Hollywood, let me retract my previous slur against Malibu (I said it was kind of shabby and disappointing, with no beach visible from the highway). I was advised by our friend Robert Karp that Google Earth shows another view of Malibu Beach. And yes indeed it does show a different beach scene! Seems Beau and I did not know that if we had rounded the point and continued north on the Pacific Coast Highway, we would have seen a terrific expanse of beach that I guess is still considered Malibu. Phooey! We screwed that up.

Anyway, back to Hollywood. The land of dreams. And movie stars. And weirdos.

After walking around the main drag, past Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the Kodak Theatre (where the Oscars are held), we took a short trolley tour to catch the highlights of Tinsel Town.

A cool building we saw while driving through Los Angeles, on the way to Hollywood.

Grauman's

Where the stars award themselves.

Just another aspiring actor.

 

Of COURSE Buddy came on the tour. See him smiling in the bag?

 

Think of all the movie stars who passed through these gates.

Some old stars, some new ones on the Walk of Fame. It costs $30,000 to get your name in the sidewalk. (For those of you youngsters or those not familiar with old movies, Paul Douglas is a movie actor from the 1940s. He played character roles and did them very well. He was great in "A Letter to Three Wives" -- a super old flick.

Ida Lupino was a fantastic actress who became one of the first women directors in Hollywood. I loved her!
(Those are Beau's and my feet in the shots -- we were trying to produce shade over the stars, which are highly reflective.)

The fire escape from the film "Pretty Woman," where Julia Roberts the prostitute gets a proposal from her billionaire, played by Richard Gere. Yeah, like that would really happen.

Where Whoopi Goldberg filmed "Sister Act."

 

Unfortunately, there was a lot of smog over the sign -- best we could do with our camera.

A beautiful mall where we hung out for a bit before the trolley tour.

 

The legendary Hollywood Bowl. Frank Sinatra performed here -- as did hundreds of other stars!

 

Crazy-ass would-be contestants for the game show "Let's Make a Deal" line up for their chance at door number 1, 2, or 3.

BTW -- did you know that Los Angeles encompasses more than 400 square miles? Yowza, the place is humongous. 

Oh, during the tour we saw our next RV!! Here it is.

OMG

Meanwhile, Back in Long Beach

After a hectic day in Hollywood, we spent the next day wandering through Long Beach again. The weather was great, and we relaxed along the waterfront.

 Later we watched the sun go down from the deck at Tequila Jack's restaurant....

 

On to the next stop, Santa Barbara. Jeesh -- I am still behind about five days.

Tanks, Panky

FTJ, Entry 93: Coastline Cruisers

I fell way behind again. Shoot!

So, to catch up a bit -- while we were in Long Beach we traveled north and visited the famous coastal beaches -- Redondo, Manhattan, Hermosa, Venice, Santa Monica, Malibu, etc.

Whoops! NORWALK??!!! Did we take a wrong turn?

Below, photos of California's super beaches -- which progressed from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Views of the beautiful Redondo Beach. Unfortunately, that morning we were still dealing with the stubborn marine layer of clouds -- the "June gloom" of Southern California.

Surfers shooting the pier at Manhattan Beach.

The pier at Manhattan Beach.

The amazing expanse of Santa Monica beach.

The sun finally came out! Here, Beau takes in Santa Monica, with the pier barely visible in the background.

Santa Monica from the other direction.

All I wanna do, is have some fun, till the sun comes up on...

And now, for the ridiculous -- the craziness that is Venice Beach. Our first glimpse of the famous strand included signs for "Marijuana Evaluation" and a storefront where a "doctor" handed out prescriptions for pot. He wore a white coat with a marijuana leaf on the pocket! The pot hawkers approached me -- and I was tempted. (I told the guy I felt "anxious," and he handed me a card advertising pot prescriptions. Dang! I probably could have gotten an Rx!)

A collage of Venice snapshots.

I love, love, love this guy! He was dancing with a cellophane flag and a jar of Jif peanut butter on his head.
Hey, makes sense to me.

Venice has a number of skateboard rinks, and there were SO many boarders!
This little guy was really talented. Here he is, catching "air" above the rim of the skating track.

Beau showing his muscles at...Muscle Beach in Venice. There were some bodybuilders working out in a fenced in area behind this giant dumbbell-shaped monument to lifting.

 

Sidewalk cafe along Venice Beach.

As we continued up the coast, the big disappointment was Malibu. Legendary for its beach, it is actually a pretty shabby looking community of walled in homes, with very few places to access the beach. (We think that the spectacular homes and beachfronts were behind the smattering of gates we passed along the highway.) Whatever. We were not impressed.

A glimpse of a Malibu beach house.

A pretty view of Malibu from the Pacific Coast Highway. The beach is not too appealing here, though.

 

Typical look of beachfront homes along the main drag in Malibu. (Actually, these are nicer than most.) Maybe they looked worse because we were viewing their back sides?? Every house is joined to the other via fences and/or walls to form a solid barrier in front of the beach. It is basically a walled community.

The next day we took the rig in for service -- long story, but we ended up without our home for two full days! We slept in it at night, then returned it the next day for follow-up service. What a pain!

During one of those days without the coach we went to Hollywood. Photos of that next time.

Tanks, Panky

FTJ, Entry 92: California Weirdin'

When we arrived in Long Beach, I got REALLY strange vibes. We are staying in a small park, pretty much on the water, right in their a very attractive central business district around the corner from the Queen Mary.  I dunno -- it all felt weird and unsettling to me for some reason. Hmmm... maybe it's something about being in the middle of a really urban environment. Or could it have been a delayed reaction to the California freeway traffic?

Not sure. Well, at least I'm over it now... mostly.

 

Nice view on the way north to Long Beach.

Beau counted 4 layers of road BELOW us!!!

Light traffic on the freeway.

Our RV resort, next to...

The majestic Queen Mary. I really wish cruise ships were still designed like this. 

So the next day we began our wandering -- first to San Pedro, which is basically the Los Angeles Port area. The Long Beach and the LA ports are huge and just astounding.

We're talking square MILES of this!! It's really fantastic.

We lunched at a little seaside tourist "village' called Port O Call. Cute, with seafood restaurants up and down the docks.

Beau and Buddy at Port O Call.

We lucked out at the San Pedro Fish Market, in that a really nice guy -- Tommy -- came and helped us figure out the menu. (Perhaps we stood out in that we were just about the only Caucasians there? The area is 40% Hispanic.) He suggested their famous platter, where you go into the fish market and pick out a pound of whatever seafood you want, add veggies and bread, and they cook it for you. I think Tommy may have owned the joint, since he found us later to give Beau a free T-shirt.

Holy cow. The platter was gigantic.

Beau and the giant seafood platter.

Tommy is originally from Long Island. What a nice guy!

Beau and Buddy and I then explored the area some more, and ended up at Point Fermin park and lighthouse, and then Cabrillo Beach. Both were really beautiful.

Point Fermin Lighthouse. Isn't it lovely?

 

This is the view of the Pacific Ocean from Point Fermin Park -- you can see the kelp beds.

Cabrillo Point.

 

Pelicans off Cabrillo Beach.

Big concrete fishing pier. The breakwater protects Port Los Angeles.

Today we went up the coast -- visiting those famous places you will likely recognize: Redondo Beach, Venice Beach, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Malibu. So cool!  The report on all that in our next blog entry.

Tomorrow we are taking the rig in for service -- always a hassle, in that we are without our home for a day. Hate it! But it's better to take care of old Harvey and make sure he lives a long life.

(Not sure we will have time, but the Queen Mary has restaurants on board...we would love to go to one!)

Till next time,
Tanks, Panky

PS - I think I need ANOTHER new camera. All my photos are coming out with a round circle blob on them. (I crop most of the blobs out whenever possible.) The same thing happened to the previous camera. What the heck??!!!