low_delta

Another day from our trip.

I wasn't happy about forgetting my hat back at home, and on our short walk back to our room from breakfast, my eyes hurt from the sun. Hats are very important to me, and I'm rarely found outdoors without one. They keep the rain and sun out of my eyes, and the sun off my scalp. They hold my hair down in the wind, and a little heat in, if necessary. Accordingly, when Mark picked us up, the first place we went was one of the Pasdena Targets. I had never been in a two-story Target, and let me tell you, I was overwhelmed with the class found there. I won't say which class, but I think you can guess. So I picked up a hat, and we will not speak of it again (by request).

From there, Mark took us over to Hollywood, where we wandered around a big cemetery called Hollywood Forever. There, we saw the graves of Mel Blanc, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Rudolph Valentino, Johnny Ramone (cenotaph), Dee Dee Ramone, Cecil B. DeMille, Hattie McDaniel (cenotaph), Virginia Rappe, Tyrone Power, and a few others, whom I'm sure I've forgotten.

The Cemetery abuts the Paramount Studios, so we drove around the block and looked at their walls. Then we saw the big Hollywood sign - exciting, no? - and went over to Hollywood Boulevard to see some stars. We saw some stars on The Hollywood Walk of Fame. Word is that the stars must appear in person for the unveiling ceremony, so I'm a little curious how Godzilla's ceremony went. We saw Graumann's Chinese Theater, and a bunch of messed up concrete. I saw the original Star Trek cast's prints, and Marilyn's tiny footprints. I'm disappointed to have missed Douglas Fairbank's footprints (How did he do such great stunts with such little feet?). Did see a whole lot of other names I'd never heard of. And Johnny Depp's. Hmm, I bet I was standing on Fairbanks's prints when I was looking at Depp's. Anyway, this was where all the tourists were. There were a whole lot of touristy looking people. I tried not to fit in with this crowd, by not looking down. There were also a lot of celebrity impersonators standing by the street. By "impersonators," I mean people of nominally the same sex as, and who have the same number of limbs as the characters whose costumes they're wearing. These held the same attraction for me as the tattoo parlors and Live Nude Girls did.

Back on the road. We drove down Sunset Boulevard for a while. We saw The Whisky (pic) and The Viper Room. We drove past some pretty ritzy neighborhoods, like Bel Air (home of the Bel Arabs). We ate lunch at Jerry's Famous Deli in Westwood Village, then went over to another cemetery - Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery. It's a very small place, so we saw quite a few of the famous graves, including Marilyn Monroe's, Dean Martin's and Rodney Dangerfield's ("There goes the neighborhood!"). After a chilly walk around there, we drove over to Santa Monica.

The ocean! This was our first view of the Pacific. The wide sandy beach at Santa Monica at sunset. Cyn took off her shoes and waded in.

I merely dipped my hands in it. We walked over to the Santa Monica Pier, and took in the amusement park, street vendors, the water and sky, and the carousel.

Afterwards, we drove back to Pasadena for dinner at Smitty's, where we spent a couple of hours. It was a long and enjoyable day, spent with a fun host.