Hello To Hollywood!!

Slideshow of All Today's Images

Sunday morning arrived and so did the desert wind! Paulette and I decided it would be a good day to go for a drive until the winds died down. But first, we went to Tom and Donna's site to say goodbye to them. They were getting ready to leave for Arizona with Donna's sister and her husband Roy. Roy and Dianne had already left, but we did see Tom and Donna and wished them well in their trip to Arizona. They don't expect to be back home until some time in mid-April.

From Hello To Hollywood!!

From Hello To Hollywood!!

Then, we headed west on I-10 and decided to check out Hollywood as it was only about a 90 minute drive from our RV Resort. It was pretty windy all the way until we reached the outskirts of Los Angeles. Being Sunday, the traffic wasn't too bad and we didn't have any traffic jams to deal with. However, you sure have to watch while driving on the L.A. freeways as they drive very fast and change lanes like Nascar drivers!!

From Hello To Hollywood!!

Once we got off the freeway, we drove right down Hollywood Boulevard and saw all of the famous landmarks - Hollywood & Vine, the Kodak Theatre where the Oscars are now hosted, Grauman's Chinese Theatre and a number of other noted theatres, restaurants and hotels. There were also a lot of very strange looking people walking around the streets of Hollywood - some in costumes and some not!

From Hello To Hollywood!!

Paulette also spotted a couple of garage sale signs as we drove along Hollywood Boulevard's residential section. We stopped at a couple of them and Paulette bought a couple of 'official' Martini glasses - .50 cents each, a real bargain! It was very warm in L.A., and no wind at all, so it was quite nice walking around the neighbourhoods.

From Hello To Hollywood!!

We then drove through some of the estates in Beverly Hills. These mansions make the celebrity homes in Palm Springs look like summer cottages - which I suppose they are. We've never seen so many Mercedes, BMW's and Lexus cars in any one neighbourhood. The houses were just huge and so were some of the properties, we had no idea who lived in any of them, but they must have a few bucks!



To see what else we couldn't afford to buy, we drove down Rodeo Drive and had a look at some of the stores - Versace, Dior, Chanel, Armani, Rolex etc. etc. Not a thrift store is sight anywhere! We didn't stop or get out of the car. Neither did we see Paris or Brittany!

From Hello To Hollywood!!

Next, we went for a drive up Mulholland Drive. This road winds up the Hollywood Hills above L.A., Beverly Hills and Hollywood - there are some real mansions up there. From Mulholland Drive, you get tremendous views out over the entire city of Los Angeles from one side of the road, and the San Fernando Valley from the other. A lot of famous celebrities live up on Mulholland including Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando when he was alive.



After winding down off Mulholland and through some exclusive 'canyon' neighbourhoods, we passed by Universal Studios, the Hollywood Bowl and the 'Hollywood' sign up on the hill. Then we used 'Gidget', our GPS, to get us back to I-10 and headed back to Palm Springs.



We arrived back at Sands RV in Desert Hot Springs about 4:00pm to discover that the wind had stopped and it was quite warm - mid 70's. I was kind of tired from the drive, so I still had time before dark to go for a quick swim and soak in the hot tub.



The weather looks to be great for this week, so we'll probably just spend most of our time around here relaxing and just taking it easy.