Hollywood: Some Things You Just Have to Say You Have Done

We used the time change to our advantage on day two.  We knew our bodies would be used to waking up three hours earlier than our clocks.  So, we planned to get up and on the road by 8:00 AM.   After all, we are on vacation.  Our first stop was the Hollywood sign.  We were able to punch it into the Garmin and head out.  While en route to the sign, Kristi noticed a comment on her Facebook from Tim Fulkerson indicating that we should go to Griffith Observatory to see the Hollywood sign.  We didn't actually make it there, but we did stumble onto a Griffith Park from which we were able to see the sign pretty well.
After a short time of walking some dusty trails, seeing the sign, taking some pictures, and checking out some close-ups with the binoculars, we were ready for our next adventure - Hollywood Blvd. and the Walk of Fame.  Our first stop on Hollywood Blvd. was Madame Tussauds Wax Museum.

We were able to find public parking near our destination on a side street.  We took the escalator up from the parking garage and found we were at the entrance to the Kodak Theater.  This was just a short walk from Madame Tussauds.  We had read that it was good to get to the wax museum shortly after it opened.  We planned to arrive at 10:00 and we were darn close.  Madame Tussauds had some amazing wax figures.  There is something about the eyes.  There was a wax figure of Anthony Hopkins portraying Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lamb where they had you stand almost nose to nose.  Wow, that was creepy!  We were able to meet some interesting people while we were there.  After all it was Hollywood.  Kristi has such a natural beauty that Mary Hart was sure she was a star and started to interview her.

We also met Beyonce Knowles.  As soon she saw me she wanted to dance.  How could I say "no" to Beyonce?










Funny man, Alex, was able to meet funny man, Jim Carey, to exchange some jokes!  And Adri was able to go a little one-on-one with Kobe Bryant.

There were lots of people to meet and lots of pictures.  There were way too many pictures to put in the blog. If you want to see all of the stars, we will have to schedule a time to roll out the red carpet and pop some corn!

After we left Madame Tussauds, we walked Hollywood Blvd., and found some of our favorite stars.  All of that walking sure increases the appetite.  After about half-way through, we just had to stop at the Hollywood Hard Rock Cafe for lunch.

This was just half of our day.  We wandered and watched.  We saw the wax figures, the "Walk of Fame", the Kodak Theater, the Hollywood Hard Rock, and the Chinese theater with all of the hand and footprints.  Kristi was able to get us tickets to be in a studio audience, and we knew that would require a bit of wait time. So, we decided to find the studio to which we were supposed to report and then went to our hotel to get all of our stuff in before we headed to the studio.  We were told it could take about three hours, and it wasn't going to start until 6:00.  We took advantage of some down time at the hotel until we had to leave for the studio.  But, I will leave that experience for another post!