Well, California drivers are as crazy as everyone's heard, and there really is graffiti everywhere.
That said, LA is so fun! So much intermingling of cultures, people all over the place. It's so interesting to watch other people and just look around. The only other city I've been to that I can compare it with is Houston, TX. Just all that movement of the big city is fascinating!
California has awesome plants that are of course not in Utah. Those are what I most enjoy looking at when we're just driving through neighborhoods or sid streets. Peoples' yard are almost nonexistent, all the houses shoved close together, but plants are all over the place. Some climbig up the houses, others draping down, tall bushes and thick trees that block off the view of the house, etc. Most of the houses are built right into hillsides! That is very fun to look at.
Today we first went to the Hollywood part of town, walking on all the stars in the sidewalk of Hollywood Boulevard. Of all the stars we passed, the one getting the most attention was Michael Jackson's, which was pretty awesome. We saw the Chinese theater, walked through a huge shopping center, and also went into a Disney store, where I got Stitch imprinted into one of my pennies. All sorts of people wandered around dressed in various outfits -- Darth Vadar, a storm trooper, Bumblebee, Spongebob, Hulk, Catwoman, and others. As I said, fascinating!
Next came Chinatown. We did the two-hour meter parking and gave it a quick perusal. It's a very fun place to walk around. I wanted to buy a straw hat and some big fans and wall hangings, but we need to keep a tight hold on our money until I get my first paycheck in Japan. ^.^' We ate at the restaurant where Rush Hour was filmed. Tasty food, and a lot of it for not any horrible price like Panda Express or something (tasted way better too, anyway). We drove by a whole bunch more we didn't have time to peruse. I'd love to go back sometime!
We tried to drive up to the observatory and get some good pictures of the Hollywood sign, but there was no parking. We drove off the side of the road lower down and took some quick pictures -- someone even passed by and informed us we were lazy for not going up the hill. Haha! (On a side not, for anyone who has read the Percy Jackson series, I kept thinking about Hollywood being the entrance to Hell. Geek moment.)
Then we headed over through Griffith Park to find the way to Bronson Cave, where scenes for an old Batman series was shot. It was where the bat mobile drove out! A woman who lived only about an hour away stopped and talked to us there, the normal questions about where we're from and so on, as well as telling about many film scenes being filmed there. She was very neat and fun to talk too!
Beverly Hills was cool too All those huge houses, every last one with a shiny car or two or four in the driveway. We also drove down Rodeo Road to look at the ritzy stores, all of which were closed, but clearly full of very expensive merchandise. We also drove past the LA temple, which we may try to go to tomorrow.
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