We had one day with Jody’s folks for just plain fun, so we decided to check out Hollywood. Once again, the fact that our arms and legs no longer worked was unfortunate, but we had grown quite accomplished at oozing ourselves along.
We drove down Santa Monica Boulevard (which made me sing Sheryl Crow songs in my head the entire way), through Beverly Hills (and yes, our resemblance to the Clampett family was scary), and up La Brea into Hollywood. We figured out we were in celebrity country when, while stopped at a stoplight, we looked out the driver’s side windows and saw Kat Von D’s “L.A. Ink” tattoo parlor. We parked just off Hollywood Boulevard next to the crowd gathered in front of Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
We started wandering down the Hollywood Walk of Fame, staring at the stars on the ground, and having a blast. We all had our pictures made with stars we liked (except Jody’s mother, whose name is Madonna, who kept waiting for Madonna’s star which we never found).
Dewey and Steve McQueen
Jody and Nicolas Cage
Hillary and Johnny Depp
Me and John Fogerty
We stopped for lunch at Johnny Rocket’s:
And spent some cool time in front of Grauman’s Theatre checking out the famed handprints and footprints. Hillary especially enjoyed seeing Harry Potter’s…
I had heard that Hollywood was a little disappointing. I’m glad I heard that because I didn’t have very high expectations, which made it a pleasant surprise. We had a lot of fun.
The biggest crowd gathered in front of Grauman’s Theatre, and in that crowd several celebrity look-alikes worked the crowd posing for pictures with people for tips. I’ve already posted Hillary’s pics with Jack Sparrow (who was an awesome look-alike in our opinion). Luckily, Jody got to even the score with me. The fact that I had my picture taken with the real Pamela Anderson on my previous trip to Malibu had given Jody one up on me, so in front of Grauman’s Theatre she evened things up. As the picture shows, she positively glowed.
When we go back, I’m looking for Marilyn Monroe. 🙂
Oh, then on Sunday night Jody and I had our first star sighting!!!!!!!! We were buying groceries at our new Malibu grocery store a couple of miles from our apartment when a little old man got in line behind us with some oranges and spinach. We both looked at each other and recognized him immediately – but we couldn’t think of his name!!!!!!! Or what he has played in!!!!!!!! We came home and racked our brains until Jody finally remembered that he had played a judge (turned out on Boston Legal). With a little internet search we found out his name is Henry Gibson – Judge Clark Brown on Boston Legal, but most famously the leader of the Illinois Nazis in The Blues Brothers. You can read about him HERE.
I hate Illinois Nazis.
Minutes to Memories 