Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Stars and Strangers



 On Saturday we slept in and almost missed our free breakfast.
We caught a train into Hollywood, but even before we got there we’d met 2 ‘interesting’ people. Christopher helped us find where we had to go (it was a bit confusing) & explained the ticket machine to us (it wasn’t as confusing) but in return scabbed money off us for his ‘train home’.
We quickly learnt that the train could come to either side of the platform, not just the side with the sign... Luckily we only had to miss one train to work this out. Once we were on the train a woman hopped on and asked us if this was a red line train, when we answered her she decided we were all best friends and she was going to come to Hollywood with us for the day. Apparently no-one else had answered her all morning.  We found out she was in search of a guy she used to know who may or may not be famous now... the only info she knew about him was the bar he hangs out at in Redondo.  She ended up deciding to try out Santa Monica incase he happened to be there. So Tracey and I were on our own for the day (phew)
Hollywood was busy. I think the thing we said most often was “No, thanks!” as we were offered tours, cds and such. Some of those people were sure pushy! We decided to check out the Guiness World Records and Hollywood Wax Museum because they had a deal. We had heaps of fun taking fun photos through both of these. Tracey is such a good poser!
After a yummy In-N-Out buger we decided we’d had enough of the hype of Hollywood Bvd & headed back to town.

It is funny the things that are naturally ingrained in you from childhood. I don’t think we realised how natural it is to walk on the left in crowded situations. Here they walk on the right. Maybe Americans don’t even realise that they are doing it. But we have been caught out so many times by our natural homing to the left.

We eventually booked ourselves onto a train to Anaheim. These trains were a bit fancy. They are probably only as tall as our trains, but look so much taller because you enter from ground level not a raised platform.  We were too late to check in our suitcases, so had to take them carry-on (drag-on).  We soon learnt that the bottom level is set aside only for elderly and disabled passengers, and although there were only 3 of us in the 40 or so seats downstairs we all had to move upstairs...with our suitcases...which haven’t grown lighter since we checked into the airport last Tuesday. Hmm.
On the plus side there was wi-fi and also the train announcer sang a song, that reminded me of a song I would make up with my kids at school, about how it was a great Saturday Evening for a train ride.

Once we got to the hotel it was time for dinner. After watching a marching band march around our hotel  (as they do)we found a Taco Bell, which Tracey has been hanging out for all week. Then we walked “around the block” to the Cheesecake Factory. The block was about 3km around, but the cheesecake was soooo yum! And it was fun to pretend we’d been on Big Bang Theory (even though it looked nothing like Penny’s Cheesecake factory).

Coming up next: Disneyland...maybe...if I get around to writing about it.










2 comments:

  1. Are the cheese burgers different? Pete

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  2. Yeh their cheeseburgers have tomato, optional onion and some weird but yummy sauce!

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