City of Angels

I went on a tour of Los Angeles in April 2010. I was staying in West Hollywood and wanted to see the rest of the city. It was a very full day, visting Hollywood, Venice Beach and Beverly Hills. 

I saw the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I couldn't find any of the stars that I wanted to see (Harrison Ford, The Beatles, and Grace Kelly) - I only had half an hour, but was able to get a photo with Steven Spielberg's star. I took several other photos of stars - Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, and Houdini. All these were within the two blocks near the former Kodak Theater. (in 2012 they changed the name of the Kodak Theater to the Dolby Theater.) I couldn't find Marilyn Monroe's handprints, but found the handprints of Harrison Ford, Julie Andrews, C3PO and R2D2, and the Harry Potter hand, foot and wand prints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater. Very cool!

Steven Spielberg's Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

I also saw the Hollywood sign. It was really far away. No one is allowed to go up to the letters - I assume for the hair ad that starred Gwen Stefani, they must have been given special permission, or used a green screen. It was cool, though. The Hollywood sign originally spelled out 'Hollywoodland' for an advertisement in 1923, but was shortened to Hollywood due to repeated acts of vandalism. The sign is now protected by a non-profit organization, the Hollywood Sign Trust.

The Hollywood Sign

After that we went to Venice Beach - very interesting. The beach itself was not crowded that day. It was a Wednesday after all. But the promenade bordering the beach was interesting to walk down. There were buskers, artists, people selling everything from painted skulls to necklaces. For some reason, skulls and skeleton art were popular there that year. Not sure I would go to a tattoo place there, if I were into that sort of thing. They looked at bit dodgy.

Venice Beach

I had a Julia Roberts Pretty Woman moment on Rodeo Drive. Actually I just walked down and saw all the shops there. I still think Armani is the best of the designers. Everyone else had stuff I would not wear! I guess there have been celebrity sightings there a lot. On the tour the day before, someone saw Adam Sandler. I didn't see anyone though.

Rodeo Drive

~Angie