We are extremely lazy and take the morning to update the blogspot, look at photos, speak to Roni (with Skype and free of charge) and only get going at 11. We take the hour bus ride down to Santa Monica. Callie makes conversation with a big, black fellow, who tells Callie that he is a script writer and movie director, who finally got the go-ahead to film his script. It is an action movie. Monique is very sceptic about this, but we will have to wait and see if it is ever released - as Uri says “everyone in Hollywood is either an actor, producer, director or in the movie business”.
We get off at the famous 3rd Promenade - a paved road surrounded by many restaurants and designer shops. We keep our eyes peeled for someone famous and Callie is sure he saw Sylvestor Stallone. After a long visit to the Sketchers shop - where Luc does his favourite pass time, getting gumballs from the gumball machine, and after buying the most expensive pair of tekkies Luc will ever have, we got down to the main promenade right on the beach. This is the famous promenade you will always see in the movies - people running and skating. We are really surprised by the number of homeless people asleep on the grass in the sun.
We walk down to the beautiful pier - with a few small curio shops, a games arcade and carnival. Luc immediately wants to do the water gun game, but refuses to go on the big wheel with his mother. Callie finally persuades him and we get a stunning view of Santa Monica and LA from high above the sea! There are a few nervous moments when we stop right at the top, but Luc is very impressed when he realises we are just as high as a helicopter that flew by.
On his way out, Luc tries the ladder balance act and ends up winning a small, cuddly toy for his brave effort. We are also forced to stop at the games arcade, under much protest from his mother! The greatest entertainment however is caused by feeding the doves and pigeons on the promenade. This happened by accident - we sat down to see who was climbing out of a limo that had just parked and whilst we were snacking away on some seed mix the local wildlife decided to join us for the snack. Quickly we were surrounded by hundreds of pigeons, climbing all over us!
We decide to head uptown before the rush hour, for which LA is so renowned and take the bus back. When we get to the Kodak Theatre, we make a last minute decision to go and a guided tour to view the houses of the stars! We get a great discount - cause they are filling up seats and it turns out to be a nice tour. We see locations where they are busy filming movies, then we see all the spots where the stars hang out - including the Macdonalds where Hugh Grant picked up the prostitute and George Micheals tried to pick up the undercover cop! We see the designer’s shops in Rodeo Drive. According to our tour guide there is an Italian suit designer who will only see you by appointment and if you don’t buy anything you get a bill of $1500. The average bill at his shop is $ 100 000 per person! We see the paparazzi hanging out at one shop and hear that the stars often come in after closing hours to shop. Then we see the houses and the cars. Christina Aquillera’s mansion on top of the hill to the $15000 million dollar house she got for her mom! We see the Farraris and Lamborginis of the owner of Guest Shop parked outside his house - cause he has no garages! We see the street and houses where Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween were filmed. We saw the Batman mansion and gates - which is public property. We see where Demi Moore lives with her young husband - and hear that Bruce Willis bought the house across the street. Also the houses of James Dean, Elvis Presely and Marilyn Manroe. We pop in at Sean Connery and Dr Phil - or the “house that Oprah bought” as our tour guide called it. We also see the famous Viper Room (Johnny Depp’s Club where River Phoenix died on a drug overdose).
We are very surprised to see that some of the properties are not very private at all, for instance, Patrick Dempsey (Gray’s Anatomy) house has a low fence and you can see the kid’s play area with his whole house. Although the houses are massive and worth fortunes, we actually got to realise that these are just ordinary people, with their own lives and not really much different from all of us - if you can ignore the paparazzi and
Egos!!!
We have a quick dinner back in the flat and try to pack and get into bed as quickly as possible for our very early flight.
We get off at the famous 3rd Promenade - a paved road surrounded by many restaurants and designer shops. We keep our eyes peeled for someone famous and Callie is sure he saw Sylvestor Stallone. After a long visit to the Sketchers shop - where Luc does his favourite pass time, getting gumballs from the gumball machine, and after buying the most expensive pair of tekkies Luc will ever have, we got down to the main promenade right on the beach. This is the famous promenade you will always see in the movies - people running and skating. We are really surprised by the number of homeless people asleep on the grass in the sun.
We walk down to the beautiful pier - with a few small curio shops, a games arcade and carnival. Luc immediately wants to do the water gun game, but refuses to go on the big wheel with his mother. Callie finally persuades him and we get a stunning view of Santa Monica and LA from high above the sea! There are a few nervous moments when we stop right at the top, but Luc is very impressed when he realises we are just as high as a helicopter that flew by.
On his way out, Luc tries the ladder balance act and ends up winning a small, cuddly toy for his brave effort. We are also forced to stop at the games arcade, under much protest from his mother! The greatest entertainment however is caused by feeding the doves and pigeons on the promenade. This happened by accident - we sat down to see who was climbing out of a limo that had just parked and whilst we were snacking away on some seed mix the local wildlife decided to join us for the snack. Quickly we were surrounded by hundreds of pigeons, climbing all over us!
We decide to head uptown before the rush hour, for which LA is so renowned and take the bus back. When we get to the Kodak Theatre, we make a last minute decision to go and a guided tour to view the houses of the stars! We get a great discount - cause they are filling up seats and it turns out to be a nice tour. We see locations where they are busy filming movies, then we see all the spots where the stars hang out - including the Macdonalds where Hugh Grant picked up the prostitute and George Micheals tried to pick up the undercover cop! We see the designer’s shops in Rodeo Drive. According to our tour guide there is an Italian suit designer who will only see you by appointment and if you don’t buy anything you get a bill of $1500. The average bill at his shop is $ 100 000 per person! We see the paparazzi hanging out at one shop and hear that the stars often come in after closing hours to shop. Then we see the houses and the cars. Christina Aquillera’s mansion on top of the hill to the $15000 million dollar house she got for her mom! We see the Farraris and Lamborginis of the owner of Guest Shop parked outside his house - cause he has no garages! We see the street and houses where Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween were filmed. We saw the Batman mansion and gates - which is public property. We see where Demi Moore lives with her young husband - and hear that Bruce Willis bought the house across the street. Also the houses of James Dean, Elvis Presely and Marilyn Manroe. We pop in at Sean Connery and Dr Phil - or the “house that Oprah bought” as our tour guide called it. We also see the famous Viper Room (Johnny Depp’s Club where River Phoenix died on a drug overdose).
We are very surprised to see that some of the properties are not very private at all, for instance, Patrick Dempsey (Gray’s Anatomy) house has a low fence and you can see the kid’s play area with his whole house. Although the houses are massive and worth fortunes, we actually got to realise that these are just ordinary people, with their own lives and not really much different from all of us - if you can ignore the paparazzi and
Egos!!!
We have a quick dinner back in the flat and try to pack and get into bed as quickly as possible for our very early flight.
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