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Hollywood and Beverly Hills, California
Alex loves anything Asian, so the very first thing we did when we got to Hollywood was drive through Thai Town. He wanted to get out and walk, but I was way out of my comfort zone. We were very dusty from our travel and there were so-o-o-o-o many beautiful people here. We had planned to do the walk of fame, but I changed my mind. (We came back and did that another day.)
Hollywood Blvd didn't look anything like I thought it would. I was used to seeing a lot of glamour and glitz, I guess, from premieres and award shows. Instead it looked much like any other downtown street, except for a few very famous buildings. We passed the Kodak Theatre and Grauman's Chinese Theatre and we also saw the stars on the sidewalks. We went past Vine and then got on Santa Monica Blvd. We were headed out to the Santa Monica Pier.
Traffic was really heavy so it was easy to look around at all the people. We thought we saw people we recognized from movies everywhere. Maybe, considering where we were, we really were seeing them, but mostly I told myself it couldn't be.
Beverly Hills caught me by complete surprise. I don't know why, but I hadn't expected Santa Monica Blvd to take us right smack through the middle of it. Everywhere I looked, I saw fancy people in fancy cars, looking at us over their fancy sunglasses. I wondered what they thought of us. An old dirty work truck from Texas with two country bumpkins up front and a load of critters and clutter in the back. I had to smile. I told Alex we truly were the Beverly Hillbillies, only without the money.
At one point, we passed by a thrift store and I wondered who their patrons would be and what kind of prices they would have. I really wanted to go look, but in this traffic, I decided against getting out of my lane.
Right before 405, we stopped at a station to gas up. On the other side of my pump was a gentleman that I couldn't quite place, but I just knew I'd seen him on some show. He was middle age, tall, blonde hair, nicely dressed and had a really nice car he was filling up.
He noticed our cats and struck up a conversation. We went on a long time talking about them and then he asked their names. When I said they were names from Lord of the Rings and told him Arwen, Galadriel, Haldir and Elrond, he stopped smiling and he stopped talking. He abruptly said, "Well, you guys take care." and he went back to pumping his gas.
I thought it was very strange, so I pretended not to know if this road would take me to the pier and I asked him about it. He was more than happy to explain how far I had to go and he was just as nice as before. Very odd indeed. I told Alex later that The Lord of the Rings may have touched on a sore spot.
next - The Santa Monica Pier
or see the index a little farther down this page
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