Love Potion No. 9

We never got to the corner of Hollywood & Vine, but we saw lots of neat things in LA today. We started off in Hollywood visiting Graumann's Chinese Theatre and the Walk of the Stars. In all our trips west we had never ventured into the total tourist mode and we decided it was time. We parked across from Hollywood High School which has huge murals of famous alumni and made our way to the theatre. There we joined the throngs of tourists and enjoyed seeing the cement slabs with messages, handprints, footprints and even hoof prints from celebrities. We walked along Hollywood Boulevard and saw lots of stars on the sidewalk. We even got to see the Kodak Theatre where they hold the Academy Awards. The whole area was fun.


Next stop was lunch and we did it in style at Roscoe's House of Chicken'n Waffles at their Hollywood location. Brian has been talking about this place for years and the thought of fried chicken and waffles was not too appealing. For the record - a great combination. You just have to forget about the calories. The waffles are delicious and have lots of cinnamon in them. The fried chicken was first class too. Jeff had an enormous plate of fried chicken livers with fries and this is the first time ever that he had to ask for a doggie bag. Our waitress Mia was very sweet and the entire experience was fun. I called Brian from the restaurant and his boss answered the phone. Brian was out of the office on a business trip so I told Rich that we were in LA and wanted to tell Brian where we were eating. He said is it that Roscoe's place he's always talking about? Pretty funny and definitely a good recommendation.

We finally left and the next stop was the Walt Disney Concert Hall. This is the new venue for the LA Philharmonic designed by Frank Gehry. He is the architect who created the Guggenheim in Bilbao and this building is weird looking also. It's all stainless steel with curved sections and soaring walls and skylights and WOW! We took the audio self-guided tour narrated by John Lithgow. The actual auditorium was very exciting and there were public gardens on the upper level and a children's outdoor amphitheater. I would love to see and hear a concert here. FYI, Lillian Disney (Walt's widow) gave $50 million as the lead gift.

Now the day got really weird as Jeff and I headed over to the LA County Coroner's Office. Not to worry, we are fine, but had read that they have a neat gift shop and we had to go shopping. We'll show you our purchases in person, but suffice it to say that their logo is a chalk body outline. You must have a sense of humor to show up there especially when it is so macabre. We were a little bashful to ask the receptionist for the gift shop when getting our visitor passes.

Everywhere you go here is an ordeal because of the traffic. Their freeways are definitely not expressways as it seems to be rush hour busy all the time and I mean bumper to bumper.

Back at the campground we spent a few hours resting and soaking up some sun. Tonight we plan to hang out. Talk to you tomorrow.