Four Days in LA

Bryan on Hollywood Blvd.. Picture by Trevor Snillor

SUNDAY
We are having a gorgeous 70 degree day outside. Just completed my 3 mile hike at White Rock, and now feel the need to catch up on my blog. I have several topics in queue but today I’ll talk about my Halloween trip to LA.

Los Angeles 3rd Time Around

In 1984, I visited LA for a weekend vacation following a job interview. I took a Star Line tour and visited a couple of night clubs.. I was inebriated most of that trip, but recall that I liked it and vowed to return. I returned in 2009 with my friend Eric, some 25 years later and sober (but not as serious) as a judge. It was an enjoyable trip, although we didn’t extend our scope much beyond Hollywood and Venice Beach. I caught a bad cold on that trip so the fun was curtailed.

We came back (Eric, my brother Bryan and I) for Halloween week, 2015. We stayed at the Dixie Hollywood on a slightly down-scale block of Hollywood Blvd, but the experience was great again.

We did standard tourist things: Hollywood Walk of Fame, Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Paramount Studio Tour and Hollywood Celebrity Cemetery. I must say that Lucille Ball’s star on the Walk of Fame deserves better than its location near Pep Boys and a homeless shelter. Paramount Studios made me realize what a shallow sham our TV shows are… I wanted to believe that Cheers was filmed in a Boston pub. It is amazing what illusions (even in recent sci-fi) can be effected on a small studio set.

We looked at the Brady Bunch house near Studio City. It’s nicely maintained and I can only imagine that the current inhabitants are annoyed by the tourists snapping pictures all day. Shame on us! The owners might consider making it a museum tour – “This is where Greg took a puff.. This is where Marcia was hit by a football”.

We explored Laurel Canyon, Mulholland Drive (don’t drive there drunk at night), UCLA and Century City. LA is such an awesome sprawl that there are still many things we didn’t touch on: Universal City, Disneyland, the Tate-La Bianca houses, an updated Star Line tour. I honestly think the city is large and lively enough to justify a couple more visits.

We checked out the wacky Venice Beach and also the LA Farmers Market which is actually a luxuriant shopping mall with an eclectic open air food court attached. We looked at one of the few brick-and-mortar CB2 stores which has cool housewares at cooler affordable prices. We priced Hollywood real estate and marveled at how Dallas prices are catching up. On the whole, we had lots of fun doing a variety of things.

Conclusion

My travel companions and I pulled off a trip without having a fight or an argument – that in itself is pretty amazing. Maybe we’re just getting too old and the fire is gone. I doubt that we’ve matured that much. LA is fantastic if you’re star-struck like me. Also, the late October weather was near perfect with azure skies and highs in the low 80’s. If you want a fun, exciting place to vacation in an urban location you can hardly beat La La Land. I took about 100 digital photos, not one of which have I posted, printed or labeled. That should be a forthcoming activity if I ever catch up at work. These could a visual enticement to what awaits in Hollywood Land.

© 2015 Snillor Productions