Originally published on 30 January 2014.

What do a couple of girlfriends get into on a day trip to Hollywood? Come along and find out. Off we go to Los Angeles!

First stop: Hollywood Boulevard! We definitely got stars in our eyes heading down the Walk of Fame. Namely Snow White, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astair, Humphrey Bogart, Kermit the Frog, and my home girl, Snow White!

We meandered our way to the famous Chinese Theatre, the one with all the hand prints in the concrete. We found a few of our favorites, but one question remained… Who is Sid? All these famous people wrote to Sid when they left their marks, but who was he? Sidney Grauman, the owner! He built several theaters all over California, but the Chinese was his last, completed in 1927. It’s been a prime place for film premiers ever since. And stars of these movies left their mark, which we still see today! We continued down Hollywood Blvd taking pictures with our favorite stars, but I hadn’t seen my favorite… Shirley Temple! We decided to look it up over lunch and find it afterward.

So where did we do lunch? At Musso and Frank’s Grill, Hollywood’s oldest restaurant. It’s been around since 1919, and it’s still decorated the way it was then! We decided to split the Flannel Cakes (flannel, not funnel!), which are like crepes. We also wanted a full meal at a Thai place later, so we split something small. And it was like having dessert first! We googled where to  find Shirley, and it turns out, she’s not just a star on the sidewalk, she’s got her mark at the Chinese, and we missed it! Got to go back!

Next up: Val wanted to stop in an old theatre/film bookstore, which was like walking into a Hollywood history lesson! There were actors’ biographies, books about movies, books about being a screenwriter, movie posters, etc. We stopped in a dress shop where all the clothes are inspired by Bettie Page. For a pinup girl, she sure had cute and modest taste in real life!

Now, back to the Chinese Theater. I needed to see Shirley! And there she was! I don’t know how we missed her the first go around, but now we got her! Her imprints were left there in 1935.

From there we hopped back in the car and drove to the Thai restaurant Val and I wanted to try. The food was a little hot for me, but it’s fun to say I had Thai frog and beef liver for lunch today!

And for our next tourist event, into the hills! To the Hollywood sign! This was the one thing I asked Val if we could do while I was here–to get our pictures with the Hollywood. The best place to see it is from Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park in Beverly Hills. We were definitely not the only folks who wanted to get a glimpse of the iconic sign. There were runners, bikers, hikers, walkers, and other drivers, all headed up and down the mountain and hills. How the bikers and runners got to the top is beyond me! It’s so steep!  We could see the sign clearly, but it looks very far away in pictures.

The Griffith Observatory itself is quite impressive, aside from the view of the sign. You can see all of L.A., Hollywood, etc., even through the smog. There’s also a museum inside, including a pendulum that knocks down a pin at the top of every hour!

Back down, down, down the mountain we go! We saw some beautiful homes on the way down, and that’s how we knew we were in the Hills of Beverly! We could also tell which ones were the stars’ homes… They were the ones with big gates and over grown bushes and trees for privacy.

Next and final stop in L.A.: Rodeo Drive! Neither Val nor I had any interest in shopping, but it was fun and free to look! When we’d had enough of that we drove up Highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway, and not only is that a good way to avoid L.A. traffic, it was a beautiful seaside drive at sunset. It also goes straight through Malibu!

And for our next trip: Ojai and Santa Barbara! Please join us!