Hollywood and More :-)

The story goes, they came over to Hollywood and searched for hours in the night looking for the famous "Hollywood" sign.  They couldn't for the life of them find it, driving aimlessly around and around looking up on all the hills for it.  So we set out that morning to find the Hollywood sign for Jeremy and Cheyenne.  

You really must try to look that baby up on your GPS.  It is not under "Hollywood Sign" or under Points of Interest (Is it not interesting?).  It is not under Tourist Attractions (Is it not a tourist attraction?).  It is not under City Attractions (Is it not in the city?).  It is not under State and Federal Parks (I knew it wasn't but I tried!)  Heck, I never could find it on my trusty little GPS. 

Hollywood is not that big - of course the area around it is huge, but Hollywood is just speck on the map.  On my GPS, I zoomed in and looked at the area.  I found only a Griffith Park and an observatory there.  What a better place to look for a sign on a hill, right?  I hit "Go To" on the GPS and off we went, around and around in circles through the neighborhood of MIGHTY BIG houses, then through the park and finally up the hill.  Looking for the Hollywood sign, right?  We found the observatory:

Yep, big and proud up on that hill, there it sat all tall, mighty and beautiful.  That was indeed an observatory.  We finally made our way up to it and admired it up close... don't know what happened to those pictures, but trust me we did.  And there were bazillions of cars around that baby!  I could not get over all the people parked there and around it - people milling from their cars to go flock into the observatory, heck people were even standing... about... on... the... sidewalk.    ?

Wait!  They are.... taking a PICTURE... 

THERE IT IS!!  The Hollywood sign - BEHIND US!  On that stupid hill we just climbed and I have no idea where it hid, but it just popped up and there it was!  WHOOT!

Maybe the smog hid it but we had finally found it!  That icky smog!  :-(  So we did the best we could - we all stood dutifully in front of it and got our pictures:

Jeremy and Cheyenne got the first one - after all, they were the reason for our journey.  The smog is so bad you can hardly see the sign, but trust me, it IS there.

Aedan, you will remember this for the rest of your life;  no amount of tickles, bribing, poking or prodding could wake you from your car seat nap.  You were out like a light; gone pecan; and sleeping like a baby.  So, we all saw the FAMOUS Hollywood sign and you missed it, dude!  We will talk about this the rest of your life - but we did try - honest!  We can all vouch for it - each and every one of us - we promise we did try.  You just wanted to sleep - absolutely did not want to partake in the excitement of THE Hollywood sign at all  :-(  So while you got your treasured beauty sleep that you love so much, we got pictures for you.  But.  You will hear about this forevah!  Trust us on this...  ;-)

We got pictures of your family:

We got pictures of Megan by herself:

And someone (Cheyenne?) got pictures of granny and papa:

Papa always seems to look disgusted when he is with granny?  Do you think it is a sign of the times?   I sure hope not  :-(

*Update after his comment below*  Ok, so maybe he is aggravated, but he is still not happy - and probably the fact someone wanted a picture of him made him tha tway.  Or maybe he is tired.  I will give him the benefit of doubt... lol.... maybe it is not me  ;-)

Once we took our pictures of the infamous Hollywood sign, we drove through Hollywood trying to find our way out.  I did not get any good pictures there, but here are the few I got:

Not sure if that last one is famous or not, but I took it just in case  ;-)

This building is FAMOUS!  I don't remember what for, but I *know* I have seen it in a movie or two.  I am certain I have... I just wish I could remember which one and what it is called.  

Please don't mind the bug splats.  Unfortunately, it is one I wish I had actually gotten out of the car and taken a good picture of  :-(  But I was too darned lazy or tired - I don't know which.  Anyway, do you know what it was in?  Or am I hallucinating?

**Update**  Steve found the name of the building is the Wiltern Theater and more pictures in interesting facts can be found HERE

Finally, we headed out into the California countryside to see what we could see.  Like buildings getting ready to fall off into the ocean.  Unfortunately, it will slide onto the freeway first:

And bridges getting washed away:

Yes, sir!  I begged Steve to ride on that bridge and see if it would hold us.  NOT!  I think Aedan might have collapsed it  :-(

We found entrances to Santa Monica beach right from the freeway...  ...  ?

And as we rode off into the sunset, the pictures said it all:

All it said was that Los Angeles and Hollywood were very smoggy and it was time to leave them behind and start our ascent onto Hwy 1 toward San Francisco.  But the sunset through the smog was amazing!  

Hmmm... come to think of it, maybe that is why I am still having this silly asthma attack.