This is my fifth post about our visit to Southern California. I recommend reading the first, second, third, and fourth posts before this one. Because I blog about educational travel, I was given admission tickets, to some of the places we visited during this trip. As always, I will never recommend anything to you unless I think it is worth paying full price.
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Hollywood
We had such a good time on our Big Bus Tour of San Francisco that we were eager to do the Los Angeles Big Bus Tour. So that's the first thing we did on Friday, January 31 after driving for 70 minutes (34 miles) from Anaheim. We parked at the Hollywood & Highland Center. Not only was it relatively affordable ($20 for the day), but it was easy to find, clean, safe, and very convenient to the Big Bus stops 1 and 2.
We boarded the Big Bus at Stop 1. The bus was there and just about to leave when we arrived, but if you aren't as lucky with your timing, there is a lot to do while you wait. The most obvious is to look at the stars on the Walk of Fame. There are nearly 2800 of them, representing six categories: Motion Pictures; Television; Radio; Recording; Live Theatre/Performance; and Sports Entertainment. I recommend reading the Wikipedia article about the Walk of Fame. There's a lot of really interesting information in it. For example, I didn't realize a single person could have multiple stars representing different categories. Kermit the Frog is one of them.
Our Big Bus tour took us down Hollywood Boulevard past the Chinese Theater to Sunset Boulevard to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive. The recorded narration was packed with interesting stories about the buildings we were passing.
Beverly Hills wants you to know you're in Beverly Hills.
I spy another Big Bus!
A Big Bus ticket is good for both the Hollywood Loop (that we took) and the Beach Loop that goes to Santa Monica. If we'd had more time, we definitely would have done both. We've been to Santa Monica fairly recently (though it was before I was blogging about travel, unfortunately) so we focused on Hollywood during this trip. A good number of people hopped off our bus at Stop #7 in order to transfer to the Beach Loop though.
Museum Row is Stop #9 and that's where we hopped off. It is home to five museums: the two I already mentioned, plus the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), La Brea Tar Pits and Museum, and the Craft Contemporary Museum. Of them, the only one we'd visited before was La Brea. I would have LOVED to have done all five on this trip, but we only had time in the schedule to see one: the Academy Museum.
However, we did get to see bits of the others. The bus stop is right by La Brea Tar Pits, on the opposite side of the park from the Academy Museum. So as we walked, we did get to see all of the outdoor portions.
There goes the bus we hopped off, just beyond that tar pit.
If you've never been to La Brea, it is well-worth a visit. The museum is great and the grounds are super interesting. There is literally oozing tar all over the place, either fenced off or marked with (tar-covered) pylons.
It reminds me of Hot Springs. Except instead of hot water you can drink, it's cold tar that you can't. Or shouldn't, anyway.
Actually, "cold" is the wrong word. The tar is at ambient temperature, so it's only cold when it's cold outside. For that matter, "tar" is the wrong word, too. It's asphalt.
Next, we walked by LACMA. I would have loved to go inside, but there just wasn't time to do it all. Fortunately, there are a few outdoor exhibits we were able to enjoy. Those statues you see below are the 12 lunar zodiac animals.
Steve photographed the dragon because he was born in the Year of the Dragon...
... the rat because I was born in the Year of the Rat...
... and the rabbit because we love bunnies.
These two installations are called "Levitated Mass" and "Urban Light."
"Wait!" you're saying. "You said you only went to one museum and it wasn't the Petersen!" You're right. We didn't go to the Petersen Museum. We had lunch at the Meyers Manx Cafe at the Petersen. All of the vehicles pictured above are in their lobby and are not part of the three stories' worth of exhibits you have to pay to see. This was the view from our table:
On to the Academy Museum!
One word: WOW.
The Academy Museum is absolutely incredible. And huge. You could easily spend all day there. Take a look at some of the exhibits.
This exhibit about 1931's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was super interesting. They used a red filter over the lens to film Dr. Jekyll. The red makeup on the actor didn't show until the filter was slowly changed to green and Mr. Hyde appeared.
Just a shark casually hanging in the air above the escalators.
Hey, I just colored her! Fun to see exactly what colors I should have used.
The colors in this display were absolutely stunning.
Recognize any of these famous costumes?
Even if you didn't recognize Elle Woods, the Joker, Queen Elizabeth, or Cruella deVil, you'll definitely recognize these ruby slippers.
Look! It's the zoetrope that used to be at California Adventure! We'd just been talking about it the previous day.
There aren't any exhibits on the fifth floor of the museum, but you HAVE to go up there. The views are spectacular.
There's the Hollywood sign, off in the distance.
Be sure to pose with the oversized Oscar when you visit.
We both absolutely loved the Academy Museum. I would happily return again and again, because there is so much to see. If you read all the signs and watched all the movie segments, you'd be there for days. When you go, allow a minimum of 2-3 hours.
We stayed for as long as we could without missing the last Big Bus of the day. We walked past LACMA again...
... and waited about 5 minutes before re-boarding the Big Bus at Stop #9.
We were never concerned that we would miss the bus because the app has live tracking. You can see exactly where the buses are and how long you'll have to wait. Speaking of which, Big Bus has a feature which all hop-on-hop-off bus companies should have (but don't): photographs of exactly where each bus will be stopping. You don't have to guess where on the block to wait, or which side of the street to stand on. Look at the photo on the app and go to that place. That's where the bus will be. So handy.
The rest of the Big Bus loop took us down Melrose Avenue to Paramount Pictures to Hollywood and Vine, and then back to the start. As before, the narration was really interesting. There's so much to see!
"All About the Bread" could be the title of my autobiography.
This was interesting: the movie billboards weren't advertising the movies, per se. They were requesting votes from Academy members. See the top? "For your consideration in all categories including Best Picture."
We had a great time on our Big Bus tour. I definitely recommend it when you visit Hollywood. Our Big Bus tickets came with a walking tour of the Chinese Theater, but we'd stayed at the Academy Museum so long they'd ended for the day. So we looked around on our own.
As the sun was setting, we returned to our car...
... drove 2.5 miles over the Hollywood Hills (which took 25 minutes) and checked into our hotel: Hilton Universal City. This is the view of the Universal Studios theme park from our room, an easy 0.5 mile walk.
You might assume that we stayed at this particular hotel in order to be close to the theme park. Nope! We stayed there to be close to somewhere else. I'll tell you about it tomorrow.
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