Hollywood!!

Last night we flew from Honolulu to Los Angeles. We only had a 6hr flight so had no idea what the kids would be like on arrival, and had a back up list of day-hotels (we discounted the day-motels from our list...gross!) to check into for if they were horrifically tired, but they were really excited when we landed to go see Hollywood.

Recommended Brekkie spot

We had a 9 hour layover there now, not the 12 anticipated due to delays in Hawaii from the storm. The flight was our bumpiest by far, flying right through lightening, everyone else seemed to sleep luckily, but I was torn between watching the lightening so close up and petrified of the roller coaster turbulence. I am so glad I watched a British Airways film on turbulence before we left, it really has helped understand it better and taken away loads of the fear on all the other flights...but not so much on this one!

We got off the equivalent of the tube at Hollywood and Vine and stepped straight right out onto the Hollywood walk of fame stars, but they looked so out of place in this tired, run down part of town. I think I would have been a little bit gutted if I earnt a star and ended up down this end of Hollywood Boulevard!

We asked around for the best place for a good quick breakfast, and were pointed in the direction of the "Burger factory;" Funny little Mexican place, bit of a shabby diner but after a night flight and at 9am on a Sunday morning, it tasted great and was packed with people...perfect.

As we walked further up the increasingly glamorous Boulevard we caught our first glimpse of the Hollywood sign, probably a couple of miles away up the hill, but we weren't expecting to see it there, so as it caught our eyes when we crossed the road, it was one of those "Wow, we are actually here" moments.. We've had a few of those!

There were many moments of recognition across the day from various films, most of them by J obviously, but a much better way to kill a few hours than sit at the airport, and as our luggage was checked all the way to Heathrow, it was easy to do.

We continued our star-on-the-floor spotting, then swapped to foot and handprint spotting outside the Chinese Theatre. Next to this is the Dolby Theatre where the Oscars are held, and saw a whole bunch of wannabes dressed up that you could have your photo taken with for a dollar or 2. It has such a feel of Disney world about the place, it just felt like wandering round a set, not a real street, the buildings, the people... It's surreal!

Banana split on Hollywood Boulevard

We were hoping to go round the original Disney movie theatre , that still has the old style organist playing music to the film you are watching, but our delay earlier in the day meant no time for that, so we had banana split in the Disney chocolate shop overlooking it all, and then headed back to the airport for our final leg home :-)