Old Holiday Journals: Wednesday 4th January 2005 (Los Angeles)

We're thankful to be staying in nice, more expensive hotels.
Breakfast at the vagabond consisted of sugary donuts and bad coffee. The jam donut was too sweet for Adie to finish and I was glad that I'd bought a yoghurt yesterday.
Easy drive to Hollywood through some pretty mountains.

Arrived at Roosevelt Hotel early and the room wasn't ready so we walked up and down Hollywood Blvd. This place is really set up for tourists as there is nothing here that's not geared towards tourism. This doesn't make it a better place but instead it's really cheesy and not all that exciting.

Went to the Guinness Records and Wax Museum. Both were quite pathetic. There was a whole lot of things at the Guinness Exhibit that either didn't work or cost extra money and most of the models in the wax museum were simply terrible.

As we went past the Chinese Theatre there was a big crowd building as Queen Latifah was getting a star. We didn't care and so we went to check into our room.

Went to El Capitan, a huge theatre run by Disney, to see 'The Chronicles of Narnia'. There were two levels to the theatre and it was totally decked out for the movie with lighting,a huge Aslan head and set pieces from the film on either side of the screen.

There was a guy playing the Wurlitzer organ before the movie as well as a sprinkling of fake snow!
The film itself was really good. Not really a kids film though. Tilda Swinton was excellent.
Had dinner at an Italian restaurant called 'Bella' on Hollywood Blvd. It was nice to eat a bowl of pasta instead of another burger.
The Chinese Theatre has the premier of 'Bloodrayne' tonight. There were blockades all over the road and press everywhere. It looks like the after party is in our hotel because there's a room set up downstairs with big posters out the front for the film.
The drive to Hollywood around Hollywood saw us go 4000 feet up into the hills.

Old Holiday Journals