And right ahead was Michael Jackson's star. There were still momentos scattered about, but not nearly as bad as I had feared. One of those weird and sad moments. As a former CPS worker, well, you can imagine.
Just a ways up was the new Madame Tousaud's museum, which was very intriguing. But at $50 for all three of us, it was decided that money could be used elsewhere. Maybe next time if whogirl is not afraid.
This was a great wax figure of President Obama. It will be interesting to see the difference with how he looks in the Hall of Presidents in December. I had heard that one is not a very good likeness.
And we found a princess!
The other thing I had really wanted to do in Hollywood was to go to the Disney Soda Shop for ice cream. It was so exciting to have that little bit of Disney in the middle of all the craziness!
We walked in and it was very crowded, being so hot outside today I suppose. Luckily, as we were waiting to be seated, a family left the window booth in the front. Score!
I was quite excited to see peppermint ice cream on the menu, so I didn't even look any further to the sundaes after I saw that. Olivia had strawberry and Jim had cookies and cream (or was it rocky road?) Anyway, it was not pink like the girls' ice cream.
This is how your cone comes to you so there won't be any drippage. It also comes in handy when yours truly had to make a bathroom run and the ice cream, of course, came while I was gone. Mine was quite melted by the time I returned and I couldn't even get it back in the cone, so I just left it in the dish and crumbled the sugar cone on top. Crunch in every bite!
Here are a couple of pics of the inside--I thought they were in focus until I downloaded them, so hopefully they'll be okay. (Damn this new nearsightedness!
)
We did a little Disney shopping after finishing our ice cream and found a very cute refrigerator magnet with the Soda Shop logo on it and whogirl found Minnie and Mickey washcloths and a Wiinnie the Pooh pen that has a hanging Pooh bear from the top. I really, really, really wanted the big coffee mug with the logo but knew we wouldn't have room for it on the return flight home. Note: I am NEVER flying with all carry-ons ever again.
One good stroke of luck was that the ice cream shop is the only place on the strip that will verify your parking besides the shops inside Highland! Woo-hoo!
Time to leave, let say 'bye to Mickey!
Some random downtown shots. Yeah, I know I need practice...
Looking left...
Looking right.
We decided at this point we were very hot and tired and ready to go back home to my aunt's. It was only 88 degrees this day downtown, but was 98 in the valley. Hopefully we had missed the hottest part of the day when we returned!
We walked through the H&H bldg. trying to find our way to the correct elevators to take us to the parking garage. First valet we asked just told us to go inside and upstairs and we would see the elevator. Well, this is a very large hotel and shopping complex, so of course we made lots of u-turns on foot. It did enable us to stumble upon this inside:
And afforded an okay view of this:
.
We finally managed to flag down a maintenance worker and between my broken Spanish and his nonexistent English, we found the elevator to get to our car. Whew! DH was impressed with me.
I was just glad to get into some air conditioning.
It was an uneventful drive home where a very yippy puppy and my wonderful aunt were waiting for us with homemade lasagna. Mmmm! One caveat: we walk in the door and immediately see that the table is set for seven. Again. Now, we love family, but have never been used to it being more than just immediately family when we visit, at least most of the time. DH was missing his down town and time just to talk with my aunt and relax without having to be "on", you know?
Again, love my family, but cousin M. was about to drive dh crazy. Enough so that he accepted a 24 oz. can of Bud to ease the pain of the conversation.
(In general, we don't do Budweiser, and we never do beer out of a can). Also, it seems there was an unspoken battle for the leftovers every night. DH had missed out on any leftover pecan pie last night, so in the middle of dinner I hear him mentioning how good the lasagna will be for breakfast in the morning! I almost choked on my garlic toast to keep from laughing! How can two 40ish year old men become 7 year olds so quick?
After dinner we took Olivia and K. swimming, which was very relaxing. We are very appreciative of all the F. does for my aunt that we cannot, living 3000 miles away. For this reason I will put up with any craziness of my cousin. The kids had a great time, the air was nice and cool and it was a great end to a very busy day. We planned to go to Santa Barbara the next day so my aunt could visit a dear friend while we went sightseeing. At the last moment Aunt S. decided to let us go on, that she would rather not "bother" us with having to drop her off, come back for her at a certain time, etc. etc. Nothing we could say would talk her out of it, but she assured us that F. would take her up there one day soon. This made me very sad.
It's hard to see your family members get older, and not be able to do everything they want to without help from others. I really hope they get to Santa Barbara this summer--I would hate for S. to have to wait till we come back next summer to go.
Ok, didn't mean to end on a melancholy note, so here's some
and a
and a
for all you readers! Thanks for sticking with me on the loooonnnggg wait for
Disneyland!
Next up: Solvang and Santa Barbara.
Lucky you to actually see him in person!
Looks like someone needs a visit to "Promises".
