Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it Sahn Diahgo. Here they established an animal sanctuary, better known as the San Diego Zoo. Many animals can be found here, but even more prevalent than animals are hills.
If you travel to the city named for Saint Diego then please be prepared to trek over many hills. At least in the area designated for animal viewing.
And to speak of the animal viewing! If you can possibly think of an animal that can be viewed at this astounding menagerie then it can be found. That is, unless you're thinking of the tiger. Evidentally it was the tiger's day off.
The day began late as our night prior was a late one as well, succumbing to the allure of "the mouse". Plus, in the morning we had to make a ritualistic sacrifice to the god Kenmore, ruler of all things laundry.
We (Rich, Chris, Kate & Matt) drove down a "the" highway and arrived in the southernmost San city the Golden State could muster. And the Zoo was spectacular! We saw birds, reptiles, fish, and mammals.
We elbowed with elephants, regaled with rhinos
, kibbutzed with koalas
and pandered to pandas.
Every alliterative allegory you could think of, except any regarding the tiger. No tigers.
We walked up hills and down hills, amongst the bears, birds, monkeys, marsupials, and all other flora and fauna.
We concluded the animal viewing day with the only way Southern Californians know how.
Dinner at In-N-Out Burger. The fast food burger industry put up its dukes and asked "you think you can do better than this?" In-N-Out Burger replied with a resounding "Hell yes."
Act Two: Los Angeles
Remember, folks: You can't spell "lame" without L.A.
Wow! Who invited the jerk? Yes, I know, that seems harsh, but we were less than impressed with Hollywood. I'm sure L.A. has more excitement to offer, but all we took in was Hollywood. Not what we were expecting.
Tinseltown intself just didn't seem as glitzy or simply as clean as we'd anticipated. Nevertheless, we drove down Hollywood Boulevard and parked at a meter in front of Aaron Spelling, Gene Autry and Harrison Ford. From there we walked about 3 blocks to the Kodak Theater, home of the Oscars. Outside of here one may be greeted by celebrity of character impersonators. We saw Tigger and the Cat in the Hat, later to be joined by Shrek, Flash Gordon and Darth Vader - all of whom appeared and performed unconvincingly. We found out that we could park under the Kodak Theater and it was no more than $10 for the whole day. So it's cheaper than Boston. That's one point for Hollywood. Enjoy it.
Sure, it was neat to walk down Hollywood Boulevard and see the walk of fame and all the stars. You'll see some that you recognize, some that you've hardly even heard of. Except the night before Rich told us that the stars aren't awarded to anyone by a governing body of judges, they're purchased by the so-named star holders for an outrageous price. So if you've got money, you too could be on the Hollywood walk of fame. So that made it just a bit more disingenuous. Although this didn't stop Kate from having her picture taken with the Bee Gees.
We decided to take a bus tour, and Starline Tours (apparently Hollywood's oldest bus tourline) was our choice. This one offers a hop on-hop off policy, so you can take one bus, get off somewhere, and catch the next one that comes along. Tickets were purchased next to Graumman's Chinese Theater. That was kind of neat, where you can find actors' handprints and footprints plus a message written in the concrete slabs outside of the theater. John Wayne didn't put his hands in it, he punched his fist in. He had small feet.
So we rode around for a bit, looking at this building where River Phoenix died, down the street from where John Belushi died, and further down where Eddie Murphy's career died. We drove down and viewed the pretentiousness of Rodeo Drive and decided to stop off at the Hollywood Farmer's Market. We were hoping for something akin to our experience in Seattle. It was a bit less stuffy and plastic than the rest of what we'd seen on the tour. Still nothing great though. So we ate something and looked at stuff and then caught the next bus. From here until the end of the tour route we caught a glimpse of the Hollywood sign, Forest Lawn cemetery, and a bunch of other buildings where famouse people USED to live. As we arrived back to the Kodak Theater where we started there was a movie premeire taking place at the Chinese Theater. We took some pictures of this guy in aviator sunglasses being asked questions from other people. I assume he was famous. We were just ready to get out of there.
So now we can say we've seen Hollywood.
A-ba-dee a-ba-dee a-ba-dee a-ba-dee a-ba-dee That's all, folks!
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