Since we were driving from Ventura to San Diego, the City of Angels was a convenient stop to break up the drive.   By mid morning we had arrived at our first stop, the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Founded in 1899, it because the resting place of many Hollywood legends from the founding of Hollywood.  We picked up a map at the Flower Shop and then made stops at various celebrities.  While we didn’t find all the gravesites we went looking for, we stopped at Cecil B. DeMille, Mel Blanc, and Charlie Chaplin, Jr.  among others.   Then it was off for lunch.

The restaurant we looked for was closed for the 4th, so we stopped at another nearby café that was crowded.  This was our first introduction to why LA is really is La La Land.  The hostess was wearing some kind of crazy outfit we guessed in an attempt  to try and get discovered and the three guys at the table behind us were talking about their clients.   To paraphrase “The Wizard of Oz”, Whitney, we’re not in Silicon Valley anymore.

After lunch, we drove over to Hollywood Blvd. to walk along the Walk of Fame.  We scored street parking which gave us enough time to wander the area including the famous Grauman’s Chinese Theater.  By mid afternoon we departed for San Diego which we arrived at with minimal trouble.

When we checked in to the hotel, we asked about fireworks for July 4th.  They were at the nearby waterfront so we walked over after dinner.  While finding our spot a little before 9pm, there was a very loud boom and a brief bright light in the sky.  I replied to L’, “Wow, this is going to be great, we are really close!”.  Then we waited for the show to start.  And waited.  And waited.  When we saw the barges with police escorts going by, we knew nothing more was going to happen.  Turning on the news in the hotel, we learned that the big boom we saw was in fact all of the fireworks going off at the same time.  There was a “glitch” and the twenty minute show went off in a couple seconds.  Oops.

View the photos from LA:

http://sanjoseabrams.com/photos/SoCalJuly2012/Day%205%20-%20Los%20Angeles/index.html