Hollywood Part 2

While we were in Hollywood we went on a StarLine Hop-On Hop-Off Double Decker Bus Tour.  The route we took had about 16 stops including, Rodeo Drive, Paramount Studios,  Shopping on Melrose Ave., Sunset Strip, Pink's Hot Dogs, La Brea Tar Pits, Peterson Automotive Museum and Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  It was such a beautiful day for the ride also!      

StarLine Hop-On Hop-Off Sightseeing Tour Bus



The both of us on the bus.

 

View of Hollywood Blvd. from the top of the bus.

The beginning of the the tour took us past the Chateau Marmont Hotel on Sunset Blvd.  The Cateau Marmont made headlines in 1982 when comedian John Belushi died from a drug overdose.  It also occasionally finds itself in the tabloids for a variety of scandalous activity, from underage drinking to secret romances.  Sandra Bullock is quoted in the LA Times as saying "No wonder people come here to have affairs, its got that air of history, where you know a lot of people did things they weren't supposed to do."  

  

Chateau Marmont Hotel

From there the tour took us back to Beverly Hills & back down Rodeo Drive.  It was fun having a "birds eye" view of what we had seen earlier in the day.  At the end of Rodeo Drive sits the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel.  Home to the characters Richard Gere & Julia Roberts played in the movie "Pretty Woman".   

Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel

The tour continued on & we passed landmarks such at the Four Seasons Hotel, The Ivy and The La Brea Tar Pits. 

Four Seasons Hotel

We got off the bus at Petersen Automotive Museum.  Tyler was super excited about this stop!  Petersen Automotive Museum is a 300,000 square feet building that has a revolving inventory of cars.  The day we went they had just opened a new exhibit, Super Cars.  I didn't take many pictures while we were there.  I did take some pictures of some of the more famous cars though.     

The Love Bug

The Batmobile

Speedracer Car

General Lee (2005 movie)

The Museum also played a small role in a celebrity murder. Rapper Notorious B.I.G. had attended a Soul Train awards party at the Petersen on March 9, 1997; when the controversial rapper left the party in his car, he was gunned down nearby in a drive-by shooting.

By the time we were finished with the museum tour it was starting to get dark and we wanted to get back to Hollywood Blvd.  We waited a few minutes on the bus to return, but got impatient.  Sooo, we took a cab.  And a good thing we did.  We drove right by Kat Von D's tattoo shop!! High Voltage & home to the TV show LA Ink.  We wanted to stop, but like I said before it was getting dark and the shop was not in the best part of town.  Hopefully before we leave California we can make it back. 

High Voltage Tattoo

Home of LA Ink

This is the view we had when we pulled back up to Hollywood Blvd:

It isn't a great picture and it doesn't show how breath taking it was, but it will do. 

A little bonus to the day....on our way home Tyler we missed our turn & wound up the Bel-Air.  We got lucky on that wrong turn, we always use the GPS now! 

Ok, I have one last picture to share with you.  This was the real LA!  I am glad we were on top of a bus!!