Los Angeles, California "Day 1: LA City, Hollywood, Movie Stars'Homes & Beach Tour"

    Aloha everyone!!! All the way from Los Angeles, California, we greet you with a warm aloha!!! You may be wondering what we are doing here in California...too make the looooong story short --> We finished school and were moving back to our home country, Philippines. However, before we face reality, we decided to go on a little vacation to take the stress away! :D

   Our first stop is Los Angeles, California. This is both our first time to visit the mainland we are very very excited. Our flight got delayed for an hour. Nevertheless, nothing can stop as from our little vacation. As soon as we saw the city lights view from the window of our airplane, we were stoked!!! We can't believe that we are actually here in LA!!! Our family friends who lives here in LA picked us up at LAX (this airport is huuuuuuge).

   For our first day here in LA, we went to the famous Hollywood Blvd. We have a tour reserved entitled as "Grand Tour of Los Angeles" were we will be able to see and enjoy the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, Dolby Theater,  Chinese Theater, and other great sights around LA. We booked this tour from Starline Tours because it basically takes you around LA.

   We arrived at the Chinese Theater to pay for our tour tickets and they instructed us to go up to a candy store where we will be waiting. Boarding time came and one of the tour guides took our ticket and looked at it. She then informed us that the tour we booked was cancelled. Imagine my disappointment and frustration at that moment. We paid for our tickets 30 minutes before boarding and they never informed us about it. I went to complain at their booth and they apologized and upgraded our tour.

   The tour we went on is the LA City, Hollywood, Movie Stars' Homes & Beach Tour. Our tour guide's name is Alan. The first part of our tour a walk-through around Hollywood Blvd. We went to the walk-of fame, Chinese Theater, Dolby Theater, Madame Tussauds, and other great sights to see just around the Hollywood Blvd. Our tour started at 12:30pm and the heat was unbearable. Nevertheless, we had so much fun looking at the stars and taking pictures of them. My advice to you, as a fellow tourist, bring an umbrella or hat and water. Here are some of our pictures taken at Hollywood Blvd.

Robin William's star was filled with love as people from all over the world paid their respects to one of the best actors of all time 

Pateet with Merryl Streep

   Our next stop is the Movie Stars' Home and Hollywood Sign. We had to go up the mountain so that we can tour around the homes of some famous actors, actresses, producers and directors. The movie stars' homes tour is my least favorite part of the tour. Here are some of my reasons:

- The tour guide mentioned unnecessary information such as "This house is where this actor died." or "This actress was overdosed in this house." The information he was giving us were crap (sorry or the term) because there were children with us and they don't need to hear those stuff. Most of the information he gave were actors/actresses dying of drugs,  famous people jailed, signficant places were shooting happened, and other horrible stuff. These types of information are not what were looking for.

- He was trying TOO HARD to tell a joke

- He was blabbing too much of how we should give a tip to him. He was asking 15$-20$ per person in the group. 

   Eventhough it was not our favorite part, we still had a good time. Here are some of the pictures of the houses that famous people live in.

Bruno Mars Home

Johnny Depp Home

Simon Cowell Home

   After the Movie Stars' Homes tour, we went to see the famous HOLLYWOOD SIGN!!! Here you go...ladies and gents...

   We went to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive too. Just looking at the houses around Beverly Hills, I know that it cost a looooooooooot. Rodeo Drive is a good place to shop ONLY if you're a millionaire. Take a quick look of our roadtrip along Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive.

   Our next stop were Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach. I was not a big fan of the Venice Beach but the Santa Monica Pier was not bad. I really loved walking around the Pier. You can see some restaurants, recreational activities for all ages, artists on the streets, gift shops, people fishing, and people swimming in the beach. The view was great. However, nothing will beat the beauty of the beaches in Hawaii (LOL). Here are some of the pictures we took:

   We also went to Downtown LA!!! One Word -> TRAFFIC!!! It took us an hour to travel from Venice Beach to Downtown LA annnnnnd boy!!!! the traffic was mean! When we arrived Downtown LA, we saw the Nokia Theater, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Staples Center and other famous buildings. Here are some of the pictures we took:

  Overall, our tour was okay. The tour was not what I have imagined but were happy that we got to go around Los Angeles in one day. We were taking the pictures inside the van. Rap and I enjoyed this tour and we are grateful to have seen this beautiful place. If you are around Los Angeles, California, visit this amazing places. Don't Miss Out!!! :D Thank you for a great first day LA!!!! Peace out!!!