Sheilaclapkin's Blog;

We are home, all seventeen of us, from our “Natives on Tour in Hollywood” adventure. We did not feel like natives, we felt like tourists. Yes, before you can ask, we saw the Hollywood Wax Museum, Ripley’s Believe it or Not, and The Guinness World Records Museum. All of these entities need upgrading. But when in Hollywood, like when in Rome, you do and see what they have available to you. We ate at Miceil’s Pizza where nearly umpteen million years ago I went on my first date. It felt out of the ordinary to be sitting within sight of the table where I sat with a stranger eating my first taste of pizza, switching gears and looking at our family all sitting, eating, laughing, and enjoying the moment.  We also ate at The Pig and Whistle, which is housed in a most wonderful, historical building and the food was very good. Morning came and we found our large party at Mel’s Diner, which was a perfect beginning of day two. By the way, you must also  know that we ate our way all day at the coffee establishments and the various “snackettes,” mixed with an abundance of shopping and the offer of tours offered along the boulevard. There is no shortage of food, fun eating, shopping and people watching in Hollywood. In the middle of our jaunting, a huge cloud spread across the skies and within five minutes it started to rain. Hey, this is Southern California. It does not rain here in the summer. But it did. You should have seen Hollywood Boulevard with everyone scrambling for every nook and cranny to stay dry. The streets thinned of people and were soaked.  Ten minutes later the rain had stopped and the streets began to dry.

As you may already know, the street is so packed at Hollywood and Highland you have to wait 10+ deep at certain times of the day. I remember seeing depths of people waiting at crossing signals in Japan at 10-20 deep. I thought I would ever see anything like that again. Here in the heart of Hollywood, I found all seventeen of us, mixed with other tourists, waiting to cross, making the depth of waiting more unbelievable, so Hollywood and so electrifying.  We all enjoyed our stay at the Roosevelt Hotel and everything was done to insure our comfort. Did you know they have the biggest, loudest, sexiest pool parties in the world at the Roosevelt Hotel? Our little ones were not allowed to go swimming during the party, so they extended our check out time so the children could use the pool the next morning before the next big pool party.

We scoured the streets for interesting, new, and historical icons that make Hollywood, Hollywood. It was impossible to see them all, so there is hidden treasure to be found on our next visit.

Taking a large family on Safari in any town has its ups, its downs, and definitely its many challenges, but for the most part all systems operated at a positive level and most of the time it was up, up and away. So we can come another day.