8/2

Over the previous weekend we had discussed and started organising our mini trip round California/Nevada so we knew we were leaving for Las Vegas on the 3rd. In light of the short time left in LA we got in touch with our old friend Geno to make a date to meet up in Hollywood - Today!

So to help us get into Hollywood to see Geno without having to take the time out to drive us there, George sorts us out with public transport. We have to take the Metro - Orange Line Busway from Canoga to North Hollywood, then get off, cross the road, go down into the Metro - Red Line Subway and ride it to Hollywood & Vine. Eassssy. So we set off to get the 11:30am bus to make our 1pm meeting with Geno. All goes smoothly even though its sooo hot outside - another 100 degree (38 Degrees C) day. We walk along the Hollywood stars to Sid Grauman's Chinese Theatre, a landmark of old Hollywood. In front of the theatre there are concrete tiles of celebrity hand and feet prints - i love that Marilyn Monroe was wearing high heels and all you see is the toes and two little holes. Soon Geno turns up and we go to the nearby Hard Rock Cafe for some lunch.

         

We have a great burger meal and cocktail and chat heaps about old times and what its like for Geno now he's on a current Disney XD Kids Show. Then he kindly pays for our lunch and teaches us a few ricks about tipping in America (never leave the customers copy for them to tamper with the amount of tip, rip it up instead). He has a launch event the same night which he has to go home to get ready for, but we still have some time after lunch to walk around. We go into the mini mall behind the Kodak Theatre (thats where they have the Oscars) and funnily enough, people start recognizing Geno and stopping him to ask for an autograph and a picture. I have a funny feeling he wanted to show us what it was like after having talked about fame over lunch. It was quite a weird experience but also fun to see how the kids eyes light up when he pulls out autographed photos of his Disney character for them.

We part ways with Geno after some Starbucks, as he has to go, but he promises we can come visit him on set when we get back from our mini trip. Exciting!!! Its still light and still relatively early so we do some more shopping across the road in H&M and Zara (Wish we had those stores here!!) then catch the same Metro lines back to where we started. It was a meeting night for the Friends, which is why we stayed (cos we realised we wouldn't make it back, get picked up and change in time for the meeting) and so the Pons pick us up after their meeting and we grab some In n Out Burger for dinner. Yummmm!! Early start tomorrow as we start our mini trip! Yay