Ailantha
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

The Hollywood Sign Or Bust!  (Bust)

4/9/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
     Though I visit Los Angeles two or three times a year, in truth I have little sense of the layout of city. 
   In my mind Los Angeles is divided into two sections:
The Beach Part,
Picture
Picture
...and the Hollywood Part.
     The  Beach Part and the Hollywood Part are separated by a great terrifying tanglement of asphalt known as The Freeway,  a complex looping, stacking, and conjoining of four different arteries which, I'm proud to say, I once drove across years ago,
...though I'm not sure I could do it ever again.
Picture
.     The Beach Part consists of everything on one side of the Freeway and The Hollywood Part consists of everything on the other.
    The Freeway cuts through a vast field of behemoth skyscrapers known as Downtown which, as far as I know, nobody ever goes to, but just looks out the window at on their way from The Beach Part to The Hollywood Part and back again.  Though I could be wrong about this.
     Oh, and there's also a part of Los Angeles called The Valley, but I'm not sure where or what that is.    
     But anyway, as  Maria, Justin and the kids live in the Beach Part, we seldom traverse The Freeway to The Hollywood Part during our Los Angeles visits
     However as Tom, Tommy, and I were on our own Last Monday I suggested that we venture across The Freeway and hike up into the Hollywood Hills to the Hollywood sign, something Tommy had never done and that Tom and I hadn't done in years, not since Maria and Justin lived in The Hollywood Part.
       We all agreed that a hike to the Hollywood sign would be the very thing.
       But we got a late start, it was close to 10:30 by the time we left,  and though Tom drove and negotiated the  high-speed bumper-to-bumper Freeway traffic with impressive proficiency, it was about 11:45 before we reached the Hollywood hills.
    Now, as I recalled from previous excursions years ago, to reach the hiking trail one was required to drive uphill through a steep but lovely winding neighborhood of beautiful homes, at the top of which was the Sunset Ranch,

Picture
...where one could rent a horse to ride the trail,
....or one could drive on to the parking area from whence began the hiking trail.
      I guess we should have taken a clue, though, from the crowds of people who were walking through the uphill neighborhood, the streets of which were now lined with parked cars, and from the fact that we were the only ones driving.
      When we arrived at the top of the street we were greeted by a gate closing off the Sunset Ranch and a no-nonsense police officer who told us in no uncertain terms that there was no parking beyond that point. 
      Which explained why everyone was hiking the long trek  through the street up to the trail, having apparently parked in the neighborhood below.
     My daughter later explained to me that there was some dust-up going on around the Hollywood sign, the residents were sick of tourists driving up their street to get to the hiking trail and so the trail was closed to parking.  To which I replied that I wondered how well the residents now liked all the parked cars and walking people crowding their street.
    But anyway, we subsequently had to make our way back down the hill to look for a parking spot either along this street, or, more likely, some other street farther away.
    As it was by now close to noon I suggested that we put our hiking plans on hold and grab some lunch at the cafe at the bottom of the hill street.

     So we parked at the bottom of the street,
Picture
Picture
...and walked to the cafe,
...to learn that it was closed on Mondays.
Picture
      Now our mission changed from where to park to where to eat.
      As we were strangers in a strange residential upscale Hollywood Hills neighborhood, I suggested that we pull out the map and  find our way to Hollywood Boulevard, the heart of the tourist trade in these parts, where we'd surely find some nourishment and some parking, and which we proceeded to do.

However, as the Lieutenant Colonel would never agree to paying the exorbitant price of $10 for parking for the brief foray that we figured our lunch operation would be, we drove around until we found a parking meter on a side street from whence we walked back to Hollywood Boulevard.
Picture
Picture
     We found a promising-looking sports bar called The Rusty Mullet where the walls opened out the street,
Picture
...and the motif was Hillbilly-chic.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
  The ambiance was fun and the food was wonderful:
     Tom had a really yummy burger and fries,
Picture
Picture
... I opted for the  Cobb Wrap, which was humongous, delicious, and came with the most ethereally scrumptious sweet potato fries, which I swear I must  seek to replicate someday,
Picture
...and Tommy had a sort of stylized Cobb Salad, also very tasty.
Picture
     But though the food at The Rusty Mullet was great, it took overly-long to arrive, and under normal circumstances I might have said the food was worth waiting for.  But it was a little before 1 pm when we arrived at the restaurant and 1:45 pm when we left.  Doing the math we figured that by the time we drove back to the Hollywood Hills, found parking, and hiked up the steep hill street it would probably be at least 2:45 pm before we even reached the beginning of the trail to the Hollywood sign.  Our drive back home over The Freeway could take  1 1/2 hours or more during rush hour.
     And we'd promised to have the car back to Maria by 4 pm, as she needed it to get to a work appointment.
     And so, seeing as a hike up to the Hollywood sign was not in the cards, we folded and instead joined the crowds hiking up and down Hollywood Boulevard,

...which was also interesting,
Picture
Picture
Picture
...and fun.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
     However on our drive back home, as we sat stuck on The Freeway in the famous L. A. traffic, we decided that if in the future if we wanted to go for a hike in Los Angeles we'd stick to the lovely hills of Malibu in the Beach Part.
Picture
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    "Tropical Depression" 
    by Patti Liszkay
    ​Buy it on Amazon:

    https://www.amzn.com/1685131832

    Picture
    "Hail Mary"
    by Patti Liszkay
    Buy it on Amazon:

    https://www.amzn.com/1684334888

    Picture
    "Equal And Opposite Reactions"
     by Patti Liszkay
    Buy it on Amazon:

    http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
    or from
    The Book Loft
    of German Village,
    Columbus, Ohio
    Picture
    Or check it out at the Columbus Metropolitan Library
    Picture

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    RSS Feed

    I am a traveler just visiting this planet and reporting various and sundry observations,
    hopefully of interest to my fellow travelers.

    Categories

    All


























































































Proudly powered by Weebly