For the weekend we had a few stops planned while making our way back north to San Francisco. Our first stop for this day, Saturday, April 6th, 2019 was what should normally be a short drive back into Los Angeles…we were going to Hollywood. We found a parking garage near Hollywood Boulevard and immediately came upon the Walk of Fame.
Our first stop was the Guiness World Records Museum. It was kind of small, but I guess that should be expected for a tourist trap.
There were a few interesting things, like this odd guy below. Mostly it was filled with the strange things that one might wonder why there should be a world record for it mixed in with some sports stats and a few free games to play.
Not far from there was the Chinese Theatre. It might be the most famous building in the area as it has been featured in numerous movies and occasionally gets brought up in the news when a highly anticipated movie is about to premiere.
And, being, the nerd that I am, I snapped a quick pic of the imprints from two certain individuals. It might be difficult to tell, but Mel Brooks’ left hand has six fingers. Of course, in reality, he didn’t, he just thought he would play yet another joke on people.
Our next stop took a bit longer than expected to get to. We can thank the ever famous Los Angeles area highway congestion for that. We did get a good view of downtown and another interesting building though.
But when we got there it was quite nice.
Yep, we were at the Santa Monica pier! Unfortunately, we did not make any time to play at the Pacific Park, but we did get to eat lunch and wander the pier. The views of the Pacific Ocean were amazing.
And then an up close view from the beach. It was by far the widest beach that I have ever been on.
I encouraged the kids and Andrea to wade into the water. It’s not everyday we get a chance to touch the Pacific waters.
I’m guessing it was a bit cold. Years ago I was afforded the opportunity to swim in the Pacific on my families trip to Hawaii so I passed on treading into the water that day.
After our short trip here we had another stop planned for the day. We had another long drive to get there though. But, for at least some of it, we were able to take California Highway 1. Here is a view of the ocean from the road.
And then from somewhere in Malibu, I think.
We had to go through a few mountain passes along the way too.
Finally, we made it to our last destination, though with not much time to spare as it was closing soon. We were at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. I kind of wanted to go there anyway, but, after paying admission to the Nixon Library, we were informed that we could gain entry to the Reagan Library for free! We just had to take advantage of that.
Mostly I just wanted to see President Reagan’s Air Force One. Unfortunately, that was about all we had time for. We had to high tail it through the majority of the museum just to make it there on time. It was totally worth it. The plane was massive!
Oh, and as you may notice below the plane, there was a bit going on. There was a fund raiser happening that night for a local high school. There was a lot of security and rich people every where. A little bit later we found out that some of the security was a Secret Service outfit that was there because President George W. Bush would be coming in via helicopter later that day.
Anyway, back to the plane! You may notice in a few of these photos that there is a small jar in each room. Those jars were filled with the aforementioned Jelly Belly jelly beans that President Reagan was so found of. We found out about that initially on our day one trip to the Jelly Belly factory. I told you it would show up again.
Getting to see the plane was quite neat. There was a guide at the back who told us a sweet story too. You see, they had (what was probably a fake) chocolate cake in the back of the plane. President Reagan, in his infinite wisdom, surmised that, since there was always many people on the plane, from staff, to Secret Service, other government officials, the crew, and plenty of press, it could be anyone’s birthday that day. So, just in case, he wanted to have a cake on the plane at all times so they could celebrate that person’s birthday. And, if there were no such birthdays to speak of, there was still always some cake to be eaten anyway. See, sweet!
We did get to see some of the museum after the plane tour though. Mostly it dealt with some of what happened during his terms as president like this statue of him and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
And they even had some of his riding saddles as President Reagan was an avid horse rider going back to his days in acting.
Of course we had to finish off the visit by paying our respects at the presidents gravesite as well.
There was a nice view from the backside of the grounds too.
I would definitely like to go back some time so we could give the museum the time it deserves and learn more about President Reagan’s life.
The library was our last destination for the day, at least until we found a hotel room. Come back later for the next story from our trip!
Hollar if you see Us 