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| A disrobed Pat making the call to the car rental agency from the airport - note that Pat has donned his winter gear for the tropical climes of L.A. |
When I told people I was vacationing in Los Angeles, almost every one to a person said "You'll need a car!" Pat, my traveling companion, who has visited L.A. before didn't want to get a car. He said he could manage "quite well" without a car. He didn't have a car during his previous visits. He either walked or used public transportation. I almost went with his recommendation for no car until a few days before the trip when I finally succumbed to my bosses lamentations "You're crazy if you're taking a vacation in L. A. without a car!" So I insisted on getting a car. Why not? Pat is an excellent city driver Hey, if anyone who can traverse the treacherous Toronto byways and highways can handle L.A.'s freeways. So we got a car.
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| The very efficient Enterprise car rental terminal - I was so impressed with their efficiency! |
I have to say that the car rental was so easy. A few minutes after we landed at LAX, we found the public phones to the car rental agencies. We placed a call and were told that there shuttles rode by the airport terminal every few minutes. And they were right! We turned around after Pat's phone call and there was the Enterprise shuttle.
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| Pat, my never complaining subject for many of my photos, working out the details of our car rental "We only need a compact car -we don't need a BMW" |
We took the shuttle to the Enterprise car rental location a few miles down the road. On the way we were immediately stunned by the mild (72 degrees) temperature and the REAL palm trees. I have to admit I was impressed seeing a boulevard lined with REAL palm trees, not the faux plastic ones placed here on Route One toward Rehoboth Beach.
I have to admit that I LOVED the summertime temperatures that greeted us upon our arrival in L.A. LOVED IT! Riding down those palm tree lined boulevards was a dream come true for me. Like so much in my life, a long time I've dreamed about times like this and new those dreams were finally coming true.
We finished out paper work on the car, hoped in, set the address for the Hollywood Bed and Breakfast where we would be staying for the next ten days in my iPhone GPS and we were on our way!
The traffic wasn't too bad and in only a few minutes we were on Hollywood Boulevard, arriving at our destination.
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| Pat, standing at the entrance to our home for the next ten days, the Hollywood Bed and Breakfast - check out the palm trees - I couldn't get enough of them! |
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| The pool and patio area of the Hollywood Bed and Breakfast |
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| Here we are! On Sunset Boulevard. Doesn't take too much to impress us. |
Then what great luck. Right on Sunset Boulevard we found an enclosed court of shops, restaurants and a fitness center. And right in the middle was a place, which we were destined to eat most of our meals the next ten days, called the "Veggie Grill."
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| Pat checking out his veggie options at the order line at the Veggie Grill |
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| Our all veggie lunch - "Bombay Bowl" for Pat and "Sonoran Bowl" for me - delicious! |
Was our first day getting started off right or not? Wow. Talk about everything going right. I'm going to be boring here folks. We had a great time.
After feeding our faces we went out to explore more of Sunset Boulevard. Guess what was right outside of the court where we had our lunch? The Chateau Marmont Hotel. That's right folks, the famous (or infamous) hotel where John Belushi died and other famous folk have stayed.
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| A selfie of me and Pat with the Chateu Marmont behind us |
I'm sure Pat and I were very obvious as your typical awed Eastern tourists but no one bothered us. They let us have our fun. One thing we did notice that there were no overweight people. Pat was the first to notice that phenomena. Everyone was gym trained slim and the guys all had on those tight legged pants, the fashion de jour.
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| Pat in front of another landmark on Sunset Boulevard - no, we didn't run into Clint Eastwood. He was probably busy talking to an empty chair. |
During our walk on Sunset Boulevard we saw many familiar landmarks like the one below, The House of Blues. But we didn't find what Pat was looking for, "77 Sunset Strip." I think we found that later, the marker in the ground was covered by construction going on. Pat was disappointed but not me. I was living the dream, walking the fabled Sunset Strip. A place that I have heard so much about. Thus began our first day in La La Land. As Lawrence Welk would say, "Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!"
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| Pat at The House of Blues |