From Santa Monica to Magic Mountain

"Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." --Forrest Gump

We started out the day with a visit to the Santa Monica pier. It was absolutely beautiful along the coast, but the early morning temperatures signaled that the day would be more than toasty. We had planned to have breakfast at a little restaurant about a mile from the pier, but Forrest Gump changed our plans. Ok, not literally Forrest Gump, but we were pleasantly surprised to see that the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant was open and serving breakfast. We were able to watch the ocean as we had breakfast. It was beautiful, and we didn't have to wait!

From the pier, we headed through downtown L.A., and finally managed to locate Dodger Stadium and Chinatown. Then it was back to the car rental company. Why? The check engine light had been on in the vehicle we rented for over 50 miles. We exchanged it for a roomier minivan, and went through the insanity of getting it changed. THEN we noticed that there was something that resembled chocolate ice cream all over the third row seating and the third row stow-n-go didn't work. One more trip to the parking lot yielded a van that SEEMS to be in working order. Total time spent at the rental company-- 2 HOURS. Ugh.

After that, we were craving a Pink's hot dog-- lunchtime was upon us. As we headed up LaBrea, our mouth were watering. And they stayed watering. We pulled into the Pink's parking lot, and saw a LONG line waiting in the sun. We debated staying and asked the parking attendant how long a line like that usually took. He told us an hour and twenty minutes! It was 95 degrees, and we decided that we didn't want to wait in the head that long. We headed on up to Hollywood and had a nice lunch at a restaurant called The Pig and Whistle (Chris, it made me think of Faith!!).

Michelle, no hot dog pic, but here I am chowing down on a filet mignon cheesesteak!

MMM...tasty.

You never know what you're going to see in Hollywood. The night before we saw Yoda, Cookie Monster and other assorted celebrity impersonators wandering near Mann's Chinese Theater. Sunday Elmo was out....and so were two guys rolling a casket down the sidewalk!! It was a real casket...we're hoping it was for a movie set. There were rollers attached to the bottom and it was held closed with tarp straps!!! Wow.

We headed out of Hollywood for Chatsworth and the famous Iverson Movie Ranch. After some careful sleuthing, we found the rock that Johnny has been searching for for more than 20 years-- the Devil's Doorway. He was soooo excited! We also saw some of the other famous movie location rocks like Indian head and the Lone Ranger Rock.

FINALLY!!

After that, we went to Vazquez Rocks, another famous movie locale. You might recognize it, as it is used a lot in commercials. I had a moment of brainless bravery and decided I could probably climb up one of these rocks and have my picture taken. I made it up; but someone should have warned me I would slide back down....ouch! No worries, though. I'm just fine. Nothing wounded but my pride. These rocks were really neat-- they reminded me of Pride Rock from the Lion King movie.

Vazquez Rocks Cuties

Gotcha!

Then we went movie ranch hunting down a little side road, found the Walker Ranch park, and headed for a swim at the motel. It was a good day- but long. Today will find us wandering more inland, skirting the edge of Death Valley, and ending up in Lone Pine. I don't know how the internet availability will be there, but if possible, I'll post again tonight.

Love you all!