Living it up in LA Day 1: Pink's Hot Dogs and Hollywood Blvd.

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The first sign I'd lost my mind in Los Angeles was choosing to stand in a 50 minute line at Pink's Hot Dogs (www.pinkshollywood.com) at 1:00am in the morning. We'd just gotten off the plane and my sister in law was driving us home when we passed the hot dog stand of the stars. We were too excited to go to sleep so we pulled over and got in line. Sheer craziness. I don't even stand in 50 minute lines at Disneyworld! The hot dogs were expensive and I didn't think they tasted any different than other chili dogs I've had in my life, but apparently Pink's comes highly recommended in these parts.

We went to bed with full stomachs and somehow got to sleep without any heartburn. We slept in that first morning and when we woke up, the first order of business was getting to a grocery store to load up on inexpensive food for the week. I don't know about you, but I hate shopping in new grocery stores. I find not knowing the layout irritating and time consuming. It seemed like our grocery store trips took all morning (we stopped at two). By the time we were done, it was 3pm and my husband needed to get on the road to Disneyland.

Our first day of vacation, Wednesday, was his birthday and he had a free birthday pass waiting for him. So he headed out to Anaheim while the kids and I went sightseeing on Hollywood Boulevard which is about a 20 minute walk from my in-law's house. We stopped and had ice cream at Disney's Soda Fountain which is located right next to the El Capitan Theater. We looked at the stars on the Walk of Fame and the handprints at Graumen's Chinease Theatre.

I was accosted by the chaotic, touristy feel of Hollywood Boulevard. It reminded me a little of Time Square in New York...entertaining but in a sensory overload sort of way. Costumed street performers roam around looking for tourists to take pictures with them (for a fee), tour guides try to entice you to take one of their discounted bus tours of LA, people hand you random coupons and flyers as you walk by.

My children tried to pull me into every souvenir shop on the Boulevard. They all looked the same and sold the same things for almost exactly the same prices. By midnight, we found we were too tired to walk home, so we caught a cab for $7.

During my vacation planning, I found some great deals for Hollywood Boulevard. There is a discount card called the Elephant Card (http://www.hollywoodandhighland.com/information_elephantcard.php) that you can pick up for free in the Visitors Center located on the ground floor of the Kodak Theater (which is a mall, not just a theater!). It saved us 10%!a(MISSING)t the Disney Soda Fountain, but there were many other discounts that we didn't get a chance to use, including free tours of the Kodak Theater within a week of your birthday. We found the hours of the Kodak Theater tour to be inconvenient for our vacation. But it was definitely one thing we wanted to do if we'd had a chance.

Please stay tuned, I'll post pictures for this entry soon...

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