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Westwood Memorial Park
One of several famous graves we saw, including Natalie Wood, Roy Orbison (unmarked), Burt Lancaster, Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin, Jack Lemmon & Walter Matteau and last (and probably least) Rodney Dangerfield. Up for an early breakfast and then downstairs right on time to meet the shuttle at 9:15 to take us to the airport to pick up our car. 9:35 and it still hadn't arrived, so we rang. "3 miles away" I as told. 9:45 and it still hadn't arrived. Talking to the girl at reception - she mentioned that they'd already been! At 9:15. We weren't there, so they left! No waiting. No calling the room. Just left. And we were there at 9:14 by our watch.
Not impressed to say the least, we were advised that we could catch the metro to the airport. Turns out we needed a $1.25 train and a $6 bus. Then a complimentary shuttle to the car hire. After all that, we arrived about 12pm - 2 hours later than originally planned. With all the paperwork and decisions and instructions we finally left around 1pm. What a waste of a morning - the only saving grace is that we left with a "mid-size SUV" having only paid for a "compact". It was a Jeep Patriot.
The worst behind us, we made our way to Westwood Memorial Park. After coming to grips with a
Lunch at the Farmers Markets
Karina is somewhat bemused by her choice of Dessert rather crappy GPS, we finally made it. This was Karina's choice - she wanted to see the graves of some famous people. And that she did - eventually - with some help from a few helpful fellow tourists, including a few armed with maps printed from the internet, and even a live link to findagrave.com on their iphone!
Natalie Wood, Burt Lancaster, Jack Lemmon & Walter Matteau, Rodney Dangerfield, Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin, Merv Griffith, Betty Page, Don Knotts and - after much fruitless searching - Roy Orbison, who had an unmarked grave!!!
Next stop, The Farmer's Markets. We grabbed a slice of pizza for lunch and parted ways for an hour. Karina explored the markets themselves while I explored the adjacent The Grove, spending most of my time in Barnes & Noble - 3 stories of books and not a single directory in the store!
Neither of us found much of interest - Karina found a few Hollywood souvineers that were cheaper than you could get on Hollywood Blvd - so we sat down to a chocolate-covered frozen banana (K) and 99% fat-free sugar-free soft-serve (M).
We then set out to visit the CBS store
Griffith Observatory
The view from here is amazing... in the adjacent CBS studios. After walking around 3 sides of the rather large block, it was closed. So back we walked, straight to the car and on the road agin.
To Griffith Park, home of the Griffith Observatory. There wasn't a whole lot to see in the park - looked like Centennial for the most part - so we decided to head back to the observatory. As did half of LA. Parking was scarce, but we found one, and hiked up the hill to the observatory building. The views over LA were fantastic, and we could just make out the tall hotel near our own on Highland Ave. After taking pictures and just enjoying the view for about an hour, we headed back to the car as it approached 8pm.
Dumping the car in the hotel car park, we walked down to Hollywood Blvd and, for the 2nd time in as many nights, went to the Great Steak & Potato Company. This time, Karina opted for beef and I, Buffalo Chicken, which was quite spicy! Still, I think Tony & Soula's Moroccon can't be beat!
After a brief wander through some souvineer shops (again) we went
The Hollywood Sign
Looking back into the hills from the observatory back to the hotel and watched a quick show before doing a blog and getting some well-earned sleep.
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