Joey’s uncle J.T. and aunt Tina took the three of us and their new baby Sienna out for a wonderfully filling breakfast at Cappy’s Café and Cantina. Little Sienna enjoyed a game of dropping her toys from her highchair to the floor and making little yelling noises until someone picked them up for her. Not half a second after she had them back on her highchair tray they were on the floor again and she was calling out. Babies are pretty cute, and apparently really easily amused.
We headed back to J.T. and Tina’s house and baby Sienna went down for a nap. We took our cue and hit the old dusty trail again- we were on the way to Hollywood!
We headed back to J.T. and Tina’s house and baby Sienna went down for a nap. We took our cue and hit the old dusty trail again- we were on the way to Hollywood!
First things first, as soon as we reached the famous town, we headed down the Walk of Fame and over to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. On the way over I saw a beautiful dress in a window and Joey stopped to buy it for me - thank you Joey! There were a bunch of actors outside Mann’s all dressed to look like different characters, and they were taking pictures with tourists for tips.
We saw a guy dressed as Samuel L. Jackson dressed as Jules from Pulp Fiction, Michael Jackson, Marylyn Monroe, a Darth Vader who was singing inside his helmet, Yoda, and Tom stopped to get his picture between Superman and Batman who we later saw buying hotdogs from a street vender together - cute!
All around the entrance to the theater were cement blocks that made up the front walk. The blocks had hand and foot prints in them from all of the most famous stars and also had their names signed below- it looked like with their finger but I imagine it was actually done with a dowel or some implement like that. After we got our fill of actors playing dress up and soaked in the atmosphere around the famous spot we headed over to the next famous attraction in town - the Kodak Theatre.
From the back patio of this outdoor shopping center and theater you can see one of America’s most famous signs - you guessed it - the Hollywood sign. It’s way off in the distance up on that lush green hill, and it actually looked kind of small from where we stood, but even seeing it from that distance impressed me. We were in Hollywood!
Next on the list of things to do here in town was to eat at the longest operational sushi restaurant in the US. Los Angeles was where this delicious Japanese cuisine was first introduced to Americans, and since we’re all big fans we had to check this spot out. The restaurant is called Sushi Go 55, and is in the Tokyo Market right near town. When we got to the market it was set up kind of like a mall - we walked in through the bottom floor which was a Japanese grocery store, then headed up to the next floor which had clothes stores, other restaurants, an arcade and our restaurant. Unfortunately the restaurant wouldn’t open for dinner for another hour so we bided our time by looking around the grocery store and buying some interesting Japanese potato snacks and juice drinks, and then the boys hit the arcade. I was about to head in with them but my brother called and I spent most of the hour chatting with him in a court yard area which had gray plastic benches to sit on and pink flowers on the ceiling.
Finally Sushi Go 55 opened its doors and we headed upstairs to grab a table. We ordered sushi and sashimi plates that came with Japanese potato salad, Japanese pickles, Japanese coleslaw, miso soup and rice. The sushi and sashimi were some of the best morsels of fish I have ever had and we all had smiles on our faces as the tasty food melted in our mouths.
After our meal we headed back down to the grocery store because Joey had seen some sashimi on sale for less than $3 that looked to be as high in quality as the sashimi we had just been eating. We snapped it up and picked up some Japanese beer as well then headed towards Santa Monica to stay in a really nice hotel for the night. Tomorrow we had plans to zip around sand dunes on ATV’s so we hit the hay early in anticipation of a fun day to come.
Until next time, America.
-Sarah
Until next time, America.
-Sarah
