Hollywood and the horrors of driving in L.A.

Today we visited Hollywood.  I got behind the wheel to drive us there, while Dean helped me navigate by watching the right side of the car, while I watched the left.  L.A. traffic is the most freakish driving experience ever.  Nobody signals, nobody cares, everybody speeds and everybody shoots into view out of nowhere at the last possible second, making lane changes a terrifying act.  Let me take a moment to extol on the virtues of the Waze driving app.  This app made driving in Los Angeles tolerable.  Maybe even survivable.

We managed to make the harrowing drive to Hollywood, and parked in a large parking garage at Hollywood Blvd and Highland.  I joked that we were taking a risk doing that in case there was an earthquake.  Not funny.  We made our way out onto the boulevard, and met up with the rest of the family, as they parked in a different area.  Hollywood boulevard is just a scary as I remember.  That is why I don't have any pictures.  I kept my phone in my purse, and my purse clamped to my side, and a small child clutched in my arms on the side of said purse.  I was wary of anyone who came within my personal space.  And that meant everyone.  It was so, so crowded.  I hate crowds.  I hate crowds where half of them are in costume, wanting you to take their picture and give them money.  I hate crowds where women aren't wearing very much.  At all.  I hate crowds where people jostle you, step in front of you, and then stop to take pictures.  Tourists..

The stars on the walk are neat to see, as are the footprints and handprints and signatures.  I've seen them before, but Dean and the kids had not, so I followed along as they wondered at what they could see.  It was neat to see the spot where the cast of Harry Potter all sealed their fame in footprints and signatures.  It was sad to see the star of Robin Williams, gone too soon.

It was drizzly and cool, and we were hungry, so we walked a couple blocks to an In-and-Out burger.  So did half of Los Angeles, apparently, because there was no place to sit.  We finally secured a table.  A single table for 12 people.  Then another two-top cleared, so that helped.  The burgers were good, so I can see why it is popular.  As we left, a fight broke out over a parking spot between the drivers of to two very fancy SUVs.  I'm glad we were on foot.  We made our way back to our car, and left for the long drive home.  It was only 13 miles, but it took nearly two hours.  It was raining, the freeways were choked with traffic, so we took a different route through downtown.  As we left Hollywood, we took a turn and wound up alongside the Paramount Pictures Lot, which was cool to see.  As we drove on, we also ended up alongside this, my only picture of the day:

The Walt Disney Concert Hall, which I thought looked especially cool in the rain.  About this time Jordan needed to go, Owen needed to go, and Colin needed to go.  So we pulled over on a not-so-busy side street and made use of the pee bottle.  Jordan didn't understand that getting out of the car was not an option.  Dean said, "Do you see all of the graffiti?  The amount of graffiti is equal to the amount of you DON'T want to get out of the car".  We continued snaking our way south and east, all the while wary of how close we were to Compton.  Definitely a place we did not want to accidently venture into.

We finally made it back to the hotel, and the kids headed for the pool and then got right back to building with their Legos.  We ended the day with a drive to a restaurant a few miles away and had a very nice meal.