2009 09 30 Santa Monica Pier, Beverly Hills and Hollywood!

We just had to check out the Santa Monica Pier, Hollywood and Beverly Hills. All the glitter, all the young wanna-bees hanging out waiting to be discovered....you may have visited or read about these famous places, but we just had to go and see them for ourselves. The Chinese Theater, the Walk of Fame, the TV Studios, Rodeo Drive, fabulous hotels, chic restaurants and hip clubs - all so exciting! We didn't see any stars, but I'm sure they were there somewhere!

Our weather was simply gorgeous and the beaches even more gorgeous. To top it all off we get to got hear the history of these amazing cities!

We took the hop-on hop-off bus tour of Santa Monica, Hollywood and Beverly Hills. We took a second tour that encompassed a drive-by of the homes of the stars. We viewed the estate where Michael Jackson lived and died, the hotel where Janis Joplin died, the club where River Phoenix died....OK, OK..OK...enough about drug addicts and death. There is a common thread here......do too many drugs, ya die!

We also saw homes where Friday the 13th, Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street were filmed. We saw the estate where The Godfather was shot. We saw towering apartment buildings that are home to the likes of Lindsey Lohan and Cher, and Estates belonging to Tom Cruise and Dr. Phil. There were so many names dropped you couldn't begin to remember them all - in any case it was interesting to see where they live - at least part of the time.

We enjoyed our tours, but were ready to get back to our bus on a little slice of heaven along the coast of Malibu.