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Saturday, June 20, 2015

LA City and Movie Stars’ Houses Tour: A Fast and Furious Tour of Hollywood Celebrities’ Mansions (Fun and Exciting LA Blog Series 6)

LA City and Movie Stars Houses Tour 
A Fast and Furious Tour of Celebrities Mansions 
(Fun and Exciting LA Blog Series 6) 

 We have juggled with the thought of visiting a museum
or having  this Movie Stars’ Houses Tour, but since we
really wanted to see and satisfy our curiosity on what we 
thought were the Hollywood stars’ fabulous mansions,



…we booked a half day LA City and Movie Stars’
Houses Tour on the very popular Starline Tours.


It was a mistake. The tour was a waste of time and money.
We had an Asian tour guide who was more interested on
finishing his job, rather than doing his job of getting  our
interests to the sights an sounds of the glamour that is LA.


We started on a (very fast) walking tour on the nearby Dolby Theater 
located just beside the StarLine Tours main depo and station.


He just breezed out of the Dolby Theater, and we would have loved if he
slowed down a little bit as this historic and iconic theater, used to be known 
as Kodak Theater,  is home the the Annual Academy Awards or the Oscars.



He babbled something here and there,


…walked  terribly fast,  that made it hard for my family to catch up.

 

When we reached the Hollywood Walk of Fame area,
He never paused or stopped whenever we took photos,


…and since we were taking photos all the time,


… we always had to hurry and run to catch up with him.


From Hollywood Walk of Fame,
 he took us to the Chinese Theater,


...where we took more photos of popular
Hollywood celebrities hand imprints.




He then took us to LALA Land and gave us 15 minutes
to shop and have a toilet break, which we were not
able to do both as the queue to the toilet was long,
and the time he gave was  never enough for shopping.


We then returned to the Starline Depo,


... where we took a van for the Movie Stars’ Houses Tour, 


...and this was the worst part of the tour. Our tour guide who also served  
as  the driver, drove so fast and sometimes  we were lucky enough to 
catch  up and took pictures of the places we were supposed to be touring.


I was lucky to snap a photo of the
church used to the movie Sister Act.


He then drove us to the Hollywood Hills to see the Hollywood Sign,
but was driving so fast that we neither saw the humongous sign, nor we
were able to take photos. I asked the driver where the iconic sign was,
he said we already passed by it, I looked back and still did not see it.


After unsuccessfully seeing the Hollywood sign,
we cruised at the popular Sunset Strip,


... we saw several celebrity houses 
whose owners I could not recall.



We also passed by the two houses
used in the Halloween movies,



…and the hill top mansion used as Ironman’s Tony Stark  
residence in the movie dubbed as IronMansion.



We also saw the very popular Sunset Carwash,


…and two iconic comedy bars like the Laugh Factory, owned
by the comedian Jamie Mazada, who worked with the likes of
Richard Pryor, David Letterman, Jay Leno, and Redd Foxx-


…and the popular Comedy Store where the great
Johnny Carson’s career as a comedian started.


The tour van later went to Beverly Hills,


… where we passed by the gates of several celebrity
houses whose owners’ names I could not recall,




…but I remember Ellen Degeneres’ house gate clearly.


Just nearby is Tom Cruise’s magnificent mansion,




…and what followed were numerous celebrity 
houses that I could not identify and recall,



 ...as it was rather difficult to catch 
up on the guide’s narrative,



…and also hard to take photos as he was blabbering
fast  and was driving furiously wild on a hilly terrain.



But I got to recall some residences, like that of
Simon Cowell's that was undergoing renovation,


...which was followed by series of mansions
whose celebrity owners I could not recall,



…until we turned at a hilly curb and saw former 
President Ronald Reagan’s residence,
  



...and again followed by numerous beautiful celebrity owned  
mansions whose owners, unfortunately,  I could not remember.






 This stretch of Beverly Hills road had the most 
concentration of celebrity owned mansions,





.... and we would have appreciated this tour had our driver / tour  guide 
slowed down with his driving and had he only talked clearly , not blabber.



We also passed by Elvis Presley’s house, which I did 
not  see  as it was hidden by a thick foliage by the fence.


…located near Michael Jackson’s
residence, his former son in law.


 It is the house where the popular pop star died.


What followed nest were grand celebrity owned  mansions,




....and their sheer number made it rather difficult and
impossible for me to remember who owns them.






I also caught a glimpse of Johnny Weissmuller, the original
Tarzan star and former Olympian’s gigantic swimming pool
located a the wooded portion at the back of his house but the
tour  van just breezed out that I failed to get a clear photograph.


Nearby, was the house of the Jonas Brothers,


…and their former next door neighbor Jennifer Lopez
or JLo’s mansion, which has  lately caught the interest
of the Filipino boxing icon, Manny ‘Pacman’ Pacquiao..


It was a wild a rambling tour that gave us an impression
that our tour guide cum driver  just wanted to have his
job done without wanting us to have a leisurely tour,



…and by the time we got to the posh Rodeo Drive, my son
was already nauseous and dizzy from the very turbulent ride,

^^^Fairmont Hotel, where Pretty Woman was shot.


… and luckily, we had motion sickness bags
in handy as he started vomiting a little later.


We caught the sight of Fox Studios,


…and the building used in Die Hard 
movies, shortly before the tour ended.


My son was still queasy, weary and dehydrated and
we let him recover and rest at the Farmer’s Market.,


...with a scoop of yummy Bennett's Homemade Ice Cream. 


It was a rough and tiring day as we had an uncaring
and thoughtless tour guide, and choosing this tour

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