Hooray for Hollywood

Hooray for Hollywood

That screwy ballyhooey Hollywood

Where any office boy or young mechanic can

be a panic

With just a good looking pan

And any barmaid can be a star maid

If she dances with or without a fan

So we visited the town of broken dreams to see the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Grauman's Chinese Theater.

My wife and I have been here before, but it was a first for our kids.

I am not sure how many of the rest of family has been here before, but for

all of us it was an interesting time.

First of all there are the hucksters and ticket hawks who are pushing their bus tours of Hollywood and the homes

of the stars! Not interested. Then there are the costumed characters trying to get you to take a picture of them with

your eager children, for a price of course. Little Mermaid was especially tricky giving stickers out to the little ones.

We felt that if they were going to to charge they should wear better costumes than their underoos.

Nevertheless there were some great highlights. I really enjoyed looking for stars my youngest kids would find fun,

like Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Shrek, Walt Disney and Winnie the Pooh. We also had fun putting our feet and hands

in some famous characters impressions at Graumans, like R2D2, Donald Duck, Harrison Ford and John Wayne (small feet!).

After climbing some stairs to see the Hollywood sign we all had fun taking turns running through a water fountain (the sign

said we could!!).

But the absolute highlight of the day was visiting the Disney soda Fountain and Studio Store in Hollywood and eating some

yummy ice-cream. I had the most unusual dish, the Gnomeo and Juliet special, which featured a blue pointed cone hat, which

turned my whole mouth blue. It was quite tasty despite the stained teeth. An even trade I'd say.