Wednesday, July 28th, 2010--Hollywood!

Today we loaded up our Subaru and hit the road after another Holiday Inn breakfast. We headed toward Ventura where we would spend the night en route to the Channel Islands. Our first stop was Hollywood Goodwill to search for cast offs of the stars, which weren't to be found, although Peter found some interesting shoes, and Patrick some sunglasses. In the distance we could see the Hollywood sign as well as "Live Cheetah Girls" across the street. We made a quick pass by Dodger stadium but couldn't see much of the stadium.

Our next stop was Hollywood blvd, where Alice dropped off Peter and Patrick and I, and we walked on the avenue of the Stars--looking down at various known and unknown celebrity names--from Jayne Mansfield to Godzilla, Sam Cooke to Michael Jackson. A couple of cups of coffee and some yogurt and we were off to Beverly Hills. Thanks to the iPad we were able to navigate into Beverly Hills, and thanks to a map provided (for $10) by a woman under an umbrella who looked like she may have been a would-be star some years ago, giving us the locations of various celebrity mansions. We drove past Michael Jackson's mansion, Gene Kelly's estate, Quincy Jones' ravine top home. We passed Peter Falk's house, as well as attempted to find Jack Black's house, without much success. We had a lunch at the Beverly Hills park--a nice creekside park with a playground where we were told that the nannies of the stars come to play with their charges. Alice closely observed one such luminary, who seemed mostly to be a generic star--long golden locks, sunglasses, and someone who appeared to be a keeper. Meanwhile, Peter and Patrick and I played catch with our green football, veteran of many of our trips.

Our next stop was the Santa Monica pier, via Rodeo drive and Sunset Blvd. The Santa Monica pier was a nice suprise--a large pier with several rides including a roller coaster that P, P S rode, the thrill of falling enhanced by the height above the crashing waves--twice through! Peter jumped into the waves and Patrick waded--the only chance we had really to swim at the beach during this trip to SoCal. From the pier we headed north on a sunlight sunset drive through Malibu--which is on a peninsula north of Santa Monica. We grew jealous of the students at Pepperdine, located just uphill on the peninsula. We made it to Ventura just after sunset. Peter and Patrick and I went out on the Ventura pier to try our hand at surffishing, to little avail, but at least we gave it a try! Dinner from the corner fish and chips stand and a swim put us to bed, while Alice did laundry in a seedy part of Ventura, approached by a gentleman or two who recently visited the liquor store next door. Later in our trip we met a mental health profesional from Oxnard who told us that the Vagabond Inn and environs was the default mental health housing for that part of the county. We fit in just fine.