Location: 
Hollywood, California
Distance Walked: 
42.5km
Dates: 25th of November 2017 – 28th of November 2017
Jet-lagged and hungry, we stepped off the plane and into the wilderness that is Hollywood. With an abundance of ideas in our heads and full of excitement, we headed to The Moment Hotel that would be our home and a place to rest our tired legs for the next three days.
Hollywood Hike
It was obviously the best idea that I’ve ever had to go on a 10km hike the day we landed. If there is another way to combat jetlag, I don’t want to hear about it! Against our better judgement and our body clocks, we put on our walking boots and got an Uber from Hollywood Blvd to the entrance of the hike.
One thing that everyone had failed to mention to me was that, apparently Mountain Lions and Rattlesnakes are quite common in the Californian canyons, but our Uber driver made sure to petrify me before he dropped us off.
“Oh they shouldn’t bother you much if you stay on the trail, just listen for them and you’ll be fine.” – Uber Driver
Fine?! God, here we go being eaten by a giant cat on our first day in the USA. But, luckily aside from the heat, sweat and constant complaining (from yours truly) we made it alive!
There are a number of different trails that are accessible by public – the one we did was The Canyon Drive Trail. It climbs a total of approximately 335m, and about 5km each way.
There were a lot of different points on the way up that gave you the opportunity to stop and take a photo, which was great for me because I could (pretend to) stop and take a photo (I was dying).
It was an amazing experience and I’m so happy that we did it. The view was incredible, even if I felt sweat in places that I didn’t know I had.
Universal Studios
Yay! I love feeling like a little kid! We caught the train in from Hollywood Blvd and ventured into Universal Studios. There was so much to see! Harry Potter land was amazing, and the ride was so good! We spent nearly the whole day at the park. When we arrived back at Hollywood Blvd, they were doing a Christmas Parade too (we are lucky).
Star Walk
It was kind of hard not to notice the Star Walk on Hollywood Blvd, even if you weren’t looking for it. We were constantly trying to avoid tripping over people lying on the pavement on top of their favourite celebrity’s star.
Hollywood Wax Museum | Ripley’s Believe It or Not | Guinness World Records
Jaeden loves his Museums and weird facts; and having been an avid collector of every “Guinness World Record’s” book since 2003, it seemed like a travesty not to get the VIP ticket that allowed us access to all three. The Guinness World Record’s Museum had records that you could attempt to break, and for some brief period of time, we were top of the leaderboard for all of the records.
California Science Centre
We looked at buying tickets for Six Flags, but we’d missed it by one day due to seasonal closures – bummer. We ended up going to the California Science Centre where we got to learn about different aspects of science. We also went to the Body Pulse display, which had real bodies on display that had been donated to science.
I’d love to go back again and do some of the things that we missed out on, like Six Flags.
Next Stop, Santa Monica!
