Huxwolds California Dreaming (Aug 23) - Day 11: Burbank Shopping & Moving to Hollywood Boulevard

[HEMANCLOFTY]

Huxwolds California Dreaming (Aug 23)
Day 11: Burbank Shopping & Moving to Hollywood Boulevard (Mon 28/08)

Index
Day 10: Griffith Observatory & Hike, then Downtown LA

NB - my trippie notes for today were written almost 2 weeks later, so are based on photos, receipts and memory

I woke up at 4:05am (according to my phone screenshot) and then again at 7:20am.

Sooty had enjoined a nice brush this morning…

I think Rich woke up whilst I was having my shower. I made a coffee (I don’t remember or have photos of having any room snacks to munch for breakfast).

It was moving day today, so I needed to get everything packed up. We had until 11am to check out, but we wanted to be out a bit earlier as we’d decided last night that our plan for this morning was to check the bags here at the Hilton, head to Burbank Town Centre shopping mall, before walking down to the vintage / goodwill shops on Magnolia Boulevard. Then a return to Bob’s Big Boy Burgers for lunch, before collecting our cases for our move down to Lowes at Hollywood & Highland.

As Tom hadn’t had his Howlin’ Rays last night, he had his piece as a mid morning snack. There was also a spare piece plus Tom’s wing, so I had the wing and Tom scranned the final bit. It was very nice, and the photos (of mine from last night) really don’t do it justice…

We were all ready to leave the room by 10am and, after checking out and storing the bags, we were outside by 20 past. I took some pics whilst Rich and Tom had a smoke / vape…

Our Uber arrived at 10:30 and dropped us off at Burbank Town Centre at 10:45 ($16.95 + $1 tip, as the driver was a bit surly)…

The mall was really nice and modern, with most stores opening at 11am…

We started in Macy’s, heading straight to the Toys R Us section…

They didn’t have any Masters of The Universe or Garbage Pail Kids, but they did have a couple of decent sale bins which were buy one get one half price…

Tom bought some Selina Kyle (Batman) and Green Goblin (Spiderman) figures ($5.47), and Rich and I got a Vee Friends cow plush and Vee Friends Monkey figurine $11.96) - absolute bargains…

After Macy’s, Tom looked in a couple of sports / clothes shops whilst Rich and I waited, then Tom and I popped in Hot Topic for a mooch…

11:20 - Tom went into Shoe Palace (his new favourite store), so Rich and I left him to it and popped outside for Rich to have a smoke…

It was absolutely baking hot, and as we’d driven to the mall via Magnolia Boulevard, which was longer than it looked on Google Maps, we decided we weren’t up for walking the full 45 mins to the stores we wanted to visit, so it would be better to get an Uber once we were done here at the mall.

Tom was still mooching, so I nipped into Pink for a look (I liked that they had some realistic sized mannequins)…

I popped to the loo. Rich said he’d wait for Tom and meet me downstairs by the food court.

11:45 - We all met up. Tom had bought some bargain brown shorts in Shoe Palace ($11 Inc tax) - No pic.

Rich suggested getting a couple of slices of Pizza from Sbarro. He chose a New York Cheese for me and Tom to share and a New York Sausage for himself. Plus a Fountain drink to share ($13.22)…

We sat and ate our Slices, which were really nice, then had a look in Old Navy (they didn’t have any of Rich’s favourite pink long sleeve tops which he was hoping to get some more colours of)…

Next, we had a mooch in World Market, where Rich and I got a couple of chocolate bars (Violet Crumble from Australia and Coffee Crisp from Canada) and a pack of Bazooka Gum ($7.77)…

I love Mince Pies, but not enough to pay over $10…

Tom got a couple of Japanese Ramune drinks as gifts for Lola and her Neice Ava ($5.08)..

12:20 - We sat back down in the food court to eat our chocolates before they melted. The Violet Crumble was like a Crunchie, and the Coffee Crisp was like a Blue Ribband…

12:40 - We we’re all done at the mall, so we headed outside and ordered an Uber to a Memorabilia store called Blast From The Past ($8.96+ $1 tip)…

On the way we passed some construction and one of the workers had crafted himself a sun hat from his helmet and a piece of wood…

It was 34 degrees when we arrived at the store, and was due to hit 35 by 2pm. We topped up our sunspray and headed in…

Blast from the Past was amazing - they had so much cool stuff, that it took 45 mins to look around…

The guys working here were really friendly too and we had a nice chat.

We could’ve spent a fortune, but decided on a Teminator 2 figure, a vintage Toybiz Lex Luther figure, a Space Jam Pez double pack and a Pinocchio book for Rich and I picked out a little Dr Suess motivational quotes book, a retro McDonalds Hamburglar Theif book and a Chucky Magnet (Total $79.31)…

Plus Tom got a couple of Disney story books and xxxx (Total $xxx)

I had to resist this awesome Roger Rabbit snow globe as it was too risky to get it home…

1:35 - We crossed over the road to Goodwill…

They had a couple of bits that I liked (Inc a Home Alone Christmas sweater) - Tom enjoyed mooching through all the rails (he loves a charity shop find), but we didn’t get anything.

We crossed back over the road and walked a few mins to our final store on Magnolia Boulevard - It’s a Wrap, which sells clothes that have been used in movie and tv shows, plus they have some famous costumes on display like the Baywatch swim suits and Bring It On Cheerleaders uniform, and also a Ghost a face gown and mask…

It was a bit cramped and hard to search, but the men’s t-shirt section had a good selection, and Tom ended up getting a Cleveland t-shirt that was from Lost ($4) - No pic

2:30 - Rich suggested that we should get back to the hotel and down to Hollywood Boulevard now, as Funko closes at 6. This meant skipping Bob’s, but he insisted he was ok about not getting the Bob statue he’d wanted to go back for.

Our Uber got back to the Hilton by 2:45 ($9.90 +$1 tip), and it had hit a sweltering 35 now…

We unchecked the bags ($12 tip) and did a bit of rejigging to fit in our shopping haul (the bellhop was impressed with my packing skills)…

It was just after 3pm when I tried to order Uber XL - but it was taking ages to connect us to a driver, so after 20 mins we gave up an ordered a Lyft XL, which was 10 mins away.

The Lyft arrived at 3:35 and took 10 mins to drive down to our final hotel Loews ($13.54 + $5 tip).

We passed The Hollywood Bowl, but I didn’t get a pic.

We also passed the Hollywood United Methodist Church, where the Enchantment Under The Sea Dance in BTTF was filmed, and also Sister Act and That Thing You Do..

The lobby area was really nice. I paid and checked us in and the room was ready. The receptionist explained that our Destination fees were covered in the Booking.com fee, and gave me a voucher that could be used for a single ticket at the Chinese Theatre, Bowling, A Hollywood Tour and also a daily Yoga class and Premium Wi-Fi which would normally be $12.95 per day. We only used the Wi-Fi offer though.

We had to use our room key to activate the lift. Our room was on the 11th floor, overlooking the back of the Dolby Theatre and with views of Downtown LA in the distance (I also realised the next day that we could see Nakatami / Fox Plaza)…

We took some obligatory room pics, sorted out the safe and left the unpacking for later so that we could make it to Funko in time…

4:10 - We headed out, using the Ovation Hollywood exit…

Mayweather Boxing and another Shoe Palace…

I didn’t realise until the next day that we could see the Hollywood Sign from Ovation (it’s just visible in the archway)…

We were on Hollywood Boulevard in less than 5 mins from leaving our room. The El Capitan theatre and Ghiradellis was directly opposite…

Hollywood Boulevard was exactly what we expected, super busy by Hollywood and Highlighland, with varying degrees of niceness / not so niceness as you walk up and down the street…

We headed left and it took just under 30 mins slow mooching our way up to Funko, taking lots of pics of the buildings and Stars on the Walk of Fame - We passed Hollywood & Vine, Capitol Records, the 2 Scientology buildings and Pantages Theatre…

We also saw quite a few unhoused people 🥲

We arrived at Funko at 4:45 - so we had just over an hour until closing…

Funko was awesome. We spent about 45 mins taking lots of pics of the giant Funko displays and looking at all the cool Funkos and Loungefly Bags…

The horror section was really cool…

There were a couple of bags that I liked, but I knew as soon as a saw the Rescue Rangers crossbody that I had to have it, as it matched my new Ears…

More fab displays and merch…

This Clarabelle bag was a close 2nd choice, but I resisted…

I also picked a really lovely Disney 100 wallet, which actually had a zipped section for coins for once (my biggest frustration about the smaller loungefly wallets). Plus it had Remi from Ratatouille on it, which now means a lot after discovering Tom’s love for Ratatouille on this trip…

I also picked up a Freddie Funko magnet which was a bargain at $5 (pic later).

They had an offer on to get a free gift when you spend $100, so with my bag at $80 and Wallet at $40 I should have got this, but was surprised when the cashier said my total was only $93 - he told me my bag was on sale at $40, so I asked him to hold my things whilst I went to find Tom as I knew he’d picked out a Limited Edition Joker Funko, which at $25 would take me back over the $100 needed for the freebie.

Our new total (inc Tax) was $125.93 and the freebie (that we’d thought would be a mini pop or something small) turned out to be a Delux Black Panther, which should’ve been $35 - double bonus, even if it was going to make packing a bit of a challenge

Whilst I was paying, Rich spotted the “chiller” display and found a Daniel from Cobra Kai Soda POP, so we got that too ($19.71 Inc tax)…

Our total Funko Haul…

5:30 - We left Funko, and after a smoke / vape headed into Shake Shack next door (which was on the Food A List) for some Frozen Custard…

Rich had a Chocolate double custard cup and I had a Chocolate / Vanilla double custard cup. Tom went for the Brownie Shake ($18.47 + tax)…

They were really nice and refreshing - I liked the chocolate but the vanilla was the best and it cut the richness of the chocolate really well.

I used the restroom (you needed a customer code for this) then I checked Google for the location of the Pretty Woman / Las Palmas Hotel as I knew it was up one of the side streets on the way back but wasn’t sure which one.

I wore my Loungefly on my front, so that I could use my battery pack to charge up my phone, but also because it felt safer in the “dodgy” areas…

We passed some cool promotion for a film called The Nun…

Then crossed over the road to Joe’s Pizza, which was on other one one the A list…

We chose a slide of Pizza each, but shared them all. I picked White Pizza, Rich picked Cheese and Tom went for BBQ Chicken. We also got a couple of cans of Dr Pepper (No receipt but around $15.75 + tax according to the website)…

They were all really nice, but we each preferred our original choices.

I think it took us about 10 mins to walk to the Pretty Woman / Las Palmas hotel, which is Vivienne’s apartment, where Richard Gere climbs up the fire escape at the end…

Rich commented that it looked really rough - he hasn’t seen the film, so didn’t know that was the point as she’s a prostitute living with a drug addict.

There were quite a few more unhoused people around here - some were just lying in the gutter with their trousers half pulled down. We also saw what we were pretty sure was human 💩 too 🤢

Whenever we’d seen unhoused people on our travels this trip, Tom always made a point of pushing me to the other side of the pavement and walking between us. He did this again as we were passing a man on a bench at the corner of Hollywood and Vine. After we walked past him, Tom asked if I’d seen that he’d had his 🍆 out? I hadn’t, but when we turned around we could see quite clearly that he was just sat there pleasuring himself in full view of Hollywood Boulevard 😳. Definitely the most bizarre thing we saw on this trip!

By 6:40 we were back by Hollywood & Highland, where we took a few more pics of the big touristy bits…

We popped into Walgreens to get 3 packs of cigarettes, a double pack of Factor 50 spray, some throat sweets (as mine had been sore for a few days now), some personal bits for me a couple of drinks and a small milk (Total $62.98 Inc tax).

We headed into the hotel via Ovation…

We were back in the hotel by 7pm..

We had a 45 min rest, whilst I did some unpacking. Tom arranged our Funko haul and his chair full of swag / gifts so far (we kept the rest of the shopping haul in the suitcase)..

Evening views…

7:55 - We headed back out to walk to the Elm Street house, which after Puente Hills Mall was the must do filming location we were excited to visit. It was dark now, so we got to see Ovation and Hollywood and Highland all lit up…

We headed right on Hollywood Boulevard this time, passing the Dolby Theatre, Hard Rock Cafe and Chinese Theatre…

We stopped to look around a huge souvenir store called LA LA Land…

Target..

I was surprised how quickly the Boulevard became mostly residential in this direction. I’m pretty sure I spotted a Christmas tree on one of the balconies…

8:35 - We got to the Genesee Ave turning…

From here, it took about 8 mins to walk down to number 1422 North Genesee Ave (aka the main Elm Street House)…

It was very cool, and we spent a couple of mins taking some pics of it and also of Jonny Depp’s character’s house across the street…

We were quiet and discreet though, as apparently the owner doesn’t like the attention.

We walked back up to Sunsuet Boulevard - the graffiti on the corner was apt…

We decided to walk back down Sunset in the direction of the hotel.

I’d tripped on the pavement opposite the Elm Street house, and the jolt had really hurt my back, so I was in a bit of pain and had to take some tablets and stop to rest a couple of times.

9:05 - We popped into 7-Eleven to get a Big Gulp to share ($1.99). We went for the exclusive Sprite Lymonade Lagacy flavour, which was nice and refreshing and reminded me of a cocktail without the alcohol (it would be very nice with Vodka, even though I don’t really drink)…

We carried on mooching down Sunset Boulevard..

At around 9:25 we saw a Ralph’s supermarket, so we decided to get some picky bits for a late tea (we’ve since found out that this is the store from The Big Lebowski)…

We spent about 15 mins mooching in Ralph’s, getting a Turkey Deli Sandwich platter to share, plus a bag of Tostitos and some own label salsa dip ($27.45)…

Tom also got a couple of sachets of Kool Aid to go with Lola’s plush (no price noted)…

We cut up Poinsetta Place to Hollywood Boulevard…

We mooched at some more sights and Walk of Fame stars…

We were back at the hotel by 10:15…

I sorted out our sandwiches…

I didn’t really enjoy mine, the lettuce had a weird taste so I took it off, but the bread was so thick it was hard to eat, so I put half of mine and most of Tom’s in the fridge (they didn’t get eaten). I think Rich enjoyed his though. I did really enjoy the chips and salsa though.

Tom popped out to have a call with Lola and, at 11pm I settled down to sleep (dropping off to Community as usual).

Total steps for today were 21,941 / 15.1 km 👣
(I changed my health app settings)

Day 12: Venice Beach & Santa Monica Pier

[dismamx2]

Busy day again, you are covering a lot of ground. I admire your dedication to the movie spots. We are hoping to make it to Funko, it looks really cool.

[Cinderella]

Loved the funko shop!