LA, Day Two

Marty found out today that we're not actually going to the beach until Wednesday, a situation that he finds unacceptable. Trying to convince him that there are plenty of other cool things to do in Los Angeles did not alter his conviction that the Pacific Ocean ranked above all of them.

As tour guide, we were trying to find something low-key to do since the plan calls for us to go to Disneyland tomorrow. So, we went over the hills into Hollywood.

When Marty was asked in the spring what U.S. landmark he most wanted to see, his answer was "The Hollywood Sign." Even though technically he's seen it previously -- he used to toddle around Hollywood and Highland trying to get young actress types to pick him up -- he doesn't remember it. Well, now he has.

Casey spent the first hour that we were out complaining about the sun and his lack of sunglasses, until he was finally allowed to purchase an overpriced pair from one of the souvenir places.

We took them to Grauman's Chinese Theater, but then realized that their only frame of reference to it was exterior shots. They haven't really ever been able to see anything where the concrete hands bit is featured (they've never seen the John Wayne episode of "I Love Lucy," and while I saw "Blazing Saddles" for the first time when I was around Marty's age, I've been barred from repeating that parenting mistake). Not surprisingly, the indentations that they found most interesting were the "Star Wars" ones.

We set out to go a star on the Walk of Fame that Marty is named after. I've been to the spot before, but I used to be around Hollywood Blvd. a lot, since I've had friends live not far away.
What I forgot is that the star isn't really on the touristy part of the street. It's more in the stripper outfit retail section.

As we were walking, I could see Amy looking at the stores unhappily. Finally, Marty looked at a mannequin dressed in what amounted to pasties and dental floss and exclaimed, "She's hot!"

"Hurry up," I heard Amy hiss.

We found it and took the pictures and all of that, but that also put us close to a store that I had told Marty and Casey that we would go to: Hollywood Toys & Costume. I once ran into Kristen Dunst there...literally. Security guard got all bent out of shape about it, but I didn't actually knock her down. From my standpoint, she walked into me. Hey, I'm 6-foot-2 and she's like 5-foot-nothing...she's not the only actress I've ever had trouble seeing because I was looking over top of them. The boys did enjoy it, although they got quite a bit bent out of shape when they weren't allowed to get a woopee cushion. I don't know where that came from, but they were both protesting that they've always wanted one.

For dinner, we ended up going to another of my favorite places in LA, The House of Pies. Its this diner that sits in the Los Feliz area, which has long been a hip and trendy location. The movie "Swingers" basically takes place there...The Dresden is just down the street a little bit and The Derby, before it closed, was just up from there. There's basically a whole bunch of other places in the area that you can spot a variety of celebrities hanging out at.

The House of Pies is not one of those places. Its more the type of place that some actors go to for a late breakfast wearing dark glasses because they're really hungover and need to actually eat.

Shockingly, one of the high points of going to The House of Pies is getting to eat some pie. The diner food is fine...burgers, Monte Criscos, etc. But the pie is why I love it. They don't just have banana cream...they have chocolate banana cream, with whole bananas. It'll kill a diet quicker than you can blink, but oh my God is it good.

I was going to take the boys up to Griffith Observatory before realizing that its closed on Mondays, so instead we went into the park for a little while and the boys played on a playground that was outfitted to accomodate kids with disabilities.

I don't know that Amy was thrilled with me since the place -- named Shane's Inspiration -- was built by a foundation started by parents of a child that died after two weeks because of severe disabilities. Or, at least, she wasn't thrilled that I convinced her to read the placard with the story. It might be sad, but the idea is a cool one. They're called boundless playgrounds because children in wheelchairs are meant to be able to access most of the features. Also cool is the fact that the organization (ShanesInspiration.org), helps other places build similar playgrounds.

So, the kids got Hollywood sleaze and social responsibility all in one day. That kind of sums up my parenting style, to be honest.