Day 3.4: Say Good-bye to Hollywood

After we finished our Mob tour, we decided to head back into Hollywood and see The Hobbit 2 at the Chinese (see previous post). John had the great suggestion of taking Mulholland Drive all the way back. I was all for that -- I love the Hollywood Bowl overlook, which has a great view of the Hollywood Sign as well as the city below. I've visited it just about every trip except the last one, thanks to me temporarily forgetting how to get up there and Madison not feeling well.

I'd never driven Mulholland all the way from Beverly Hills to Hollywood, so that excited me as well. The first thing we realized was that it was a long trek (nor did I really know how far we had to drive). The second thing we discovered is that there aren't very many overlooks on the Hollywood side. The third realization was that we might not make it before the sun went down.

Sure enough, we finally reached an overlook about ten minutes before sunset. Only it wasn't the Hollywood Bowl overlook. We parked anyway and climbed the stair-path anyway as people were leaving, since it closed at sunset. We grabbed a few photos and since it still wasn't completely dark, charged onward to the Hollywood Bowl overlook. We managed to get there right at closing time and, since there wasn't anyone there to close the gates (and the parking lot was full of people there to watch the sunset), we climbed to the top anyway.

The night time view of Hollywood is spectacular. Though because the Hollywood Sign isn't lit at night anymore (the original sign built in 1923 had hundreds of bulbs installed), we could barely glimpse it in the distance.

Even so, it was a perfect way to end our whirlwind trip to the City of Dreams.