Day 3 Pictures

Mom at her Redlands (California) High School 50th Reunion

Mom went to school with Vera (on the left) and Penny (next to Mom in the red dress) all the way through from 2nd grade!

Freddie and Art (They live in Utah.)  Mom has known her since 7th grade.

Check out this fun house that we saw on our tour.  Look closely and see how many animals you can see in the rock.

Going on a bus tour of Redlands.

Day 4: Redlands

Yes, I know... Day 3 was yesterday, but I was literally nodding off at my computer last night about 11pm PST so I had to give up!  So it is bright and early here (7:15) and I'm writing this before I even get dressed.

Let's see... Oh yea!  We left the motel yesterday morning and went straight to the Chick-fil-A for breakfast!  LOL!  Then we rode by Mom's grandmother's house... and it's still there and according to her, looks very much the same.  The entire neighborhood looks almost the same!  Everything is just neat as a pin here in Redlands.  So you have a neighborhood that dates back to before the 1940's and everything is tidy and well-kept.  Very nice.  Of course I took pictures from every angle and again, thank goodness no one came out shooting!  We continued riding around the neighborhood for a bit to see what Mom could remember and then it was time to head to the high school for our bus tour.

We actually rode a Redlands school bus for the tour!  The first thing that struck me was how narrow the space is between the seats.  I actually had to sit sideways. I wasn't the only one noticing that, either!  The kids today must be tiny!  Like short with no legs!  Anyway, before we boarded the bus, we got a great group shot (with MY camera) of the entire group!  Then we were off.  The lady that did the tour, Dodie, is a fellow graduate who I think actually did all the work to make this reunion weekend happen.  She did a great job on the tour... she shared some history of Redlands and showed us some beautiful old homes... Victorian, 3 story, fully restored, painted wonderful colors... On the tour, Mom did recognize some places... but it seems that when the freeway came through, of course, the entire landscape changed, and sadly, some beautiful homes were lost.

There is something here in Redlands, obviously, that I am allergic to.  I awoke yesterday morning with full sinus headache.  Luckily, I had brought my medicine, but I still wasn't feeling 100% while on the tour.  While it was cool and comfortable before the tour, it quickly heated up and the bus got very hot, indeed.  By the end of the ride, I wasn't doing too well.  I just thought my allergies were gearing up for a bad episode, but Mom thought I had gotten too hot.  She was right... after we got off the bus and I got in the air-conditioned car, I began to feel better.

Next stop:  SCRAPBOOK STORE!!!!  It was heaven, I tell ya!  I had fun there.  Mom did, too, which is so funny to me because she buys and buys, but she never scrapbooks!  Sound familiar to anyone???  LOL  Anyway, typically, they did not have a whole lot of California stuff... I know at Memories, we would sell out of the Georgia stuff quickly.  But I found some neat papers for Washington DC and Arizona and the Civil War.  I did get some California stickers.  They had some QuicKutz on clearance, so I had fun there.  Overall, a good time was had by all.  We will have to be shipping that stuff back home (I certainly don't trust the airline with my scrapbook paper!), but we want to wait and go to the scrapbook store in LA before shipping anything.

We had lunch at Marie Callender's restaurant.  Yes, they have actual restaurants out here... seems they are from the area.  Alas, we didn't save room for pie, but the lunch was good.  Potato and cheese soup... YUM!

We had seen a Goodwill from the freeway, so we hunted it down.  Didn't find a thing.  There is a Jo-Ann's here so we went there - hoping to find some California items.  That was a total bust.  Not only did they have very little good scrapbooking items, but the aisles were so packed in there and narrow that two shopping carts could barely pass!  There were many aisles that you couldn't even go down cause someone was in it and wasn't moving.  Also, the store had ladders or carts of merchandise blocking others.  On a busy Saturday! I was ill-tempered when we got out of there!  Mom wanted to find postcards, but I don't think Redlands is geared toward tourism.  We thought maybe a drug store would have some, so we found a Walgreen's.  No luck.  Then we found out where a Wal-Mart is, and I actually went in there on a Saturday.  Again, a total bust.  We gave up and came back to the motel!

I read for a few minutes and then crawled in the bed and took a nap!  It was so hot yesterday and it had worn me out with all the getting in and out of the car.  When I awoke, it was time to get ready for the reunion.

The reunion was held downtown in a building called The Mitten Building.  It's an old, red brick building.  We entered and they gave Mom a pretty glass with "RHS Class of 1960 Reunion" engraved on it.  Then we had our picture made - I was her date, you know!  Then we entered the main room.  There was a crowd.  The tables were round and beautifully decorated with white tableclothes, mirrors in the center with lit candles and a vase of flowers.  There was also dessert already sitting out, along with salad dressings in bowls (including Ranch).  We found Freddie (Mom's childhood friend) and her husband, Art (I loved this guy!  He is a hoot!) and we chose a place to sit together with the desserts we wanted.  (I chose the chocolate cake.  And spent the entire evening protecting it from Art!  LOL)  We tried to mix and mingle, but there are just so many people Mom didn't know. She did find two other friends she has known since 2nd grade.  That was nice - it even ended up that they were sitting at our table.  We found pictures posted on the back wall - and there was Mom with her 6th grade class at Dunlap Acres Elementary!!  She tried to hide her picture from me, but she was front and center!  There was also a picture of the graduating seniors from 1960 who were from Yucaipa - there Mom was again.  1960 was the last year that Yucaipa kids were bussed to Redlands High - they got their own high school after that.  They also had a HUGE picture of the entire graduating class in their caps and gowns.  I found Mom and took a picture - just of that section.  She said what she remembers the most is that it took FOREVER for them to get to the "T's"!!

We were served our salads at about 6:30... and our meal at about 7:30.  No kidding.  Then it was almost 8:30 before they started the program.  By then, the bad chair was killing my rear end, and I didn't think the program would ever end!  Freddie and I had a good time complaining about it!  I told her we needed to be on the committee next time!  Mom got to stand up and speak when they asked if this was the first reunion anyone had attended.  I don't think she gave the real reason (Daddy), but she just said it was so far.  But they had someone there last night from England!  The other thing I found funny (which my mother did NOT) was I think everyone thought I'm illegitimate!  Her last name is still Tapley, and I had my last name on my name tag - TAPLEY-Matthews.  I asked her during dinner if anyone had asked her about a husband, and she said not a soul.  LOLOLOL Anyway, as soon as the program was over, Mom was out of there like a shot.  It was her bed time!!!  We didn't last long after we got back to the motel.

I MUST get dressed now... bacon is calling to Mom, so I will have to post pictures tonight.

Day 3 pictures

Day 3: A little more Hollywood, San Bernardino, Arrive in Redlands

It seemed to take longer to get ready this morning.  We're a little tired.  Finally headed out the door, originally headed back to Hollywood.  However, since it was only about 8:15 and nothing gets going down there until 10, we decided to head to "The Valley" and check out the house where Mom's family was living when she was born.  We made sure to take back roads and the drive wasn't bad... just long (over 20 miles).  And we couldn't find anywhere to eat breakfast!  The day before there had been a McDonald's on every corner - now we couldn't even find one of them ANYWHERE!!  Finally, after driving for over an hour and beginning to starve, I managed to get Samantha to find us a McDonald's only slightly off our route. 

We found the house and it is still there!!  Took several pictures and luckily no one came out shooting.  Mom had been a little fidgety about the drive, but once we got there and saw the house, I believe she was glad we came. 

Then we headed toward Hollywood - another 10 miles.  It was 10:30 before we finally made it down there.  The area in front of the Chinese Theatre looked very busy so we decided we would wait until Tuesday to try to finish our stops there.  Instead, I found a parking space on the street near Hollywood and Vine, and we walked the sidewalks looking for Humphrey Bogart's star.  And we found it!!!  Picture to follow.  We walked up and down Vine and also found Lauren Bacall's star.  We also happened upon a small, impromptu concert/promo in front of Capital Records for the first band John Lennon was in which is performing at the Egyptian Theatre, which we toured yesterday! 

Alas, I still didn't get to shop for any Hollywood souvenirs or postcards since we needed to get on the road!  Maybe on Tuesday.

We started driving out to San Bernardino, which was 58 miles from where we were in Hollywood.  It was all freeway, but going out that way wasn't bad.  I was so sleepy that when we stopped for something to drink (they have 7 Elevens out here!), I got a Coke and added a Red Bull to it!!  That drink yesterday at Hard Rock has started something.  My combo was also good and it gave me the kick I needed to keep going. 

The drive is really beautiful with mountains in the distance.  I snapped several pictures from the car while driving on a freeway doing at least 65MPH.  I need either a chauffeur or a photographer along on these trips, cause my mom is neither!

In San Bernardino, our first stop was at San Bernardino Valley College where Mom got her AA degree in Liberal Arts in 1962.  She didn't recognize anything.  It has expanded and changed so.  She did order a copy of her transcript and we walked around the campus and took a few pictures. 

Then we went to an address where my mother's grandparents had lived from about 1938-1943.  We found it... but unfortunately there was only part of the foundation and a hole in the ground left.  I took pictures anyway.  Not a terrible loss, since that was before Mom's time. 

Next we went to the location of the original McDonald's... the first McDonald's.  Yes, no matter what the Kroc family has said all these years, the original McDonald's, owned by the McDonalds, was in San Bernardino, California.  The original is no longer a restaurant; it is a museum of sorts about McDonald's in 1/2 the building and a museum of Route 66 in the other half.  It is located in a rough neighborhood, and I had read online that what was inside wasn't that great, thus Mom didn't even get out of the car.  I hopped out and took some pictures and we took off out of there! 

 Last on the list for San Bernardino was a visit to my great-grandparents' grave.  The office there had sent me a map of their location before we left home.  We went ahead and stopped by the office to thank the gentleman who helped me.  He was very nice, and offered if we had any trouble locating the graves, to call him and he would come out and help us.  Well, I am good with directions and can read a map, but cemetery maps and directions are an entirely different animal!!  Mom and I found the correct section, but then we walked and walked and could not locate the graves.  It looked like a storm was coming in so I had to give in and call the guy from the office to help us.  It took him a few minutes, but he did find them.  Thank goodness! 

Then it was off to our final stop of the day, Redlands.  The town where Mom went to high school and where her beloved grandmother lived.  The town I have heard about my entire life.  And to be honest, I liked it a whole lot better than San Bernardino.  It kind of reminds me of Peachtree City, GA (near Atlanta).  All the buildings are built in the same style, using the same materials.  Upper class.  And then... the heavens parted and the angels sang... when I found a Chick-fil-A!!!  I had to come 70 miles out of LA, but there it was.  There will be Chicken Minis in my morning tomorrow!!

As we were headed to our motel in Redlands, we realized that we had never had lunch.  What the?  Liz - miss a meal?!!  I say if that is what the Red Bull will do for me, I will drink it all day every day!  LOL  We checked into our hotel... which is another story... and got ready for the get reacquainted social for the Redlands High School Class of 1960 to be held at the American Legion.  We got all prettied up... both of us in new outfits... and got some dinner at Macaroni Grill.  The only damper is that now they are listing the calorie content of each dish.  I had no idea and didn't want to know how many calories are in the Penne Rustica.  I ordered it anyway.  And savored every bite.  And passed on dessert. 

The social was held outside in the back "yard" area of the American Legion.  There was a half door opening where you could walk up and order something to drink from the bartender working inside.  Come to find out there were over 600 people in Mom's graduating class so she didn't recognize a whole lot of people there. (I thought it was a great turnout until I found out how many were in the class!)  Luckily, one of her best friends from high school, Freddie, came.  That really helped put Mom at ease.  I really liked Freddie and her husband, Art.  He was a hoot.  I'm not sure he hears very well nor remembers much, but he was a good sport!  I took some pictures of Mom with the few people she knew.  And she was ready to go by 7:15.  Fine by me.

Got into my jammies IMMEDIATELY and have been on this laptop ever since.  I am really tired and ready to go to bed.  But I will share some pictures first. 

Oh and the story of checking into our room.  Well, of course there was a line at the counter and of course there was only one person working.  We finally got checked in and when the girl gave us the keys to our room, she tells me that we might want to wait a few minutes before we go up to our room since the lady that just asked for a key had already checked out and the room had already been cleaned, but she had left her belongings in the room and was just then picking them up.  O....K.... Mom and I go up to the room, and it was not in pristine condition.  The ironing board was sitting in the kitchen area, there was trash (paper) all over the desk, and they had used the bathroom!  There were dirty towels hanging on the back of the door and over the shower curtain bar!!!  I saw the housekeeper in the hallway and told her.  She was sooo aggravated.  It just made extra work for her.  She asked if we wanted to change rooms, but once she shared that it would only take her about 10 minutes to clean the bathroom and straighten up everything, we decided to stay put.  And she was in and out in no time... very nice.  The girl at the front desk is super nice.  We chatted with her for quite awhile when we got back from the social.  It is different from LA out here. 

People at the tourist areas were really nice in LA.  The only rude people we have encountered are drivers.  People drive really aggressively there.  They will not hesitate to honk at you, u-turn, cut you off, or even run you down.  They have little to no patience with newbies to the area.  And yet, we have not seen any traffic accidents.  So I guess their driving is controlled aggressiveness.  There is a lot of traffic, but it keeps moving. 

OK, I'm rambling now so I'm off to bed.

Backing up: Pictures from Day 1

Santa Monica Pier

Malibu coastline

Day 2 Pictures

Setting up for the premiere

Sylvester Stallone's House

Day 2: California Trip - Hollywood

Mom and I were both wide awake at 5:30 AM.  Besides the fact that I never sleep well the first night in a motel, my body is also still on Georgia time.  And in Georgia, it was 8:30.  So it was time to get up!  LOL  So there were no worries about getting a late start.  After grabbing breakfast at the McDonald's next to the motel, we headed toward Hollywood.

I set Samantha on "Shorter Distance" so she would avoid the freeways, and the drive was fine.  No big traffic pileups - there may be a lot of cars, but they keep moving.  Cell phone use is illegal while driving, and I can see that makes a BIG difference.  We found the parking garage at Hollywood and Highland and other than a van trying to run over me (Mom thinks they filmed "Speed" in that parking garage!), we had no problems.  We found our way outside onto Hollywood Blvd and found stars on the Walk of Fame immediately.  They are up and down both sides of Hollywood Blvd.  I took pictures of so many such as:  Bill Cosby, Jamie Lee Curtis, Vivien Leigh, Tony Curtis (with a candle and wreath in remembrance), Tim McGraw, Alan Jackson, Mickey Mouse, Shrek, Sandra Bullock, and many, many more.  I still did not make it to Humphrey Bogart's, and I swear with my hand up to God that I will not leave this town until I get a picture of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  Bogie's house is in a restricted area, his gravesite is under lock and key... I deserve to at least see his star!!

We walked down to Grauman's Chinese Theatre to check in for our first tour of the day - homes of the stars!  In front of the theatre is where stars who have had a movie premiere there AND are invited by the Chinese Theatre put their hands and feet and other parts of their body or mementos associated with them in concrete.  For example, Roy Rogers and Trigger's has his horse shoes and Roy's gun imprinted in the concrete; John Wayne imprinted his fist; the stars of the Harry Potter series left imprints of their magic wands, etc.  It's VERY cool.  The stars also signed in the concrete and some wrote funny sayings, i.e., Arnold wrote "I'll be back."  After taking tons of pictures of these, we boarded our open van for the tour.  It was a small tour - there was only about 10 or 11 of us, and the tour guide was great.  We saw so many stars' homes and I have spent the last few hours trying to remember which one is who's!  Some that we saw:  Orlando Bloom (and that might have been him standing in the garage with his back to the road!!! The hair color and build were about right.), Robert Pattinson, Lucille Ball, Sylvester Stallone, Peter Falk, David & Victoria Beckham, Mark Wahlburg, George Clooney, Nicholas Cage, Dr. Phil, Michael Jackson, Snoop Dog, Wolfgang Puck, Mariah Carey, and Tom Selleck.  Some that we only saw the gate include:  Elvis, Frank Sinatra, and Madonna.  Former homes of the stars we saw:  the Osbournes, James Dean, Roseanne & Tom Arnold.  Then there are several that Mom and I can't remember whose house they were!  I'll keep working on that.  I'll also try to post pictures of some of these another night.

We also saw the houses where scenes from "Halloween" and "Nightmare on Elm Street" were filmed; the Beverly Whilshire Hotel (where scenes from Pretty Woman was filmed); the Beverly Hills Police station looking pretty much like it did in "Beverly Hills Cop;" Chateau Marmont where John Belushi died; the Viper Room where River Phoenix died; the Whiskey a Go Go; Capitol records (that round building), the house from "The Beverly Hillbillies;" the Hollywood sign; and Rodeo Drive.  There was a lot packed into this tour!

After we finished this tour, we walked up Hollywood Blvd, looking at more stars, to the Egyptian Theatre to sign up for our next tour.  It's a 75 minute walking tour of the area.  We had a couple of hours before that tour started so we walked back down and had lunch at Hard Rock.  Our server was from Kentucky and was so sweet.  We tried a nonalcoholic drink:  Mango with Orange juice and Red Bull. It was good.  And I definitely felt that energy boost immediately!  We each picked out a Hard Luck pin (mine being just the basic Hard Rock guitar with 'Hollywood' on it and Mom's being the pink guitar with the breast cancer awareness ribbon) and the total came to $26!!!!  Things are definitely more expensive in Hollywood! 

After lunch, we walked and took more pictures of stars on the sidewalk and made our way back to the Egyptian Theatre for our tour.  Again, it was a great tour.  This one is a walking tour, but they gave us headphones to wear so we could hear everything the tour guide said, whether she was ahead of us, had her back turned, or whatever.  It was great.  Probably one of the few tours I've ever taken where I didn't miss a thing.  We toured the Egyptian Theatre (also built by Sid Grauman and is older than his Chinese Theatre), and it is beautiful... reminded me our our Fox - which I told our tour guide about.  We saw stars on the sidewalk again, and she pointed out places where movie scenes had been shot (including from "The Italian Job" where the Mini Coopers drive down into the Metro station!). She took us back to the Chinese Theatre and gave us more stories about the concrete impressions there, plus pointed out some Mom and I had missed that morning.  It was a really good tour... and hopefully our tour guide will make it to the Academy Awards one day.  :)

We got to see them setting up for the premiere of "Secretariat" tonight at the El Capitan (Disney's) Theatre, complete with red carpet.  That was pretty neat to see how they set it up cause it looks so different on TV.  

It had gotten rather warm by the afternoon, and Mom and I were dropping fast.  But we wanted to squeeze in one more thing from our City Pass for the day so we walked just a couple of blocks to the Hollywood Museum.  It is located in the old Max Factor building (Did you know that it was Max Factor that turned Lucile Ball into a redhead?  She was just another blonde in Hollywood and wasn't getting discovered until he made her a redhead.  She never looked back.), and there were several rooms on display of his makeup and work with the stars.  The museum had a lot of gowns and outfits worn by the stars at award shows or in the movies.  They had Elvis's favorite bathrobe; nude pictures of Marilyn Monroe; and the bottle from "I Dream of Jeannie."  They also had Hannibal Lector's jail cell down in the basement, but Mom and I were too tired to go down the stairs and back up!  LOL  So we cut the visit to the museum kind of short.  Mom was so tired, she didn't even want to shop for souvenirs.  We picked up one item for a friend of mine and headed back to the car.  I would have killed someone for a glass of COLD water, so I swung into a McDonald's... I had water in one cup holder, and a Coke in my hand!  Again, the traffic wasn't bad back to our motel.

(Oh and I have yet to see a Chick-fil-A... godforsaken place!)

We ordered in from a nearby Mexican restaurant for dinner, and it was pretty good.  We are both so sore, we can hardly move and very, very tired.  

Another big day tomorrow:  finish Hollywood (got to see Bogie's star and our last City Pass ticket is for the wax museum), hopefully visit the scrapbook store, the house where my mom's family lived when she was born, and drive to San Bernardino where we will visit my great-grandparents' graves, the college Mom attended, and the original McDonald's.  Then it's on to Redlands for the first event of Reunion weekend.  Darn, I'm tired just typing all that!