We woke to clearer skies this morning.  The “MegaDoppler” weather report said the marine layer would soon burn off and they were proved correct, because by the time we were out on our way, the skies were blue and everything was tickety boo.

First things first – a visit to Starbucks for hot drinks, enjoyed in spite of the dire warnings

Oh California, we love you so

Anyway, fortified by our carcinogenic beverages, we headed into the city, towards Mary’s.  There weren’t so many people around at this early hour.

Waiting to turn onto Sunset, we did our usual ogle of the house on the hill.  Who lives in a house like that?

An hour or so later, we were off out for breakfast, to one of our favourite haunts – Canters. 

This is a long standing LA favourite and offers traditional fare – it’s the choosing that’s the problem, because the menu is extensive.

We eventually settle for cheese blintzes for me, waffles for Mary and Corned Beef Hash for you-know-who.  Delicious.

By now it was getting towards lunchtime and we headed for the area between Hollywood and Highland, now a fairly new shopping mall with a vaguely Egyptian theme.  We weren’t here to shop, more to ensure a place to park the car for the afternoon, because this part of Hollywood is prime tourist territory and we really didn’t want to encounter difficulties later.

The “mall” has a pathway running through it with short tales of success and stardom. These quotes are not attributed to any individual, though it’s fairly easy to guess who is being quoted in a couple of them.  Most are of the “dream came true” type of story, generally overlooking the years of hard work and/or rejection and failure before achieving stardom.  Yes, we are in LaLaLand.

We love it though and thought it fun to spy the Hollywood sign up there on the hillside opposite.

Whilst the children played in the fountains – it was getting quite hot by now – we enjoyed a cool drink in the shade before heading down to the Kodak Theatre, same place as the Oscars are held each year.  Lucky for us, Mary had got tickets for the hottest of shows right now – Cirque du Soleil’s $100 million Iris.  Only recently opened, we were delighted that, after several year’s dithering about a visit to see this altogether different circus from our “usual” one, we were finally going to see it for ourselves.

All I can suggest is that you take a look at the website and get a flavour of this amazing show – no photos of course.  We were all three of us utterly gobsmacked by the whole spectacle; at times there was so much happening, it was hard to know where to look.  The costumes and characterisation were superb, the performance and production beyond all expectation and at times we gasped with amazement and delight at the skill of the performers and the clever concepts which had been created.

What can I say but “wow”!

How could we follow that?  Late afternoon was no time to be starting something fresh, so we returned to Mary’s apartment and simply relived as many details of the show as we could remember – whilst I was scribbling madly into my small notebook to record them!

Of course, we were hungry too, so we made a short drive to The Counter for a bite to eat before dropping Mary off at her home and braving the traffic from the Hollywood Bowl right opposite.  Santana were playing there tonight and though I would down the windows to try to hear something of their music on this warm, still evening, there was none to be heard. We carried on past the Bowl and went back to Santa Monica and “home”.

What an amazing day – will we ever lose the buzz of driving back along Wilshire and simply being in this great city?