When traveling, you have to visit the popular sightseeing destinations. Otherwise people won’t believe you were there.

So I partnered up with Carmel Hagen of Josh Spear, and we zipped about in our Ford Escape to the requisite Hollywood sites.

Once again I didn’t drive. Though my neck healed miraculously overnight in the comfy Hotel Roosevelt bed, I woke up that morning with the worst eye inflammation ever, so I chose to forego wearing a contact in that eye, and donned some heavy sunglasses so that I wouldn’t scare children. I figured not being able to judge distances while driving around steep hills may not be the wisest choice, so I played passenger again.

That’s OK. Maybe I’ll get a chance to test drive it another time. Anyways, it gave me lots of time to enjoy the view.

And what a view it was. Quite stunning.

First thing I spotted was Kermit The Frog on the side of the road eating a Pink’s Hot Dog. Being a big fan, I asked him for an autograph. He obliged, admired our car, and when I asked if he wanted a ride, he hopped right in. Now there were 3 in the SUV and Carmel and I felt much better about tooling around.

First stop, the Hollywood sign. You can’t come back home without shots of the sign. Because it’s the sign. The Hollywood sign!!!

The three amigos plan their “escape.”

I crush your head.

Ah, we laughed till we cried.

Kermit really wanted to drive, so we let him. He had his own style.

The roads are hilly and windy, and you never know when you will get a good view. Sometimes a must have shot just appears out of the blue.

We drove down the famous Mulholland Drive and stopped at the lookout. We bumped into the Daws brothers and got a little group shot going.

Kermit had another Pink’s The Hollywood hot dog legend craving, but Carmel and I indulged in a Pinkberry’s yogurt instead. How girlie.

The girl attack didn’t stop there. We just had to go shopping!

Where else?

I may have overdone it.

On the walk back to the Hotel Kermit bumped into an old pal. They started to reenact old scenes from a TV show they were once in together. We didn’t recognize them but laughed politely anyway.

Kermit found his star on the walk and went all cuckoo. We were kind of embarrassed.

P.s. There have been rumblings about prizes for best sightseeing photos…something about the use of a Ford vehicle for a week. Wow, that would be cool, considering I didn’t get to test-drive it yet.