Over China at The Peak

Kowloon New Years Eve

Danny wanted George to pull

Somewhere Over China

After a long Pacific flight we arrived in Hong Kong late on December 29th. After the train ride into the city we checked in to the Prudential Hotel on Nathan Road. We jumped into a taxi and with my limited mandarian "Buck King Do" and the next thing we were having a beer in Murphy's Bar in Kowloon.

Up bright and early the next morning we were off to Bobby's Custom Tailor's to get measured up for a few suits. They would be ready the next day but we needed to come back for a fitting that night.

We did the tourist things, riding the Star Ferry and taking a trip to The Peak. We stopped buy to see Mr. Bill's buddy and priced out a few Dunhill Lighters. But we were cheep verry cheep.

We found a bar on the waterfront called Dan Ryan's Chicago Bar & Grill. There were pictures of all of our recent mayor's as well as a Michael Jordan, but they did not have an Al Capone. George just had to try the Chicago Style Hotdog. I dont even want to know what they put in a hotdog in China.

Now you would think that the fireworks display on New Years in Hong Kong would be great. After all they invented fireworks. Well they did have a fireworks and light show. There were about 2 million people on the waterfront at 8pm, and the fireworks lasted about 15 minuites. Oh So Sorry.

Junk

"You Cheep Verry Cheep"

Hong Kong Harbor

Professor Fate's car from the Great Race 

Steve Mc Queen's 1947 Indian 

And all the Stars that Never Were are Parking Cars and Pumping Gas

Tuesday morning we had breakfast in El Segundo at a little joint Danny knew when he worked here in the past. Then on to our hilltop lookout to spot LAX for an hour. we were then off to Hollywood and the Peterson Automobile Museum.

This museum is owned by the publishers of Road & Track and contains a great collection of everything from presidential limo's to the Pope Mobile. There were movie cars and the entire collection of Steve Mc Queen's cars. This place was great.

We had lunch at Musso's & Frank's on Hollywood Boulevard. This place has been there since 1919, and the waiters have been there nearly as long. We had a great time with Manny the bartender as he told us about all the famous patrons who visited his bar. Many has been a bartender for 49 years and has known them all. His favorites are Harrison Ford, Drew Barrymore and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.

We came across this Irish bar called Tom Birgin's. The bartender was from Chicago and had come out to LA working on the 1978 movie "The Fury". He played a Chicago cop with Dennis Franz. Now he pour's beer for the locals. Only in LA

If We Can Just Get Off Of This LA Freeway

Well we arrived Christmas nite. Things were quiet at the LAX Hilton and we had a few beers at the bar. There were some ATA people there drinking Dom Perigion. I dont know what they were celebrating but more power to them.

On Monday I had a surprise for the Boy's. Curley from the Three Stooges is one of our hero's. I had found the location of his gave on the internet along with the GPS coordinates.

So we set out trying to find Curley in East LA. My GPS was not much help as I must have put the coordinates in wrong, but Google Earth found it and so did we. The boy's were suprised and then we set off to Hollywood to find the Stooges star on the Walk of Fame. No luck there. We did get back to one of our old haunts, "the Frolic Room" and a few other places as well.

747 Home in the Santa Monica Mountains

There are always a few uses for an old aircraft!

Francine Rehwald is buying an old 747 from Mojove, chopping it up and hauling it to a building site in the mountains. The house will resemble a aircraft crash site. Plans call for six buildings including a "Meditation Temple" constructed out of the nose.

According to Francine "Its 100% post-consumer waste" " Isnt it the Coolest"

Reade the article in the Wall Street Journal