More than 25 teachers from both the Middle and Upper School toured celebrity homes and hotspots on a hike in the Hollywood Hills Saturday, Oct. 12. Upper school math teacher Bill Thill led the trip, accompanied by his friend William Miltenberger, a guide from Bikes and Hikes LA.

“Last year, we ran a smaller hike with about 12 teachers and [Miltenberger] did a great job,” Thill said. “He has a vast knowledge of movies and celebrities, and is able to tell you what movie and what scene many places are from.”

The hike was followed by a barbeque at a home in the Hollywood Hills formerly owned by actor Patrick Dempsey. The house, rented out by the tour company, featured a pool, paddle tennis and tennis courts for the faculty to use.

“I think it is really important for faculty to get to know each other outside of the work we do [at Harvard-Westlake],” Thill said. “We get to appreciate what other teachers do in different departments when we actually sit down and get a chance to know them.”

Even though the faculty live in the Los Angeles area, Thill said they still learned new things about hidden features of the city.

“[Miltenberger] does a great job at showing people that live in Los Angeles things who they never would have seen,” he said.

The teachers and administrators on the hike photographed celebrity homes and cars and took pictures of the vistas from Runyon Canyon.

Thill believes trips like these help the faculty bond more than they do during school hours.

“It’s hard [for us] to do a lot of social gatherings during the week, because we are having focused conversations on work rather than getting to know each other,” he said.