Day 4

The most exciting thing happened this weekend: I finished my scrapbook for my Europe Trip! This is such a huge accomplishment for me. My trip was 4 years ago, and I kept putting off doing a scrapbook. I just simply did not have time to do it, but I kept saying that one day I would get around to it. Well I finally did, and it took me about a month to do it. I thoroughly enjoyed doing it, too, because I got to relive the entire trip all over again. Reading through my travel journal, and remembering all the little details was just a lot of fun. What an amazing trip it was.

So I haven't forgotten about writing about California - I just took a break over the weekend, and then yesterday I was in meetings from 9 am to 6 pm. By the time I got home, the only thing I wanted to do was veg out on the couch. So here we go, Day 4.

Day 4 - Los Angeles

On Day 4, Scott and I were quite excited as we would be seeing Mark, Tamara, and Greg. With their crazy work schedules, it was the only day that they could all three be available to hang out. My family woke up early and we made our way to the Farmer's Market. While this may sound strange, the Farmer's Market is actually a hot spot in L.A., especially since the Grove was built a few years ago. We had breakfast there (Bob's Coffee & Doughnuts...YUM) and did a little shopping before heading over to Hollywood & Highland to meet up with our friends. Hollywood & Highland is where the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Graumman's Chinese Theatre, and the Kodak Theatre are located. It's probably the first place most people would go when they visit L.A. for the first time, but we saved it for last. Once our friends arrived, we took a walk down the Walk of Fame to see all the famous names. We stopped at a couple souvenier shops, then headed to Graumman's to see the stars' hands and feet prints (Brad Pitt's was most exciting for me). Then we got tickets for the Movie Star Homes tour.

After a little glitch (five of us bought tickets for the city tour by accident and it was much ado getting the right tickets), and a big decision about whether to take the open-top van or the closed-top, air conditioned van (according to the lady at the ticket counter, there were "lots of trees" and I need not worry about my fair skin and affliction to skin cancer) we were on our way. Let me just say that there were maybe 2 or 3 trees, and the rest was blaring sun. Regardless, I had my sunblock and we had an awesome time. We drove through Beverly Hills and Bel Air and saw a ton of houses. Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox & David Arquette, the Playboy Mansion, and TONS more. I can't even think of them all right now. (This reminds me...on our drive along Mulholland Drive the first night, we passed by The Summit, which is where Britney Spears lives.) We saw Will Smith's real house and the Fresh Prince house, which are both located in Bel Air...this cracks me up. Kelsey Grammer now lives in the Fresh Prince house (see pic).

After the tour, we decided to try to get a good picture of the Hollywood sign, so we went to the Griffith Observatory. That place was so packed, you had to park like 2 miles away from it. So we said forget that, and we went to Santa Monica instead. We went to the pier for a while to look around and take pictures. See pic of Mark, Tamara, and Greg. The sun was quite bright, so Mark made a good effort to keep his eyes open. We went to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant that Greg suggested. After dinner, we went to the Promenade, which is a bunch of shops along a cute street. Most stores were closing, but they had street performers, music, etc. It was a lot of fun. After that, we decided to head back home, and unfortunately had to say goodbye to our friends. I wish we'd had more time with them. Overall, it was probably the best day in L.A.