Archives for October 2012

And our last.

On our fourth day in L.A., Molly, Mike, and I met up with the newly weds for breakfast. It was nice to get one last hour with them. Who knows when our paths will cross again?!

After breakfast, we hit the beach!

We headed down to the Santa Monica pier, enjoyed the waves, and braved the urine smell (icky!). What’s with famous public places always smelling like pee?

Mike gave Molly some body surfing lessons while I napped in the sand. So relaxing!

Next we rented bikes and rode down to Venice Beach. The ride there was quite nice… but the ride back made my thighs burn. I finally realized that we were riding against the wind. Molly and Mike didn’t seem to notice the extra challenge. Just me. Of course.

Later that day we returned the rental car and prepared to fly home early the next morning. It just might have been my favorite day of the trip.

xo, jill

Déjà vu.Our third day in L.A. we picked up Molly and Shera (and some Mexican food), and headed straight for… the Hollywood sign! Molly and Shera hadn’t seen it yet, so we figured we might as well go up in the hills for round two. I’m glad we did because I really love a few of these photos.

Next we took a nice drive along Mulholland Drive. We tried to use our star map to find celebrity homes, but it’s tricky! Mostly, it was just good silly fun.

And speaking of silly fun… our next stop was Randy’s Donuts! Of course you should drive miles out of your way for an .89 cent donut. It’s a classic!

We followed Randy’s with a visit to the Coca-Cola bottling factory. No one else seemed excited about the idea of a giant Coke bottle. But that’s ok. Totally worth it. (Not).

Finally, we ended up in a slightly more sophisticated tourist destination: El Pueblo de Los Angeles. This is the oldest and most historic part of Los Angeles. It’s really quite lovely. The buildings themselves are gorgeous and the atmosphere was relaxed.

Union Station, also gorgeous, was nearby so we had a look at that too.

Our last outing as a group of four was a stop at In N Out. This time I remembered to order off the “secret menu,” which I highly recommend.

We said goodbye to Shera at the station and then called it a day.

xo, jill

Happy wedding.

Our second morning in L.A. we were up early. We went to check out the iconic Hollywood sign. I had seen it before, but never as close as this. It’s hard to believe that originally the sign was only meant to stand for 18 months. Today it’s one of the most famous landmarks in the world!

Next we met up with a friend of mine from college for breakfast at The Black Cow Cafe. I had read about their cornflake crusted French toast and for some reason felt compelled to try it. I’m not usually a French toast person (it’s the egg), but this was amazing. I need to recreate it. Of course, it was great to catch up with Monique too!

We planned to do a bit of sightseeing after that… but… well, Mike lost his wallet. Instead we did a lot of searching, visiting police/sheriff stations, and cancelling bank cards.

At that point it was time to race off to the real reason we went to Los Angeles, Hannah and Allan’s wedding.

I don’t have many pictures to show, but it was a beautiful ceremony and a fun reception. Not only was it my first exposure to Gangam Style, there was also an ice cream truck!

After the reception we headed to a karaoke bar and were delighted to discover another celebrity… Mr. Belding!

xo, jill

Celeb sighting.

Our first day in L.A. we picked up our rental car and set off to explore the city. We stayed in Burbank so we quickly checked out the studios in the area. It would have been cool to take a studio tour, but we were on a budget. Maybe next time.

Instead we headed down near Hollywood and Vine to check out the Walk of Fame.

Here’s where Mike insisted we investigate a crowd of people who had gathered a bit further down the block. Honestly, I wasn’t that keen. We walked that way anyways and Mike asked around to see what was happening. Turns out everyone was waiting for Neil Diamond. He was about to get his star! But not only that… Randy Newman was there too! Mike was right on this one!

After our celebrity sighting we went over to the Chinese Theater to take a look at famous hand and foot prints. It’s fun to do that silly celebrity stuff!

The afternoon was pretty warm so we headed into In N Out Burger for some lunch and to cool off. It was Mike’s first taste. He approved!

Later in the day we checked out a very famous house. Do you know it?

It’s the Brady Bunch house!

Then we needed some tacos… so we took care of that.

xo, jill