California, Part 5

Considering that a month ago, we were actually in California, I had better start wrapping things up! I'm about finished making my photo books, now I just need the money to have them printed! Anyway, it's time for part 5 of our trip report!

Monday, September 21st
So, we checked into our hotel (Hyatt Regency Newport Beach on Jamboree Road) late Sunday night, and finally had a chance to sleep in on Monday. It was a much needed respite! Around 1 or 2pm we left the hotel to go explore the LA area. We stopped at a large outdoor shopping complex (The District at Tustin Legacy) and had lunch at Red Brick Pizza. Then we made a very important stop at Best Buy for a new camera, as I absolutely could not stand the other one any longer. We also went to Whole Foods and Target. Once our errands were done, we headed west to the Pacific Coast Highway and then drove north towards LA.

We drove along the coast, past Huntington Beach. Eventually we got on the freeway to go to Hollywood.

Traffic wasn’t too bad considering it was rush hour, and we easily found the area thanks to our GPS. We drove up into the hills, and randomly followed a park ranger’s SUV, thinking he could be going somewhere good. It turned out to be a good decision, as he drove to a dog park situated right under the Hollywood sign.

After taking loads of pictures with our new camera, we left the hills and found Hollywood Blvd. Turns out there was a premier that night at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, so they had the red carpets out for the event!

We gawked for a bit, and then went into the Hollywood & Highland Center to find dinner. We found an interesting place called uWink, which had touchscreen monitors in the tables that you order everything from.

After dinner, we walked back to the car, stopping to gawk a bit more. Luckily, the premier was ending and we were able to catch a glimpse of John Hodgman.

So that was cool that we could see a celebrity, even though it was from across the street.

We left Hollywood after that, and drove through Beverly Hills and down Rodeo Drive.

The Beverly Wilshire - the setting for Pretty Woman!

After our tour down Rodeo Drive, we headed back to our hotel, which was much further away than we remembered leaving it! I think it took an hour or so to get back to Newport Beach, and that was with no traffic! We had a good time, even though we only had a few hours to do it in!