Saturday, June 25, 2016

California - Day 2

Thursday morning we all slept in and finished off the huge omelets from the day before.  Today's plan was all about Hollywood.  Once again we knew Andrew was with us because we weren't in the car long when Natalia noticed a worker's truck beside us in traffic had the name "Andrew" written on driver's side door.  Within minutes of seeing that we passed Carson Street and once again Matt got to say, "Hey Buddy!"

We had lunch that day at place called Sonoma Wine Garden and it was amazing!  I learned that day and night how much Michael enjoys trying various different drinks.  On our way back to the car, Natalia and I spotted a random guy dressed as a statue and he was kind enough to let us get our picture with him.



On our way to the Walk of Fame and the Hollywood sign, we stopped off at Rodeo Drive.  Now, I didn't really expect I could afford anything, but I wanted to say I had at least been there and walked into a store.  Michael found us a parking space and paid the meter - likely the only thing we could afford on this street.  It was just as I had expected - high end stores all around, elaborately decorated, and fancy cars all over the road.  I'm told in most of these stores you have to have an appointment and be buzzed in, but Michael Kors had their door wide open - which felt like an invitation to me, so I went in.  I was expecting to have a Pretty Woman moment where they looked at me suspiciously and asked me to leave as they wouldn't have anything in there for me, but they greeted me with a nice smile and warm hello.  Immediately to my left was the most gorgeous purse I had ever seen.  It was black and white with the new leather smell, two different sized straps, and a roomy inside.  As I looked inside and saw the price, $1060, I knew this was not the store for me, so I quickly exited.  Natalia and I decided to cross the street and hit the Coach store, while Michael and Matt went to another store.  I didn't see any purses or wallets catching my eye, but this Coach store also had shoes!  I was immediately drawn to some black sneakers with white soles.  Natalia liked them too but they didn't have her size in that color, but did have them in all white.  So we each got a pair, mine black, hers white, and then she also found some other black shoes with lace up ankles.  After the sticker shock of the Michael Kors purse I was pleasantly surprised to find the shoes were only $160 at Coach.  That's about 3 times more than I have ever spent on shoes for myself, but I was convinced I needed them so I could say I had been shopping (and made a purchase) on Rodeo Drive.

 

From there we headed to the Walk of Fame.  We wanted to snap a picture of Alex Trebek's star for my dad, a huge fan of Jeopardy!  While looking for his I also spotted Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett - two legendary ladies of comedy I absolutely adore.

 

As we were walking back to the car, Matt spotted a model wearing a mankini, so naturally we had to capture the moment...



From the Walk of Fame we were able to drive down a street and get a great view of the Hollywood sign.  I wasn't interested in hiking to actually be on the sign, I just, once again, wanted to be able to say I was there and had seen it.

 

We met up with Marganne again for dinner, she had to work all week, poor thing.  We went to a family style Italian Place and again the food was delicious.  Matt and Michael went out to a bar that night with some of Michael's friends.  It was late when they returned home (courtesy of Uber) but Michael was hungry and convinced Matt they needed to make a Del Taco run for some chicken tacos.  They arrived just before closing but managed to get a dozen chicken tacos to cure the late night hunger craving.

That night the sky was clear except for the multitude of stars shining down on us.  Matt made a comment wondering which constellations were which and I remembered I had an app on my phone (SkyView) that when you hold it to the sky it will tell you what you are looking at.  So I got my phone, stepped on the balcony, opened the app and pointed it to the sky.  Immediately I knew Andrew was with us as it showed me his zodiac sign, Leo.  "Hey Buddy!"




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