That last one says Walt Disney if you can’t read it.

Fuller House Billboard!

While we were walking around looking at all the stars on the ground and the other “stars” in person, we came across the Dolby Theatre!!! (Where the Oscars are held). We couldn’t go into the actual theatre without paying for a tour but we walked around the lobby/mall area.

Finally we got back in the car to drive to Griffith Park. When we got there, we ate our picnic lunch before embarking on our hike. The park was beautiful! I could not stop taking pictures. And we eventually saw the Hollywood sign in the distance.

Once we’d had our fill and our legs and feet were sufficiently screaming at us, we decided to head back downhill to the car and head on the thirty minute drive to Pasadena.

Our first stop was, of course, Caltech. It was spring break so we gave ourselves a little tour with the help of google. All we saw was the outside of buildings and fun monuments and fountains. My thought was that the campus was beautiful. Pearson’s thought was the the whole experience was very intimidating.

For our second stop in Pasadena, we went to the Rose Bowl, of course! We couldn’t get in but it was still really cool to see. The bricks in front of the main entrance make a rose and you can buy a brick to have your name put on it.

After we left Rose Bowl Stadium we drove back toward West Hollywood and stopped in at The Grove. Now, this was one of the places I waned to see while we were there because I had heard about it a lot. Mainly the season finally of Dancing with the Stars partially happened at the grove last season. They danced in front of the gorgeous Christmas tree and I wanted to see where that was. And honestly, I really had no clue what The Grove really was.

It turns out, The Grove is an outdoor shopping mall. It’s kind of like Easton here in Columbus but it’s more enclosed in one area and seems grander to me (but maybe that’s because I’m so used to Easton). There is a trolley that goes up and down the strip kinda like Branson Landing if you’ve ever been there. If you know me, you know I LOVE outdoor malls. The weather was fantastic and we could have stayed there forever.

There was also a “farmers market” section to The Grove which was a lot like the North Market here in Columbus except it was completely outside. They had some booths that sold produce and uncooked meet. There were also booths that sold meals. We had authentic Mexican food from one of those. And they had souvenir shops. I was too mesmerized to take any pictures in this part.

After walking around for a while and stopping for a coffee break, we decided we should leave so we would have time to drive down Sunset Boulevard one more time before we had to head to the airport. Since it was dark, I didn’t get good pictures of the celebrity houses, but they were pretty impressive. We drove all the way to the Pacific Coast Highway and took it back toward the airport.

Then we took a red eye flight home. It wasn’t my favorite. But I was off on Monday so I got to sleep all day. Pearson had to go straight to work from the airport though. And yet, I’m the one who slept on the plane while he watched movies. We got into Columbus around 6 AM. My feet were super swollen and in a lot of pain. It was a long flight.

We left the airport and went through a McDonald’s drive through. Then I dropped Pearson off at work, picked Pip up from the vet where we board him, and went straight to bed. When Pearson got home from work around 6, he went to bed and slept till 10 AM the next day! We were pretty tied but it was so worth it. This is a trip I’ll remember forever!

Have you ever been to LA? Did you go to any of the places we went? Have you ever taken a red eye flight?
Thanks for reading!