LA Trip {Day 5; August 29th} Downtown Tour & Travel Day

Monday was our last day there. My brother had to go back into work and since we were unable to do his downtown walking tour on Wednesday because of our flight cancellation, we just decided to do it this day.

Before we left, I wanted to get a ride on my brother's Vespa. So we went for a quick 5 minute ride around his neighborhood.

Then we loaded up the car with our luggage and headed downtown. Josh dropped us off in the fashion district before parking his car for work, which began our downtown walking tour itinerary.

We were doing things a little different than he typed up for us as the original itinerary had us starting where we'd get dropped off after taking the plane shuttle at Union Station. So it was kinda backward. We walked around the fashion district for a while. It was actually nice being there early in the morning, the vendors were busy getting their stores ready so they didn't haggle us to buy anything. And there wasn't a crowd. We even found a restroom we could use, it was worth the twenty-five cents :-)

We walked up to around 9th Street and Santee St and stopped for a little feet rest at Starbucks. Then we continued on Josh's tour. Taking us over to S Broadway and up to 6th Street through the Jewelry district. We came across a guy walking two dogs, one with a camera on his back. The dog went up to Kyle to get some love and the guys said "oh he's making a movie, looks like you're going to be in his movie" lol. The guy ended up walking the same way we were for a few blocks, they were in front of us so it was funny to see the camera dog go up to almost EVERYONE he came across, very friendly dog who was going to do what he wanted, lol.

We took 6th St over to Hill St and walked through Pershing Square park, it had a nice view of the buildings.

After walking through Pershing Square we crossed Olive Street and went into the Biltmore Hotel. It was a fancy, fancy hotel and a nice place to sit down and relax for a bit (and use the restroom).

We came out of the hotel on the other side of the block, onto Grand Ave, taking it up to the next block: 5th, we went over into the Los Angeles Public Library.

We wandered around in there for a bit, enjoying the air conditioning. It was starting to get warm out and there is not really a breeze in downtown LA like their is over on the coast line.

Again we walked through the library to the next block over. Makes walking a little better when blocks are done through A/C'd buildings :-) This is the front of the library, we entered on the backside.

At this point it was almost lunch time, which our plan was to meet Josh at his office building and take a bus to a little Mexican area to eat. When we stepped out of the library we were on Josh's block, we went two buildings down to The Standard hotel, and went up to their roof top area.

He wasn't quite ready, so it was a wonderful place to sit back and relax, and of course use the restroom again :-) It's gotta be fun traveling with a six and a half month pregnant lady, hee hee. We found a lounger that we could kick our feet up on, happy that it was early enough so the waitress was over by the pool and not in the lounge area. We didn't really want to buy a $5 soda. Eventually Josh was available and gave us a call.... at this point we waved:

and made plans to meet down on the corner to hop on the DASH bus. We took the bus to in front of Union Station, then walked over to Olvera Street. Turns out Olvera Street is in the oldest part of downtown LA and is part of the El Peblo de Los Angels Historic Monument. We had lunch at a little Mexican restaurant and walked around the little kiosks that are in the middle of the street.

After lunch, Josh hopped the bus back to work while we continued on our walking tour, picking up where the original itinerary began :-) Heading to City Hall.

We went into City Hall, through the security to the 3rd floor to observe the beautiful rotunda. Then we took the elevator up to the 20 something floor, then had to get on another elevator to go up to the 26th or so floor, then walked up the stairs through the Tom Bradley room, out onto the ledge at the very top of City Hall. It was a beautiful view!

We could see Hollywood

And got a good view of the Disney Music Hall

We then left City Hall, passed the US District Court Clerk building, this is where Josh worked the last time I came to visit.

We walked up Temple Street to the Cathedral. And when I saw up, I mean UP it was a steady incline. The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels is a famous Cathedral there in downtown LA. Josh had taken me there before of my visits.

We went inside and took a load of our feet. It was beautiful inside!

I remember when I had gone before Josh would try and pick out the saints, on the tapestries on the wall, that looked like famous people, lol. There was someone that looked like Dustin Hoffman and some others I can't remember :-P We rested here for a bit as our feet were getting tired and we were nearing the time that Josh was going to pick us up in his car to take us to Union Station to catch the airport shuttle. So we decided it was better just to have him pick us up at the Cathedral instead of rushing around to finish the walking tour. We still had the courtyard at the Cathedral to explore as well.

I have a picture of myself in a fish that is in the courtyard from my visit back in 2007. I wanted to show Kyle where this was, as he had seen the picture:

So we decided to get a picture of him on the nearby camel :-P

At that time Josh had pulled up near the curb, perfect timing. He finished up our walking tour via car, giving us a quick drive by of a few sights here and there. Then we caught the 4:00 airport shuttle and headed to LAX.

There was a slight delay leaving LAX, but not but 10 minutes or so, the plane before us was a little late getting in so that just pushed back our departure. No big deal this time :-) Here's the west coast on take off

And a beautiful view of Catalina Island

Downtown LA through the clouds and fog

We had a nice relaxing flight home.

It was a busy vacation but also had some relaxing times. It was nice getting away, our last 'official' Kyle and I only vacation. We plan to continue to take trips after we have the baby, as we both love to travel. We can't wait to take our kids around the country and show them what this beautiful land has to offer!

LA Trip {Day 4; August 28th} Tide Pools in Newport & Naples Area

Sunday morning we got up and Josh cooked us some eggs. Stephanie's daughter came home and we took a walk around the neighborhood to a cute little puppy shop. After our town walk, we walked back down to the area we were at the day before at the beach,

but went down on the other side of the hill to the tide pools

This area is preserved by the city (or state, I can't remember which) so they have people around, a little education booth, and signs asking you not to step in the water or take any of the shells/crabs. But there was a little beach area for people to swim in just north of the tide pools

We had fun looking for crabs and watching the little fish swim around in the tide pools

I had fun taking pictures of the waves and boats off in the distance :-)

Here's Josh and I:

and Kyle and I:

After a little time at the tide pools, we walked back to Stephanie's and loaded up to head back up north to Los Angeles. Instead of taking the highway we took the Pacific Coast Highway, which took us up along the shoreline. We stopped in the Long Beach area, in a small area called Naples and had lunch with a friend of Josh's. After lunch and my discovery of Buba Tea, (which I have not found out is more frequently called Bubble Tea here in Minneapolis) we took a nice walk around the area.

The bay here is called Alamitos Bay

I finally got to see lots of 'bird of paradise' plants. These are some of my favorites!!

Naples is a little island right in the middle of the bay. There were these really cool canals that ran around. Each house had their own little dock out front that housed their little boat (which probably took them to a bigger boat) We also saw a lot of people stand boarding... I think it's called long boarding. It's the new greatest thing, which we actually see a lot of around the lakes here in the Twin Cities.

After our afternoon walk, we headed back to Josh's. He wanted to go for a run at a local park area, so we got a blanket and went with him. We rested in the shade (the little bit that was there when we first arrived, it was soon all shaded) while he ran around Silver Lake Reservoir.

After his run, we made a quick stop at the house for Josh to shower and change. Then we headed out to Hollywood because Kyle and I were in search of a little California license plate with the baby's name on it. Like my name it's not the easiest to find, and we actually did see it at one souvenir store, but it was sold out... of course. So the search was on. We went to 2 or 3 shops before we finally found it again :-) Then after our hunt, Josh gave us a quick driving tour of his old apartments and law school on our way to have some Korean BBQ. When trying to figure out what to eat, Josh asked us if we had ever had Korean BBQ. Both, Kyle and I, had never even heard of this - so we were all for a new experience. Josh said we had to go if not for just the experience alone, but that it is really good food as well.

We sat down around a grill, with lots of toppings and sides all around. It is an all you can eat style place, so you pick if you want meat only or meat & seafood.

I think we ended up ordering 4 different kinds of meat. They bring us the tray of raw meat and we cook it.

It was REALLY good and the boys ate a LOT! I ate as much as I could before I felt like I was going to burst, but I just don't have the stomach room like I used to :-P

LA Trip {Day 3; August 27th} Newport Beach & Laguna Beach

Saturday morning we woke up and had a lovely breakfast, Stephanie fixed a yummy egg casserole and we got around to head to the beach for the afternoon.

The beach we went to was just a short walk from her house.


I enjoyed all the colorful foliage on the way!



It was a beautiful day for the beach!


It was quite the hike down to the ocean, so we stopped to get some photos


After laying out for a bit, we went to cool off in the ocean. Boy was it chilly! Compared to the gulf that I was in a few weeks before, this was like ICE water!! But my body adjusted to it fairly quickly and we enjoyed jumping in the waves. Here is Josh on the boogie board:


Here's Kyle & Josh playing in the waves:


We had a lot of fun playing in the waves




We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the beach before heading back up the hill to clean up at Stephanie's. My watch ended up stopping, although it's a triathlon watch and meant for water, I've been having some trouble with it lately. I had already returned another I had for 7 months when it suddenly stopped worked after getting wet, and this one only made it one round before quiting this day. So we went up north a little to Costa Mesa to Target so I could get a replacement watch for the time being before heading to Laguna Beach for dinner.

I found a watch, which is actually a funny story... I had asked for a watch for my birthday, I wanted a face watch that had the little 24 hours numbers on the inside: 13..14..15.. etc. Since I work evenings we use 24 hour time for charting and what not and I just wanted that feature on my watch for convenience. Well Kyle had looked and looked and couldn't really find something that we'd like. Then with recent events, we just put it behind us and forgot about it. Well looking for a watch at Target, we FOUND one! And I really like it! LOL it was pretty funny because Kyle was shocked it was at Target after he had surfed the web for hours searching for one :-P Also while at Target I realized my shin's had burnt from the sun that day, so I was able to pick up some aloe that I lathered on continuously all evening. Josh was doing some sandal & shirt shopping as well. As he had walked to the beach bare footed earlier that day. He wanted to find some cheapy flip flops he could just leave at Stephanie's. He wanted to check a local shoe shop to compare that was just next to Target, so we went over there with a pit stop to Starbucks as well. He ended up liking the Target shoes better so he convinces Stephanie to just drop him off real quick and he would take 2 minutes to run in, get the flip flops and come back out. Well when we went back to Target we pull up to see a cop car with his gun pulled on this red truck!


We drop Josh off at the door and pull an aisle over to a parking spot and watch what's going on. Stephanie explained to us that not much happens down in Orange County, so when there is something the police tend to overreact. They don't have the action that LA County police do. The weird thing was the kids in the car appeared cooperative the whole time, so I'm not sure why the police had their guns pulled. Shortly after we pulled up two more cars came to the other side, now there were two guys (pointed at each other - at the car) with guns pulled and the kids still sitting in the truck. We heard some mumble about cross-fire from the officers.


Then a THIRD cop goes to his trunk and pulls out this HUGE gun! It was quite entertaining and honestly a bit humours.


We also saw the Target Security guards walk out looking all high and mighty, just to be shooed away by the officers, haha. They finally told the guys to slowly get out of the truck and on the ground I think, then one officer went over to arrest them and the one with the big gun went to check the truck. We have no idea what they were pulled over for, I'm sure the Target guards want us to think "this is what you get for shoplifting" lol... who knows! By this time there was quite the crowd watching, and a man with his infant in arms being a little too curious and close to the action. (he's the one here in the orange shirt)


After this quick excitement, Josh made his way back to the car and we were on our way south to Laguna beach with an exciting story to tell :-P

We had reservations at 7:00 to eat at the White House, which was a little quaint restaurant along the Pacific Coast Hwy, just a block from the beach. This picture was from the car ride on our way to the little main street.


We had dinner and walked around the area right around sunset. We made a quick stop down by the beach so I could snap a few sunset photos.




While walking along the little shops, Kyle spotted Magic Johnson! It was a very exciting celebrating spotting for him, the first (and only) one we'd seen!!

After our walk, we headed to the car and made our way back to Stephanie's house, where we watched 'Open Water' haha a lovely movie to watch AFTER we'd been swimming in the ocean. It was about a couple being stranded in the middle of the ocean and dealing with sharks swimming around them. It actually was an okay movie, one of those hand held, low cost type movies.