Hollywood!

Once we fell in love with Arizona we spontaneously decided to go back to Vegas via Los Angeles. So we left Phoenix at 4am and headed for California. Its a 5 and a half ish hour drive and it was a beautiful drive. The pictures really don't do the area justice. This drive made me realize how much I have missed the mountains.

We decided that since we only had a few hours to explore California before we had to go back to Vegas to return the car, we limited our exploration to LA, specifically Hollywood. We had so much more we wanted to see and do but with only 4 hours or so we didn't even have time to explore all of Hollywood.

We started to just walk Hollywood Blvd. We saw quite a few of the stars on the walk of fame. It was so sunny the day we were there that it made getting pictures of the stars really difficult. Not to mention the tons of other tourists trying to do the same thing.

Thankfully these were on the shady side of the street :) We could have gone a few more blocks but we didn't have time :(

We also went to the Dolby Theater and explored. It has tons of stores and restaurants and multiple theaters. Its a very pretty place. You can also see the famous Hollywood sign from here.

 

We also got to see Mickey Mouse :)

Then we went to the TCL Chinese Theatre. It was fun to see the handprints and footprints that are outside the theatre. Again it was very sunny so it was hard to get the pictures but we loved it :)

Robert Downey Jr.

Donald Duck

Dick Van Dyke

Harry Potter trio :) Not gonna lie....this was why I wanted to go

So we spend some time driving around a bit after we finished up on the Blvd and we found some nice houses and we also had a nice view of the city.

I have to say Southern California (the part we saw) is beautiful! It is much greener than I expected and I loved that you have the beach and the mountains but the traffic was awful. I could never live in LA just because the traffic was terrible and the smog made things a little less pretty. That's why Mike and I need to go back so we can see other areas but I think we may have to settle for living close enough that we can visit California, enjoy it and then go home :)