estarbucks and estars

The first thing we wanted to do was get the tourist stuff out of the way. We went to Grauman’s Chinese Theater first to see the celebrity hand and foot prints. We were on the lookout for Marilyn Monroe, who we couldn’t find for a while until we realized we couldn’t see hers because it was always blocked by a crowd of people. You could tell hers was the most visited because her hand prints were darkened in from all of the hands that have touched it.

We were also looking for Frank Sinatra (obviously), and his was a little hard to find too because it was so old. His hands were almost as small as mine! We also found the Harry Potter cast, Star Wars and Shirley Temple.

Then we went for a walk along the walk of fame on Hollywood Blvd. We were surprised at how many names we didn’t recognize but also at how many people we didn’t think should have had a star.

It was pretty cool that Elvis & The Beatles had their own section in the Walk of Fame.

By the time we finished the long walk we were pretty hungry so we went to another place on our triple D list,  in honor of mother’s day: Mama’s Tamales ;). We couldn’t believe how cheap everything was. Tamales were only $1.50! We decided to try one of each. Each one was better than the last. They were out of the pineapple and we were upset we didn’t get to try it.

We left Mama’s very full and satisfied, then we decided to do the next logical thing: Go see the Playboy Mansion. All you can really see is a gate (and if you’re lucky a peacock) so we left right away. 

Next, we went to see Rodeo Drive where we saw our first (and only) celebrities! We saw the Jonas brothers and actually Larry was the one that spotted them! We weren’t sure which ones we saw (clearly, we’re huge fans), so we looked it up and turns out it was Nick and Kevin.

Next we stopped at "the witch's house." It's a house that used to be used in movies but then was moved to a Beverly Hills neighborhood. It's so creepy and cool looking, we couldn't believe people actually live in it!

Next, we went to Griffith Park to see the Observatory. The park overlooks all of Los Angeles and the Hollywood hills. It was a really cool park and the view was amazing. The observatory was full of information about the birth of the universe and had a lot of meteorites from outer space. We went outside the observatory to see the big telescope and saw the city from even higher up. We spent the rest of the afternoon until it got dark finding caches.

After many unsuccessful attempts at ordering good Chinese and Thai food throughout the trip, we had high hopes for LA thanks to one of our favorite shows, The Big Bang Theory. And The Palms Thai restaurant finally delivered! For $7 an entre, we got the best Thai food we’ve ever had! The restaurant has an Asian Elvis impersonator that sings next to a bronze statue of Elvis in platforms. It was really weird, but he was actually pretty good! 

Zig-Zaggin Around

We arrived in Santa Cruz late afternoon as the sun was setting. We found a hotel right by the water and the boardwalk. We were so hungry and after doing a quick Google search, it was between a local brewery and a place called Aldo’s from our Diners, Drive-ins and Dives list. After re-watching the triple D video for Aldo’s, which serves fresh seafood right on the water, we were really excited to try it. When we got there, we used the last of our quarters on the meter and walked over to the restaurant only to find out that it was closed! 

We ended up at our second choice, the Seabright Brewery and couldn’t have been happier. Aside from a really loud band that was playing and the crazy townspeople dancing it was a great place. We split a turkey burger with gorgonzola and their “Ring of Fire” burger that was on a jalapeno bun and topped with jalapeno slices, both were delicious as were the french fries and chips and salsa that came on the side. Of course, being a brewery they had a wide variety of their own beer and we sampled them all, our favorite being the Seabright Amber. We couldn’t stop talking about how good it was the whole way home.

The next morning, we woke up ready to see the Santa Cruz boardwalk. First, we packed up our things and headed into town to do our laundry. I was wearing a long black dress and everyone in town kept looking at me like I was Elvira (dream come true?). Then we went for a walk on the boardwalk which was really crowded (do this many people not work?? :). To get there from where we parked we had to walk over a bridge lined with train tracks. Larry kept making fun of me because I kept turning around to see if a train was coming. 

The boardwalk was really cute. It had a lot of rides and a really nice beach. 

Larry kept taking pictures at the pretend shooting range and every time would set off every single one of the targets.

We’ve been looking for a photo booth the entire trip and we finally found one at the boardwalk. We took our picture but then had to leave for our long drive to LA. 

We also figured out that Santa Cruz has been hiding all of our beloved VW vans (Larry calls them Zig Zags). We must have seen over 20!

We planned on taking Route 1 all the way down the coast but when we were white water rafting, the guy that kept falling off the raft told us he just drove down that way and there were road closures due to landslides. We decided we’d try anyway and take the detour if it came up. Unfortunately, there was a sign saying there was a road closure up ahead but we decided to go as far as we could. I joked to Larry, “wouldn’t it be funny if we got to the barricade and we just had to turn around?” On our way, we saw a sign for one of the Missions so we took a detour through the town of Carmel by the Sea. 

There are 21 missions all throughout California. They were the first settlers outside of the Native Americans and brought Christianity as well as other types of foods, plants, etc. to California.  They are also the reason why many California city names start with San and Santa. (we're educational, too!)

It was such a nice beach town with a lot of local shops and bed and breakfasts and almost every building was covered in rose bushes and other flowers.

The drive through Route 1 was no less than spectacular. Driving down along the edge of huge mountains covered in greens, looking out to the bluest water we’ve seen yet and watching the waves crash down on the light colored sand was like nothing we’ve ever seen. Luckily there were a lot of stops along the way to take some pictures and take it all in.

It took us about an hour and a half to get down to where the road was blocked. We look to one side... the beautiful ocean. To the other side a nice little gas station and café. Our jaws dropped when we realized we had just driven down a one way highway to basically nowhere. We then turned around… “Surely there must have been a sign we missed…” we were thinking. “There’s no way they would let us drive all the way down only to turn around.” “Remember that gas station we saw?? Maybe that was the turn me missed!” Nope. We had to drive all the way back up Route 1 (which if you ever have to do that, is the absolute best case scenario) and 7 hours later, we just arrived in LA!