It Never Rains in Southern California

It starts out foggy in the morning here in California. We slept in and then went across Ventura Blvd.

and had some "New York bagels" that weren't. Then we drove down through Topanga Canyon (Amy wants to get a job at Topanga Elementary)

and Tuna Canyon (didn't see any fish) down to the sea north of Santa Monica. The fog started to clear as we drove along the coast.

We went through Santa Monica and headed towards Hollywood since it was still cool and overcast. Hollywood and Vine Streets

are where the walk of Fame stars begin, so we parked near Capitol Records

and walked along the streets, finding lots of celebrities names.

We bought some souvenirs and checked out a Farmer's Market with beautiful sunflowers and local produce.

 Later we found Grauman's Chinese Theater

and checked out the hand and foot prints of Stars of Old.

It's a very colorful and "interesting" part of California.

Next we tried to get to the Griffith Observatory and it's view of the famous Hollywood sign, but apparently everyone in LA had the same idea. We sat in lines of traffic creeping through the grounds of Griffith Park for 45 minutes before giving it up. We expect to be in LA all day before getting on our plane home, so we'll plan to visit then, when it's not the Sunday after the 4th of July.

We did find a place we could see the sign from,

but I got snared by a cactus. The bleeding has finally stopped.


















We doubled back to Hollywood Heights and found a great deli with giant sandwiches. Next door was a Russian Bakery (Golden Land Wheat"?)

so we got some incredibly inexpensive and delicious pastries.

Our waiter recommended a hike up Runyon Canyon nearby, so we made our way up. It's hard to believe this rugged terrain has two subway tunnels running underneath it. The views from the top are spectacular, going about 270 degrees to take in all the little cities that comprise Los Angeles.

After that we headed for Beverly Hills, and saw some very elegant homes, beautiful streets (Rodeo Drive)  and pricey stores.

The houses are mostly all gated and face away from the street, but we got to see a few nice places.

Our last point of interest was Santa Monica, which was also extremely busy with folks ending their 4th of July holiday at the beach. We parked and made our way to the famous Santa Monica Pier. It was cool and breezy

but a few brave souls were in the water and thousands more were on the pier. Sam and Sarah tried a few games without success. We walked out to the end of the Pier and then felt the very cold (68 degrees!) water.

It has been a long day so we headed home and found Mulberry Street Pizza on the way. Not quite Little Italy, but very good pizza and spaghetti

were a nice ending to a busy and eventful day.