We had a nice day today relaxing, and visiting some downtown LA attractions.
Our New Year’s Eve was chill but fun, and it was a great way to start the new year.
I was up around 8 and went for a nice run. I ran almost 6 miles, just took Lynn Rd, then came back and went towards Tarantula Hill. That is a cool place, quite a steep uphill for half a mile, but with great views of Thousand Oaks. Very cool to watch the city, the mountains, the horizon from there. The weather was awesome for a run, sunny and just warm enough.
When I got back, Carol and Bia up. Carol was helping with breakfast, so I showered quick. When I was getting ready Bella woke up. She slept a lot, which is good as she’ll not be tired later.
We had a great breakfast. I usually don’t eat much in the morning, but this was more like a brunch, so I ate good. Bread, ham, cheese, quiche, egg, fruit, coffee cake, coffee.. yum!
Carol decided we’d stay another night, so we adapted our plans for what to do for the day. It was early afternoon when we were ready to do anything, so we just chose to do a couple of things downtown LA, which is usually pretty packed and we were hoping it would not be too bad today. So we left, and left our stuff behind 🙂
We went to Griffith Park to get a closer view of the Hollywood sign. That park is huge. I told Carol I think this is their Central Park :). And we talked about how we’ve visited the main parks in some big towns already. Driving up is pretty cool. It was busy and we thought we’d have a hard time parking, but when we got to the top by the observatory, we had to go around one more time and on the second time we found a spot. The views from the city, beach and horizon from there are amazing! This is a must see place if you’re in LA, definitely makes you appreciate the beauty of LA more. You can hike and get closer to the Hollywood sign, but we didn’t. It was $15 for parking for an hour. We walked around the Observatory and enjoyed the views. Again, it is very pretty up there and the views are amazing. We tried to get some good pictures of us by the sign, but I think without a more professional camera, the sign just looks far :). The girls, and a little bit Carol, were not feeling very adventurous today, so after walking around a bit we just went back to the truck and continued on.
Next we went to Hollywood Boulevard, to check out the Hollywood Walk of Fame and show the girls the TCL Chinese Theater, which is where they have the Oscars. The girls were excited. As we drove by and I pointed out the places, their meanings, the stars on the street, etc I asked them if they wanted me to park so we could walk around, and Bella was assertive that she wanted to go check out closer. We parked and walked around, went to the Chinese Theater, walked up the steps from the Oscars… they were super excited to be in Hollywood.
Bella said to Bia “I still can’t believe we are here, it’s like I didn’t wake up yet”, then Bia goes “I know, me too, I pinched myself already three times to make sure this was real” hahahahaha… go figure. They get excited for the funniest things. We walked to the third floor and took pics by a view of the Hollywood sign, where Carol and I had taken pics like 14 years ago or so, when she came visit with my sister. The girls enjoyed walking around and trying to read the names of the stars on the sidewalk. They were very curious about all the artists and such… We had talked about being careful with people on the street, and characters wanting to take pictures with them, people getting too close, so they were. Bella was happy a Spider Man waved at her, so she waved back. Hahahah…
We were hungry and it was 4pm, so we found an In and Out Burger nearby… like a 4 minute walk, so went there, and they were not too full. We did it! We put our orders in, Bella was with me the hole time, followed along the order, checkout how much it cost, and was listening for our number over the speakers very attentively. Bella was super excited we finally got burgers from there. We got the burgers and walked back to the truck, and ate there before we continued. The burger is actually pretty good, and cheap. It’s a really good burger, but not something I’d wait in line for like 30 minutes as we’ve seen out there. We waited maybe a bit more than 5 mins today after we ordered. Everyone liked theirs, and the girls liked their milkshakes too. Carol had a grilled cheese, which she said was pretty good, but basically a cheeseburger without the burger.
It was dark by then, so we drove through Sunset Boulevard towards Beverly Hills, and we just saw famous areas, Beverly Hills signs, BelAir… etc. The girls were not into much at that point and were just playing games and joking around, so we just drove all the way back. Easy drive back too. We have been using highway 101 a lot, and it seems that this is the one we’ll use much more. Lots of cars still, but no problems with traffic flow.
After we got back, we sat and talked for a while. I was tired, so I went down to get some highlights from the last two days down, and then just went to bed around 9:30-10. Carol stayed up longer talking to Alex and Adam, and the girls were with her. I’m not sure what time they came to bed.
It was a great first day of 2021.