The Big Day

Los Angeles, CA

The City of Angels

The big day has finally arrived!! We are, as I write, sitting in the hotel room in Santa Monica. My three traveling companions are having a little snooze....believe me, we need it! We started our day around 3:30 this morning-- it's now almost 7:00 for those of you in Indiana. Unfortunately for us, it's only 4:00 here....so we have a bit of a day ahead of us yet.

The plane ride was fairly uneventful, unless you count Johnny's suspender popping antics...poor guy. But after two failed attempts, we did figure out how to put up his armrest without popping the suspenders.

After landing in LA, we got the rental car and started sightseeing. We hit one of the main highlights first thing. Indeed, it was Randy's Donuts. And let me assure you, they were TASTY. Below are a couple of pics to back up our story...

It's a California classic tourist site- I saw at least two other people with cameras.

Sarah took on the tough task of having a donut for Jim. By the way, Jim-- it was delicious!!

After that, we stopped at the Farmer's Market, and were greatly surprised at how much it had changed. It used to be just that- a market with a few eateries and small shops. Now, it has been expanded into a mega-mall. There are still elements of the old Farmer's Market there, but I think we were all a little wistful for what it used to be.

Fire up the air conditioning, folks. It is HOT here, so the rest of the day (to this point) was spent riding around in the air-conditioned wonder of our rental car. We did a lot of from-the-car sightseeing...we drove through Hollywood, along Mulholland Drive, and came out of the mountains into Beverly Hills.

After a few driving faux pas (who knew that the Beverly Hilton had 3 entrance drives? By the way, for those of you who need to know-- it is possible to use all three as an exit....)

Beverly Hills is renowned for two major things....huge movie star houses and Rodeo Drive. We saw a both today. We aren't sure who lives in the houses, since no one puts their names on the mailboxes, but for sure, some house we saw today is owned by an actor! We also had a celebrity sighting! Too bad I had to use the internet to find out for sure who it was-- it was a hip-hop artist named Brisco. He had quite an entourage with him-- several security types and possibly more rap stars. It's a sign that I am out of the hip-hop loop-- I don't know who they were.

We have dinner plans for the evening at Musso & Frank's. It's an old-time Hollywood Hangout (think Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles), but was also in the movie Ocean's 11. For you movie trivia buffs out there, it's the scene in the beginning where Brad Pitt and George Clooney are first discussing the heist. After dinner, we'll head off to cover parts of Hollywood after dark, including a shopping center and an after-dinner beverage at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

Look for more tomorrow, friends. Love to all our friends and family. See you again on this page real soon!