CA Vacay Day 1: Los Angeles

For an overview of our entire trip, click here.
For details on each day of our trip, click Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7

The week before vacation, I was in Ohio for work.  Drew picked me up from the airport Friday afternoon, and we drove home to meet Mom so the puppies could have their own vacation at my parents'.  I switched my work clothes for vacation clothes, and we headed to Nashville.

Saturday morning, my uncle drove us to the airport.  He let us leave our car at his house for the week and didn't charge $90 for parking like the airport.  :)

After an unimpressive experience with Southwest, we landed in LAX around lunch.  We picked up the rental car and drove over to La Brea Tar Pits.

The La Brea Tar Pits is one of the most famous fossil locations.  For tens of thousands of years, natural asphalt has seeped up from the ground in this urban Los Angeles area.  When animals came in contact with the sticky substance, they became trapped like flies in honey.  People have been excavating the site since 1906 and have found more than one million bones.  231 species of vertebrate, 159 species of plants, and 234 species of invertebrates have been identified from the pits.
 

Walking into the park

The lake at the entrance shows how animals got trapped.

Can you see the tar on the surface?

They have a sample observation pit set up

Inside Pit 91

Inside Pit 91

 

The Page Museum accompanies the Tar Pits and displays  several of the fossils found.  This is also home to the current excavation projects.  You can watch volunteers work to uncover even more fossils.  Currently, they're working on Project 23.  When completed, it could double the 3 million items the museum already owns.  Dire wolves, saber tooth cats, and coyotes are some of the most common animals recovered from the pits, but Columbian Mammoths and ground sloths have also been found.

Fossils are on display throughout the entire museum

Drew beside a Columbian Mammoth

In addition to fossils, there are models of many of the animals they found.

The most common animal found is a dire wolf

This is an entire wall of dire wolf skulls.

You can observe volunteers working in the lab.  Right now they're working on Zed, the largest mammoth ever uncovered at the pits.

Their storage room is also on display.

 

After the Tar Pits, we headed to Hollywood!  How can you not go to Los Angeles and not go to Hollywood, right?

Honestly, I wasn't super impressed.  It was very cool to see the hand and foot prints in front of the Chinese theater, but it was a quick stop for me.  Drew enjoyed it much more than I did.  It reminded me of a mini-Times Square.  We spent the rest of the day here, taking pictures and eating dinner.  

 

El Capitan Theater

Grauman's/Mann's/TLC Chinese Theater

Drew with Will Smith

One of the authentic Ming Dynasty Heaven Dogs guarding the doors

Leo the MGM Lion even has his footprints here

Drew with Arnold Schwarzenegger

Clint Eastwood - I love what he wrote

Drew with Clint Eastwood

And of course, Drew with some of the Star Wars characters

Walk of Fame

Me with Walt Disney

A shot of the Chinese Theater from across the street

Hollywood & Highland had a pretty good view of the Hollywood sign.  I took these with my super-zoom lens.

A shot of the Hollywood & Highland shopping center

Hint:  There is shopping center in the area called Hollywood and Highland.  It has lots of restaurants, stores, and a good view of the Hollywood sign.  (My favorite views were at the Griffith Observatory though!)  You can park at Hollywood and Highland and get your parking pass validated for a cheaper rate.  Some of the stores and restaurants will validate this for you.  Sometimes you have to go to the visitors center on the ground level.  When we took ours to the visitors center, they didn't even check our receipt.

Our first day was very successful, and we had a great time!

CA Vacation - Overview

This is an overview of our trip.
For details on each day of our trip, click Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7

Drew and I just got back from our first trip to California!  We spent 10 days on the West Coast and fell in love with the area.  We flew into Los Angeles, rented a car, and drove along Highway 1 to San Francisco.  Then we drove back south to Disneyland.

Since it was a lengthy trip, this first post if just going to be an overview of the things we did.  Then I'll link to other blog posts that go more in depth.

Los Angeles Portion
Saturday, June 28
Flew from Nashville to Los Angeles, arriving around lunch.
Grabbed lunch and headed to La Brea Tar Pits

Drove to Hollywood to see the Walk of Fame, Chinese Theater, and the Hollywood sign.

Sunday, June 29
We took a tour of Warner Bros. Studios, where we got to tour Batman and Harry Potter props and see the Friends set!

Stopped by Guitar Center's Rock Walk on Sunset Boulevard

Went back to Hollywood to tour Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum

Drove by Kat Von D's tattoo shop

And found Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory

Took a drive down Rodeo Drive

Then finished the day at Griffith Observatory, which had amazing views of the City and the Hollywood sign

Monday, June 30
We started our day at the Santa Monica Pier

Then rented bikes and rode down the Venice Beach

We still had some time left, so we drove over to Universal Studios (and got soaked on the Jurassic Park ride)

We ended our day with a drive to Morro Bay to spend the night

Coastal Portion
AKA the most beautiful place ever!

Tuesday, July 1
Grabbed breakfast at a local place overlooking Morro Rock.  Afterwards, we drove over to get a better look.

Then began our drive up Highway 1

Stopped at Moonstone Beach

Took a tour of Hearst Castle

Along the way we saw elephant seals

McWay Falls

Pfeiffer Beach

Bixby Bridge

This is probably my favorite picture of us from the trip!

Finishing our night by arriving in San Francisco

San Francisco Portion
Wednesday, July 2
Making a check on Drew's bucket list, we visited Alcatraz Island

Then Pier 39

Lombard Street

Rode the famous cable cars

And grabbed a snack at Ghirardelli Square

Thursday, July 3
We got up early to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge

To Muir Woods to see some Redwoods

We tried to catch a glimpse of the Painted Ladies, but failed since they were covered in scaffolding :(

Headed back to Pier 39 for some shopping

Ended the night at the Exploratorium (where we saw this awesome structure made out of toothpicks!!)

Friday, July 4
For this to be such a momentous holiday, our day wasn't that exciting.  We mostly spent the day driving back down to Disneyland

We stopped by the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Can you see the fish in this photo?

 

Grabbed In-n-Out Burger



It's true.  They really are the best fast food hamburgers ever!  (Even though Drew hated his.  Poor guy.)

And watched fireworks from our car as we pulled into Anaheim

Disneyland

Saturday, July 5 & Sunday, July 6

Both days were spent at Disneyland.  I was so tired of lugging my camera around, that we didn't get many pictures.  And while this was a first trip to Disneyland for both of us, we've done "Disney" before.  We also realized we've unknowingly developed a tradition of visiting a Disney park every year since we've been married.

My iPhone just doesn't seem to have the same quality as my camera.  ha!

Let's Go Home
Monday, July 7
Since Friday was a holiday, we could both take an extra day of vacation.  We flew back to Nashville Monday morning, with a very short layover in San Antonio.  We met Mom and Dad in Corinth on the drive to Tupelo to get the pups.  Dexter fell asleep as soon as we got in the car.  (He's too busy playing to sleep when he's with my parents.)  Daphne has finally stopped freaking out every time one of us leaves the room.  This was her first time away from home, and I think she thought we abandoned her.  Bless her heart.