Happy New Year!

For Brent's birthday we took a trip into Los Angeles mostly to ride the Metro. The original plan was to get on the train at North Hollywood and take it to Union Station, see Olvera Street, have lunch at Philippe's, browse Chinatown, ride the train to Pershing Square to ride Angel's Flight, then take the Metro to Universal City Walk to have dinner at Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood; oh, and see a movie. We were only stymied twice. Angel's Flight was out of commission and Hard Rock Cafe was having a private party. Only slight set backs.

We did leave from North Hollywood to take the train into Union Station, we briefly browsed Olvera Street and we did have lunch at Philippe's. We shopped Chinatown, Natalie and I bought some little souvenirs. From Chinatown we rode the train to Pershing Square to find out Angel's Flight was out of commission. We walked up the steps instead. We stopped at Starbucks for refreshments and then went on our way to see what we could see. We discovered Frank Gieri's Walt Disney Music Hall; touched the side of it. We furthered onto the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion where Kevin "directed" the fountain water up and down out of the patio while the rest of us watched. From there we walked to the next nearest Metro stop, Civic Center, and took the train to Universal City as planned.



Universal City was visited only after we stopped at Hollywood and Highland. The Hollywood everyone visits when they visit Los Angeles. There the first thing we saw was Jackie Chan's star. The next thing we saw were street performers dressed up as everything from gold shiny mimes, to Star Wars characters, to SpongeBob, Tigger and Disney's Little Mermaid. From there we walked the block or so to Gruamann's Chinese Theatre where we saw those famous hand and foot prints. The most impressive impressions we witnessed were those of Johnny Depp. I suppose because he's hot right now. The Hollywood sign was close by so we walked through and up the escalators of the new outdoor mall to get a glimpse. And that we did. What a clear day.



Universal City was our next stop. That is when we discovered the Hard Rock Cafe was closed for a private party. We had pizza instead. We were able to pick up some guitar picks for Brent as a souvenir from the Hard Rock Cafe. Even though the restaurant was closed the gift shop was still open. We then perused the many shops until it was movie time. We chose to see Night at the Museum on the IMAX screen. What a good movie. I'm a new Ben Stiller fan. It was a very fun ending to a very fun day.

Home again. Home again.



I'm a Jackie Chan fan.