Vacay- Day 1

The kiddos and I tagged along on a business trip to LA with Stephen in mid-June!  He extended his work trip by a few days so we could all do some fun things as a family.  We left Saturday morning and got back Wednesday night.

Saturday morning, we woke up suuuuuper early- at 4:10 AM- to head to the airport.  It was funny, because there were still some youngsters hanging out by the pool at our apartment (from the evening before!) when we were pulling out at 4:45.  Oh, to be young again!  (Actually... nah, I'm good. ;)

We were cutting it a little close getting to our gate after grabbing CFA for breakfast at the airport, but thankfully we made it and had an uneventful flight.  We arrived at LAX, rented our car, and headed for Hollywood!

He got his wings!

We met one of Stephen's friends, Jay, at this place called the Magic Castle right in the middle of Hollywood.  Jay had taken Stephen there one time when Stephen was in LA on business, and he enjoyed it.  It's a place where magicians come in and do magic tricks, and there are several different rooms and different performances that go on.  Saturday mornings are "kid friendly" so Jay had told Stephen to bring us all there when we were in town (you have to be a guest of a "member" to even get in).  We enjoyed several different magic shows- the kids even got to participate in them!- and had a great time.  It was definitely something different from the norm.

There was a strict dress code and no pics were allowed inside, so this is all I got!

Afterwards, we hit up Hollywood Boulevard, since it was within walking distance of our valeted rental car.  I think I can sum it up to say that my kids have now seen Hollywood, and they are probably good to go without seeing it again for the rest of their lives! ;). If you haven't been there, Hollywood is full of tourists, characters (who want tips!), street vendors, more tourists, cheap shops, smokers, and more.  We saw some of the stars on the Walk of Fame, ventured to Hollywood and Highlands mall, saw the Hollywood sign from a distance, and happily ventured back to our car.  It was a Saturday afternoon, so that probably didn't help with all the people.

Oh, don't let them fool you... those super heroes wanted $5 for each fist bump.

See the Hollywood sign in the background?

We then made the trek to the hotel, which was in Orange County- about 45 minutes south of LA.  However, the traffic was randomly awful (or maybe it's always awful on Saturdays at 5 PM...) so it took us easily 1.5 hours.  We stopped for dinner, made it to the hotel, got settled and called it an early night!

Dinner.

Scoping out the hotel amenities.