Monday -Seal Beach and Hollywood

Monday morning Kristen, Merilee, and I awoke knowing we wanted to fit a lot in during our last day together. I was really not looking forward to letting them go home again!

We started out by going to what is now my favorite beach in the area, Seal Beach. I've decided that I like Laguna Beach best for it's beauty, Santa Monica and Huntington beach are tied for the southern California-atmosphere-people watching-summer fun feelings they produce, but Seal Beach is the best for just heading to the beach to play in the waves or lay out with a good book and an iPod. It was less crowded (so shhh.... don't tell anyone about it so it stays that way!), had great sand, good waves, and a great walking distance between the pier and this huge rock formation. And the best part, it's only four miles down the road from me! Who knew?? Seal Beach is also a fun little town, that makes you feel like you're far away from busy Los Angeles, and actually in some quaint beachy town that only the locals know about. So, you know where I'll be spending a lot of mornings/early afternoons, even possible to fit in if I work at night!

(it did end up being a little more crowded than these pictures show, but really not too bad!)
We came back from the beach, made a quick lunch, then enjoyed a great bowl of ice cream! I had been saving up my strawberry-rhubarb sauce for when Kristen and Merilee came, so we had that for dessert. We had been enjoying a little ice cream at some point each day, so we knew we couldn't skip it on Monday!

Can you tell how yummy it was? I'm so glad I have a little bit left, and am thinking I'll need to make a few more batches sometime soon!
Here you see three women who have had a wonderful, busy, hot, relaxing and super fun time together!
I was so glad to get to know Merilee and am looking forward to staying in touch!
I really love my cousin, Kristen, and am so thankful that we've been able to form a fun friendship! I'm so glad she was able to come visit, and I can't wait for our next adventure together... we'll have to start planning that!
We left my apartment to check out Hollywood before heading to the airport. We got to Hollywood Blvd and found tons of people, no parking available, and lots of tourists with cameras! I swiped this photo from Kristen's Facebook page. She was able to snap a shot of the Kodak Theatre from the car (home to the Oscars and many other Hollywood events).
A little farther down the road we turned left and went two blocks to Sunset Blvd. At the corner of Sunset Blvd and Rodeo Drive, you find the famous Beverly Hills Hotel. It's been called the "number one hotel in America" and has counted numerous famous people as its guests. We started walking towards it to take some pictures, then felt a little like we were trespassing so only got as far as the main drive. It sure would be fun to stay here sometime! If only it didn't cost hundreds of dollars a night...



We had parked my car along the residential section of Rodeo Drive (close to where Gene Kelly used to live) and found lovely homes with great architecture and manicured lawns. I love that there are so many rose gardens all over California!
A few blocks south of there, we arrived at the famous section of Rodeo Drive, all the shops! These are elegant stores that don't even put price tags on things (if you have to look, you can't afford it...) and I think all of America assumes that all the stars shop here. We didn't see anyone famous (that we could tell -maybe they were incognito...) but we saw a few rich-looking people and lots of tourists. We just pretended we belonged and then gave up and snapped pictures!

That's Versace behind me. I was thinking of my fashion-loving friends with stores like these!
At the south end of the shopping area is the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, made famous by the movie "Pretty Woman".
These doormen were kind enough to pose for me!
We ended our time together by grabbing a quick dinner at the north end of Rodeo Drive, at this great pizza place. It was delicious brick-oven pizza! We felt a little like we were at some European cafe, sitting outside around this little table.
After dinner, I dropped Kristen and Merilee off at LAX to catch their flight home. It was hard to see them leave! I feel so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life!

I left the airport and called Aimee and drove to Seal Beach to watch the sunset. It was a great way to end a great weekend!


Thanks, ladies, for letting me join in on your Southern California fun, and for helping me feel like I was on vacation as well!! Miss you!