Hollywood and Sam's Town

Woo! What a whirlwind this has been!! Woke up in Arcadia (by Pasadena, outside of L.A.) and we went to a cute little place for breakfast called Plate 38.

Rikayla and her good childhood friend Keri.

My parfait. SO good, and huge!!

My breakfast! I thought the newspaper looking parchment paper was pretty neat. Again, tasted really good.

Now THAT is an egg muffin.

After breakfast, we headed into the city. We drove past the Staples Center which coincidentally was right near a Staples.

There are some really neat buildings and trees to see around town.

Keri attends the University of Southern California- also known as USC, and so we went and walked around campus a bit.

Right across the street is the HUGE colosseum stadium that was built for the 1984 Olympics.

Then, it was onto Hollywood! Someday I will have to come back and check out more stuff, but it was really neat going down the Walk of Fame to Grauman's Chinese Theater. I saw a LOT of names I didn't recognize but snapped a few photos of the ones I did.

 (Gotta get some Seattle props where ever I can!)

 I had a Star Trek theme going.

 Bad picture of me, but I'm "Live Long and Prosper"ing at George Takei's star.

 There were a few obscure stars on the Walk...... such as.......

 I held hands with Hugh Jackman!!!!! (His hands are actually about the same size as mine. Awesome. I have man hands....)

 I LOVE Michael Caine.

 Good ol' Frank.

 Marilyn.

 Jimmy!!

 I'm glad he didn't finish his quote.

 Yes. Yes. Yes.

 "Johnny Depp" was walking around in a few different costumes...

 I LOVE Tim Allen! Probably one of my favorite actors ever.

After the walk, it was time to rush back to the car to beat the meter, and head out of town. It took some time getting through traffic back to where we were but we made it!! Thank goodness. I don't know if it was actually seeing THE SUN for the first time in months, and an abundance at that, or if it was the fabulous L.A. smog, but I had a serious migraine. I had to keep my head still in the car and keep my eyes closed cause I wanted to throw up. Luckily when we got back to the apartment I had some water and it cleared up really quickly.

We said our good byes, packed up the car, and drove on out to Vegas! It's only a 4 hour drive, so we got a late start around 5pm. We got to Henderson around 945 and stayed with my old roommate Joy. She is so nice, she's let me stay there twice! I stayed with her in April earlier this year when I had come to visit Vegas. We chatted a bit about boys... haha and then went to bed.

We didn't end up doing much the next day but we DID go to a casino for breakfast.

 That would be deep fried strawberry shortcake french toast..... yes, it tastes just as indulgent as it sounds.

 Rikayla didn't like the fact I was taking her picture while eating. haha

Me, Joy, Rikayla, and her friend Kim who we met up with who also lives in Vegas, but instead of Henderson, she lives up by the temple.

Speaking of...

 Giant Pineapples!!! I mean... squat Palm Trees...? I think they're funny looking, like Corgi's. haha

 Rikayla is knocking to see if she can go in. haha jk, she's just a poser.

 Jesus being born in paradise...

There is Moroni!

Anyhow, after we'd left the temple, we went back and packed up. It was time to go. I said bye to Joy and we head out. However, about 20 minutes later, you come to the Hoover Dam and of course we had to stop. But alas, it was a Saturday morning and SUPER busy. It literally took an hour just to drive in and drive out because of all the traffic. I dropped Rikayla off, she snapped pictures, I looped back around and picked her up. It would have been nice to see more but I'd seen it back in April and we were running out of time!

Well, dam, that was the end of Nevada. ;)

We pushed forward ontoward New Mexico. Arizona was nice, except after having driven across literally the entire state, my bladder is upset there was only ONE rest area the entire time. But we do appreciate the 75MPH speed limits.

We arrived in Albuquerque, crossed over the Rio Grande, and made it to our swanky Hilton Garden Inn hotel around 1130pm. It was very welcoming and we were quite tired. And this my friends, is where I leave you to go to sleep. PEACE OUT!