From our hotel window in Anaheim.
Okay, today's plans are Hollywood, Beverly Hills (though probably just a drive-by), the ocean, pizza-making, and then trick-or-treating ... WHEW! Off we go then!
We had a MARVELOUS breakfast in the Sunspot restaurant of our hotel, the Anaheim Marriott Suites. It was a buffet with an omelette station and I had a wonderful spinach and goat cheese omelette - so good!
We broke our fast, showered, packed up lunches and beach gear, and headed out!
First stop, Hollywood!
Not a great pic, I know - but it does show the Hollywood sign in the background.
We parked on Hollywood Blvd, the location of the Walk of Fame. We saw many cool stars, most of which the boys didn't know - this seemed to frustrate Aidan, like we were purposely spending time showing him people he had never heard of! Like Jimi Hendrix - say it isn't so! You DON'T KNOW WHO THAT IS?!?!?! Sigh.
Some of the stars I grabbed were:
He was a HUGE part of my childhood - Indy and Han, love them both!
The visionary behind the reason we are in LA.
Whoop, whoop! Going there tomorrow!!!
We eventually passed the Mann's Chinese Theatre, now the TCL Chinese Theatre - the site of many Hollywood movie events. There was one there today! Wow! Celebs!
We witnessed, albeit briefly since there were police doing the obligatory "move along, nothing to see here" - ha (!), the "hand and foot ceremony" for The Hunger Games, Mockingjay, Part II movie. This is where the stars imprint their hands and feet into concrete slabs in front of the theatre - - a longtime tradition of the venue.
Here are some of my pics I grabbed while walking by as slowly as possible, and stopping briefly until too harassed by the police.
Jennifer Lawrence, aka Katniss, is the bright blond in the center background. While it appears that Conan O'Brien, perhaps acting as MC, is the tall man to the left of the lighting fixture.
Not a great shot, but you can see the actor who plays Peeta, Josh Hutchinson, pretty well - he's the short man slightly to the left of center.
A zoomed-in shot where you can see Jennifer Lawrence's face well, and to her right is Liam Helmsworth, who plays Gale in the movie - one of her love interests.
This is from Access Hollywood's coverage of the "hand and foot ceremony" event. I thought you'd like to see it in case you want to match outfits/looks to my pics ... it's really them! Cool!! :D
We made a pit stop at Madame Toussad's to snap some pics of the outdoor sculptures before we headed out of Hollywood.
Two glamorous gals! ;p
Kurt getting fresh with Ms. Monroe!
Aargh! The boys are hanging out with an ogre!
And now it's off to the ocean ... via Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive, of which I got no pics, but my GOODNESS was it beautiful! We went down one residential road after finishing with Rodeo Dr and it was just GORGEOUS, with so many trees and plants and lovely, BIG, houses!
Being offered a choice of Orange County beaches, as we wanted to be closer to the hotel then LA proper, Roman really wanted to go to "the wavy one" ... aka Surf City USA, aka Huntington Beach. Aidan agreed.
The Pacific!
Huntington Beach Pier, an active fishing pier.
The boys in the surf. Aidan comfy, and Roman thrilled!
Both boys playing in the surf now. Roman didn't leave the water ONCE after we arrived, until we told him it was time to leave.
Huntington Beach, looking south from the pier.
After playing in the surf for a while we went down to the pier. And, it was playing, NOT swimming by a long shot - it was wave jumping and dodging and being thrown off our feet by the force of the waves and getting sand in places that should NOT have sand!! But, it was tremendously exhilarating and fun!
:D
This guy was hanging out ON the pier! Eating fish morsels in one of the several fisherman's sinks on the pier. Cool!
Roman and the pelican on the pier.
Sunshine on the Pacific, looking west.
Still on the pier, looking north towards LA - you can see the buildings of downtown.
Well, it was now time to head back to the hotel for the boys' chef event!
One of the cool things I lined up for the trip, and there were a few to be sure (!), was a pizza-making event with our hotel's executive chef. Chef Hany Ali, at the Anaheim Marriott Suites' Sunspot restaurant, allows kids to come into his kitchen and make homemade pizza, from scratch. He is a WONDERFUL man! He was ridiculously flexible as our, and then his, schedules changes before we even arrived in LA. He was dedicated to working with our kids, and wished he could've worked with cousin Julia's too, but that didn't pan out. I was so THRILLED to be able to book this event for our budding chef, Aidan!
Both boys said they had a GREAT time with Chef Hany, and Chef indicated that both boys were well behaved, polite and did a fantastic job. And, their final products were MOST tasty! Thank you Chef Hany! If anyone is going to Disneyland and staying at Anaheim Marriott Suites, which I would most certainly recommend, then please DO check this cool perk out! I found out about it on Trip Advisor and will post a review there soon.
Here are some of the pics:
The boys and Chef Hany Ali . They got to keep the hats and aprons!
Up goes the dough!
Down comes the dough, in their hands no less! Apparently I missed the time that it landed on Aidan's face - hence the flour on his face. :D
Chef Hany giving pointers to our budding chef. :) Really liked this man!
Up goes the dough again!
Pizzas are topped and ready for baking!
Final touches with Chef looking on.
The Boreri's and Chef Hany - thank you Chef!!!! :D
My meal that night - Chef Hany instructed his line cook, Linda, to make me a Tofu Parmesan ... it was MAGNIFICENT!!! Served with herb risotto too. Kurt had the salmon, per Chef's recommendation, and said it was fresh and fantastic too!
After that, the boys changed into their costumes and we went out trick-or-treating ... it was Halloween after all!
Kurt looking p-r-e-t-t-y scared with these two freaks! ;p
Disney's California Adventure's Tower of Terror ride ... which we saw on our way out to trick-or-treat, fitting, I thought, for the spooky mood. :D
That was it for out night! The boys got candy from their commercial trick-or-treating, something they had never done before - having only down residential houses in the past. But, candy is candy!
It was a late night, not to bed until after 10 pm - and Disney was the next day!! Excited!!
We loved our day exploring a little bit of LA, and were quite ready to rest.
Here is a link to all the pics of the day, though many are posted here:
Thanks for reading!
:D
