Los Angeles, CA

We knew we had officially arrived in LA when we turned on the local radio station to hear the classic California sounds of Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg. Before we even checked into our hotel, we headed over to stage 10 at Sony Picture Studios to sit in on two tapings of the television show, Jeopardy. As part of the studio audience (we sat in the front row!), we saw the set and the behind the scenes filming of the show, and met the announcer, Johnny Gilbert, and of course, Alex Trebek. After Jeopardy, we ate dinner at Bob's Big Boy, home of the original double decker hamburger (the “Big Boy”), the inspiration for McDonald's “Big Mac”.


Sony Picture Studios


The outside of Bob's Big Boy


The big boy combo

The next day we headed Hollywood Boulevard to see Grauman's Chinese Theater, the Kodak Theater (home of the Oscars), and the hand and footprints of the stars. While waiting to cross the street, we noticed a black Porsche Panamera with black rims parked on the street right next to us. To our surprise, Frankie J, from the MTV series "The Hills", was the driver. We were very excited about our first LA celebrity sighting. Only a few blocks from Hollywood Boulevard was our next stop, Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles. From the outside, Roscoe's was rather non-descript, the type of place you might pass if you weren't looking for it. The inside of Roscoe's reminded us of a tavern with wood paneling and low lighting, but the food was as good as we expected. Another restaraunt that lived up to its reputation and was worth the 20 minute wait was Sprinkles, a little cupcake shop in Beverly Hills that we stopped at before heading back to our hotel.


Grauman's Chinese Theater


The Kodak Theater


Michael Jackson's star


Lorenzo trying out Will Smith's handprints


Frankie J and his Porsche


Chicken and waffles from Roscoe's - yum!


Kim inside Roscoe's waiting to eat.


A delicious assortment of cupcakes from Sprinkles.

We began our third day in LA with a visit to downtown and the Staples Center. Unfortunately the Lakers didn't have any home games while we were there. For lunch we headed over to the Farmer's Market which had a large variety of foods and interesting shops. After seeing Pinkberry frozen yogurt restaraunts all over LA, we finally tried Pinkberry at the Farmer's Market but we were not impressed. A short drive down Wilshire Boulevard brought us to the La Brea tar pit, featured in the movie The Last Action Hero with Arnold Schwarzenegger. From a distance the tar pit looks like a small lake, but up close you can see the sticky, black, bubbling tar. Adjacent to the tar pits, we stumbled upon Urban Light, an art exhibit of street lights that come at dusk. Our last stop for the day was Philippe's, the home of the original French dip sandwich.


Lorenzo posing with a statue of Magic Johnson outside of the Staples Center.


Kim tasting Pinkberry frozen yogurt. It tastes like cold plain yogurt.


La Brea tar pit


Urban Light exhibit.


An original French dip sandwich from Philippe's.