Tourist-tastic Day

Never have I felt like such a tourist...and loved it! FINALLY someone is willing to look foolish and take pictures at the most popular tourist spots in LA with me. Today was the tourist's dream. We woke up early and drove to Rodeo Drive. We walked up and down admiring the amazing, beautiful things that we can't afford, all the while scoffing at the ridiculous rich people who can. Namely the tennis club teenage girls who seemed to be stalking/taunting us every store we went. At the end we stumbled upon Crumbs which is a famous cupcake shop in LA - great discovery!! Heather and just read about it in a magazine and I'd heard about it through the grapevine and we just had to try it. They have every type of cupcake flavor imaginable. Cotton Candy, Brownie, Funfetti, Reese's Peanut Butter, MnM, Mint chocolate chip, Carrot cake, Red velvet, Boston Creme...literally everything. We each got a different one and shared and every single bite was delicious! Absolutely incredible. Now we need to go the other famous cupcake place, Sprinkles, to compare. I mean, it's only fair. :)
After Rodeo we headed to Hollywood and Vine to play the ultimate tourist. We saw the Graumen's Chinese Theater, El Capitan Theater, The Kodak Theater and all the stars on the Walk of Fame. We also got to see the impromptu shrine dedicated to Michael Jackson surrounding his star. Next up was Sunset Boulevard. We walked up and down checking out some of the cool nighttime hot spots and clubs like The Roxy, Mel's Diner, Ketchup (the girls on the Hills go there often), XVI, etc. After that we drove up into the Hollywood Hills to get a good view of the famous Hollywood sign. The houses up there were absolutely ridiculous. Ri.Di.Cu.Lous. Absolutely insane! Huge, overlooking the dam and the sign on opposite signs, wrap-around porches, and crazy beautiful foliage. The road was really narrow and windy and difficult to navigate but it was well worth it. Our lookout point was an adorable dog park. If you looked down the mountain on one side you saw the water and the dam, and if you looked up the other way you saw bright and clear, the 9 letters that I see in my dreams...the unmistakeable HOLLYWOOD sign. We took a Facebook-album number of pictures there with strangers dogs, each other in different poses and random people we met on the side of the street. Unfortunately, we had to high-tail it out of there rather quickly toward the end because I accidentally let someone's dog drink some water from the fountain and he got so excited he threw up everywhere. (Ooops! He was okay though just fyi...we checked before we left.) Then we meandered our way back down the Hollywood Hills, whilst coveting the people who live there. By the time we landed back in reality we were all green with envy (or from the sharp turns, I can't be sure which). Our final stop of the afternoon was Chinatown. Heather had never been to the one in NYC so she found it completely sketchy and scary. Understandable because Chinatown in LA and NYC is both sketchy and scary...but that's just part of its charm isn't it? Heather almost bought a duck from one of the shops because he was only $10 and she felt bad for him. She wanted me to keep him in our backyard but I'm not sure that would fly with my temporary roommates.
After we walked up and down Chinatown a bit we headed back home for a brief overture. An hour and half later we headed back out to The Grove. This place is the cutest, coolest shopping center/eatery I have ever seen! It's like a mini-Hyde Park but classier. Attached to The Grove is a place called the Farmer's Market (it's not an actual farmer's market, it's the name of the area). There are tons of authentic restaurants in every genre of food you could want. Abrams and I settled on Mexican while Heather got Greek. The food was incredible and the atmosphere was so cool! It was like a classy outdoor food court with a loveable ambience and bustling people and tables with umbrellas to sit under and enjoy the lovely sunny (not rainy or muggy haha) California weather. We rounded off our incredibly busy day with a movie on the lawn which they do every Thursday at the Grove. We set down our blankets and popped open a bottle of Cabernet and enjoyed Transformers on the projector screen with a crowded lawn of new friends. There was actually movie trivia before the feature presentation started and I won!! I sealed my victory with the "famous quote of Indigo Montoya from The Princess Bride. (Anyone?) My prize was a super-rad Transformers t-shirt, in case my new Ellen wardrobe wasn't enough.
Eventually it got pretty chilly so once the movie was over we were happy to head home to our beds. It was an insanely long and busy day packed with a tourist's perfect schedule. We came, we saw, we photographed, we conquered. Two more days to make a mockery of tacky LA sights...are we up to it? Ohhhhh yeah.