These Shoes Are Made for Walkin'

It was a beautiful day for strolling and shopping -- 26 degrees! The freeways were clear and the credit cards were ready for action.

Today I walked into heaven (or, my version of heaven). It looked like a shoe store that was a full city block long with store space the size of a Costco warehouse. For those of you who know this side of me, you know this situation already sounds like a cocktail for disaster. When we finally got to the register to pay for the new additions to our shoe collections, the cashier commented on our gaping jaws when we walked into the store. Busted! Looks like we weren't able to pull off the inconspicuous thing as well as we thought. In the end, got some great beach shoes and a dream pair of work shoes to walk the halls of Avonside with in less than 4 weeks.

Our adventures today had us on the LA transit system to LAX where we picked up our super-cheap rental car (a PT Cruiser! Can't seem to get away from those things!). Kudos to Carlee for braving the LA traffic. We had some lunch on Sunset, took some time driving around Beverly Hills and snapping our cameras every two seconds to capture some of the most amazing homes that exist in this city. Didn't have time to hang out with the 90210 gang at the Peach Pit...maybe next time.

Walked along Rodeo Drive and experienced a whole new world. The PT didn't quite fit in among the Bentleys, Aston Martins, Lotuses, and Rolls-Royces. Stopped in at Coach (where you can buy a $550 collar for your Maltese or Chihuahua), and a few other boutiques, and then just paid closer attention to the people who were walking the street. All I could think of was, "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore..."

Hollywood Boulevard was an interesting experience. First, you can only park for an hour which naturally hinders the potential for a stress-free tourist/shopping experience. Had a brief tour of Grumann's Chinese Theatre (the guy who pained the mural inside was the wise old man from Gremlins!), checked out some celebrity stars on the Walk of Fame, and capped off the time in Hollywood with a good hour in Sephora -- an entire store devoted to makeup and cosmetics. I was on sensory overload. They have absolutely everything you could or would want! But, since my bag already weighs 67lbs, I was very reasonable and only bought a couple essentials. Really.

Although we didn't see any celebrities today, we did see a crowd gathered outside Grumann's where Hillary Swank was in attendance for the dedication for her Walk of Fame star. It was kind of a coincidence, since the girls and I saw Freedom Writers last night at the theatre. Great teaching movie -- I dare say even better than Dangerous Minds. There are over 2300 stars on the Walk and apparently any celebrity can get a star on the Walk if they've got some accomplishments and $15,000. That's right -- they buy their own stars! Suckers...

Carlee and I headed down the Hermosa pier for a fantastic (and super cheap!) sushi feast and our waiter looked like Pedro from Napolean Dynamite. Hermosa is beautiful -- lots of neat restaurants, cafes, shops, and of course, a beautiful beach. More pictures to come.

Tomorrow is another full agenda. We're having crepes for breakfast at a cute little crape eatery around the corner, then we're going to take Kristen to the airport to catcher her flight to Austen. Carlee and I are heading back to Hollywood to finish the rest of the strip (because it got dark early tonight, and Hollywood Boulevard is a little sketchy once the sun goes down). We want to check out the Guiness World Records store/museum, Ripley's Believe It or Not! and a few other shops along the way...

We're planning to spend the afternoon along the Malibu coast, gawking at more billion dollar celebrity homes. We'll try not to get pulled over by the Malibu police on this oh-so-famous strip of celebrity pull-overs (the most recent being Mel Gibson) Honestly, they're not interested in us -- we're from Canada!

That's all for today...thanks for reading!

L.