Giddy, excited, and unable to sleep at all the night before, August 16th finally arrived and became the start of my much anticipated summer!!! Sun, surf, and sand was all I needed to recover from being sequesterd in waterloo for a whole four months. So sit back, relax, grab some ice cream =P *slurp*, here's the mini recap of a week in paradise, destination: California - Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Day 1: Arrived in LAX and drove straight to Irvine (the O.C.) to pick up Ian from work. Irvine is quite the place - everyone is rich, the city is owned by a rich corporation and not the government, and the norm there is for every university kid to own a car. Will someone from there adopt me please? 
Since I am on a trip with a shopaholic, a trip to the mall was at the top of the list. This one was called Irvine Spectrum - if only malls here were like malls there. All the shops were outdoors (b/c it never rains) and it had a huge movie theatre, eateries, carousels, Dave and Busters, a ton of "Brix" style type restaurants including the famous Cheesecake factory (try the White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake if you ever get the chance - tres YUMMY), and fountains all over the place. 
Headed off to Disneyland that night to catch the fireworks - no one wanted to actually revisit their inner child with me at Disneyland and go during the day - so this was the closest I got to it = ( 
Couldn't help but hug everything in the store. 
Day 2: Off to Hollywood! Walked along Hollywood Boulevard on a guided walking tour and lookie look at what I found. 
 Took a tour to see all the star's homes. For future Hollywood goers - when you go on these tours, it's a nature tour. Every star has a gazillion bushes, trees, shrubs, and gates surrounding their properties. How much of the house do you see - zilch. We were only able to see something else besides greenery for these two homes: Christina Aguilera's home - front 
Back view. Apparently whoever she bought it from had their wedding in that back garden. 
Dr. Phil's 
As close as I could get to the Hollywood sign - too lazy to drive up and down hills to get closer to it. If you squint your eyes and look real close you'll spot it. Trust me it's there. 
Palm trees - wanted to bring one home with me and plant it in my backyard. They're gorgeous. 
Outside the Chinese Theatre where they were setting up for the opening of Snakes on a Plane. Samuel L. Jackson was going to be there that night and then head over to Jimmy Kimmel Live after where tons of fans were lining up to get in starting at noon. 
The car that parked beside us...so cute. 
*Now posting about all that took much longer than I planned. To be continued.... | 
CALIFORNIA here I come!
