Spring Break Part 1 :: SoCal

Hello everyone!

I was thinking that I would blog every night, but alas, vacationing is hard work!  haha

Every night, we just pass out from walking around all day long!

But tonight, we called it an early night after a night hike (will post about this soon)

so I have some energy left to blog about the first part of our break in Southern California  =)

It began on Monday with a series of delayed flights from Houston to LA.

By now, flights being delayed doesn't even surprise me,

I mean, I'm pretty sure that 90% of the flights I've been on have either been delayed or cancelled.

But this time, I had a travel buddy, and a new camera on my iphone,

so the wait wasn't so boring  ;)

We finally got to the airport in OC,
and after a rather confused interaction with the rental car lady,

where she continued to explain the Kia Soul to us by saying,

"you know, the hamster car..."

though we kept explaining to her that we have not seen the car commercial,

we got the keys and walked out to the garage to find this box waiting for us.

eh...  not something we would have voluntarily chosen,

but actually, it has grown on me for the past couple of days  =)

At least it's easy to spot!

The first place we stopped by was Fashion Island in OC.

There were SO many different shops,

and honestly, it was a bit overwhelming,

so we didn't end up going into many of the shops.

But!!  we did go into this chocolate shop

(shipped directly from Zurich)

and bought a whole lot of chocolate,

and also played a couple of games together at a brain shop.

We were too busy being nerdy to take pictures of the brain shop,

but I'm sure you can imagine what the shop was like...

lots of brainy games and puzzles!

and of course, food...

there was also this giant coy pond with giant inhabitants

(the biggest I've ever seen!)

and the most grand looking Macy's I've ever seen  haha

what perfect opportunity for a little photo shoot before we go off to LA  =p

When we got to LA, we had dinner with David's Dad's family,

and it was so nice to meet and spend some time with them!

We had Beijing food (my first time,, so good!) 

but I totally forgot to take photos...  =/

it was such a wonderful evening among great food and wonderful company!

The next day, we began our day by visiting the Getty Museum.

Wow.

This museum.

It began even before we got to the actual museum itself.

They had this cute little sculpture garden in the waiting area for the tram,

and we had fun frolicking there,
though missing our chance to catch the tram before an army of young children swarmed up the steps to take the tram wasn't so great...   oh school field trips...

Because we didn't feel like fighting the hundreds of purple T-shirted children for space on the tram,

we decided to take a walk up the hill to the museum.

It was a really nice walk with really great view,

but we must warn you;

it's quite a hike...

and we saw the tram pass us at least twice.  sigh..   haha

And then, voila!

the view that greeted us at the top of our hike!

and David posing like a statue  =p 

They had so many incredible exhibitions,

and also many different activities like the 'sketch room'

where you can try and see if you have what it takes to be displayed in the museum.

We tried,,,

and well, maybe with a little help... perhaps?

hmm

yeah, no. we'll just stick to science and music.  haha

The exhibitions were great, but man, the whole entire place is... wow...

 SO gorgeous!! 

and quite full of really good photographers passing by!  haha

And it gets even more beautiful once you get near the garden

on the winding road to the garden

the garden..

looking up at the museum from the garden.

sigh...

what a beauty...

 After spending all morning at the museum,

we reluctantly moved onto downtown LA.

The first place we visited was Beverly Hills,

and...

not impressed. at all.

Perhaps if I was interested in which celebrity lived where?

otherwise, it was just a row upon row of large houses, and many palm trees.

Then, it got more exciting as we visited the Farmer's Market,

--because I just have this huge love of Farmer's Markets--

I don't know, everything is so fresh and unique, and it's just so fun to walk around taking everything in!

I love the farmer's market in Seattle as seen here and here,

but I liked this one too!!

And though we were really full from lunch at the museum,

we still had some cake and some doughnuts

(because it was voted to be the best in LA!!  and I mean, it's doughnuts.  haha)

And, as we were leaving the market, we noticed this hilarious sign.

haha!!

we thought it was pretty funny  ;)

Then, because we felt the need to burn off some of the calories consumed at the market,

we went to the Hollywood Blvd, and walked, and walked, and walked some more!

The goal was to find Jascha Heifetz's name,

and of course, it was one of the last names we located,

but find it we did!

Heifetz!  and also Fred Astaire!

 I also located a whole bunch of names that David didn't recognize.

So many instances of;

J:  *Squeal!!*  blurt out somebody name!!

D:  Who is that,,,?

J:  a violinist!!!

 But the roles were reversed when we ran into these names.

Star Trek names?

After leaving the Hollywood Blvd,

we visited the Griffith Observatory,

and though it was closed,

we had fun walking around the outside of the observatory.

Next time, we'll have to look up the business hours...  haha

Oh, and we asked this guy to take our picture in front of the Hollywood sign,

and he ended up being a fantastic photographer!

Not bad for an iphone camera, eh?

Thank you, sir!

We wrapped up the day with some good old Korean food at Kobawoo house.

yay for some Bossam!!

Abers has been singing about this restaurant for ages, so we had to go try it out!

and it definitely did not disappoint!    ;)

We'll be back, Kobawoo, when we're in LA again!

Ok, so that wraps up our first day (and a half) in Cali!

whew!   haha

I hope you all have been having a wonderful week!

Will be back with more posts about our trip up to San Francisco and Berkeley soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

--Janny