Day 3, California

We rented a car on Saturday morning and spent all day driving around the area. First we went to the coast and saw some beaches, as you can see in the photos below. There are mountains along the shoreline as well, but it was so foggy that day, they were hard to see. I will post some more photos of Marina Del Rey in a little while. After the beaches, we found our way back to Sunset Blvd, and then into Hollywood, where we ate lunch and FOUND THE SIGN! In fact, we ate lunch outside in front of the sign, at the California Pizza Kitchen, which is part of the mega-plex that is the Kodak Theater. I was right! The sign was right there in plain view from the Kodak theater, NEXT door to the Chinese Theater...Jennifer. ; ) I got my picture made with the sign, which I post in a little while as well. Now I feel better. If you'll recall from a previous post you'll know how upset I was that I missed the sign earlier.
After lunch in Hollywood, we walked around a bit, saw Michael Jackson...circa "Thriller" era...and then went for a drive through the ritzy neighborhoods, of which I shot some photos of the gorgeous streets. And finally we found a park, and just rested there before we headed for the airport to fly home. We both said: we have seen enough...I saw all I wanted to see, and the rest of the city is just your basic city. Complete with cross-dressing men, of which we saw in our hotel lobby. And ladies carrying toy dogs in their purses, strolling Rodeo Drive. People roller blading on the roads to the beaches. And Ferrari's and Lamborghini's and tons of Mercedes.
We left LAX at 10:30 PM, flew all night, to which I managed to sleep off and on but not comfortably, got to Ft. Lauderdale at 6 AM, left there for home at 7, sleeping for the hour and a half on that plane, and was in my house at 9 AM, to which I went straight to bed for 4 hours of blissful sleep.
Our luggage made it back on time, and we arrived safely. I'm always nervous to fly, so I say prayers quite often before and during the flights. All was well. WHEW!
My kids came home about 1:30, and life is back to normal. The kids were all in one piece, nothing broken...WHEW!

Vacations sure do make you tired.

And, Miami/ Ft. Lauderdale metro area...all light up in the middle of the night....HUGE HUGE HUGE place! Gosh! Houston...HUGE....Pheonix....HUGE....Los Angeles....HUGE HUGE...Tampa area...HUGE...Tallahassee.......small.