For The Love of You: Rodeo Dr.- Day #2

We were well rested for day two of our L.A. trip and had lots planned (well kind of). We had heard from many people that if you really wanted to see L.A in the time that we were here then we should rent a car- this turned out to be an excellent idea! That morning we woke up early, went for breakfast at Maria’s cafe which is located downtown and then headed back to the hotel to pick up our rental car.

Today we had planned on making a trip to Rodeo drive in Beverly Hills to do some sightseeing and maybe some shopping and then go see Jay Leno. We hopped into our sweet ride, a Suzuki Z4, and headed to Beverly Hills. The freeway, like the day before, moved pretty quickly for a while but then got very busy very fast. Although it is only a short drive to Beverly Hills it still took a while to get there. We hit where rodeo drive began and whoa were the houses AMAZING! They were so beautiful and very big, many of them protected by large ornate gates. We followed the road and quickly found all the shopping and I was pretty overwhelmed- it was a pretty beautiful place. It wasn’t as busy as I thought it would be(maybe because it was a Monday) but I also suppose that you only go into a few stores and buy one or two things as everything there was very expensive. I stuck to my usual stores buying a top a lulu lemon and a sweater at Victoria Secret.

We went for lunch at a restaurant called Panini Cafe, just off of Rodeo drive. The food was delicious and we enjoyed the sightseeing as we sat out on the patio. There are very nice (and expensive) cars in L.A and it seems like everyone drives a Mercedes, BMW, Range Rover, or a Porsche. It was odd to see a non-expensive car or a pick-up truck.

Running a tad behind we quickly headed to Jay Leno as we had to be there at 2:45 pm because taping began at 4. We got onto the freeway and BAM dead stop. There was an accident on the freeway (which is very common especially since we noticed that no one here uses their blinkers). We were on the freeway inching our way towards Burbank, California and we eventually reached NBC studios at 3:00 pm. We got to the gate and were told they had reached capacity. Apparently, even though I had tickets they begin letting people in early and nothing is reserved...a little frustrated we decided to not be discouraged and go see the Hollywood sign and have dinner.

We ate at Big Boy which is famous for its hamburger and has been the spot for many movie scenes and is a California place of historical interest. It was built in 1949 and still looked the same, even down to the decor. It was pretty delicious! We then headed to Runyon Canyon to get a view of the Hollywood sign. Runyon Canyon is a popular rugged (and sandy) park that has a few large hiking paths. The sights along the canyon are breathtaking and you can see until forever it seemed. It was an enjoyable hike but pretty hard to as it was very steep in areas and it was very hot out!

After hiking for a few hours we headed back to the hotel and relaxed. We rented a movie, snacked on some candy we had packed from Bulk Barn and then snoozed off!