LA

Last February Kevin had a conference in Los Angeles and I tagged along for a bit of a fun trip on the tail end of his work trip.  He was stationed up at Universal Studios, so that's where we started our trip.

After a first night out with friends in West Hollywood, we hit up the Universal Studios park on day 1.

The first stop was, of course, Harry Potter World and we had a blast complete with drinking butterbeer and purchasing wands.

Other highlights were the Special Effects Show and Studio Tour.

The next morning, we were up early for an all-day tour of LA on the Rasta bus.  We started down at Santa Monica Beach.

First stop was Venice Beach.

Then Beverly Hills.

Lunch at The Grove.

A stop at Griffith Observatory.

And finally our last stop was Hollywood Blvd for the Chinese Theatre and Dolby Theatre.

That evening we checked into our AirBnB, which was a more central location and we joined up with my friend Matt for dinner at SUR and ended the night by catching a movie at The Grove.

The following day we started out with breakfast at Toast followed by a little shopping and an impromptu photoshoot at the famous pink wall.

Next was lunch at Pink's Hotdogs.  Then it was over to Jimmy Kimmel Live for a taping of his show.  This was really fun!  And we had to sign a non-disclosure because Rachel from the Bachelor and most recently the Bachelorette was announced on that show as the Bachelorette!

We had the most delicious dinner that evening at Taste.

The next day was jam packed.  After an hour long Lyft down to Santa Monica Beach (yes, it takes like an hour to get anywhere in LA), we had a nice breakfast at Urth Cafe before walking down to the beach to rent bikes and ride along the boardwalk.

We had lunch at Blue Plate Taco before another almost hour long Lyft up to Runyon Canyon, where we hiked until sunset.

Then it was a mad dash back to our AirBnB to shower before another 30 minute + ride to the Staples Center for a Lakers game.

We flew out the next day, but not before a stop at Randy's Donuts on the way to the airport.

All-in-all, it was a great trip!  My favorite kind where you pack in the sights and the fun of the city!  This is a city I'll for sure visit again if given the chance.

City of Angels, keep shining!