LA - famous people everywhere!

OK, this is part 2 of the vacation.  We left Vegas after quit the debacle over my husband's one and only big win there....we were OFF and driving through the desert in our wonderful rental car. 

Here is what I looked at for about 3.5 hours.  While Jimmy was nice and drove the car the whole way.  And really I slept several times.

Desert...

oh hey Jimmy....

While on the way, Jimmy was set on stopping at In and Out burger for lunch.  Unfortunately, I didn't know that was his plan, so when he pulled off the road and we walked into a Jack and the Box, I thought he just wanted to stop and eat there.  I have never eaten there, so I went with it.  Well, when we passed an In and Out burger about 10 miles from the Jack and the Box, Jimmy was pretty upset.  Oops.

One interesting thing on our drive was the California inspection.  Very interesting and we were in line for actually a while.  Still no clue what it was for and what they were looking for.  But we went with it...

Eventually, we arrived in Manhattan Beach and boy was it worth the drive.  Oh my goodness, look at this view from the street.  Amazing!! 

We checked into our hotel and then were off to the "beaches".  Redondo Beach was the first stop.  This was a big moment for us folks.  It was Mr. Carter's first time to see the pacific ocean in the flesh!  Wahoo!  Now he has been to the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Gulf.  Way to go Jim!!

We walked around the Redondo Beach Pier and it was nothing like I remember it.  I still cannot remember where these shops that I kept thinking that were there are.  Weird.

And then when the sun was going to set, we headed back to Manhattan Beach and took a stroll along the water.  And what a walk it was.  Oh my goodness.  Check out these houses.  INSANE.  One was for rent for $6600/month.  Wowsa.....

After seeing lots of houses and walking through a beach party, we decided that this one was our favorite and would be our beach house.  Haha, yeah right.  We can only dream, but really, how sweet is this!?

And here we are!  Happy to be on the beach watching the sunset, wishing we got to do this together every night!!  We also saw people biking with their dogs and we were even more obsessed. 

Yeah, that's a view I think anyone could get used to!

We decided to stick close to Manhattan Beach that night and tried out this delicious restaurant that was just down the street called Fishbar.  But before we left, I made Jimmy take some pictures.  He was NOT cooperating.

But this folks, yep, this is the best one of the whole trip.  Are you kidding me?  JIMMY!!!

But really quick, I must brag on this Fishbar place we went.  It was SO good!  When we finally got a table we had bread waiting for us and got an appetizer of the King Crab legs for like $8 (so cheap!) and then we tried some clam chowder.  Both completely delicious!  Then we tried the special that was a smoked artichoke, which made me think of my friend Carly, that was just as good and then I got a side of broccoli.  I ate like one bite of it, but it made me feel better about my horrible eating the past few days.  If you are in that area, I highly recommend it.  We were so stuffed with just the delicious things we tried we actually didn't even get entrees....but I'm sure they were delicious too!!!

Day 2 in LA, we were up early (well I was up early) and enjoyed some breakfast at our hotel before I made Jimmy wake up and get started on our day (apparently I'm a vacation slave driver).  Note to self: next vacation go to the east coast....so you aren't 2 hours earlier than everything.

The morning was filled with touristy things.  Like Rodeo Drive.  Where we went to Starbucks.  While we couldn't afford anything in the shops there...they were all closed.   Yep, that is a trend as well because it was too early.  Surprise, surprise.  However, the coffee was good.

See, I liked my coffee!

While on our way to Chinatown (which was stupid and we just drove through)...we passed this sign.  Hey Vanessa!  Check it out!!

I talked to Ashley when we got to China town and she confirmed my thoughts that it was stupid, but that we have to go to Hollywood Boulevard.  Off we went!

Jimmy wanted a picture of the Capitol Records building

And here he is.  We made it to Hollywood Boulevard

And the famous sign.....

Famous Roosevelt hotel

There were SO many people everywhere walking down the street.  Actually it wasn't as bad as Vegas, but still very touristy.  But just something we had to do, right?  When we got down in front of the Chinese theater, there were characters everywhere to take pictures with.  I snapped a picture of the Star Wars trooper and Darth Vader for our nephew, Ben, but now he's pretty into Indiana Jones, so I'm not sure if he would think this was cool!!

We saw all the stars!  They were everywhere!

There were lots of tours they were trying to sell on buses to take you to see famous people's houses and hot spots in LA.  If we didn't have plans later in the day, I might possibly have dragged Jimmy to one of those.  One guy almost had me sold on it.  However, instead I just googled some places myself and made Jimmy drive by.  He was thrilled.  Haha.  And now my sick obsession with Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is revealed.  I knew that Lisa from the show had a restaurant nearby, so I made him drive by in hopes that maybe she would be outside with Ken and Jiggy.  Or even Pandora.  No such luck, but hey, we did drive by Sur.  And here is the bad picture of it!

This picture sufficed for my RHOBH and my 90210 obsessions 

And guess what we picked up on Hollywood Boulevard?  Some super trendy Cali glasses.  Jimmy's for KU and mine for K-State.  Not going to lie, I did feel a little silly in them, but don't worry, I'll bust them out every once and a while.

That afternoon we headed to Ashley's place to see her and meet Milton (her dog) and her roommate Mandy.  It was Ashley's birthday (and Courtney's and Emily!), so it was perfect timing.  We picked up her boyfriend and he drove us to Malibu to a fun restaurant on the beach.  Literally on the beach.  And the weather was FABULOUS.  75-80 degrees on December 29.  It was pretty amazing!!!!

I mean...this is late December.  Why don't we all live here and enjoy this weather!?!?

After a fabulous lunch and no Matthew McConaughey sitings (apparently he frequents that beach), we headed back to the city and then we were all back to change and relax before we went out for Ashley's birthday dinner.  We headed to Venice beach (one of the few beach towns we hadn't hit up the day before) for a wonderful tapas style dinner!  It was delicious food, an extensive wine list and even better company!!

And we got some dessert and candle for the birthday girl!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Jimmy and I

Ashley and BJ

Group shot of the table!!!  So fun!

And then we realized that we are old and were all tired and went home and to bed.  Yep, we are that cool.  Ashley and BJ were headed to Big Sur bright and early the next morning (check out her great blog post on that trip here) and we were beat.  However, it was a great birthday celebration and thank you Ashley, BJ and Mandy for letting us crash some of your time in LA!  It was so fun!!!

The next day we were headed to the airport, but our flight wasn't until 4, so we had some time to kill.  In the morning we got packed up, checked out of the hotel and headed to the Santa Monica Pier for our final beach destination.

Check out the fog/ocean layer.  It was crazy!!

On the pier

Since it was still kind of early (like I said...this is a trend of this vacation), there wasn't too many things open...but the arcade was.  So being the competitive married couple we are, we cashed in $5 and began the competition in terms of basketball pop a shot and a skee ball game.  I lost at both.  But still, I think it was unfair because (1) Jimmy got to watch me before and (2) No practice shots....oh well.

Jimmy beating me in this game, bad.

Our final game was a Pirates of the Caribbean shooting game and we were a team.  Let's just say you don't want me on your team if you life depends on me shooting people and shooting the correct people. I'll leave it at that.

The last obligatory picture on the pier I made Jimmy take.  He was thrilled if you cannot tell.

So before we were off to the airport (which was CRAZY by the way), we had one more stop to make around lunch time.  It was in-n-out burger.  Since on our drive from Vegas this is what Jimmy thought he was eating and was disappointed he was at Jack in the Box...we googled it and headed there.  And quite the experience it was.  I will say, I was surprised at their limited menu, but I guess if you got a good thing going, why ruin it or dilute the menu?  Because there were PLENTY of people there just loving it!!

We each got a burger, fries and a drink.  I had heard about doing something to the fries (monster something?) where they put thousand island dressing on it, but I passed on that.  So here we are trying these for the first time.  PS The photos of me are incriminating, I realize that.

This was an action shot.  I know I look gross.  However, I was surprised that there was the thousand island dressing on the burger.  And now you realize why my face looks like this.

However, I actually did really like it.  So that was good!!  Overall, it was pretty freaking good.

So there you have it.  After that lunch, we headed to the airport, finally got our bags checked and made it through security (after they closed a lane down....) and sat in the busy airport at a bar watching college football games and I read my book.  We didn't have a direct flight and had to connect in Denver, which the Denver to KC might have been the worst flight of my life (which is saying a lot since I traveled one planes two times a week for a year at least when I was a consultant), but with a constantly hacking lady next to me and a SUPER loud and drunk man talker right behind us and then poor screaming babies at the end due to a drop in pressure - yeah, we were ready to be on the ground in KC and pack up our suitcases for a while.  We were pumped to see our dogs too, which turned into another story....of course!

So until the next vacation!!!

PS Sorry if I tricked you in the title of this post.   We didn't actually see any famous people.  Bummer.  But hopefully you enjoyed it!