The Finn Files: Days 4-5: Santa Monica and Hollywood

After our last day at Disney, we headed to Santa Monica. We planned a stopover there because Mark and I really love that area. During graduate school, we spent a month in California just moseying our way around and through southern California and up to San Francisco and wine country. It remains one of my favorite trips--we had no real plan just took it day by day. Great weather, shopping and food--what's not to love? Besides the traffic? The traffic is a nightmare, but other than that, I love LA. Turns out, five year olds do not enjoy doing the same things grown ups do, so this was a slightly different experience than our last one, but still fun, just for different reasons. We went to the Santa Monica pier, rode rides, played arcade games, drove down to Hollywood to see the Walk of Fame and Grauman's Theatre. The thing about the Walk of Fame is that there are all of these randoms who dress up in various costumes (Darth Vader, Spiderman, Batman), which just happen to be every little boys DREAM lineup. The problem is that most of these men are gross and creepy and try to pose with your child and then get you to pay them. The kids don't really notice how gross their "superheroes" really are and run to them with arms wide open. So, it was a little tricky getting down the sidewalk without getting our picture made with homeless spiderman, but we made it. They happened to be setting up for the world premiere for the OZ Great and Powerful movie. They had the entire street blocked off and were rolling out the green carpet. Now, had I been with my equally celebrity-crazed friend Kriya, I feel sure we would have camped out to see the stars, but Mark and Finn were having none of it, so we moved on.

We did a little shopping and sightseeing, but mostly caught up on some much needed sleep, before heading to Universal Studios.

Santa Monica Pier