2/17/09 Tuesday
Breakfast – La Brea Bakery Café (Emily & Patrick), Downtown Disney
Lunch – The Disney Soda Fountain and Studio Store, Hollywood, CA
Dinner – Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen (Emily & Patrick), Downtown Disney
Although the rain was forecast to move out last night or early Tuesday morning, we awoke to another overcast sky and rain coupled with a chill in the air. On tap for this morning the group was going to go to the Anaheim Angels stadium for a tour that Emily had set up prior to our arrival. Prior to the tour, Emily and I headed to grab a quick bite to eat at the Downtown Disney La Brea Bakery Café. We stuffed our faces with breakfast goodness and headed back to the hotel.
Upon our arrival it seemed that Hunter was having his own ideas about what he wanted to do and wasn’t going anywhere except for his crib. Grandma and Emily decided to forgo the stadium tour and to stay back in the room with Hunter, and if he just happened to wake up before we got back, they just might find some time for shopping.
With the revised plan in tow, Colonel and I grabbed our rain gear (did I mention Albert Hammond is full of crap?) and headed out to the ball park. The rain was coming down harder than it had the previous day but we die hard baseball fans wanted to see the stadium. We arrived at the stadium with two minutes to spare before the tour and filed into line just in time to start the tour. The tour was informative and enjoyable as it is always neat to see the inside of a big league stadium. We took some photos, got a couple souvenirs and decided we had enough of the Angel’s stadium.
When we arrived back at the hotel we picked up Hunter, Emily and Grandma and set out on our big excursion to Hollywood and Burbank, CA. Emily had researched the Disney Soda Fountain and Studio Store that was situated on Hollywood Blvd. that she thought would be perfect for lunch. We set the GPS and were on our way. It was about a 45 minute drive, and we saw the Los Angeles skyline and the 2.5 million cars that lined our way to Hollywood.
We arrived at our destination, and as we pulled up to Hollywood Blvd, we noticed that the street was blocked off as they were setting up for the Oscars which would take place on Sunday. We strategically navigated around until we found a cheap little parking garage that only wanted 10 bucks to park our car. What nice people looking to save us some money! We parked the car and headed onto the beautiful street that was Hollywood Blvd??? I must say I now agree with the song “Hollywood is not America!” We did get the opportunity to meet King Kong, Captain Jack Sparrow, Spiderman (who happens to smoke, BTW) and a whole other cast of characters all posing for pictures out of the kindness of their hearts and wallets. We quickly dodged these scary folks as we navigated our way to the Disney Soda Fountain.
We arrived at the restaurant which sounded much more quaint in the write-ups we read, but it was an enjoyable experience. The restaurant was right across the street from the Kodak Theater which hosts the Oscars and the American Idol finals. (Wonder if Kodak or American Idol will be around when we reread this years from now?) We ate our lunch, did some shopping of course and made our way back to the car to take the “Emily and Grandma’s Scenic Hollywood Tour.”
We were trying to kill some time before Emily and Grandma’s Warner Brothers Backlot Tour, so we took a spin around Hollywood. We saw some interesting sights (as seen in US Weekly and People, according to the ladies) as we made our way to Rodeo Drive. Believe it or not there was no Ross Dress for Less on Rodeo Drive, so we had to turn around. We drove down a few commercial and residential streets looking for Brandon Walsh or the Peach Pit. Unfortunately, we didn’t find either but Hunter got really excited when he spotted the “Brown Truck” (The UPS truck).
It was getting to be close to 3:00 so we made our way to the Warner Brothers Studios. We dropped off Grandma and Emily and Poppop, and Hunter, and I made our way to the Los Angeles Zoo. On the way to the zoo we spotted a small train ride that was off the side of the road in Griffith Park. We paid our $7 admission and took a spin around the poorly landscaped train route. There was a bit of a chill in the air, but we enjoyed the ride as we had the entire train to ourselves.
After the train pulled back into the station it was time to complete the rest of the journey to the LA Zoo. When we arrived we had about 1 hour and 30 minutes until the park closed, so we hit the ground running. We saw a number a really cool animals and, because of the weather, had the park pretty much to ourselves. Hunter did not care much about the animals, but he did love to run around the park with reckless abandon. We saw as much as well could and headed out to pick up our lovely birthday girls and head back to Disneyland.
It was an enjoyable 90 minute ride back to the resort with 5 million of my closest friends on the quiet freeway. Needless to say I was happy to be back at the hotel. Grandma and Poppop got room service and we got take-out from Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen. We watched videos from the day and called it an early night.
