When Stella and I headed for Los Angeles, it was bittersweet. We had many good road trip memories to laugh about, but she was also flying out two days later. We drove the beautiful coast of Highway 1 and rolled in around dinner time. My coworker in South Africa offered up her mom as a host for us in L.A. Her mom was a great host and took us to a Brazilian restaurant in her neighborhood as soon as we arrived!

On our agenda the following day was to hit up the must-sees of Los Angeles. We tried to get close to the Hollywood sign but had poor directions, drove down Rodeo Drive, and of course stopped at Hollywood Blvd’s Walk of Fame. My first trip to the Walk of Fame was when I was 14. My best friend and I were recently obsessed with the movie Pretty Woman and hoped to see a Vivian walking down the street (we never did). This time, Stella and I searched for our favorite stars and stopped at Mann’s Chinese Theatre, although apparently it is now being called by its original name Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

And two days later, when Emily flew in, we made an equally entertaining trip to the Walk of Fame:

Emily and my mom are huge Celine Dion fans. So we took this photo to pass along to my mom:

And we took this photo as Emily recalled being grounded when she was younger and stripped of her ticket to go see Celine Dion. She has never gotten over it ;)

The Hollywood Walk of Fame runs 1.3 miles down Hollywood Boulevard and has over 2,400 stars along it. It’s crowded, and tourists are everywhere, but it was of course a fun time!