Today was a free day for us, but since we had so much fun on the float tour we decided to crash a Los Angeles city tour today. We talked to our tour guide, slipped her some extra money, and voila we are on the tour.

We started off by driving through downtown Los Angeles and seeing the Walt Disney Hall and Performing Arts Center. From there we headed to the Kodak Theatre which is now the permanent home for the Academy Awards. It’s kind of weird because it’s part of this big mall and the tour guide was saying that they put red curtains up to cover up the shops for the award show. Right around the corner from there was Grauman’s Chinese Theater, where they have various celebrities put their foot and hand prints into the cement. We saw old stars’ prints like John Wayne, George Burns, and Debbie Reynolds; as well as some new stars’ prints like Stephen Spielberg, Harrison Ford, and Johnny Depp. After that we went to Farmer’s Market to have lunch. There was every ethnic variety of food available. It was amazing. Unfortunately that’s when the rain started. After that the rest of the trip was from the bus. We drove down Rodeo Drive and through Beverly Hills. Overall we weren’t too impressed with the tour, but at least we can say, “we’ve been there; done that.”

Once we got back to the hotel we rested a bit and went out for a dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. It was raining and cold all afternoon, but there were still whole families that had started lining up along Colorado Boulevard in order to get a good spot for the Rose Parade tomorrow. It was amazing and sad at the same time that people were camping out in such miserable weather in order to see the parade tomorrow. We did some shopping for some Rose Bowl souvenirs and then called it a night.