The Friedberg's Visit

This weekend, Jodi's parents came to visit us for a long weekend in SoCal.  Friday we spent most of the day in Malibu.  We got an early start and drove a short distance along the Pacific Coast Highway around Malibu.  We made one stop along the water and it didn't take long for a wave to soak Mom and Dad's legs past their knees.  If was quite funny for us, but Mom was less than pleased.  They had to spend the rest of the day in wet jeans with wet socks and wrinkled toes.  We then took a 2-hour Whale Watching tour that left from the Malibu Pier.  Of course, we did not see any whales, but we did see plenty of dolphins and seals.  The tour also showed us a handful of celebrity homes that are located along the water in Malibu, including Cher, Dick Clark, Barbara Streisand, and Olivia Newton John.  One of the coolest things we saw were the enormous starfish attached to the legs of the pier.  After the tour, we ate lunch outside at The Beachcomber on the Malibu Pier.  We made a quick stop at the Cornell Winery before making our way home.  For dinner, we headed across the street from our apartment to BJ's where we enjoyed a great dinner and had our first star sighting.  We saw 2 soap opera stars (formerly on Port Charles and General Hospital), Erin Presley and her husband, Brian Presley.  After dinner, we saw One Night of Queen at the local performing arts center.  Gary Mullen and The Works spent the evening covering many Queen songs as we sang along.  Gary Mullen looked, sang and entertained just like Freddie Mercury.

On Saturday, we spent the day in Hollywood.  We started at the Griffith Observatory overlooking Hollywood and downtown LA.  After taking pictures of the Hollywood sign, we walked along Hollywood Boulevard looking at the walk of fame and the handprints in the cement in front of the Chinese Theater.  We think Mom and Dad enjoyed it more than they thought they would.  We then ate lunch at the Original Farmer's Market at the Grove where we had another star sighting.  While Mom and Jodi were looking for something to eat, they saw Anna Kendrick of the Twilight movies and Up in the Air.  After lunch we drove through Beverly Hills before heading back home for the day.  Later that night we headed to downtown LA to the Garrett Morris Downtown Comedy Club for an evening of stand up comedians.  We saw about 10 different comedians in about 3 hours including Garret himself.  It was much more entertaining than we first expected and we all had a great time (including the $1 Ring Dings and Twinkies they sold at the bar.)

Sunday, we spent the day at the apartment, relaxing, mostly because it rained the entire day (yes it actually rained here).  We received about 1 inch of rain every hour and this literally dampened our plans.  However, we needed the day to recover and relax from the previous event-filled days and Tim was happy to finally be able to watch some of the NCAA Tournament.

On Monday, we spent the day at Venice Beach and Santa Monica.  Venice beach is not as lively on Monday as we assume it is on the weekends, but we walked by the gym on Muscle Beach and got to see the Pacific Ocean.  The waves are much bigger than we are used to from the Gulf of Mexico.  We spent some time walking along the shops along the sand and seeing the people who post up along this strip.  It was interesting!  We then drove up to Santa Monica and walked along the Promenade.  We ate tacos and enchiladas at Wahoo's then walked up and down the many blocks of shops along the Promenade of Santa Monica.  We then walked along the Santa Monica Pier to see the Ferris Wheel and other rides.  We then met Jodi's dad's childhood friend, Steven Middleman who is a local comedian.  Mom and Dad left with Steven to spend the afternoon with him and he then took them to the airport to close out their trip to Southern California.

All in all, we think they enjoyed their visit to LA and we were glad they made the trip.

Check out picasa for the rest of the photos.