playing tourist

Last weekend, my brother and his family visited me! This is the first time anyone other than my parents have come out to Los Angeles so it was very exciting! C and I played tour guide and were lucky to have a few celebrity spottings while out and about in Hollywood and Beverly Hills.

On Friday, we headed to Hollywood Blvd. Anyone who lives in Los Angeles knows to avoid this area like the plague, but it's a must visit for all tourists. The place seemed overly crowded though and we soon discovered why. The Jimmy Kimmel show was filming a skit outside of the Grauman's Chinese Theatre and we were just in time to find a place to stand! The talent, as they call it, was none other than TOM CRUISE promoting his newest film, Knight and Day. Kimmel and Cruise came down on a zip line from a building across the street and landed right outside the theatre.

My brother was standing in a different spot than us and was able to get a great video, but I can't seem to upload it to this post. I will try to figure it out later. In the meantime, here are some pictures:

the crowd, waiting to see Kimmel and Cruise

evan, me, amy and c waiting in the crowd

zip-lining in from across the street

Kimmel and Cruise doing their skit before being whisked back up the zip-line

On Saturday, we were up early to star stalk and sightsee! After a homemade breakfast of strawberry topped waffles and bacon, we smushed together in my car and headed for Hollywood. Some of our stops included the Hollywood sign, Lake Hollywood, and the LA Farmer's Market for lunch.

breakfast [l to r - taylor, john, and evan]

four of us smushed together in the backseat

my brother and I posing by Lake Hollywood

Eating lunch at the Farmer's Market

After lunch, we pulled out our "Where the Stars Live" map and went on the hunt to find more celebrities and their homes. At our first stop on Hillcrest in Beverly Hills, we spotted Larry King outside of his house! He was kind enough to wave and say hi as we drove by! It was our lucky day because at our stop by Playboy Mansion, we saw Hugh Hefner pulling into the gates in his limousine. He rolled down the window a bit and waved...needless to say, my nephews were quite excited about this and were posting their status to facebook and texting all of their friends! Haha!

I was so happy to see my family! We had a great time together, but as usual, time went by waaaaay too fast!