![[title of show]](http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b285/ShephardSummers/titleofshowsm.jpg)
Monday, September 28, 2009
posted by Shephard @ 
Friday, September 25, 2009
Whirlwind Tour de SoCal!
I took 2000+ photos during our tour-de-force vacation of showing our French friends around. Well.. .they hadn't been to California before... so we had to show them everything, right?
We started with box seats and dinner at the Hollywood Bowl, for a John Williams concert. :)
We showed them the famous W*lt D*sn*y Concert Hall. 
We took them to Malibu, and walked The Colony, famed stretch of beach lined with celebrity homes. 
... and their French toes touched the Pacific ocean for the first time. :)
No celebs out on their balconies... but we were welcomed by Woofie-Marie here. 
We took them to see Grauman's Chinese Theater and all the footprints and stars in the sidewalk...
We walked the famous red tiled stairs that lead up into the Kodak Theatre, where The Oscars are held each year (... and I didn't think about it until after... but... oh yeah, we walked those steps this year... geez, that was *this* year!). 
In front of Grauman's... photo ops with celebrity look-alikes.
We took them to the infamous no-holds-barred Venice Beach... 
...where they learned that Mermaids sing to raise money for charity...
... and that there are some things you might only see in America... like a guy painting another guy with oil.
We gave them a full tour of An*m*tion. . . all our friends were really nice to them, showed them lots of sneaky-peeks.
We went shopping and I did not buy this chair at Anthropologie.
We showed them the spooky gothic mansion built by the Doheney's, Greystone Manor.
We drove by Henson Studios... which used to be The Charlie Chaplin Studios, thus Kermit's costume.
We spent a day at Laguna Beach...
They ate their first Salt Water Taffy....
I did not buy this fun chair....
They ate their first Steak Sliders in Laguna Beach...
We witnessed this giant harassing a dump-truck....
We 
They learned that in America, all squirrels point East.
We took them to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive ...
...they saw the Beverly Wilshire Hotel (which you might recognize from Pretty Woman)
Flower arrangement there... I love green flowers....
On Rodeo Drive, even Mannequins have to wait in line...
A very sweet friend of ours works in post on this show, one of their favorite shows luckily... and was kind enough to take time from her day to give them a complete tour of the set and backlot street...
They learned that, in America, not everything is bigger... 
They experienced a 100 year old dessert succulent garden at Huntington Gardens... 
They ate their first real TexMex meal at Chevy's (and loved it).
They spent several days at D*sn*yla*d for a fun fan-tastic fan-conference. Above is the central fountain feature at D*sn*y's Ca Adv*nture.... this feature is rumored to be going away with the new 1 billion dollar renovation underway.
I will miss it.
Their hotel....
The downtown shopping area near the park is so pretty... and here are some examples of the extraordinarily beautiful afternoon lighting we have here in SoCal. 
And of course, we did take them to Las Vegas and several fun restaurants and locales. 
I love this photo of them taken at Venice Beach. :) I'll leave you with this last photo below, which I have titled "Wookie What I Found."
We had an amazing time. They were such easy guests, and it was magical seeing everything through their eyes. I love being a tour guide. What a great adventure!(PART ONE of LAS VEGAS is below this post)
~Shephard :)