California - First day there - Rose Bowl, Zoo, Hollywood Sign, Hollywood Boulevard and Dinner with Mark's friends

We are so excited to go to California.  Marissa has never been there.  Jessica is going to join us Wednesday thru Friday.  It's a party!!!

We left Provo - stopped in St. George to hike Fat Man's Misery or otherwise known as the Narrows.  We then made it to Las Vegas where we had to swap out the van for a different van, and then drove on to Los Angeles.  

Our first stop was the Rose Bowl!!  

Second Stop was to the Los Angeles Zoo!

The Los Angeles Zoowas on our way so westopped to tour it, but it was too expensive for the amount of time we had to tour. We took some quick photos to show we had been there.  I got to go through the zoo back when I was 13 years old with the Rainbow Girls.  We also went to the Planetarium.  I remember that day - It was a great day! :)

Third Stop was the Hollywood Sign!!!!

We hiked up to the Hollywood sign - it's a longer hike than any of us imagined, but it was a beautiful day for a hike - we were excited!!!  Along the way you could see down into the valley.  Such beautiful scenery.

Mark and Marissa 2019

Mommy and Marissa 2019

After a while we finally made it as close as you can get to the Hollywood Sign.  We stopped and took some photos. We talked all the way up and all the way down.

On the way down we saw people on horseback.  It reminded me of my days in Ridgecrest.  Two of my best friends road horseback (western)  Debbie Weiss, and Cindy.  I fainted while on a horse with Cindy.  Alison's mom also had horses.  She grew up around them, and I got to go over to groom them from time to time.

From the Hollywood sign, to the Hollywood Boulevard ... to Hollywood Boulevard.  It isn't all it's cracked up to be.  There are lots of people panning for money and you can't tell if they really need it or if they are just preying on the tourists.  We did see some cool things though.  Chubacca - from Star Wars.  The Famous Chinese Theater and we saw the hand prints from Star Wars, Harry Potter, and more.  We saw all the "Hollywood Stars"

That night we made plans to meet up at a Thai Restaurant with Mark's mission buddies.  We made it to the restaurant a little too early so we drove to a nearby park.  It was a large park with a lake in the middle (large pond).  They had cute "swan" paddle boats to rent.  We rented one for an hour.  It was super fun.  We took turns peddling - it got tiring after a while.  

That night we enjoyed meeting with Kyle Moody, Dave Van Slooten and Lee Tarbet and his wife, Maria.  Lee was kind enough to let us stay with them while we were in that area of Los Angeles.  We had a great visit.  Mark and the guys talked and talked about past times.  Lee and Mark used to room together at Deseret Towers (Mark had not remembered that).  We saw a crazy photo of a large group of them from their freshman year.