…unless we happen to be visiting. And we visit a lot. California holds a special place in our hearts. Bill and I were both born and raised in California, we met here and married here. Lots of friends and family live in the Golden state, so we return often. Over the years, we’ve pretty much covered this glorious state, from the Redwoods to the beaches, the desert to Yosemite. From LA to San Francisco, Disneyland to Fresno, Mexican restaurants to See’s candy shops. We’ve done it all and are always ready for more. We can’t be impartial here – California is truly one of the most beautiful and diverse states in the Union.

Now here’s an inconvenient truth – either the weather in the land of sunshine has been changing over the past twenty years, or we just have really bad luck. We visit California each winter and love to spend time outdoors hiking, swimming, and relaxing. In recent years, however, Mother Nature has not cooperated. A few years ago, for example, we decided to take the kids to see the Rose Parade. Bill and I have watched the parade from street corners, but this time, we went all out and bought fancy grand stand seats. Figures, it was the first time in 50 years that it rained on the parade. Poured, actually. Buckets and buckets. So, perhaps it wasn’t surprising when we arrived this year with big plans for outdoor adventures only to be met with five days of non-stop rain.

Well, if there is one state we really didn’t need to see, it would be California, since we’ve seen so much of it already. And, we know we’ll be back again very soon. Unfortunately for you, however, we have very little to blog about and mostly family photos to share.

We spent our time visiting with family in my sister’s living room, making gingerbread houses with Grandma, catching up on our reading,

and perfecting our technique on Rock Band and Just Dance.

For some extra-added excitement, we even visited the ubiquitous:

We love California’s bounty: amazing produce, tasty avocados, In-n-Out burgers, fish tacos, date shakes, and the most delicious chocolates on the planet at See’s candies.

We did manage to make one sight-seeing stop in California – we visited Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood. On the way, we noted signs for LA’s various ethnic neighborhoods: Chinatown, Little Armenia, Little Tokyo, Olvera Street, Historic Filipino Town, Thai Town. Now there’s diversity for you. And that doesn’t even account for all the LA residents who hail from other planets.

We stayed pretty close to I-10 in Southern California, but we also managed to walk a few blocks along the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We were lucky to spot the stars of some very famous people, er, creatures.

At Grauman’s we checked out all the handprints, footprints, and robotprints:

There’s even a wandprint in this group of Harry Potter stars’ prints (she’s standing in Harry’s shoes)

Hoofprints (Trigger) and duckprints (Donald Duck).

And here are the 1994 prints of The Governator, along with his saying: “I’ll be back”. He wasn’t kidding!

Now about that iconic image. It’s quite a photo, isn’t it? But you know, things in Hollywood are not always what they seem. This is, after all, the place where movies are made. The place where you might see movie stars walking down the street. Unless, of course, it happens to be raining, and then you don’t see much of anything except a rack of lovely post cards…..

23. California
The Hollywood Hills and sign