Fourth Of July

We had a fun filled weekend full of Fourth of July festivities. I had hoped for more beach time, but June gloom apparently still exists in July. On Saturday our beach plans changed to the pool which got cancelled because some little kid decided to use it for their bathroom. We decided to spend our afternoon in Hollywood and had lunch at my favorite restaurant Toast. The red velvet cupcake was delightful.After lunch we went to Beverly Hills to see the Greystone Mansion. There are tons of pathways around the mansion that lead you to gardens, fountains, and benches to enjoy the views. A ton of weddings and parties are held at the mansion. There have also been a lot of movies filmed there like The Big Lebowski, X-Men, Spiderman, Holiday, Austin Powers Goldmember, and Ghostbusters. This is the back of the mansion.

I took a lot of pictures of the grounds, surprise.

Al complaining about me taking more pictures.

One of the many fountains.
The breathtaking view of Beverly Hills and Hollywood. The condo tower on the left is where Cher, Elton John, Lindsay Lohan, Brody Jenner, and Francesca who we had dinner with at Boa lives.
Us
I don't know if it's me getting older or if I just appreciate the flowers in California, but I can't believe how many different types of beautiful flowers I see everyday.
Me and my favorite courtyard.
After the mansion I spotted the world's largest garbage cans. I guess if you live in Beverly Hills you get a way bigger trash can than everyone else. They seriously take up half the street. Later that night we went to the Hollywood Bowl for the 4th of July show. I heard that they have amazing fireworks so without doing research on the performers I bought the tickets. When Al looked at the tickets he started laughing and said "Do you know who Vince Gill is?" He played me some music and I quickly realized that I made a mistake. I hate country music especially twangy country like his. The Hollywood Bowl is amazing. If you look closely at the middle of the far hill you can see the Hollywood sign. I thought that was pretty neat and didn't notice for the first 10 minutes I was there...lol As you can tell we had really close seats.
The other memo I didn't get is that people pack Thanksgiving dinner. People were busting out wine, glasses, cupcakes, thermoses filled with coffee, tea, and who knows what else. Some people further down from us were eating shrimp cocktail. Next time Al and I are bringing a 7 course meal.
The show turned out to be really good. The La Phil performed before Vince and they were fabulous. Vince wasn't my favorite, but Al and I just laughed.
The fireworks were awesome and as you can see they shoot them right over The Hollywood BowlThe longer they went on the smokier it got and the smoke didn't seem to go anywhere.
By the end it looked like the place was on fire(watch the video below). What's a little more smoke in LA?

On Sunday evening we went to Huntington Beach to watch the much talked about firework show. We got way lucky and got a parking spot right off Main St. in the middle of all the festivities. There were so many houses decorated and this was my favorite one.

I couldn't believe how many people were there.
Yay for my favorite beach in SoCal.
People were so festive they decorated their beach cruiser wheels with Crate Paper.

We got to watch the sunset.
It was a little chilly, but luckily both of us wore jackets and brought a blanket.
We had the best seats ever and they were free!!
Almost time for the show.
HAPPY 4th OF JULY

It was a great weekend, but mostly because I got to spend it with Al.