Roxy's Reign Ends: California Adventure: Part II

The last part of our California vacation was spent with Michael's best friend Aaron who lives in San Francisco. He met up with us in LA and we rented an Air B&B in the West Hollywood area which was close to several things we wanted to see.

The house was amazing and had the best outdoor patio and firepit. I could have been content just staying there the entire weekend and not going anywhere. The owners lived next door and had a six year-old son Max who loved Minecraft, soccer and jumping on his trampoline (which he shared w/Gray and they became instant best buds). It was perfect.

Enjoying happy hour on the patio

We toured all kinds of things with Aaron. The first stop was a studio tour of Warner Brothers. I got sick right before the tour and had to stay behind, but the boys had fun. Luckily, I rallied the next day so I didn't have to miss out on all the fun.

Here's Gray taking a turn in the sorting hat from Harry Potter. He got Gryffindor, of course.

Gray also saw all the Batman costumes and bat mobiles during the WB tour. Pretty sweet!

The new Minion movie opened the weekend we were there and Aaron hooked us up with a private screening on the Universal Studios lot. We got to watch it with about 40 other people and it was so great! Afterward, we headed across the lot to check out the Universal Studios theme park. Aaron's business partners hooked us up there too and we got front-of-the-line passes which allowed us to ride things in a fraction of the time. It was awesome!

Showing the transformers who's boss

Checking out the Jurassic World playground

Gray LOVES SpongeBob SquarePants. I didn't think he was ever going to stop hugging him.

We stumbled across a storefront in Universal Studios called Grayson's Finery. If you look closely, he's holding a fart gun that Uncle Aaron purchased when Michael and I left to check out the transformers ride. Can't leave those two alone for a second! Of course there's no volume or off switch on the fart gun. Thanks, Uncle Aaron.

A real live Minion!

Waiting our turn for the Despicable Me ride which was 3-D if you couldn't tell

On our last day together, we explored the Griffith Observatory and La Brea Tar Pits. Both were really neat and I was glad for a break from the theme parks. I'm more of a science/park kinda girl. Plus, the Griffith Observatory is housed in a beautiful art deco building and I soaked up every wonderful detail.

If you look just between Gray and me you can see the Hollywood sign. We were on the rooftop of the Observatory.

The La Brea Tar Pits were surprisingly wonderful as well. Here's a depiction of mammoths, with the poor mama getting stuck in the tar. It's pretty interesting all the fossils they've discovered in the tar over the decades and still are uncovering even today.