Hollywood, Space Shuttles & Chinese Food

Today I played hooky from work (they actual knew what I was doing) to show my British friend Matt around Hollywood and Los Angeles.  We headed out around 9:30am. Our first stop was downtown Hollywood. When we got there it was super crowded. No only where they preparing to present a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to Modern Family star Sophia Vegara but they were also setting up a red carpet event for the LA premiere of Mad Max: Fury Road. There were crowds everywhere. Luckily we got to the Chinese theater when we did as later in the day they close down that entire area.

So Matt and I walked around the cement hand and foot prints for a bit, we checked out a lot of the Stars on the Walk of Fame and Matt even managed to find Nicholas Cage's star (one he wanted to see). We walked around the Hollywood and Highland shopping area and while there Matt finally got to see the Hollywood sign (something that he was looking forward to seeing). We did a bit of souvenir shopping for this friends and family and then continued our walk down the Walk of Fame to Hollywood and Vine before we jumped on the Subway and headed to the California Science Center in downtown Los Angeles.

Though Matt isn't American, he is a geek and I figured he'd like to see the Space Shuttle Endeavour and I was right. This was my third time seeing this amazing vehicle and it still takes my breath away when I enter the building where it is housed. One of many great things about Matt is he loves to read all the little details about everything (he's really into history). So this made me take the time to stop and read along. I learned a bit more about the space shuttle, it's missions and even got to listen to an older gentleman (who worked there) explain some of the more finer details of Endeavour.

After Endeavour we headed to the Science Center food court to grab a bite to eat as we were both starving. Once lunch was over we explored the rest of the Science Center and the surrounding areas. We were temped to go to the Natural History Museum which was right next door but there was only a few hours left in their opening hours and for the cost to get in I didn't want to short change ourselves. We plan to return on the weekend and check it out then.

So instead we got back on the subway and returned to my car and headed to Universal Citywalk. We walked around there for an hour or so before grabbing some Panda Express. Matt has never had "fast food" Chinese food and Panda does have their tasty orange chicken. Matt enjoyed it and even tweeted that he just had some the best Chinese food ever.

During our travels around Citywalk we checked out the new location of Things from Another World and found the new Wonder Woman 77 comic book that I've been wanting to get. I don't know when I'll have time to read it but I'm looking for to it. I've heard some good things about the storyline and the art looks amazing.

After Citywalk we headed back to my place and watched a few episodes of Agents of SHIELD season one (Matt's never seen it so he's been watching episodes here and there while staying with me).

Though we didn't get to do everything that I had planned for the day we did quite a bit and Matt got to explore a few of the cool things that LA/Hollywood had to offer.

Back to work tomorrow and then 2 days of playing the tour guide again for my buddy Matt over the weekend... can't wait!!