I think I will talk about things to do and then finish up with places to eat. I have covered food already, but those were must-eats. Now, if you know anything about me, you know I am quite the Disney fan; if you didn’t know, now you do. When my wife and I went to Paris for the first time, we took the train to Disneyland Paris, so you could say dedicated. Why are we talking about Disney? Well, in L.A., it is a place to go see.

There are so many things to do in the Los Angeles area. I will touch on just a few, talk about my fav’s. Honestly, there is just too much to do in L.A. You could write a thousand-page book on all of the things to do. I’m not going to do that.

What to talk about first, well let’s talk about one of my fav’s. Yes, there is one of those. For me, the obvious choice is Disneyland. This was the second time Jodie and I went to a Disney park without kids, and I gotta say it is incredible and sad all at that the same time. Since it was just the two of us this time, we decided to splurge, and we did. We went all in and booked a room at the Disneyland Hotel, with Club Level access. Let me tell you, this room was amazing. The headboard had a fireworks show and music. Plus, we went and watched the fireworks from the E-Ticket room.

From there, you could hear the music and watch the fireworks, and they had champagne and these crazy desserts. It was very nice, but if you are a fireworks freak like me, you will not be happy. You are looking at it from a weird angle, so you can see how they layer the fireworks. When you are in the park, you don’t see this; they look like they are right behind each other. But you do get to watch the fireworks in your pajamas and no crowds. The food and drinks do kind of makeup for not seeing them in front of the castle.

If you are looking to splurge a bit, I recommend staying in the Disneyland Hotel. I have stayed in all three Disney Hotels; this one seems to be my new favorite. The Grand Californian is more engaging with the lobby being so lovely; during the holidays, there is a giant Christmas tree in the lobby, but the hotel is enormous, and depending on where your room is, you can have quite a walk to your room from where the entrance is. Disneyland Hotel is three individual buildings, and if you stay in the adventure tower, the monorail is quite close. Plus, there is a small cafe that serves Dolewhip with rum!

One of the must things to do when you are in Disneyland is to eat at the Blue Bayou. Which you will need to make reservations 60 days in advance. The early reservation is not a must, but this place gets jam-packed, so there is no guarantee you will be seated, or your wait could be an hour. Since this is a must-do, call 60 days out and make it easy on yourself. Why is this important? You can get on the Pirates of the Caribbean straight from dinner and see all the lights off to the right when you are starting out. That is the restaurant, the ambiance is fantastic, and the food is good. If you want to know more about Disney, I invite you to read an earlier article I wrote (link here).

Moving on to a weird one. Yes, I feel like it is a must-see, but do not invest more than a day. Universal Studios Hollywood is excellent. I think you should go, but be wary. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is off the charts amazing. If your family is anything like my family, you are Harry Potter geeks, and you must go at all cost. Having said that, the rest of the park is meh, and when I say meh, I really do mean it. We got there early, went to Harry Potter, and were blown away.

Now, after that, wow is hard to justify spending any more time there. We made it through the rest of the park in about an hour. Now, if you like roller coasters, go to the lower part of the park, but ye be warned, it takes about 15 minutes to get down there on the insane escalators. I am not that into roller coasters anymore. The walk was a waste of time for my wife and I. Plus, universal is really into selling your tickets, tours, and no waiting, not worth it. Outside of the Wizarding World, the only other rides that are worth anything are the Walking Dead and the Water World show, pretty cool.

I spent most of my time in the Harry Potter part. After seeing this, I really want to go to Orlando, it is supposed to be more significant. I understand why Universal Hours are shorter than Disney. There is really isn’t a whole day’s worth of stuff to do. But with all of that, I still believe it is a must-see. Well, it’s only a must-see if you are a Harry Potter Fan.

Now there are so many other things to see and do in L.A. some are free, some are not. Like walking around Venice is very cool. Now we did go do another really touristy thing, we went and took a look at Hollywood and did the Stars Walk of Fame, and went and checked out the Chinese Theatre. Being Disney fans, we are we checked out El Capitan Theatre. Is it worth it? I don’t know, it is cool to see the history and see all of the stars’ names, but if you have ever been to Vegas and walking around, it is a lot like that.

People are trying to sell you stuff or the better yet, trying to scam you. Which is so annoying. Some advice tries not to make eye contact or walk around looking pissed, and if they do see you turn and start talking to whoever you are with. I really liked all of the history and the whole Hollywood vibe and the chance to see a celebrity, so I say this go at least once. It is really cool but beware.

Let’s see what else we should talk about. We’ve covered the beaches, Disney, and Universal. We haven’t talked about Hollywood, oh yes, let’s talk about my white whale. Being a photographer, you are always looking for great spots to take pictures from. I am quite fond of landscapes and sunsets, and L.A. has quite a doozy of a location. The Griffith Observatory is that location. Not only does it have the Observatory, but it also has a fantastic view of downtown L.A. Why is this my white whale? Well, I still haven’t been able to take a shot from there.

We tried twice on this particular trip to visit the Observatory. On the first try, all of southern California seemed to want to check it out also. Wow, it was insane the number of people and traffic there, so that made parking impossible. It turned out to be a frustrating 2-hour scenic drive and a speed of about 5mph. It was awful, so we bailed to try again. Oh, did I mention all the construction going on? Yeah, there was that also. The second attempt was even worse, and I may or may not have handled it very well. Thank god Jodie does all of the driving. I’m pretty sure I would have gotten arrested.

If you have ever been there, you turn on to a narrow winding road that takes you through a massive park. As we approached the turn, I noticed something about there being a closure but didn’t really think anything about it. Turns out I should have read that sign a little bit more closely. They were closing down early for a significant function, so it took that traffic from the time before and doubled it, and I mentioned the construction. So, yeah, that made this attempt way worse. This made me a little bit mad, and in turn, I made an ass of myself, and Jodie was none too pleased. Some day the Griffith Observatory will be on a check box of done, as for now, it’s a twice drive-by.

Let’s finish up with some more places to eat. The last sites are a must. This list is consists of the good, the bad, and the ugly, which seems extreme. The food options in L.A. are insane, there is a food shortage of options, and most of the food is really good; some is fantastic. These are the pretty good category, and if I can think of some avoids, I will let you know. Sushi is one of my favorites things to eat. Doing some research, I found this crazy restaurant, the Yamashiro Hollywood. The location is beyond anything you can imagine. The location also makes it kind of a pain to get to.

This Japanese restaurant also has a history in the film industry. It has been featured in movies like Gone in 60 seconds, Memoirs of a Geisha, Death Wish II, and several others. So this all makes for a great place, a great find, unfortunately, the food falls very short of remarkable. I do recommend this, I really do, but not for the food. I’m not saying it is terrible, but you will pay a premium for the history, location, and the restaurant itself, so when the food is just okay and not great, it makes that bill a little tough to pay. This place has location, location.

One night we couldn’t find a place to eat, so we ended up at California Pizza in California, don’t go. It’s not bad, it’s just there are so many other places to eat. Plan better than we did. Lately, we have done the In and Out Burger, which is good, it’s cheap, but be ready for a considerable wait. As I sit here, there are so many other places we ate must not have been that memorable. So let’s just list the sites that I do remember. Two places in Downtown Disney that you should eat in for lunch or dinner are Earl of Sandwich and Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen. Both locations are fantastic. We go to both every trip.

In Venice we had breakfast at Mercedes Bar and Grill, it was fantastic, and wasn’t too expensive. In Newport, we had dinner at the Rusty Pelican, which was really good. Funny story I have this thing with really, for lack of a better word, girly drinks. The more blended, more fruit juice and umbrellas, the better the drink is. The Rusty Pelican had just one of those drinks. When I ordered it, the waiter leaned in at said, you know this is blended. I answered, oh yeah, bring it on, very funny. Just to be clear, I had just ordered a whiskey before that. I think he was concerned, but it was very yummy. The only thing I don’t really drink is beer, but that is beside the point.

The only other place wants to talk about was at the Newport Center. If you’re going to walk among the top 1% of this country I suggest going here, this mall is over the top, window shopping only. We did manage to find a delicious sushi restaurant at the mall, Sushi Roku. It looked like a chain, but the sushi was probably a little better than Yamashiro, for half the price, but nowhere near the view.

Well, that is about it. I hope you found some of this information informative. I can now say that Los Angeles is a fantastic place, and if you complain about L.A., you have never been there. This was one of my favorite trips so far. Jodie and I had such a great time. It is so beautiful, and someday I will get to Griffith Observatory. Get out there and explore and happy shooting.

Be sure to check out more photos at California Dreaming.