Putting the "Angel" in "Los Angeles"

As mentioned in the last post, our next stop was Los Angeles, which afforded us a glimpse into the star-studded life of the up-and-coming film composer, Greg Nicolett.

We kicked off our whirlwind celebrity tour with a trip to Chinatown yesterday morning for a breakfast of dim sum, done traditional-style where the waiters push around little carts with plates that have 3-4 buns or dumplings of various types, and stamp your card when you accept their tray. At the end somebody from the staff makes sense of the cryptic markings and determines how much you owe, generally surprisingly less than you would expect given how full you are. Here we experienced our first Los Angeles earthquake!! It was also Greg's, and we were honored to share this special moment with him.

Next was a quick trip to MOCA, mainly fast because it was closed. Afterwards we headed over to Grauman's Chinese Theater...
...to look at the names of our favorite celebrities...
...and to talk to some of our favorite superheroes.

This is Greg being embarrassed because Superman has more ideas about where to take us tourists than Greg does.

After we got some advice from Superman, we got some dinner. Not just any dinner, of course (after all, what post of mine would be complete without a food montage?) but the famous Pink's Hot Dogs.

This is a Pink's hot dog:
...and this is true love:
...and this is... just silly, I guess.

That's right, that's Greg, the same guy who scored the short film "Superglue," whose premiere we were invited to attend that evening.
Drinks and snacks followed at a bar up the street, and were luckily and awesomely paid for by the director's father. Nice.

Today, we shipped out to Santa Monica Pier for a beach day. It was sunny, and the water was nice and warm.

After a while we took a walk on the pier, where Michelle and Greg insisted on riding the dinky roller coaster, so I "volunteered" to hold all their stuff...
...and take a picture.
Finally we retired to the Third Street Promenade area in search of a steak dinner,
...which we found in the form of an Argentinian-style grill.
Mmmm... meat.

So ends the second of our major California tour points, with San Diego on the not-so-distant horizon. Looking forward to all that lies ahead, our bellies full of good Gaucho cookin', we thus bid you sweet dreams, adventure fans.