L.A. Fun Day

For Allison's "birthday dinner" she requested to eat at Din Tai Fung.  There are a handful in Los Angeles and a few in Seattle.  We ate at the restaurant during our time in Singapore.  It is a restaurant chain that started in Taipei.  We chose to eat at the one in Glendale.

It did not disappoint.  Our favorite item is Pork XiaoLongBao, seen in the round wooden dishes, which is a steamed dumpling.  We also ordered:  Vegetable and Pork Wonton Soup, House Chicken Noodle Soup (Boneless), Pork Chop Noodle Soup, Shredded Pork Fried Noodles, Chicken Fried Rice (White), Sauteed string Beans with Garlic, Sauteed Taiwanese Cabbage, Vegetable and Pork Dumplings, Shrimp and Pork Pot Stickers, Chocolate & Mochi XiaoLongBao, and some smoothies.  They do not serve my ultimate favorite lemon grass drink.

Wanting to not waste a long trip on just a restaurant, we set out to hike to the Hollywood sign.  There are numerous trails, ultimately starting either from the Griffith Observatory or from the historic Hollywoodland neighborhood.  There are three main trails from the observatory, each ranked easy, medium, or difficult.  I learned that the easy trail from the observatory puts you at the top of a different mountain looking at the side of the sign.  Jeremy and the kids talked me out of the medium and difficult trails.  However, I didn't want anything but a spectacular view.  The trails from the other side, the neighborhood, give that.

I found that reading a few google search hiking websites was helpful to get a good idea of what to expect and where to go.  My favorite article was: https://www.hikespeak.com/trails/hollywood-sign-hike-innsdale-drive-mulholland-highway-mount-lee-drive/  

When entering the "neighborhood" there was a big yellow sign that said that access was not available to the sign.  Ignore that.  Shortly after winding through what you think is the whole neighborhood, you come to a field area and street parking.  Keep going.  Basically, we ended up parking on Mulholland Drive on a steep incline at the Lake Hollywood Park.  There is no more public parking after this.  Walking through the neighborhood, on Mulholland, to the actual trail head is easy.  Also, lots of people were around doing the same.  There is a yard or two with large signs for "No trespassing" or yellow police tape to "Do Not Cross"--pass by and under.  Next, when you think you've reached a private gate, you kind of have and you kind of haven't...proceed through the walkway to the other side of the trail.  The last 0.9 miles is a bit steep, but all paved.  Up and back took 2-1/2 hours.

Annnnd, we stopped by Cupid's for dinner on the way home.  Plus, I learned that Jeremy's elementary childhood home was literally a couple streets down, so we stopped and took a picture.

After we got the kids home and in bed, Jeremy and I "ran an errand" to hang Allison's birthday sign on the traditional high school fence.