Day 2 in LA

On our last day that we could travel around, we went back to downtown LA to visit Little Tokyo. We met this man, Mr. Sugihara, who issued handwritten visas to thousands of Jewish refugees and saved many people during the holocaust. Then we discovered a mini Japanese garden and shopped in the Japanese Village Plaza.

My family cannot take a good, normal picture.

In the Plaza, we found a store that sold mochi ice cream. It was so yummy! We had Dulce de leche, cookies and cream, mint chip, pistachio and strawberry. We went back to Chinatown later to eat dim sum and then headed towards the Hollywood Hills to Griffith Observatory.

Back to Chinatown

It was such a winding road heading up there. My ears were popping, and the view was awesome up there in the hills! But there is lot of smog covering the city. Not a good thing to breathe in everyday :/

Our last stop of the day and in Cali, was at Sprinkles! The cupcakes were delicious and moist. 

Day One in LA

Our first stop was Chinatown in downtown LA. Well... the first one was to Sprint to get my iPhone! Whee finally I have a functioning phone. But then we walked a mile from there to Chinatown. 

Fail...

Once we passed the golden dragons, yummy exotic fruit being sold along the street welcomed us!

On our way back to the car, I had to take this sneaky picture. My parents are so cute! Walking back with big bags of baby bananas and asian cookies.

We were stuck in the parking lot of for a bit while we waited for this crowd from Occupy LA to pass. Until we realized there was another exit... 

On our next visit, we traveled an hour to Little Saigon for lunch and to shop around in the Asian Garden Mall. Full of Asian people and Vietnamese stores and food. But my family wanted to eat somewhere else, so we walked the streets up and down in search of a restaurant. We stopped at a restaurant and ate 7 courses of beef! All the dishes brought out, we used it to wrap in the spring roll wrapper. 

Joshua's first spring roll wrap.

But long day, was not over yet... We went to this ultra fancy movie theater to watch 50/50. There was a a couple bars there, a gift store and we had assigned seats. 

This trip was also a reunion among friends :). How cute!