I need a vacation. I found myself thinking that more and more until I finally decided to go ahead and take one. Since it's not too far from home, and I had never been, I decided to go to Los Angeles. I knew there would be plenty of things to do there. After all, it is the center of all the Hollywood gossip. I wanted some cheap things to do, so I looked up a list of the top 100 things to do in LA. On the list, there was everything from whale watching, to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I narrowed the list down to the things that sounded fun and affordable. We set a date, and my husband and I packed up for Cali.

The first thing on my list was the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Its cliché, I know, but I couldn't go to LA without having a few pictures from the place. I picked my two favorite actors, and my husband picked his. Then we tried to spot each of them before the other.

Next, I wanted to watch a TV show being taped. I looked up all of the places I could go to find tickets. My husband and I made our way to the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, and we waited in line for our tickets. The tickets were free, but unfortunately, you would have to get there pretty well in advance in order to get a ticket before they were all sold out. We were already too late for the show I wanted to see. If you plan on seeing any TV shows being recorded, I would suggest planning it a little better than I did.

The next big thing on my list was the California Science Center. The best thing about this attraction is that admission is free! This Center definitely lived up to my expectations. I've always been kind of a science nerd, so looking at the models of many different ecosystems was great. I especially loved the marine life they had on display. If you're more into space or aviation, they have an awesome number of artifacts that you would love to see. In the science court, there were some pretty cool science demonstrations including a bike you can ride on cable 3 stories above the ground!

Since the Science Center was so much fun, I wanted to try another museum. The Getty Museum was also free, so my husband and I went there the next day. We were able to see some of the most beautiful paintings I have ever seen. For that matter, the view of the gardens was gorgeous enough by itself. After the Museum, we headed to Griffith Park for a picnic. It was a much bigger park than I ever expected. We ate our take-out food, which we pretended was a real picnic meal, and strolled along one of the many park trails. Then we checked out the Griffith Observatory, where admission was free.

I was pretty proud of myself for finding all of these free activities. If you are planning on taking a trip to Los Angeles, these are some great things you could do. My only advice would be to plan a way to avoid paying parking fees. That seemed like it was my biggest expense.