as far as skipping disney goes, definately skip the regular park but the Disney Land California Adventure has better rides, its good for an afternoon. Spend some time at the beach (no more than a morning or so it gets old fast cause the water is so cold and it's so crowded) there are a lot of cool things to see there. The Sixflags park isn't as good as many of the others but it'll be worth the trip, it is cheaper than Disney too. If you go to Rodeo Drive to see the stars on the ground and the Chinese Theatre avoid the people dressed up in costumes, and don't take their picture, if you do they will want a dollor, if you don't give them their dollor they can sometimes get forceful, (follow you around a while, things like that, just avoid them) all the gift shops up and down rodeo drive have basically the same stuff so don't expect to spend to much time shopping around