Travel Tales: Los Angeles 2006, Part Four

It’s been a while since our last travel tales, and I haven’t finished the Los Angeles story yet. So here it goes:

Our last full day in Los Angeles (July 29, 2006) began when we headed on a complete tour of the Los Angeles area. We started off our day with a laugh, as we realized that Jordan and his friend Ian were wearing virtually matching outfits by accident – yellow shirts and greenish shorts. So we piled into the car and went to the Chinese Theater, and to see the Walk of Fame. We parked the car in a very sketchy parking lot and headed out, determined not to purchase any maps to stars homes – we didn’t need to see houses behind fences, did we? (Well, turns out we did, but that’s for later…)

We spent the morning at the Kodak Theater (where the Oscars are held) and then at the Chinese theater, trying out our hands in various celebrities. I discovered that my hands fit pretty well into the likes of Mary Pickford and Vivian Leigh, but were a little too wide to fit in Marilyn Monroe’s handprints.

At the Chinese theater, Jordan purchased the map to the stars homes, and we still insisted that we would NOT – I repeat, WOULD NOT – use it to drive around aimlessly looking for random houses. (And again, that’s a story for later…)

From the Chinese Theater, we walked a little bit on the Walk of Fame, where we found Chuck Norris’ star. We also found Michael Bolton, Patrick Swayze and David Hasselhoff – all people who highly amuse us for some reason or another.

Then it was off to the Santa Monica area, where we had lunch and walked through the shopping areas. Believe it or not, this was also our first glimpse of the beach as we walked along the Santa Monica pier. The day was a little cloudy but it was still nice to see.

After this, we decided to check out Rodeo Drive – and not just by car. We drove in and parked in a lot that cost nothing for less than an hour of parking time (one of my favorite things about LA was the cheap parking all over the place – which was nice since the street parking sucked!). We walked along Rodeo Drive for a while, just checking stores full of things we could never afford. Of course, we couldn’t help ourselves from quoting D2: The Mighty Ducks over and over again, pronouncing it Rodeo like the cattle show just like Ty does. None of us really wanted to mimic Goldberg’s food ordering though.

Then it was off to a walk along the Clueless steps (above – Emily and KAra and me, looking like some stranger who got in their picture!), and THEN we checked the map and headed to the stars homes. We especially liked driving around the Bel-Air area, where we got to see Nicholas Cage’s house (behind a fence), Leonard Nimoy’s house (behind a fence), Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillipe’s house (before the break-up and again behind a fence – are you seeing the trend here?).

Our favorite house by far was the one belonging to 90210 creator Aaron Spelling. It seemed to be at least three blocks long (as Jordan joked, “It took us like, 7 minutes to drive by it”) and we were especially entertained by the tiny little property that was smashed next to it!

Then it was back to Jordan’s place, where Kara, Emily and I decided we didn’t really want dinner but could really go for some ice cream. So we headed back out to find a Gelato place near Rodeo Drive that Kara had noticed when we were there. However, it seemed to disappear in our absence and we couldn’t find it again! A short drive found a Baskin Robbins though, and we parked in the same lot as before because Kara claimed it was free. I said it wasn’t because the sign said that after 6:00 p.m. you had to pay $2.00 to park there – but still a fair price, we all thought. However, when we got out of the car, Kara found $2.00 on the ground! “See, I told you it was free!” she said, and we in fact used those dollars to pay for the parking when we left.

On our way back, we stopped at the cookie store (the name escapes me) and decided to purchase a dozen cookies for Jordan and his roomates to thank them for their hospitality, and we also picked up a fantastic card at a Duane Reade by the Baskin Robbins. And if memory serves, we stopped at the supermarket to replace all the bread and peanut butter and water we kept eating!

The cookie bag – Kara drew the guys on it.

The outside of the card.

The inside of the card.

That night, Jordan contributed a fabulous White Castle frozen cheeseburger wrapper for our trip scrapbook and everyone was entertained by Jordan’s roomate Jim singing along to “Sugar We’re Going Down” (or whatever that song’s called – this is what Kara calls it in the scrapbook) and doing a fantastic dance.

Sadly that was our last night in Los Angeles. The next day we had to leave pretty early to return the car, and we wanted to stop for cookies. Kara purchased us one drozen cookies for the airport and plane ride home, and then we went to gas up the car, where I spilled gas on my foot (it was SO gross!). We got to the airport and made a few final purchases before getting on the plane and headed home.

Note: The raisins we got on the plane were the most disgusting things any of us had ever had. I think they went beyond raisin – they were that dried up!

Where will our adventures take us next? Only time will tell…

Travel Tales: Los Angeles 2006, Part Three

Day three of our Los Angeles journey began with our first glimpse of the Hollywood sign. After a quick breakfast of – what else? – toast and peanut butter we headed out. Jordan took us on a brief tour of Hollywood on the way to the studio, so in addition to the sign we got to see the Chinese Theater for the first time, the Kodak Theater (where they hold the Oscars) and caught far away glimpses of some of the stars on the walk of fame.

We arrived at Universal Studios quickly, where we parked in Jurassic Parking 3K – as big fans of Jurassic Park, we were highly entertained by this fact (plus we appreciated the highly dorky play on words!). The day was already quite warm and we were not really prepared for the walk through what seemed like a little village within Los Angeles, but we managed to reach the ticket booths and pay.

Our first stop was the Universal Studios Lot tour, which was very interesting. We got to see, among other things:

1. The Bates Motel and House set
2. Wisteria Lane
3. Whoville
4. A plane crash set from War of the Worlds

5. King Kong sets

6. New York street and other set locations

In one lot they were filming the show CSI while we were there and we had to be very quiet while passing the large building. No star sightings though. There was really not a lot going on in the studio that day. After the tour we walked around a bit more and checked out some of the movie props that grace the park.

We then went on the Jurassic Park ride, which was a lot of fun! Sitting in the front row, Kara was quite scared when it came time for the big drop. Though we didn’t notice at the time, in her fear Kara had stuck her elbow right in my face in an effort to hold on the railing for dear life. We just had to buy the picture afterwards (which I’ll post when I ca scan it in)!

We headed back to Jordan’s where we parted for the evening. Jordan and his roommates headed to see “Miami Vice” and Kara, Emily and I decided we wanted to “cruise around.” We also had not had dinner yet so we wanted to find somewhere to eat. We ended up driving down Sunset Boulevard, and finding a little Italian restaurant. The waiter came over to take our drink orders, to which Emily replied,”

“So, what do you have. I mean… like… what kids of, um… uh, well… I’ll just have water.” Apparantly Emily forgot what drinks were called. Later that night she would entertain us one more time when, while passing an open convertible, she looked in and said, “They should really put the top up. Someone might steal their towels!”

Once done with dinner, we continued to ride around a little bit, heading onto Rodeo Drive where we saw the steps from Clueless! Tonight’s visit was simply a drive-through one. Our stop on Rodeo is a story for the next installment.

However, the beef stick from part one of the tale returns here. That night, we decided we wanted to watch a movie on Jordan’s laptop. Apparantly, the laptop had issues and the cable to charge it was loose and would fall out. Jordan, looking around for something to prop it up with, came across the beef stick we had brought him as a gift. “Ah, this beef stick is going to come in handy!” he exclaimed, and he attempted to use it to pry up the cable. At first it didn’t work, causing Jordan to then exclaim, “Come on beef stick, don’t fail me now!”

Finally it worked, and we all fell asleep watching Wedding Crashers.

Next time: our tour of Hollywood, the Santa Monica Pier and stars homes.

Travel Tales: Los Angeles 2006, Part Two

Day two in Los Angeles started early, as we wanted to drive forty-five minutes to Disneyland. We were very excited because, as we kept saying, none of us had ever “been to the land” before (we’ve been to Disney WORLD many times, respectively).

So, after getting dressed and eating breakfast (toast and peanut butter!), we headed out to the car, only to find a PARKING TICKET! We were about 10 minutes too late to move the car, and because of it, now had an extra $45 expense on our hands. However, we were a little too excited to think about it for too long, so we tucked it into the glove compartment and piled into the car, headed for Freeway 405.

Our bad luck was not over for the morning. The closest freeway entrance to us turned out to be CLOSED that day! We had to follow alongside the freeway until we found the next entrance. As we got onto the freeway, I couldn’t help thinking of the line from ‘Clueless’ when Dion is learning to drive and Murray says, “Yo, you’re gettin’ on the freeway!” and the trio procede to scream their way through until the next exit! I have to say though that driving around was fine, except for the confusing area where the exit ramp seemed to be on BOTH sides of the highway (turned out the HOV lane was on one side and all other traffic was on the other).

We finally made it and parked the car (on the Goofy level in Secion D7 – we saved the parking stub), and then got our tickets and a park map. It happened to be Disneyland’s 50th anniversary that year, so everything was very festive. We had to take a tram to the park, and we highly entertained with the fact that they referred to the employees as cast members, and how even when they were warning you about something they use sugary sweet voices, prompting me to say to Kara and Emily, “If you do not comply, one of our cast members will be happy to pound you to a bloody pulp.”

Our first stop was Peter Pan’s flight, one that we all agreed was an excellent ride from our experiences with it at Disney World. The lines were long but it wasn’t too hot out so waiting wasn’t too bad.

We spent the rest of the day just experienced Disneyland’s attractions. We headed to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, the Haunted Mansion, It’s a Small World, the Alice in Wonderland Ride, the Teacups, and we even caught a parade on our way to the Bobsled ride. After we had seen everything, we got some ice cream and did a little shopping, where I found some fabulous hats (but, alas, did not purchase any of them). We headed out, a little tired, and ready to meet Jordan for dinner.

First, however, we had to head to Wal-Mart to pick up some blankets. Though Kara and Emily had brought some very funny portable sleeping bag things, we needed something else as it got chilly at night in the dorm Jordan was staying in. We got the things we needed – while they were coincidentally playing “Down in the Boondocks” in the store – and headed back.

Dinner was at the Olive Garden, where Jordan somehow managed to drop-kick the little thing that lights up when it’s time to head to your table! It was the highlight of the night!

Travel Tales: Los Angeles 2006, Part One

In the summer of 2006, Jordan travelled to Los Angeles to take some film classes at UCLA. Deciding this was the perfect opportunity to see the city, Emily, Kara and I headed there to visit him for a few days. Our time in LA was short – just three days – but we managed to make the most of our time!

Our adventure began on July 26, 2006 when we met at Kennedy airport to board our plane (and since we still have the useless details: American Airlines, Flight 21). On our way to gate 36 for boarding, we happened to witness a woman drop her suitcase down an entire escalator flight. None of us were sure how it happened, she just seemed to have let go of it. She attempted to run down after it, but it was “saved” by a man below her and handed back.

Once in the air, we occupied ourselved with various things (as the movie sucked – I can’t even remember what it was!). Kara and Emily began drawing pictures where they would fold a piece of paper, and one would draw the body and the other would draw the head – without looking at the other person’s contribution. The pictures all came out very entertaining, such as a lion’s head with the body of someone wearing a cape as though getting a haircut or a shave.

They took a break from their drawing to eat one of the snackboxes sold by American Airlines. It included shortbread cookies, a dried fruit packet, goldfish crackers, water crackers (and probably some cheese) and a beef stick (though this does not seem important now, it becomes and important part of our tales in later installments).

During the flight, Kara also “made friends” with a baby sitting in front of her. Really, the young child just kept turning around and touching Kara on the knee.

Upon arrival in Los Angeles, we headed to the exciting Enterprise car rental, where we met up with Jordan. We rented a Ford Focus, and it turned out to be the exact same car Jordan had rented when he arrived. At this point, it was about ten o’clock and we were all getting tired from the flight and us being used to a time difference of three hours later. After a brief stint of not being able to figure out where the headlights were on the car (and Kara yelling this out the window to amused onlookers), we followed Jordan to his apartment. Fittingly, we heard the “Wind Beneath My Wings” in the car on the way (those who have seen Jordan’s performance of this on Camp Hymelick will understand!).

We arrived at the apartment and met Jordan’s roommates. After a short introduction, the first things we heard from them was “So, Jordan, we opened up the stove and the pen cap isn’t there anymore.” Apparantly, because of their lack of pot holders, Jordan had attempted to pull the tray out of the oven using a pen cap, which he dropped INTO the oven. The group was in agreement that it had probably melted away.

The real talk of the night, however, was that Jordan and Ian had gone to the Talladega Nights premiere and seen Will Ferrell. Ian gushed over the experience, saying that he called everyone he knew because Will Ferrell had given him the peace sign.

Then it was off to bed for our early adventures the next day!

Coming soon: Disneyland!