I want to document this trip and I’ve spent the last two days going through pictures and trying to get everything organized but now I’m bored of that so I’m just going to start writing before I forget everything. I think the easiest way to go about this is to separate it into days, so that’s what I’m going to do.
Day 1: Friday, February 15th
Our first night in California, everyone was too exhausted to really do anything. Our plane landed around 5, so we went to the hotel to wait for my aunt to get in from Orange County. I kept falling asleep all over the place, and when I woke up she and my mom had gone to get us a rental car so my sister, my aunt Jessica, and myself walked around outside and explored:
None of us could decide what we wanted to do for dinner (five women trying to make a unanimous decision? HAH), so we just got room service. I’d never gotten room service before! You pick up the phone and tell the person on the other end what you want and they BRING IT TO YOU. I mean:
Day 2: Saturday, February 16th
So all the travelling mixed with getting knocked back two hours means that little old me crashed out around 11 PM – meaning I woke up early enough to see the sun rise over Los Angeles:
That morning, we went down to the hotel restaurant and got breakfast, then headed out to Santa Monica. People don’t lie when they talk about the 405… holy moly. I’ve never seen drivers like that anywhere in my life – they’re all so insane and yet so aware. They know the secret to the madness. It’s exciting and terrifying.
We finally made it down to the pier and it was one of those moments where you look at your life and can’t believe that what’s happening is actually happening. I never, ever thought I’d see the Santa Monica Pier in person. I’d seen pictures of the ferris wheel and people on the beach with the pier in the background and it just seemed like another planet, yet there I was:
There are so many awesome people lurking around – one guy was completely painted silver and took pictures with tourists for a small donation. He looked like a giant, silver Biggie Smalls. I got a photo with him, but it’s on my disposable camera and I’ve been snowed in the last few days so I haven’t gotten around to developing it yet. Anyway, he also gave us lollipops. Cool dude. There was a “Crazy Korean Magician” and this musician that was singing “Losing My Religion” and he was super cute and super good.
After checking out the pier, my sister and I went down to the beach and just reveled in it. I miss the ocean so much, and just knowing that it was the Pacific Ocean and not the Atlantic Ocean that I’m used to back home made it that much cooler.
After spending the afternoon in Santa Monica, we hit up Subway and headed back to the hotel (but not before seeing this scary, crazy old man almost tear apart a guy for asking for a cigarette – he literally started barking at him) to get ready for the P!NK concert. I never ever drink anymore, but my sister somehow managed to get me drunk off of rum&coke in about 5 minutes, so that was fun. I had a lot of firsts during this trip, including riding in my first taxi cab! Not that I really remember much of it aside from the photographic evidence of my intoxication that I will not be posting, thank you very much.
We got to The Staples Center and stared at it in awe. I may have been drunk, but I still appreciated the fact that SO many amazing artists have performed there, not to mention the Grammy’s had just been hosted there the weekend before. So cool. I hope I get to perform there one day.
We got to our seats minutes before P!NK went on and I was still quietly steaming over the fact that I had just paid $20 for two drinks when the show started. I’ve been to a lot of shows, and I’ve never seen a performance like this. P!NK is a fucking badass – that’s all that can really be said. She came out on a bungee chord and she danced and she was dipped in water and at the end of the show, she put on a harness and flew over the entire audience. Like… just awesome.
After the show, we took a taxi back to the hotel and all I remember is eating the other half of my Subway sandwich from earlier and passing out. True gangsta style.
Day 3: Sunday, February 17th
The next day, we got up and went to In-N-Out Burger for brunch. So. Good. I was so excited to see what all the fuss was about and I was not disappointed. The fuss is well deserved.
Then we headed out to Hollywood Blvd. We had to park in this parking garage, and for whatever reason my sister and I ended up getting tired of waiting and took off ahead of everyone else. We got in an elevator and rode down to the bottom floor. When the door opened, someone was walking in as I was walking out. It was a guy and I almost ran into him, so I looked up and mumbled an “oh, sorry” as he shuffled by me and my sister. I only got a glance, but in my head I thought, “He kinda looks like Orlando Bloom. Hm.” Sure enough, as we’re walking out of the elevator, he starts talking to the guy he was with and in a clear English accent he says, beautifully and eloquently, “I fucking hate getting ripped off like that, man.” I looked at my sister whose eyes had glazed over and as the elevator door closed behind us, she shrieked, “THAT WAS FUCKING ORLANDO BLOOM.” We had mini heart palpitations before my mom and my aunts came down and we were like FJDKAL; ORLANDO JKL;A BLOOM ELEVATOR SO CUTEEL;JJKKKL and they just casually replied “Oh, was that him? We thought so… he got off on the wrong floor.”
And that was that. Our first encounter with a celebrity. You best believe the remainder of the trip was filled with Orlando Bloom references and suggesting that we “call our friend Orlando to come hang out with us.”
As soon as we made it down to Hollywood Blvd. things started happening really fast. This guy came up to us not 5 minutes after we got there going on and on about a celebrity house tour and how he would lower the price for us and we wagered that we’d do it if he showed us to a restroom. So we ended up on this rickety bus with this Latino tour guide that called it “The Ghetto Hollywood Tour.” It was pretty fun though. We drove through The Hollywood Hills and Beverly Hills and Bel Air and he pointed out all these celebrity’s houses, though I’m pretty sure he was making half of them up. There was one, though, that I know for a fact he was being truthful about:
This was the last house Michael Jackson lived in, the infamous driveway from the ambulance photos. It was pretty emotional for me being there, being that close to where he was. We were only there for a few moments, but I could have sat there all day. There was a darling little spray painted portrait of Michael on the sidewalk:
The ghetto tour bus took us down to the county jail where all the celebrities like Paris Hilton and Winona Ryder and Lindsay Lohan spent their two nights in jail, so that was pretty awesome. The coolest part was driving through Beverly Hills, though. He stopped in the middle on an intersection so we could get this shot:
There was also this house which has now become my dream home. He called it the “Hansel & Gretel House” and it was apparently built for a movie that was never made, and now people actually live in it. It just sits at the end of this normal neighborhood. It’s got pumpkins that sit on top of the fence that surrounds the house and the only way to get to the front door is over a draw-bridge that goes down over a moat and it’s just so perfect:
We drove through Bel Air and saw the French Prince house, which was exciting. He also took us down the street where the original Halloween was filmed. He pointed out “Michael Meyers’ house” but I’m pretty sure he was making it up because I did some research and that house was moved years ago and is now a Chiropractic Office. Whatever. Even though I didn’t trust most of his stories, I know some of them were legit and it was still fun going through all the different neighborhoods.
After the tour, we went back down to Hollywood Blvd. which was being closed down because they were getting ready for the Oscars this weekend, so no cars were allowed to drive down it. We just wandered around and hit up a few gift shops before searching for Michael’s star in front of the Chinese Theater. Another emotional moment:
I also found the cement block that his children did for him about a year ago:
There are so many street performers and people in costumes and EVERYONE wants to be tipped for everything, which I was more than happy to when I found these guys:
I didn’t take a picture with Spiderman, but I took a creeper picture of another couple taking a picture with him:
That guy stayed perched on that corner for like 3 hours straight. Mad props.
After exploring all there was to be seen on Hollywood Blvd, we went and got dinner at Denny’s before we drove out to Venice Beach. On the way, I just happened to glance out the window and freaked out when I saw Randy’s Donuts to my left!
We weren’t able to go because at that point it was already like 11 PM or something but I so desperately wanted to crawl into that donut and pretend I was Iron Man. Anyway, Venice was awesome and looked exactly like it did in Lords of Dogtown – at least from what I could see from the window because it was late and we were too afraid to get out of the car.
We went back out to Santa Monica on the way back to the hotel at like 2 AM and it was completely deserted except for a few fisherman:
We just spent our final night sitting on the beach listening to the Pacific waves for the last time. It was such a surreal experience. I still can’t really believe it happened.
Day 4: Monday, February 18th
We missed our flight. Typical. Basically, we were supposed to leave around 9:45 AM and get home in the afternoon. Instead, we had to be moved back to a 6 o’clock flight that got delayed to 7 PM, and then 7:30 PM, and then 8:10 PM. We didn’t get back to Oklahoma until 1:00 in the morning, so we stayed with some family friends. It wasn’t all a waste, though…
After we were rejected from our flight, we went back to the hotel and slept until about 1:00, at which point we made our way BACK to LAX to get lunch and play the waiting game. We ate at this fancy little restaurant that looked like a train car. After that, we were walking back to our terminal and just as we were heading through the doors, I glance to my left and see a group of people getting out of a black bus. Then I noticed a certain ginger haired boy. I immediately stopped in my tracks and grabbed my sisters arm and I remember whispering, “That’s Ed Sheeran. Is that Ed Sheeran? I think that’s Ed Sheeran. THAT IS DEFINITELY ED SHEERAN.” And I kind of just stood there in shock and stared creepily out at him from inside the glass doors. I wasn’t going to go up to him because I felt like such a bother. He was with his friends and he had just gotten to the airport and I didn’t want to be annoying, but my sister basically pushed me out the door. I was a complete spaz, naturally. I sort of skipped up to him and said “hi” while trying to dodge all his luggage. He said “hello” and I asked if I could take a picture with him, to which he responded, “Sure, if you want to.” I don’t know what kind of nervous gibberish was leaving my mouth at that point, but my sister took the picture and I said “thank you so much” and basically just screamed YOUR’E AWESOME before I ran away like a scared little kid. I did hear him say “thank you” though. He was a super sweetheart:
After that, I found out he had played a show at the Nokia Theater the night before which totally bummed me out, not that I really would have been able to go. I’m pretty sure it was sold out anyway, but I met him! And he was awesome and cool and it was the perfect silver lining to an otherwise sucky day. We literally sat in our terminal for like 6 hours doing nothing but watching the evil screen push our flight back every 20 minutes.
Anyway, we finally made it home and now we’re in the middle of a snow storm. I miss California. I had such an amazing time and I just wanted to thank my Aunt Rhonda for putting the whole thing together and giving us the best trip of our lives. Like I said earlier, I never ever thought I’d actually make it out to California and see the things that I saw or do the things that I did. I have so many more pictures and so much more to share but this post is already too long and I feel like I’m in a daze while I’m reliving it. It still hasn’t sunk in yet.
It was like a dream.
Great pics and cool blog entry!
Great story of our adventure. Love Ronnie (Chelle)