Wandering Wells

10.22.2012

Ma - I'm a STAR! (Part 2)

Sunday morning, we were up bright and early so we could go on a tour of The Dolby Theater. Did I mention my love for The Oscars? Yes. Ok, so this is one of about a million pictures I had Tim take of the outside for me.

Oh look, here's another one...

Unfortunately (and I'm so serious about this), we couldn't take any pictures inside the theater. Supposedly one of the networks owns all the rights - blah, blah, blah - crushing dreams - blah, blah. LAME!

After our great tour, we found out we could get super discounted tickets to the resident Cirque du Soleil show, Iris, with our tour tickets. We decided to get some for that night and we ended up with tickets in the fourth row, center section, on the aisle. I'm pretty sure someone super famous sat in my seat. Yeah, I shared a seat with like Brad Pitt or something. No big. :-)

Next door, is the famous Grauman's Chinese Theater. This is a picture with Anne Baxter's prints - which was really special for me (I didn't know she was in there) and definitely reminded me of home.

And I couldn't leave without a picture of the Harry Potter trio - which Tim had to ask some people to move so their shadow wasn't covering it. (It was actually more of a "TIMMY - MAKE THEM MOOOVE!" from me - they got the idea.)

Proof that Tim was there...

And after all this, we still had about an hour to kill before our Brunch reservation, so we went to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Points for whoever can name these celebrities. Are you ready?

How'd you do? Pretty easy - yeah, but it was awesome!

Finally it was Brunch time at our hotel.

Then we headed out to find The Grove shopping center and the CBS studios, so we would know where we were headed the next morning. While at The Grove, we spotted Olympic Gymnast Shawn Johnson shopping at Nordstrom. Smart girl. And short. Very short.

Our next stop was Rodeo Drive!

We looked in some of the boutiques, which sadly, weren't what I was expecting. I say this because we've been shopping in the Ginza district of Tokyo, which is so over-the-top and so overwhelming, that the snooty little boutiques of Rodeo just didn't compare. Later, we found out from friends, that most of the merchandise is "in the back," but I just wasn't as impressed. And surprisingly, it was empty. There was almost no one shopping that day, so we couldn't even people-watch. The upside - CUPCAKES!

We left Rodeo Drive and tried to go see The Beverly Hills Hotel, but all of the surrounding streets were blocked off for an event, so we headed back to our hotel via The Sunset Strip.

And we ended the night with Iris. Follow this link for a preview video of the show. It was really amazing, but I think for me was seeing it in The Dolby Theater. That was just...awesome.

Ma - I'm a STAR! (Part 1)

I FINALLY got to go to Hollywood and I'm sold. It's awesome. By now, you should now that we went to a taping of The Price is Right, but in preparation for my TV debut, we decided to live it up - Hollywood style.

I 'Hotwire'd a sweet hotel - The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel - that was smack dab in the center of Hollywood. Literally across the street from the Hollywood and Highland Center.

Our room was great! A nice mix of modern and vintage.

We settled in and then headed out to find some stars! On the way, we took some pictures of the famous 'Hollywood' sign.

And then we were off on a search - our destination: Lucille Ball. I was a little disappointed that her star was in front of a shop for ::questionable:: ladies, but since those shops make up 90% of Hollywood Blvd, I shouldn't have been too surprised.

Of course, I HAD to get a picture in front of the Dolby Theater, aka The Home of the Oscars. If you know me, you know I'm obsessed with the Oscars, so this was a big deal.

That night we opted to see Frankenweenie at the famous El Capitan Theater, which has been the location for several movie premieres and offered a rather unique experience. Prior to the start of the show, they hold an organ concert with an original Wurlitzer organ and then before the movie, they had a laser show. It was a very cool!

We ended the night at the Disney Soda Fountain with an amazing hot fudge (and marshmallow cream) sundae! Did I forget to mention that the El Capitan Theater is owned by Disney? Next door, which you can kind of see on the right (above), is the home of Jimmy Kimmel Live - also owned by Disney.

Disney for FREE.

Every other week, I get together with the other wives (and their kids) for a park day on Coronado.A friend of ours was down here with her husband for only a few weeks, but in that time they had gone to Disneyland with friends. They ended up getting three-day passes, but only used two of the days. Instead of having them go to waste, she gave me the tickets! With two extra passes to Disneyland and only a week to use them, I asked my friend C if she wanted to join me. She had a guest visiting, E, so it worked out perfectly!

We started out touring the new Cars Land. I thought that we got there early enough for FastPasses to the Radiator Springs Racers, but they were closing up right as we got there. Bummer.

We followed that up with some roller coasters and the swinging ferris wheel.

It turns out I didn't explain the rides very well and we were all gripping the side of our seats on the ferris wheel. Me, because I don't like them and I don't like heights; Them, because the swinging is pretty unexpected.

After that we went on the swings, which was actually the very first time I had ever been on this type of ride.

Disneyland is currently decked out in Halloween splendor. It's awesome.

We went over to the classic Big Thunder Railroad, where C screamed "I just don't know about this!" from the last car the entire time. :-)

And then we hit up the Tea Cups and went to wait in line for the Matterhorn. When we went to get into the final waiting area for the Matterhorn, I realized I was missing my Minnie Mouse card holder. Why is this a big deal? Well, it was holding my annual pass, an almost empty gift card, and our FastPasses. But honestly, I wasn't that concerned about those things - I was more upset about the card holder! Tim and I had gotten those at Tokyo Disney and have a matching pair.

So I got out of line and started searching the ground. I asked people in line. I asked the ride operator. C and E had also gotten out of line by this point, so we searched the ground between the Matterhorn and the Tea Cups and then asked the T.C. operators. No one had seen it. Ugh.

At this point, I'm trying to keep a good attitude, because I'm basically hosting for my friends and don't want to be a big stick-in-the-mud, but I was pretty bummed. The operators all suggested we go down to City Hall and ask at the Lost & Found. Knowing that I had just lost it, I figured the best I could do would be to report it missing and hope someone would find it and turn it in.

We walked down the L&F and I gave a description of the holder and what was in it. The lady was so nice and said they don't usually worry about lost Annual Passes, because they can be replaced (it is linked to my picture and my fingerprint), but if it's with something, they'll call the owner. This meant my Minnie Mouse card holder, which made me feel better. And then - and this is why Disney ROCKS - the lady asked me "Is there anything else I can do to make your day better?" I said, "Well, yeah, I lost two sets of FastPasses too." So she filled out two "Skip to the Front" passes for us. Amazing.

After all this turmoil, I needed to blow off some steam, so we walked across the park to Splash Mountain and used our first "Skip to the Front" pass.

Somehow I convinced my two guests to go in the front...

They got a bit wet.

Then it was back to the Matterhorn to actually ride it and ask the operators AGAIN if they had anyone turn in my card holder. And...

SOMEONE DID!

The operator was so nice about it and even commented that she always loves the souvenirs people bring and then she finds out they're from one of the International Disney parks and not available here in the US. We were all jumping up and down with excitement. It was awesome.

Our day ended back at California Adventure, where we took in Tower of Terror. E even took out a chunk of C's leg on one of the descents. Guess I didn't explain this one very well either...

And we stuck around for the World of Color show - which we spent singing along to the songs and dancing.

In all, it was probably one of my most memorable days at the parks. It's a good thing we have annual passes, because I have definitely made mine worth it!

Beautiful Days.

To avoid posting another set of Disneyland pictures, here are a few random activities we've been up to down here:

Supporting our Seahawks one Sunday afternoon at a "The Local."

Some of our friends down here have a pool at the complex (well, three pools) and I just had to test out our new underwater 'Tough' camera!

Taking in one of the last Padres games of the season. It's nice not to have the traffic outside our windows anymore, but I miss the fireworks.

Tim and I were inspired to buy a kite a few weekends back. It was a great day and we actually had a lot of fun. Plus people kept asking us where they could buy a kite, so we must have looked like we were having a good time.

A Mexican sunset. I was shopping down in Chula Vista and could see the border (so strange) but this picture really doesn't do the sky justice.

To answer my sister's question "Do I do more than go to the beach and Disneyland?" Yes, I go to the pool, fly kites, shop, hang out with friends at bars and sporting events AND go to the beach and Disneyland. It's a tough life, but someone has to do it. :-)

Too much...

FUN. :-)

Have you ever gotten to the point, where there's almost too much to update on and so it never happens...

I feel like that's the relationship I have with this blog after every trip or adventure. There's too much. So I'm going to try and blitz blog over the next few days to catch up...bear with me!

I'm going to take you back to early September. It was a beautiful Saturday morning...

The boys had to haul our supplies (food, beer, clothes, beer, soda, beer...the best part, Tim and I don't drink beer!) with help from our resident kid.