Los Angeles: A Prettier New York.

Well we had made it safe and sound to Newport Beach.  Brie and I were sharing a bed on the floor of a beach house and nothing could have been more awesome.  The mattress was actually a queen sized Love Sac (I didn't know they made mattresses!?) and it was super comfy, except for one thing: I was on a slant by the end of the night, slowly rolling off of the mattress toward the floor which, fortunately, was only about a centimeter below the mattress.  But there I was, all slanted falling off of the bed.  In spite of this, I still slept quite well, and the next morning it was time to do exciting things like, drive to LA!

Los Angeles, or more specifically Hollywood, is about an hour north of Newport Beach.  Brie and I lazed around a bit in the morning, we had originally planned on leaving the house by 10am so that we'd be in LA by about 11 and then we could walk around.  See, we only had one thing planned: we were going to go be part of the studio audience for the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS.  Craig Ferguson (for those of you who don't watch his show) is the funniest (in my humble but very correct opinion) of all the late night talk show hosts.  Maybe its because most of his comedy is stream of consciousness so it makes sense about half the time, but the beauty of it is that he can get stuck on something and just run with it.  Anyway, the best part about Craig is that he's Scottish!  And that accent is the best!

Anyway, during our drive to Las Vegas, Brie and I had managed to procure tickets to the show (they were free which is even more awesome) and we were supposed to be there by 2:15 to park in the CBS parking lot, and then the show was to start taping at 3.  That morning, intending to leave early & walk around Hollywood before going to the show, we instead slacked off, took our time getting ready, got some lunch, walked on the beach, and THEN headed into LA with all its fast traffic and hundreds of highways.  (We also watched the Pixar short "Mater & the Ghost Light" no less than 7 times with Brie's cousin's little 3 year old boy who affectionately calls it "Mater & The Toast Light".)

The drive wasn't nearly as bad as I had expected it would be.  I was assuming there would be traffic, but it was so strange, again, despite the hundreds and hundreds of cars EVERYWHERE, there was no delay!  It's incredible!  We made excellent time, and arrived at the parking lot at 10 past two only to find that it was completely full and we'd have to flip around and park in a parking structure just one block away.  No problem, but now we'd have to pay.  Fortunately, it wasn't that expensive, so we parked my car in the garage, walked to the studio, and got in line with another 50 or 60 some odd persons who were also waiting to see Craig.  We had to wait outside for a while before they let us in to the actual lot.  And then it was checking tickets, ID's, bags, and we even had to go through a metal detector.  And then it was more waiting.  We got to hear the warm up guy, though.  His name was Chunky.  He was actually pretty funny.  But we all actually wanted to see Craig!

Finally, we were taken up to the studio.  It's a teeny tiny thing.  Only seating about 100 people.  It looks like a tiny black box theatre.  And CBS television studios isn't this big elaborate building, but rather a very functional  work space.  The "On Air" light above the studio was duct taped together, there were normal looking cords, cables, and lights all over, the seats weren't plush, but rather very functional studio seats, the set wasn't elaborate, just a simple desk & chairs on a rolling platform, and yet in spite of it all, it was just this side of magical to me.  LA was one of the places on this trip that I was looking forward to the most because I want to be in film.  Or at least I think I want to be in film.  And to get to go be part of a studio audience and go to an actual network television studio and walk & look around was oddly affirming.  It was fun to watch television get made, however unimpressive it seemed to be.  I don't know if any of this is making sense, but the magic of television was impressed upon me.  I want to be a part of it.

But as for Craig himself, he comes running out of his dressing room, and does his monologue to the camera and it's all very very funny.  He's indignant, he's funny, he's observant, and he's just a great performer.  And after his monologue, when they broke to change the set, he found out that it was one of the page's last day, and so he brought him on the show (spur of the moment) and let him get his 5 minutes of camera time.  His for that night was Sigourney Weaver, who is an absolutely excellent actress, but (it pains me to say this) a bit of a boring guest!  She didn't have anything too impressive or funny to say, and you could tell that Craig was working hard to get it to be as funny as possible (he succeeded).  But right before she was about to walk off stage, Craig tells her that he's got $50 in singles for her if she can answer one random trivia question.  He asks, she doesn't know the answer, he tells her the answer, she repeats it, and he makes a big (very funny) show of congratulating her on the right answer and gives her the money.  Smiles all around, and then a break.

So they stand up, and she's about to walk off stage when she asks Craig if she can throw the money to the audience.  He looks at her like she's crazy, but he suggests that rather than causing a stampede over $50, that she give the money to the page instead.  So she does, but just before she does, she keeps $1 for herself, and then randomly hands $1 to me!  What??!  Yep, Sigourney Weaver just handed me a dollar.  Why? Because I was in the front row.  That's the ONLY reason.  And it was awesome.  Straight up awesome.

So she walks off stage, and that part is done, and just before we begin filming the next part, Craig finds out that he doesn't have another guest for this show.  So instead, he talks quickly to the producer, he runs off stage, changes his suit, and tells us that he's going to a monologue for a show sometime in October (Oct 26, to be exact).  So minutes later, he comes back & does another (very funny) monologue, referencing stuff that's just happened an hour ago as though it was a month before.  I now have more respect for that man and his humor.  All in all, the experience was very very fun.  Look for me and Brie on the Oct 26th episode of the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

hollywood blvd

kodak theatre

After the show, we went & got my car and drove up to Hollywood Blvd.  This was really the only other thing that I had wanted to do in LA.  We parked my car in the parking garage under the Kodak Theatre (awesome), and started walking around, looking at all the stars on the Hollywood walk of fame, seeing some cool names and some that didn't make sense and some that we didn't recognize.  We popped into a souvenir shop or two and we were going to go into Madam Tussaud's but it was closed!  But the most random part about all of this is that next door to Madam Tussaud's at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the premier of Abduction (new movie with Sigourney Weaver & Taylor Lautner of Twilight fame) was going on!  So there's photographers everywhere, part of the street is blocked off, and there are HUNDREDS of teenage girls screaming at the top of their lungs for "TAYLOOOOOOOOR!!!".    It was awesome.  I think I saw the back of his head.  Brie reckon's she saw part of his face.  We're practically movie stars ourselves!

i want one of these someday

grauman's chinese theatre

taylooooooooooooor!

But rather than fighting traffic with all the paparazzi, we decided to get dinner instead at the Hard Rock Cafe.  Brie had never been, so since it was vacation, we figured now's as good a time as any!  And it was delicious. Got some BBQ & salads, and then it was time to find our way back to Newport Beach.  It had been a good day.  We made it back, talked to Brie's cousins a bit, and then it was back to bed.

The next morning was Friday, and it was a cloudy day.  A bit on the dreary side, so we were in no rush to get out of the house.  We played Yahtzee, did some more biking, riding to the end of Newport Beach on those fantastic beach cruiser bikes, got lunch (all you can eat spagetti!) and then rode up to the the other end, got a look at Balboa, and headed back to the house.   The highlight of the day, no doubt, was the frozen bananas.  This is a totally random thing that (apparently) is only here on these beaches.  I had never heard about frozen bananas until I watched Arrested Development, and I didn't realize that it was actually a thing!  All of these little beach food places sells them.  They're literally frozen bananas, dipped in chocolate, and then covered in your choice of (a rather limited selection) toppings.  I got crushed oreos and peanuts on mine.  And it was oddly delicious!  Who would have known??

there's always money in the banana stand!

the tip of newport beach

biking along the beach

When we got back to the house, we decided to go sit on the beach with Brie's cousin Zach, his wife Erika, & their little boy Noah.  Zach decided to surf a little bit, so the rest of us sat on the beach (well, Noah kinda rolled around on the beach and got all sandy & had a blast) while Brie, Erika, & I all had fun talking.  It was a little chilly though, still all cloudy, so we didn't stay out for too too long.  Back at the house after Noah went to bed, the rest of us watched V for Vendetta.  I don't know why, but I had never seen it!  And that movie is remarkable.  I will gladly be watching it again.

The next day was slightly cloudy yet again, but this time it looked like the clouds might burn off.  After another lazy morning, Brie & I took the bikes out to go get burgers for lunch.  We then went to go sit on the beach and enjoy the sun which had decided to show back up.  We took the beach chairs and sat out in our swimsuits getting tan.  But there was a nice little breeze which kept us too cool to realize that we were both (only slightly) burning!  Oh no!  I've got to wear a strapless dress next weekend in a wedding, and I'm slightly pink!  Gotta figure out a way to fix that!  But burn or not, it was very nice to sit on the beach & read.  I really really like New Mexico, but this is one thing we don't have that I very much so wish we did: reading on the beach.  Ah well, I suppose I could read in the park or something, right?  I've GOT to read more when I get home.  That's another of my goals: buy a bike and read.  (not at the same time).  After that, we went over to Balboa Island.  We took our bikes on the ferry, walked around Balboa, and got some scrumptious salt water taffy!

And that was our last day in Newport Beach.  To finish it off,  Brie & I and Zach & Noah (Erika was still at work) went to this little coffee shop/cafe called Alta and got some delicious dinner.  I then tried to bike back to the house freezing cold because the sun had finally set whilst holding a cup of piping hot coffee.  It was difficult but I succeeded!  That night, after Erika got home and Noah went to bed, we watched half of the BBC's newest version of Sense & Sensibility (the book I had finished reading on the beach was a biography on Jane Austen, so I was kinda on an Austen kick), and it was also fabulous.  We didn't get to finish it because we were all far too tired (and it's like 4 hours long), and Brie and I had to be up at 6am the next morning to take her to her flight.

6am sharp my alarm goes off on my phone.  It's church bells.  Erika had to be up for work at the same time and right before she left she commented that the church bells had freaked her out because she didn't know it was my phone alarm.  Oops!  But showered & packed, Brie & I very sleepily packed up my car and drove to Los Angeles International Airport.  By the way, at 7am on a Sunday, there is no traffic in LA.  We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, Brie's bag was not over 50 lbs (hooray!), and she got through security in record time.  She was on her way to Phoenix (for a layover before ABQ), and oddly enough, so was I!

I got on the road, and I was exhausted!  I don't know what it was!  I was nearly falling asleep at the wheel and I had only been on the road for about an hour!  This was problem.  I determined that it was a mixture of being up at 6am (something I have NOT been doing for the last 6 weeks), my lack of coffee, and a lack of breakfast.  I decided that I was in no rush to get to Phoenix, so I would stop and get breakfast and coffee at the next available opportunity.  Now, I've been craving pancakes for nearly this entire trip.  I've had them three times: all three were awesome.  But I was eating pancakes way more (and way too frequently) in abq before I left.  See, Mimi's Cafe has some of the best pancakes ever.  And here I was in California, where the highest concentration of Mimi's Cafe's are, and craving pancakes!  Next Mimi's I found, I pulled off and decided to have the best pancakes & a cup of much needed coffee.

Going to a Mimi's in a different state was something I never thought I would do, and if it hadn't been for those damn pancakes, I don't think I would have done it.  This Mimi's was NICE too.  It must have been newer than the one in ABQ because it was a very very very pretty restaurant.  More contemporary, cleaner (it seemed), and seemingly smaller.  I got my excellent pancakes.  The guy looked at me kinda funny when I ordered because I think he could tell I knew the menu pretty well, but they were awesome, hit the spot, and I was back on the road fairly quickly.  But not before I got my Starbucks (Mimi's has notoriously disgusting coffee).  And from THERE I was on my way.  I turned up the music as loud as it would go and I sung with all my heart.  (BTW, Guster makes good roadtrip music.  Haven't listened to Guster?  Check them out, homes!)

And this bit of the road trip wasn't half bad.  Once I had woken up thanks to my coffee & pancakes, I had fun listening to music for half the trip, and the other half, I listened to a seminar on why the Bible consists of the books that it does.  (Fascinating.  If you're interested I can give you the link.)  And then for the last 30 minutes I got to talk on the phone to my dear mother.  I miss her!  (Mama, I miss you & I was really glad we got to talk!)

And then I was in Phoenix.  Well, not Phoenix proper.  I'm in the north west bit of Phoenix, in a city (or is it a town?) called Glendale where one of my best friends in the whole world lives.  Lindsey, however, was studying her little butt off because she's currently in med school.  So I got into town, dropped my things off at her house, and headed over to the Starbucks (where she and her study buddies are regulars) to say hello.  They were deep into studying notes for a test they were to have the following morning so after saying my hellos, I offered to cook dinner for them.  6 weeks on the road and despite that I cook seldom when I'm at home, I miss cooking!  I ran to the grocery store and bought fixings to make some chicken pesto pasta and went back to the house to get settled in and wait for them to be done studying.

At the house I had a couple of hours to kill.  I grabbed Lindsey's guitar and started singing my heart out.  I didn't expect them to be coming so soon (Lindsey told me she'd call me when they were almost finished), so I was singing without any inhibitions at the top of my lungs and in walks her roommate & Lindsey.  I felt like an idiot!  But it was totally fine.  I started cooking dinner, got a little bit of help chopping up the chicken from Lindsey's roommate, and we all had quite a lot of fun talking and eating.  They all looked rather fried and a bit overwhelmed about the test, but dinner was fun nonetheless.  Lindsey and I got to talk a little more before bed.  I always love talking to Lindsey because no matter how long its been since we've seen each other, we're still just as close as ever.  She's one of my best friends, and we haven't lived in the same city for the last 6 or so years!  We used to go to summer camp together when we were in mid/highs school and we had fun reminiscing about that too.  But she had to study a bit more.  We put on season 2 of How I Met Your Mother, and then it was time to call it a night.

And that brings me to today.  Phoenix is my last stop.  I'll be home by the end of the week.  But don't worry, the adventures so aren't over yet!

TALLY:
miles driven: ~7,700 miles
time spend in my car: 123 hours
cities visited: 35
cities slept in: 19
states driven in/through: 27