Los Angeles June 12-14

We checked into the hotel and got all set up. We decided to go to Santa Monica for the evening. We took a wrong turn out of the hotel and went a few miles the wrong way before we got straightened out. Since it was rush hour, we skipped the highway and went down the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) the whole way. It is not too scenic through the city. We found a pretty sweet parking lot and were off. We went to the 3rd Street Promenade and looked around for a place to eat. It was a very nice outdoor mall with dinosaur water statues in the center. No cars were allowed so there were people walking everywhere. Every little bit there were street performers. There were a lot of musicians, a guy that balanced plates and utensils on his head and threw more stuff (candelabras) up there from his foot, and the typical gold or silver painted “statue” people. Jeanette saw a little Greek place, but Ed thought it looked kind of shady. We decided to keep walking towards the beach to see what else was going on. It had been overcast and cool, about 65 degrees. All of a sudden, it got a little sunny, so there was hope of a nice sunset. We looked at the beach area; it was very nice with trees and flowers and bums everywhere. It was really nice, but there are a lot of homeless Americans on benches (Jeanette doesn’t like the word bum). We saw the pier off in the distance with a roller coaster and Ferris wheel. The sunset was nice for a few seconds, and then it got all cloudy again. The boardwalk was getting close to closing so we played two quick games of skeeball and headed back to the town. Ed wanted to try PF Changs so we headed over that way. We got in to the restaurant without a wait since it was pretty late. Jeanette had Chicken Lo Mein and Ed had Lemongrass Prawn with Garlic Noodles. The little sauce they mix for you was really good on the noodles, but much too spicy for poor Jeanette. Just to mention, this was the night of Game 4 of the NBA finals. Since the Lakers were playing the Celtics, we expected bars to be crowded with people watching the game. Most people seemed fairly indifferent. We saw as many Celtics fans as Lakers fans. We always heard LA wasn’t a sports town, but we were shocked. After dinner, tt was late, so we headed back to the hotel.

The next morning, we did some laundry to avoid early rush hour traffic and because some of our clothes were caked in red clay dirt from our Grand Canyon trek. We left around 10 to go to the post office and car wash. Then we headed back out around 11. The freeway was still packed, so we got off and went on some side roads to Beverly Hills. The houses on the way were nice enough, but fairly small (there were a few larger ones) and very close together. Beverly Hills was nice, but only a small area. We walked around quickly and took a few pictures. Jeanette got a chocolate shake from Baskin Robbins and we headed out. We stopped at an In n Out burger for lunch. After eating lunch, we continued on to Sony Studios for a tour. We got there and they showed us a movie about the history of Columbia/Sony. It featured clips of all their famous movies like Spiderman and Men In Black. Then they showed a “sneak preview” of Hancock that was the same as the one we just saw in the theaters. We headed into the studio lot and saw Main Street. It was an old fashioned town they use for movies by changing a few things here and there (i.e. change signs in front of stores, etc). All of the buildings had offices behind the facades, which is different from many other sets that don’t have anything behind the facades. Our tour guide took us into the main building where the producers work and showed us the 9 Oscars the studio had won since its inception. They are called Oscars because a lady working in the artist’s office saw the picture of the original design and said that looks like my Uncle Oscar. The name stuck. Then we went to soundstage where they were striking a set from the new Beyonce thriller Obsessed. A sound stage is called a sound stage because the old silent movies used glass stage which couldn’t be made sound proof. They used the term to differentiate between the two types. Then we went past the Happy Madison building (Adam Sandler’s production studio). He was inside and filming a movie Bedtime Stories but we didn’t see him. We saw his Escalade golf cart and a picture of his bulldog. Then we went to another soundstage for Obsessed. This one was a house with props all around. Then we went into the Till Death soundstage. Most of the set was gone since the show is likely to be cancelled. We did walk up the stairs to see that there was no second floor because that would be a separate set. After that we walked past the Angels and Demons set which we couldn’t look at. They were recreating the Sistine Chapel. Then we headed to the building where they made the background scenery paintings. They cost about $40,000 to rent one. To make it, they take a picture of a real location and trace it onto a huge canvas then paint it. It takes 16 years to be a master that is allowed to paint them. Then we headed to Jeopardy! I guess neither off us has watched in a while because the set looked much different then we remembered. Every single show was on hiatus so nothing was being filmed. We learned that there is an online test to see if you are smart enough to get on the show. Only 10% are, and then they are whittled down based on personality at tryouts. So if you tryout, don’t forget to smile. That wrapped up the tour.
We then headed to Hollywood since the studio was in Culver City. People were saying how hot it was, but it was only 70 and sunny. We parked about a mile away and walked down to Hollywood Boulevard. Ed thought it would be a nice walk past Sunset and other famous places, but it wasn’t. It was kind of shady and mostly fast food places. Then you get to the main street which is about 4 blocks long. We saw the famous Chinese Theater, Kodak Theater, and the Walk of Fame. We went through all that quickly and tried to figure out if we should take a bus tour. While deciding, we saw some terrible street performers. A guy from the Jimmy Kimmel Show offered us free tickets so we took them instead of going on the tour. We ran up to California Pizza Kitchen (real California cooking) for some cheesy garlic bread, a Mediterranean salad, and a BBQ chicken salad. On the way out, we caught a glimpse of the Hollywood sign in the distance. We got in line at 6:15 instead of the suggested time of 6:45, but it worked out because when they let people in at 7:30, we were almost the last ones. We waited for the Friday night show to wrap up and then got in our seats. They were taping a show for Sunday before the NBA finals. David Cook, the guy that won American Idol was on, so we were going to a show that we had never seen to watch a guy from another show we had never seen. There was a fat bald guy that warmed the crowd up. The girl sitting next to Jeanette was going crazy and they gave here a free shirt. Jimmy Kimmel came out after a bit and introduced the band and the announcer (Dicky Barrett of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones). He made some jokes, mostly about one unemployed guy in the front row. Then he left and we had to clap for some taped clips. Then the show started and he came back out. They showed a satellite interview with Barack Obama. Jimmy and Barack didn’t seem to be on the same page answering questions, probably because they weren’t in the same place. During the taping, they had to have commercial breaks, not quite sure why. It seems like they could cut them since it isn’t a live show, but they didn’t. Then David Cook came out and answered a few questions. Jeanette wanted him to sing, but Ed was glad he didn’t. That was the end of the show. We had a long walk back to the car and headed home.

In the morning, we had to pack and gather all the information that we needed for New Zealand. We got out of the hotel at noon or so. That didn’t leave us enough time to go to Griffth’s Park, so we went to Venice Beach. Our first impression was some flea market like stores and dirty street performers. We walked for a bit and realized we were headed back to Santa Monica. We went up there for lunch at the Greek place we saw the other day. It wasn’t great, but better than the airplane food we will be enjoying soon. We stopped for a crepe with dark chocolate and strawberries. We walked back to Venice Beach and our second impression was the same as our first. It was cool and cloudy, but the sun came out. That was a nice change. Very cloudy and cool all weekend. We found the outdoor gym and watched kids climb on some gymnastics equipment. We also saw a weight lifting competition. That part was pretty entertaining. We headed back to the car and drove over the airport.