Welcome to Sunny California
All right, I guess I've put this off long enough. I suppose this means that the LA trip I went on with Isolde from August 9th to August 12th is really over and that the summer's really coming to a close and that - holy crap! - I start work in about a week from now. Egads. Anyway, on with the recap of our short trip to Los Angeles. The trip might've actually been shorter than this recap is. So, you know, brace yourselves. I thought of editing it down, but really, I can't be bothered. Apologies; feel free to skip bits of it, or don't if you actually want to listen to read my rambles.
Our flight to LA was doomed from the start to arrive late. Departure was delayed by an hour and a half because the plane's friggin' PA system wasn't working properly - we kept hearing the flight crew over the stereo trying to figure out how to work the equipment. You know, like when someone leaves you a voicemail message and they don't know how to hang up their phone, and you hear things like "how does this thing work?" "is it still on?" "hello?...hello?" Yeah. Like that. And the fun part is that the onboard televisions weren't working properly for half the flight anyway (I think the PA system has to work for there to be sound) and the flight crew had to do the safety demonstration in person instead of just showing us all the standard video. So (1) we were delayed an hour and a half so they could fix the PA system, (2) it still didn't work even after takeoff, and (3) one of the flight attendants demonstrating the proper use of a life-vest put it on upside-down and then realized her mistake when she couldn't find the whistle on it.
And, as the icing on the cake, the bridge pathway that was meant to be connected to the plane when it landed wouldn't connect properly. So most of the people were already standing in the aisles of the plane, ready to get out and off to wherever they needed to be when, over the PA system (which was working then), the pilot was like, "Um...sorry for the delay, passengers, but...we're having a problem attaching the bridge to the door of the airplane." Everyone groaned in exasperation and some of us found the situation strangely amusing. Well, those of us who weren't worried about catching connecting flights or anything like that, at any rate. Ah, good times.
By the time we'd taken a shuttle van to the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood (an hour's drive from LAX), checked in and left our bags at the hotel, tracked down food at McDonald's (it was a long flight and we hadn't had much to eat since we'd boarded the flight back home in Toronto. We swore we wouldn't settle for fast food again for the rest of the trip), bought Metro day passes for the bus, and finally made our way out to the Getty Center, it was 4 PM. Originally we were planning to get to the Getty (heh. "Get to the Getty.") no later than, say, 2 PM, so our time was significantly shortened. We saw most of what we'd wanted to see of the paintings, photographs and sculptures, though, so I think we did all right. We got an unscheduled mini-tour of UCLA on the way back to the hotel because we got off our bus too early. We knew which direction to go in, though, so it was fine (if a bit of a walk :P), but we ended up cutting through part of the university grounds and, man, when you think the University of Toronto is big, go and take a good look at UCLA.
After that we wandered around Hollywood & Highland - the main touristy area, where the Walk of Fame, Grauman's Chinese Theater, the Kodak Theater and about a billion souvenir shops can be found, amongst other things. I wanted to make sure that Isolde saw all the good tourist spots because she'd never been to LA before. I'd been there before but it was a long time ago and it was great going back there again now that I'm older. I've got a different point of view on Hollywood these days - back when I was 13 or 14, I was more enamored with La-La-Land; now, I have more of a love/hate relationship with it: there are parts about it I can't help but like and parts about it I can't help but hate, but I still want to hear about it anyway. Oy.
The second day we got up nice and early so we could go to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour. There was an early-bird special if we went early - three dollars off per person? Sign me up! :) Let me tell ya: LA at 7 AM is nothing at all like LA at 10 PM. That early, not a creature was stirring other than the occasional car (I'm sure that elsewhere in LA, people were up already and off to work, but at Hollywood/Highland, nothing's open yet) and it was oddly peaceful compared to the city's regular energy. Anyway, off we went to the tour, which was illuminating and very cool. Before the tour, they showed us a 10-minute video that included some clips of WB's films and television shows, and let me just say - I think the studio must be that large based in part on my contributions to the company. I mean, except for the older black and white movies and a few others, I've pretty much seen them all. AND I could tell what they were from the short clips. Man oh man. We got to see different studio locations and sets used in the filming of RENT, Spider-Man, Minority Report, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, and the shows ER, Gilmore Girls, Seinfeld and Friends, to name a few. We heard a lot of trivia and behind-the-screens info (sadly, at least half of it I already knew), saw how things were done, and saw the back of Matt Damon as he walked in the opposite direction from our tour cart. The transportation exhibit was rather cool; we got to see some of the vehicles used in movies (including the flying car from the second Harry Potter movie) and take a green-screened photo in which the car from Dukes of Hazzard was sailing over our heads. Good stuff. Another cool part was the small museum on the studio grounds, where we saw some of the props and costumes used in Veronica Mars (!!), Harry Potter (!!!), Friends, and a few other less important productions. Heh. Oh, and I got sorted into Slytherin house, and Isolde's in Hufflepuff, but then I think that Sorting Hat might be biased. Also, it was just reiterating its pre-programmed line from The Philosopher's Stone (that's The Sorceror's Stone, to you Americans) and it called the first person in our group "one of the Weasleys". Biased, yes, but still cool. :) Isolde bought a few things from the WB store, but I was pretty surprised to find that there was nothing there that I wanted. You see, I'd more or less already bought all of the requisite LA souvenir stuff the last time I was in LA back in 9th or 10th grade. Sigh. I almost bought a Harry Potter shirt that I'd seen online before, but I decided against it. Maybe I should have gotten it? Eh.
After lunch we went to the Westwood Village Memorial Park because Isolde had just read Postcards from the Dead and wanted to go by and visit Marilyn Monroe's gravesite. In the book, it says that hers is easy to spot amongst the others because it's the only one covered in the lipstick and handprints of her many adoring devotees. Then we went window-shopping in Rodeo - we didn't go into any of the stores there, though, nor did we even buy any windows. Ha! That night we went to see Pulse at Mann 6 Chinese Theater, which was quite fun even if I did get bonked in the head by Iz went she jumped in her seat in surprise during the movie. Strangely, that's more fun than it sounds. :)
Day the Third was our trip to Santa Monica Pier - depending on traffic, it takes at least an hour to get there by bus, but I'd been there before and knew it'd be worth the effort. The beach there is massive and awesome; not a lot of shade, though. Also went on my first Ferris wheel ride ever, which was enjoyable, particularly because I couldn't see how high up we were at the time. Great vantage point to take photos from, at least. Anyway, we left Santa Monica around 4-ish 'cause we wanted to go check out the Museum of Television & Radio in the Rodeo area (we found it the day before); I'd heard of a museum by that name before, and that it was just archives of television episodes, but I thought this was perhaps something different (I was under the impression that the one I'd heard of was somewhere a bit further out of town, not right smack dab in the middle of Beverly Hills). Sadly, though, it was exactly what I'd thought it was, and since we were already there and we had an hour until the museum closed, we said Eh, may as well: let's watch a TV show! Heh. For lack of better options, we ended up watching an old episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Yes, we were in sunny LA, inside a television museum, watching Star Trek. Guess that's what you get when you travel with a Trekkie. ;) Too bad we didn't have time to check out the gift shop.
And, finally: the last day of our trip. Took the Metro Rail (LA's pseudo-subway system; only one of the lines is actually underground, you can't even get to most of the city by rail, it takes about five minutes to the next stop, and the whole thing is run on an honor system without any turnstiles or ticket collectors. Weird.) one stop to Universal Studios, which is as big and quintessentially-LA as I'd remembered it. It was Tourist Central, of course - I'm convinced at least half the people in LA (or at least the Hollywood area) are tourists anyway. Universal Studios was fun - went to see the Shrek 4-D show (presented in OgreVision), which was the same short movie I have on my Shrek 3-D DVD, except that the extra fourth dimension adds in physical special effects like wind blowing past your ear or "spiders" crawling out from under your theater seat and onto the backs of your feet. Good times. We went on the Mummy ride, too, which I was anxious about as we were lining up because, um, roller coasters and I don't get along real well. Thankfully, this ride was more about going fast and visual effects and a short backwards part than it was about curves, slow climbs followed by sudden dips, or loops. Thrill-seeker I am not. Tiffany would've been so bored if she'd been on that ride with us. ;) Another highlight of Universal was the special shows about special effects (ha! I totally didn't mean to do that, with the "special"s and all) and Isolde says she's got a better appreciate for movie-making now, which can only be a good thing from my point of view. Whee!
Time to head back to the hotel, get our shuttle van to the airport, and head home. Oh God, I almost forgot I have to mention that whole no-liquids-or-gels-(or-snakes)-on-the-plane thing. 'Cause we sort of, um...didn't know about that. At all. I mean, we'd heard about the incident on the news on our hotel television, but we hadn't heard anything about carry-on baggage restrictions and, honestly, we had so little downtime on this trip that we didn't get back to the hotel until late in the evening every day and never bothered to read the NY Times that was delivered to our room every morning before we went out. (By the way, why in LA do they bring you the NY Times anyway?) Anyway, at the security checkpoint, the security guards went through all our stuff and took out all the offending liquids, and seriously, you should have seen the look in my eyes when I thought I'd have to surrender my hand sanitizer. I mean, my brother got that for me! And it's scented prettily! And it was from the US originally ANYway! Heh. Anyhoo, we got everything sorted out and our carry-ons checked in and besides being a little fly in my mood ointment for a while, everything turned out just fine. At some point we realized we hadn't had anything to eat since the hot dogs and chips we'd had for lunch at Universal (there was actual real food there, but the crowds were unbelievable and time was short), so we just ate at Burger King and had our must-be-finished-before-boarding-your-flight drinks. Heh.
We got back home to Toronto, went to our respective homes, and met up again later that evening to go to Time to Deliver, the 2006 International AIDS Conference Opening Benefit Show consisting of speeches by Important People (Bill and Melinda Gates were the keynote speakers) and a concert. The whole thing would have been just fine and dandy...except that it ended 2 1/2 hours later than it was supposed to. Poor planning, that. There were such long, long gaps between each musical performer, too. The Barenaked Ladies were last: "Thanks for not leaving…we almost did," they said to the few of us (well, few compared to the number of people that were there at the beginning of the night) that had stuck around. Oh, also: our seats were "upgraded" one level, which was all good and all except that none of us had assigned seats anymore and it was rather annoying to only be allowed to look for two seats in a specific section when the section right next to it was practically empty. Blargh. Anyway, found seats eventually, and I got some cotton candy for Iz 'cause she'd wanted some earlier that same day (MAN, that was a loooong day) and we'd gotten ice cream instead. Also performing at the concert: Chantal Kreviazuk, Our Lady Peace, Blue Man Group, and Amanda Marshall, just to name a few.
Anyway, so that's that. The whole trip went by really quickly - and I knew it would, because four days is a short time to cover a city like LA, but it went even faster than I'd anticipated. I hope my travelmate enjoyed the trip as much as I did. :) And now that I've finally finishing typing this trip recap up, we can get on with our regularly-scheduled programming. Um, or we will, once I actually have something else to say. Tootles!
Our flight to LA was doomed from the start to arrive late. Departure was delayed by an hour and a half because the plane's friggin' PA system wasn't working properly - we kept hearing the flight crew over the stereo trying to figure out how to work the equipment. You know, like when someone leaves you a voicemail message and they don't know how to hang up their phone, and you hear things like "how does this thing work?" "is it still on?" "hello?...hello?" Yeah. Like that. And the fun part is that the onboard televisions weren't working properly for half the flight anyway (I think the PA system has to work for there to be sound) and the flight crew had to do the safety demonstration in person instead of just showing us all the standard video. So (1) we were delayed an hour and a half so they could fix the PA system, (2) it still didn't work even after takeoff, and (3) one of the flight attendants demonstrating the proper use of a life-vest put it on upside-down and then realized her mistake when she couldn't find the whistle on it.
And, as the icing on the cake, the bridge pathway that was meant to be connected to the plane when it landed wouldn't connect properly. So most of the people were already standing in the aisles of the plane, ready to get out and off to wherever they needed to be when, over the PA system (which was working then), the pilot was like, "Um...sorry for the delay, passengers, but...we're having a problem attaching the bridge to the door of the airplane." Everyone groaned in exasperation and some of us found the situation strangely amusing. Well, those of us who weren't worried about catching connecting flights or anything like that, at any rate. Ah, good times.
By the time we'd taken a shuttle van to the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood (an hour's drive from LAX), checked in and left our bags at the hotel, tracked down food at McDonald's (it was a long flight and we hadn't had much to eat since we'd boarded the flight back home in Toronto. We swore we wouldn't settle for fast food again for the rest of the trip), bought Metro day passes for the bus, and finally made our way out to the Getty Center, it was 4 PM. Originally we were planning to get to the Getty (heh. "Get to the Getty.") no later than, say, 2 PM, so our time was significantly shortened. We saw most of what we'd wanted to see of the paintings, photographs and sculptures, though, so I think we did all right. We got an unscheduled mini-tour of UCLA on the way back to the hotel because we got off our bus too early. We knew which direction to go in, though, so it was fine (if a bit of a walk :P), but we ended up cutting through part of the university grounds and, man, when you think the University of Toronto is big, go and take a good look at UCLA.
After that we wandered around Hollywood & Highland - the main touristy area, where the Walk of Fame, Grauman's Chinese Theater, the Kodak Theater and about a billion souvenir shops can be found, amongst other things. I wanted to make sure that Isolde saw all the good tourist spots because she'd never been to LA before. I'd been there before but it was a long time ago and it was great going back there again now that I'm older. I've got a different point of view on Hollywood these days - back when I was 13 or 14, I was more enamored with La-La-Land; now, I have more of a love/hate relationship with it: there are parts about it I can't help but like and parts about it I can't help but hate, but I still want to hear about it anyway. Oy.
The second day we got up nice and early so we could go to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour. There was an early-bird special if we went early - three dollars off per person? Sign me up! :) Let me tell ya: LA at 7 AM is nothing at all like LA at 10 PM. That early, not a creature was stirring other than the occasional car (I'm sure that elsewhere in LA, people were up already and off to work, but at Hollywood/Highland, nothing's open yet) and it was oddly peaceful compared to the city's regular energy. Anyway, off we went to the tour, which was illuminating and very cool. Before the tour, they showed us a 10-minute video that included some clips of WB's films and television shows, and let me just say - I think the studio must be that large based in part on my contributions to the company. I mean, except for the older black and white movies and a few others, I've pretty much seen them all. AND I could tell what they were from the short clips. Man oh man. We got to see different studio locations and sets used in the filming of RENT, Spider-Man, Minority Report, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, and the shows ER, Gilmore Girls, Seinfeld and Friends, to name a few. We heard a lot of trivia and behind-the-screens info (sadly, at least half of it I already knew), saw how things were done, and saw the back of Matt Damon as he walked in the opposite direction from our tour cart. The transportation exhibit was rather cool; we got to see some of the vehicles used in movies (including the flying car from the second Harry Potter movie) and take a green-screened photo in which the car from Dukes of Hazzard was sailing over our heads. Good stuff. Another cool part was the small museum on the studio grounds, where we saw some of the props and costumes used in Veronica Mars (!!), Harry Potter (!!!), Friends, and a few other less important productions. Heh. Oh, and I got sorted into Slytherin house, and Isolde's in Hufflepuff, but then I think that Sorting Hat might be biased. Also, it was just reiterating its pre-programmed line from The Philosopher's Stone (that's The Sorceror's Stone, to you Americans) and it called the first person in our group "one of the Weasleys". Biased, yes, but still cool. :) Isolde bought a few things from the WB store, but I was pretty surprised to find that there was nothing there that I wanted. You see, I'd more or less already bought all of the requisite LA souvenir stuff the last time I was in LA back in 9th or 10th grade. Sigh. I almost bought a Harry Potter shirt that I'd seen online before, but I decided against it. Maybe I should have gotten it? Eh.
After lunch we went to the Westwood Village Memorial Park because Isolde had just read Postcards from the Dead and wanted to go by and visit Marilyn Monroe's gravesite. In the book, it says that hers is easy to spot amongst the others because it's the only one covered in the lipstick and handprints of her many adoring devotees. Then we went window-shopping in Rodeo - we didn't go into any of the stores there, though, nor did we even buy any windows. Ha! That night we went to see Pulse at Mann 6 Chinese Theater, which was quite fun even if I did get bonked in the head by Iz went she jumped in her seat in surprise during the movie. Strangely, that's more fun than it sounds. :)
Day the Third was our trip to Santa Monica Pier - depending on traffic, it takes at least an hour to get there by bus, but I'd been there before and knew it'd be worth the effort. The beach there is massive and awesome; not a lot of shade, though. Also went on my first Ferris wheel ride ever, which was enjoyable, particularly because I couldn't see how high up we were at the time. Great vantage point to take photos from, at least. Anyway, we left Santa Monica around 4-ish 'cause we wanted to go check out the Museum of Television & Radio in the Rodeo area (we found it the day before); I'd heard of a museum by that name before, and that it was just archives of television episodes, but I thought this was perhaps something different (I was under the impression that the one I'd heard of was somewhere a bit further out of town, not right smack dab in the middle of Beverly Hills). Sadly, though, it was exactly what I'd thought it was, and since we were already there and we had an hour until the museum closed, we said Eh, may as well: let's watch a TV show! Heh. For lack of better options, we ended up watching an old episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Yes, we were in sunny LA, inside a television museum, watching Star Trek. Guess that's what you get when you travel with a Trekkie. ;) Too bad we didn't have time to check out the gift shop.
And, finally: the last day of our trip. Took the Metro Rail (LA's pseudo-subway system; only one of the lines is actually underground, you can't even get to most of the city by rail, it takes about five minutes to the next stop, and the whole thing is run on an honor system without any turnstiles or ticket collectors. Weird.) one stop to Universal Studios, which is as big and quintessentially-LA as I'd remembered it. It was Tourist Central, of course - I'm convinced at least half the people in LA (or at least the Hollywood area) are tourists anyway. Universal Studios was fun - went to see the Shrek 4-D show (presented in OgreVision), which was the same short movie I have on my Shrek 3-D DVD, except that the extra fourth dimension adds in physical special effects like wind blowing past your ear or "spiders" crawling out from under your theater seat and onto the backs of your feet. Good times. We went on the Mummy ride, too, which I was anxious about as we were lining up because, um, roller coasters and I don't get along real well. Thankfully, this ride was more about going fast and visual effects and a short backwards part than it was about curves, slow climbs followed by sudden dips, or loops. Thrill-seeker I am not. Tiffany would've been so bored if she'd been on that ride with us. ;) Another highlight of Universal was the special shows about special effects (ha! I totally didn't mean to do that, with the "special"s and all) and Isolde says she's got a better appreciate for movie-making now, which can only be a good thing from my point of view. Whee!
Time to head back to the hotel, get our shuttle van to the airport, and head home. Oh God, I almost forgot I have to mention that whole no-liquids-or-gels-(or-snakes)-on-the-plane thing. 'Cause we sort of, um...didn't know about that. At all. I mean, we'd heard about the incident on the news on our hotel television, but we hadn't heard anything about carry-on baggage restrictions and, honestly, we had so little downtime on this trip that we didn't get back to the hotel until late in the evening every day and never bothered to read the NY Times that was delivered to our room every morning before we went out. (By the way, why in LA do they bring you the NY Times anyway?) Anyway, at the security checkpoint, the security guards went through all our stuff and took out all the offending liquids, and seriously, you should have seen the look in my eyes when I thought I'd have to surrender my hand sanitizer. I mean, my brother got that for me! And it's scented prettily! And it was from the US originally ANYway! Heh. Anyhoo, we got everything sorted out and our carry-ons checked in and besides being a little fly in my mood ointment for a while, everything turned out just fine. At some point we realized we hadn't had anything to eat since the hot dogs and chips we'd had for lunch at Universal (there was actual real food there, but the crowds were unbelievable and time was short), so we just ate at Burger King and had our must-be-finished-before-boarding-your-flight drinks. Heh.
We got back home to Toronto, went to our respective homes, and met up again later that evening to go to Time to Deliver, the 2006 International AIDS Conference Opening Benefit Show consisting of speeches by Important People (Bill and Melinda Gates were the keynote speakers) and a concert. The whole thing would have been just fine and dandy...except that it ended 2 1/2 hours later than it was supposed to. Poor planning, that. There were such long, long gaps between each musical performer, too. The Barenaked Ladies were last: "Thanks for not leaving…we almost did," they said to the few of us (well, few compared to the number of people that were there at the beginning of the night) that had stuck around. Oh, also: our seats were "upgraded" one level, which was all good and all except that none of us had assigned seats anymore and it was rather annoying to only be allowed to look for two seats in a specific section when the section right next to it was practically empty. Blargh. Anyway, found seats eventually, and I got some cotton candy for Iz 'cause she'd wanted some earlier that same day (MAN, that was a loooong day) and we'd gotten ice cream instead. Also performing at the concert: Chantal Kreviazuk, Our Lady Peace, Blue Man Group, and Amanda Marshall, just to name a few.
Anyway, so that's that. The whole trip went by really quickly - and I knew it would, because four days is a short time to cover a city like LA, but it went even faster than I'd anticipated. I hope my travelmate enjoyed the trip as much as I did. :) And now that I've finally finishing typing this trip recap up, we can get on with our regularly-scheduled programming. Um, or we will, once I actually have something else to say. Tootles!