California, part 1 (aka, Sunday)
So, I'm only about a month late. Not quite.
We flew in early Sunday morning. The flight wasn't full, so we got to have a seat in between us, which was nice. I spent a little bit laying across it and sleeping. Too bad the seat belt was digging into my side. Still, it was better than the flight home, but you'll have to wait for that. My mom got their continental breakfast, and I was going to get the same, but she got the last one, so I got the fruit plate and just gave her the melon out of it. It was quite a bit of fruit for the money, really.
But nobody cares about my flight and food.
Once we got there, we got a shuttle to the hotel. Our room wasn't ready yet, so we walked over to Hollywood & Highland, the shopping center that was right in front of our hotel. I think we went to Starbucks before my "star" sighting, but it could have been the other way around. Anyhoo, we sat there and had this great view of the Hollywood sign, and it was just brilliant. Holy cow, we're in HOLLYWOOD. But yeah, that star sighting. We're walking in H&H, and there's this guy walking there, and I'm thinking "Gee, he looks familiar." Nothing was clicking, though, and I probably wouldn't have approached him anyway, but it was Joe Manganiello, who *I* recognized as Brad from How I Met Your Mother. He was Marshall's other groomsman on the season finale, and he's been in a handful of other episodes. Of course, hindsight, and duh, he's on ER, too (Officer Litchman). So yeah, we'd been there for a half a second, and I'd already "recognized" someone, so that was exciting.
We went over to Graumann's after that for a few and took some pictures of the handprints and whatnot. Just basically killing time while they finished our room. That's when we were accosted by Lucille Ball. Someone should warn you that they come and try to get you to pay for pictures. That's just not right. But yeah, my mom gave her a couple of dollars. Weird.
Then we went back to the hotel, got in our room (nice place, terrible view), and then decided to head off to Universal. This was the one and only time we took the...is it the Metro there? I don't remember. We got off the metro, crossed a couple of streets, and then joined the crowd waiting for the shuttle that takes you up the giant hill. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not racist by any stretch of the imagination, but I have never felt so white in my entire life. We were the ONLY caucasians in the bunch. Everyone else was hispanic of some form or another. It was kinda weird, coming from the white white place where I live. So we went into Universal and straight to the Studio Tour, which was nice. Not excellent, but nice. Besides Wisteria Lane, I think my favorite thing that we saw was the wall that he bumps into in The Truman Show. Yeah, I know I'm weird. Being a weekend, there was no chance really in seeing anyone, but we had a free day to come back to do that...right? Sure.
After the Studio Tour, I went and rode a couple of the rides (The Mummy ride, Jurassic Park). Got a little wet on the latter, but not bad, and it was warm enough that it didn't matter too much. We went into the I Love Lucy Tribute, which we both really enjoyed, and a couple of stores, though I never did find anything I really wanted to buy. (Hello, Universal Studios, where's the fun NBC show stuff?)
We ended up leaving Universal, going and eating at CPK at H&H, and then back to the hotel in time to watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters. We're such partiers. Oh, and at some point during EM:HE, Miranda called, and we decided that it would probably be best if we got together on Monday, so we made tentative plans to do that.
Next up will be Monday, but I don't want to write any more right now.
We flew in early Sunday morning. The flight wasn't full, so we got to have a seat in between us, which was nice. I spent a little bit laying across it and sleeping. Too bad the seat belt was digging into my side. Still, it was better than the flight home, but you'll have to wait for that. My mom got their continental breakfast, and I was going to get the same, but she got the last one, so I got the fruit plate and just gave her the melon out of it. It was quite a bit of fruit for the money, really.
But nobody cares about my flight and food.
Once we got there, we got a shuttle to the hotel. Our room wasn't ready yet, so we walked over to Hollywood & Highland, the shopping center that was right in front of our hotel. I think we went to Starbucks before my "star" sighting, but it could have been the other way around. Anyhoo, we sat there and had this great view of the Hollywood sign, and it was just brilliant. Holy cow, we're in HOLLYWOOD. But yeah, that star sighting. We're walking in H&H, and there's this guy walking there, and I'm thinking "Gee, he looks familiar." Nothing was clicking, though, and I probably wouldn't have approached him anyway, but it was Joe Manganiello, who *I* recognized as Brad from How I Met Your Mother. He was Marshall's other groomsman on the season finale, and he's been in a handful of other episodes. Of course, hindsight, and duh, he's on ER, too (Officer Litchman). So yeah, we'd been there for a half a second, and I'd already "recognized" someone, so that was exciting.
We went over to Graumann's after that for a few and took some pictures of the handprints and whatnot. Just basically killing time while they finished our room. That's when we were accosted by Lucille Ball. Someone should warn you that they come and try to get you to pay for pictures. That's just not right. But yeah, my mom gave her a couple of dollars. Weird.
Then we went back to the hotel, got in our room (nice place, terrible view), and then decided to head off to Universal. This was the one and only time we took the...is it the Metro there? I don't remember. We got off the metro, crossed a couple of streets, and then joined the crowd waiting for the shuttle that takes you up the giant hill. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not racist by any stretch of the imagination, but I have never felt so white in my entire life. We were the ONLY caucasians in the bunch. Everyone else was hispanic of some form or another. It was kinda weird, coming from the white white place where I live. So we went into Universal and straight to the Studio Tour, which was nice. Not excellent, but nice. Besides Wisteria Lane, I think my favorite thing that we saw was the wall that he bumps into in The Truman Show. Yeah, I know I'm weird. Being a weekend, there was no chance really in seeing anyone, but we had a free day to come back to do that...right? Sure.
After the Studio Tour, I went and rode a couple of the rides (The Mummy ride, Jurassic Park). Got a little wet on the latter, but not bad, and it was warm enough that it didn't matter too much. We went into the I Love Lucy Tribute, which we both really enjoyed, and a couple of stores, though I never did find anything I really wanted to buy. (Hello, Universal Studios, where's the fun NBC show stuff?)
We ended up leaving Universal, going and eating at CPK at H&H, and then back to the hotel in time to watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters. We're such partiers. Oh, and at some point during EM:HE, Miranda called, and we decided that it would probably be best if we got together on Monday, so we made tentative plans to do that.
Next up will be Monday, but I don't want to write any more right now.