I got to visit Dave, the best guy in the world and did not have to work for a whole week. Yeah, I'm jealous of vacation me too. Dave showed me all of the mucho important sights including: The Hollywood sign, Hollywood and Vine, The Sunset Strip, Amoeba Music, Vazquez Rocks (where they made Star Trek movies I guess), Venice Beach, Malibu Beach, The La Brea tar pits, Paramount Studios, and the Getty Museum. Whew!!! I also got to meet my oldest, funniest friend from grade school, TJ. Yay! Good freakin' times. Oh and not having to sweat everytime I stepped outside was a big plus. However, having to have a jacket on me at all times, was not. People should be warned of the waaacky weenie shrinking weather.
L.A. Story did not prepare me for this. I did get to see a lot of houses with really big doors. Dave lives off of Venture Blvd., so of course Tom Petty was sung for most of my first day. After that it was replaced by Shaun Mullins and finally Weezer.
Highlight reel
Beverly Hills
Our first stop in the Grand tour of LA. We had breakfast at The Farms. I could not help but order the eggs benedict.
Vazquez Rocks
Dave got to live out his Star Trek fantasies.
And I pretended to be rugged.
Venice Beach
The graffiti walls were really fun as our photo backdrop.
Hollywood
Dave found a great place to get a shot of the Hollywood sign. The GPS coordinates are on his Flickr site if you want to get your own picture perfect shot.
We also stopped by Amoeba Music, an institution. It was featured in 'A Lot Like Love,' one of my favorite sappy movies.
That night we got to see Dave's friend's sketch comedy Top Story Weekly! at a theatre on Sunset and Vine.
It was hilarious. I'm always afraid of seeing friends or friends of friends and gift client shows in case they suck. But I was very much amused. Here's the link to that night's sketch.
Oh, and we also stopped by Grauman's Chinese theatre.
Dave was again, excited about the Star Trek related stuffs. I, on the other hand, put my hands on Myrna Loy and Roz Russel. I loved that Myrna actually signed it to Sid Gaumann...Love those ladies!
Dave showed me this place where we ordered from a computer screen.
It was futuristic, yet retro. I'm still not sure we should have tipped the dude that walked us through the ordering system. I mean, did he really 'wait' on us?This of course was followed up by more coffee, this time at Beard Popa's where we munched on a cream puff. hmmm.....
The Stinky Rose
Yum. I loved the roasted garlic appetizer. Yum. I wonder what a garlic bath would be like. Yum.
Paramount studios
I was really excited about seeing where a bunch of my favorite movies were made with stars like Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Dave memorized the sound stages where Star Trek shows were filmed. yeah. Griffith Observatory- It was built shortly after the big quake and is one of the sturdiest structures in LA.... just in case you need to find some shelter when the next big one hits. We also shot some really cool night shots of the city. Soooo LA.
Historic Filipino Town
It's sort of Ghetto-y, but what else is anyone to expect of "filipino town." I saw my first Jollibee outside of the Philippines. Dave had his first taste of halo halo. I was deeply disappointed that they didn't have pancit.
Also, I saw another sign... one that spells chocolate starting with a 'T'.
Malibu
I had the best roast beef sandwhich at the Malibu kitchen. Then I saw Gerard Butler.
How awesome is that? Oh, I also had the misfortune of overhearing some really spoiled teenagers talk about what car they should make their parents buy them. Then I saw said asshole drive off in a POS Ford pickup.
CBS lot- Studio City
We visited the NY street of the lot where Dave works in Studio City. It's also where Cheers, Friends, and Seinfeld filmed. I've known this for a long time, but I still can't believe he has his own spot on the lot.
The Brady Bunch house is also down the street from Dave's. He felt bad for going over there because the lady in the house gets a lot of hassel. I did not have any qualms posing. As you can see.
The La Brea Tar pits
It was neat to smell tar in nature. There were also a bunch of little grade school catholic kids visiting that day. The girls had the exact same plaid dresses on I wore when I was a kid. Soooo cute.
Yoghurt- I had a lot of frozen yogurt on this trip. I liked that it was actually yogurt and tart. Green tea from Pinky's with Mango is my fave. Yum.
The Laugh Factory
We went on Thursday, Tom Arnold night. It helps to be famous and have friends who are famous. Not us, Tom and his friends.
We got to see Kevin Nealon and Bob Saget. And hear Sally Kellerman speak from the shadows. That night the Prop 8 Protestors decided it would be a good time to block traffic for two hours. A 20 minute drive back turned into two and a half hours.... awesome! Dave did discover a new way home though. Glass half full... Also, it inspired me to do some Youtube soul searching and found this hilarious clip.
Getty Museum
We stopped by here on my last full day in the city.
The museum and grounds are beautiful. While we didn't hear any music there, I can imagine that the acoustics would be great in the plaza. Also, I could not stop myself from saying, "The Gettys, the Rothchilds, and Colonel Sanders before he went tits up." Dave used this opportunity as a chance to wear his new flip flops.
Which helped him to almost flip completely over himself on the slippery marble. It reminded both of us of the houseboy in "The Birdcage." I loved the Renaissance art with all of the Catholic imagery. Dave did not seem to dig it as much...
jewish.... ;)
Can't wait to get back.... ;)
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