Wandering Aimlessly

Oh-kay! Before I forget too much of this, let me post about my trip. Since there wasn't very much "business" to take care of after the roommate fiasco, it was a pretty enjoyable vacation. [I didn't take many pictures, but they'll be posted in the "more" section.]

Sunday
After recovering from finding out I'll be moving alone, we headed out to see some of the town. Our hotel was on Sunset and La Brea, about two blocks from the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Mann's Chinese Theatre. We first set off for the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on Sunset for some caffiene and people watching. That is a very enjoyable place that we subsequently visited many times. Then we went driving up in the hills, looking at the sprawling houses and beautiful views of the city. After the drive, we headed to Mann's Chinese Theatre to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. (I liked it better the second time around.) After that, we took a stroll down Sunset again to a little Indian restaurant recommended by the hotel staff. It was yummy!

Monday
I had my interview at noon, so we headed out about 11. Got there awfully early, but that was okay. They took me to lunch and then back to the branch to meet the regional manager. It was, all in all, a three-hour ordeal, but it was good. After the interview, I met up with Sarah and Suzanne and we headed into Downtown LA to pick Noora up from the bus station. Once we found Noora, we went back to the hotel for a bit before meeting Noora's friend Angela for dinner at Mel's Drive-In.

Tuesday
Noora stayed at the hotel with us, because Angela had to work. I had an appointment to look at an apartment in West Hollywood, so Suzanne, Noora and I went. Sarah opted to stay home. Well, the guy never showed. Bummer! We went back and collected Sarah before going for a drive (and more house gazing) in Beverly Hills. We had a brief emergency stop at the Beverly Hills City Hall for Sarah to use the washroom before pointing the car towards Santa Monica and the 3rd Street Promenade. On the way, we saw Dave Navarro in his Hummer (I had NO idea who this was, but Sarah and Suzanne were pretty excited). We ate on the Promenade, strolled through some of the shops, and then headed to Westwood for the Spider-Man 2 Premiere.

We arrived about two hours before it was supposed to start, to get ourselves some parking. Angela had told us about a lot that was inexpensive. We stopped at Starbucks, and then headed across the street from the red carpet hoopla, where there were no barriers and no crowds. We parked ourselves on a bench and sat back with our coffee. Before long, however, people started gathering by us, and barriers were put up. Oh well. We were at the front of the pack, in any case!

As people started to arrive, their limos dropped them off directly across the street from us. And the neat thing was that anyone directly involved with the film came across the street to greet us. Alfred Molina (Doc Ock), James Franco (Harry), Willem Dafoe (The Green Goblin), Kirsten Dunst (Mary Jane) and Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man) all came over, along with the creator, the director, and a few others. The non-Spider-Man people did not cross the street (I think they were told not to), but Maroon 5, Hal Sparks, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and many others were there. Then Sarah (our Sarah, not Michelle Gellar) pointed off to the side across the street and said "Dom!" Heh. I don't think he arrived in a limo, but Dominic Monaghan was there, too. We waved and he waved back. That was fun. Pictures of all of this in "More"

After everyone was inside the theatre, we headed to Jerry's Deli to meet Angela for dinner. It was tasty!

Wednesday
Noora was off with Angela, so Sarah, Suzanne and I headed to Burbank for the Warner Bros. Studio Tour. We went in the morning to make a reservation for the afternoon. On the way, we saw Josh Duhamel (Tad in Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!... who I didn't know at all, but Sarah and Suzanne recognized). We had a few hours to kill before the tour, so we drove out to Encino to check out the Extended Stay I'll be staying in, and to make a reservation.

We went back for the tour, and were mistakenly given tickets to the screening of A Cinderella Story. The lady took Suzanne's away when she asked about it. The tour itself was pretty neat. They have a Harry Potter exhibit in the museum, which was probably my favorite part. Costumes and props from the third movie, mostly. Some from the first two. We got sorted by the sorting hat (Sarah and I got put into Hufflepuff, Suzanne, coincidentally a redhead, was sorted as a Weasley into Gryffindor, which was all done with random sound clips from the movie). The rest of the tour was neat... we went onto the "Gilmore Girls" Yale set (I'll have to watch the show now to see it), and got to see the new set for "Joey".

After the tour, we headed into downtown Burbank for food and to walk around a bit. Real cute place. I can't really remember what we did after Burbank... huh.

Thursday
Since Angela works at Disneyland, she was going to just take Noora to work with her. Suzanne and I headed out to meet Noora and hang out at the Land of the Mouse. We started at Disney's California Adventure, rode the Tower of Terror, the California Screamer, saw Muppets 3D, rode a ferris wheel over the Bay, and ate at a Mexican restaurant before heading over to Disneyland. There, we did the Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Star Tours, Mister Toad's Wild Ride, Small World, Matterhorn Mountain, Jungle Cruise, and Indiana Jones. Pirates of the Caribbean was, sadly, closed all afternoon. They kept saying they'd reopen, but it hadn't happened by the time we headed back across to California Adventure for Soarin' Over California (which was totally awesome). After that, we went to Disneyland Grand Hotel for dinner, and then headed home. Whew!

Friday
Sarah and Suzanne went up to Santa Barbara for the day, and Elaina came down from Bakersfield to do some apartment hunting with me. We drove all around Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Encino, and Woodland Hills looking at places. We didn't actually go into any, but called on a few to see about vacancies and price range. We stopped at Johnny Rocket's in Encino for lunch, and ended up eating a few booths over from Jeri Ryan from Boston Public/Star Trek Voyager. I've never seen either show. Heh.

After lunch, we made our way to Santa Monica to go to the Pier. We had ice cream, waded in the ocean, walked along the beach (sounds like a date, huh? *laugh*), and watched some guys play volleyball. Then we went to the Promenade for some window shopping and more Starbucks before heading back to Hollywood and the hotel.

Saturday
Suzanne, Sarah and I went to Melrose for some shopping. We went into Fred Segal for some sticker shock ($750 for a little cardigan), and to the Beverly Center (just a regular mall... nothin' special), and then to the music warehouse to try to purchase Spider-Man. They didn't have it. We went back to Sunset to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf one last time, made one last stop at Tower Records and Tower Video, and then headed towards the airport. We got there pretty early, but better early than late.

The flight was uneventful. Watched Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! so I got to see who Josh Duhamel was. Heh. We got in to Chicago early, but for some reason, it took over an HOUR to get our luggage. Ack! Arrived home about 2 in the morning, and that was that.

The lesson learned: I need to buff up on my celebrities. I would have recognized almost no one if it hadn't been for Suzanne and Sarah. I don't watch a lot of TV, so I didn't know half the shows they were talking about. Maybe I should take out a subscription to US Magazine. Ha ha ha. Or not. Anyway.

Below, pictures of Willem Dafoe, James Franco, Kirsten Dunst, Tobey Maguire, and Dom Monaghan.