L.A.

A few weeks back Ryan and I took a star-studded trip to California.  Let's start with this, the real reason for the (free) trip to Cali:

(Eh?  How about some of this action?)

(If you happened to miss the old post, you can catch up on the reasons why here.)  Just to clarify, no he was not on Jeopardy as a contestant, he just won an online version and they flew us out there to watch a taping as part of his prize package.

They even let the pregnant wife jump in for a photo. (And I'll say that Alex Trebek still looks pretty darn good after all these years - although not too fake, like he can still move his face :)

So we got to go watch them tape three shows (they tape 5 in a day - ours doesn't even air until next March), and we were total VIPs getting bags full of Jeopardy swag, getting prime seats, etc. Then after the show Ryan got pictures with Alex and then they had him tape a bunch of promos for their contests - just so people could see a real, live winner and be inspired that someday it could be them.  They had him say all sorts of cheesy lines like, "It's so easy!" and then throw a bunch of fake money in the air.  But it was fun. And he looks lovely in makeup.  :)

We spent the first few days in L.A. hanging out with old friends and checking out the California scene.  Here we are a Diddy Reese - an insanely long line to wait for an ice cream sandwich.  The novelty is you choose what two kinds of cookies you want and then what kind of ice cream, but apparently it always has a steady line and is only $1.50.  We felt totally in the hip scene knowing about this place. It was right by UCLA and right by where they've had the Twilight premieres too.  It was so fun seeing my friend Kimber and her husband Chad and their little boy. Wish we didn't live on opposite sides of the country in places we both can't wait to get out of.  :)  

Then we drove out in the middle of the mojave desert to where our other friends live - pretty much a hop, skip and a jump from Death Valley.  Wow, was that place out there or what.  But he is our friend who is a rocket scientist, and well, that's where they do their kind of thing. He and Ryan grew up together and it was fun to see their totally different lifestyle out there.


 

And I was so happy to see mountains and red rocks.

And pimped out, um, industrial vans?

Then it was off to  

Beverly Hills.

We stopped in at trendy Sprinkles cupcakes but unfortunately didn't run into Katie Holmes or Paris Hilton or any of those other Sprinkles-loving celebrities.  But they were tasty. And unfortunately the "secret phrase" for the day had already been used up.  What is it with Californians and their secret phrases for restaurants? Like In-N-Out.

Then Ryan had it in his mind that he really wanted to drive up to the Hollywood sign. Like really drive up to it (you can't, we found out).  But we did get close.  Don't bother though- the houses up there aren't even nice ones and the roads are narrow and windy and crazy - worse than Ireland. And we got a lovely view of L.A. smog.

Then we headed over to the Chinese theater and checked out the Hollywood squares.  It was pretty cool to see some of them that were so old - like Shirley Temple from 1935.   

Luck would also have it that they happened to have the red carpet rolled out while we were there for the Burlesque premiere so we decided to stick around to see what it was like.  Cool, it turns out.  And definitely full of celebrities.  Cher and Christina Aguilera came right over to us, and I even got a high five from Will Farrell.  There were actually a lot of other big names in the film too, like Stanley Tucci, Kristen Bell, and Eric Dane (McDreamy from Grays Anatomy).  

I wasn't quick enough to get good pictures when Cher was right by us, but dang that woman looks good for 64. 

James Marsden was there:

The guy from Sex and the City: 

 Khloe Kardashian:

 Mario Lopez

Cam Gigandet is also in the movie (think James from the first
Twilight.)

There was also Kathy Griffin, a judge from So You Think You Can Dance and a bunch of other people I didn't know the names of or feel like putting pictures up of.  Seriously crazy - I saw more celebrities in one trip to L.A. then I have in all my years living in NY and Miami combined!






We did get into a Tonight Show taping and saw Julianne Moore, Nelly as the musical guest, and the kid that plays Drako from Harry Potter. I was a little scared to see him in person, but he was a really nice kid. Actually the fourth boy in a family too, and look what a star he turned out to be.  It was funny because Leno asked if people were afraid of him in real life because of the character he plays. He said yeah, you get a lot of screaming children, but then he said oddly, you also get like moms that come up and say, "You're my son's favorite!" to which he said, (in his cute British accent), "That's, um, concerning...."  He was pretty funny.

We ate lots of food - besides the best cupcakes, we also ate what were supposed to be the best fries -at this random hot dog shack with seriously the most amazing fry sauce, the best cream puffs....and who knows what else. If I keep traveling and eating my way through this pregnancy the way I am I may surpass my twin weight gain.

And seriously this sign cracked me up.  Who's ever heard of a dress code for a bowling alley?  I guess ritzy L.A. has.  But good grief - fitted attire required?


We also got in one quick trip to the L.A. temple before we left on a red-eye to get home.  Fun trip. And a little exhausting.




A huge thank you to my sister who dropped her plans, had to re-arrange her work schedule and about 4 other people's so that she could come last minute to watch our kids when our other plans didn't work out.  They loved having her here!