Hooray for Hollywood...Part 1

It's been over a week since I've returned from my short vacation to California. By this past Saturday I was finally set back to Honolulu-time, and Sunday was the first day that I haven't woken up at six o'clock since last Wednesday.

Here's a summary of my trip, which was from February 16th to the 20th. I'll write about that Friday and Saturday, and Sunday and Monday will be in another entry. You can also see my trip pics in my Flickr account (the link is at the top left corner of my blog).

So on Friday the Sixteenth, Aaron dropped Katie and me off at HNL airport. I'm grateful that Katie and I were prepared for all the security checks (like checking in our liquid toiletries and tweezers, plastic-bagging our carry-on liquids--all which need to be 3 fl. oz. and under), because everything was fast and stress-free. After a five hour flight, we arrived at John Wayne Airport to surprisingly warm weather! I didn't even need a jacket! We caught a shuttle to Amanda's dorm room at Chapman University; the driver dropped us off first instead of the four guys who were waiting in the shuttle before us! I think Amanda was happy to see us, and it was good to see their high school friend Blaise since he didn't come home from Seattle for Christmas.

I woke up everyone at seven a.m. on Saturday morning (after going to bed at almost 3 a.m.) so that we could get breakfast at Blue Frog, this bakery that Amanda works at. It's a ten minute walk from the dorms, and we were able to cut through campus to get there. I must say that I enjoy the small town feel of the Orange County Circle--there are cute antique shops lining the streets plus a fountain and sitting area in the center of the circle. Amanda introduced Blaise, Katie, and me to her co-workers and her boss. After breakfast (I ordered a yummy egg, ham, and cheese croissant with a side of homestyle potatoes) we headed toward the Orange County Train Station so that we could catch the 9:50 train to L.A. Union Station.

I must say that trains are so much fun! Being able to see some scenery is the most fun about it. We travelled past Angels Stadium and stopped at Fullerton before we got to Union Station. From there, we caught the metro to the Hollywood and Highland stop. I kept getting motion sickness from the metro rides! After we exited the metro stop, we stood in awe of being right on Hollywood Boulevard--right on the Walk of Fame! We had some misdirection getting to the Renaissance Hotel, which was right up the block from the metro stop (I told everyone that it was up the block, but they didn't believe me). After that, I was given the nickname "Den Mother" because I was taking care of three cubs.

After checking into our hotel, we hopped back on the metro so that Katie could go to J-Town and Little Tokyo. We got off the metro at the Civic Center stop, and we thought that it wasn't that far but of course we were wrong. It was 90 degrees in Downtown L.A., and we must have walked over a mile to get there, so I was a grouchy, sweaty, thirsty Sara. Once we got to Little Tokyo, we went to Mitsuwa, which is a Asian market that's like a mash-up of Shirokiya, Marukai, and Daiei (or Don Quijote). After spending some time in there and getting lunch in the food court, we decided to call a cab to take us to Melrose Ave so that we could do some shopping. Melrose was excellent; I bought three tops from this boutique and was disappointed (once again, since I was disappointed when I went to Melrose in Fall 2004) with the Urban Outfitters.

It turns out that as we were walking down Melrose, we were actually walking in the wrong direction to our metro stop. Yup, about two hours in the wrong direction. We had to be at the hotel to get ready for Wicked the musical at 8:00 p.m., and it was already about 6:00 p.m. Luckily there was a cab that was cruising across the street, so we hailed it and about $14 later we were at the hotel. We quickly got ready to see Wicked at the famous Pantages Theatre; Amanda, Blaise, and Katie couldn't contain themselves. I seriously thought that they were going to scream as soon as we got there.

The play was really good; in fact, it was one of the best musicals I have ever seen so far (other than We Will Rock You in Vegas, but that doesn't count as a real musical.) I thought that the story was genius--you can read up on it here if you want. When I got back to Honolulu, I saw that stars like Jennifer Garner saw the opening night of Wicked on the Wednesday of that week. That probably means that there were some celebrities in the audience, although I didn't see any. We stayed at the back entrance after the musical got out so that we could get the stars signatures. Amanda and Katie got Eden Espinosa's (Elphaba) and Megan Hilty's (Glinda) autographs, plus we took pictures with them.

On the way back to the hotel, Blaise and Amanda come up with the genius idea of walking back from Pantages along Hollywood Boulevard. It's about a mile to walk there...at 11:00 p.m....with all sorts of weirdos standing around. You can bet that Katie and I were more than pissed off about that experience. When we finally got back to the hotel, we were tired and hungry, so we ordered room service. $13 for a hamburger? You bet.

To be continued...