Day 13

Day thirteen, July 21, 2011

In order to get the most out of LA in the little time that we had there, we all decided that it would be best to take a guided tour of the city to ensure that we hit all of the hot spots.  Doug, our tour guide was full of information about the city but also a jokester, we knew this tour would now be worth it!  Our first stop was in the middle of LA at a small park where we were able to get a good view of LA's "sky line" which after seeing NYC's was a little below par.  We took pictures next to fountains and monuments and headed back to the tour bus. Not before our photographer captured some close ups of various flowers, a true favorite of his.  I swear his room is going to be filled with portraits of flowers when he returns home.

  Our next stop was Griffith Park.  Here we were able to see the famous white letters up on the mountain that spelled out Hollywood.  We walked around and then headed back to the bus, but to our surprise, it was locked up and empty.  There was no sign of Dougy!  We weren't sure what to do!  Do we call the tour company?  Do we try to break into the van and see if he was taking a nap in the back seat?  I thought he grabbed the iPad and made a run for it.  All of a sudden, five minutes after meeting time, Dougy came huffing and puffing up the hill.  "Sorry guys, I forgot that however long it takes to get up the mountain will be the same time it takes to get down!". We piled in the bus and Dougy began driving on his merry way until he suddenly slowed up next to a blonde woman jogging and yelled "anyone famous?". I basically jumped up out my seat and was ready to retreat the bus when I sadly realized that I was not in the presence of a celeb.  But from this time on I had my eyes peeled.  

The Chinese theatre and Hollywood walk of fame was our next stop.  Here we walked along the sidewalks in search of our favorite celebs' stars.  At the Chinese Theatre we put our hands and feet inside the stars prints.  This street is also the home of the famous Kodak Theatre where the Oscars are held.  Back in the car again, we were on our way to the Farmer's Market where Doug said celebs are spotted all the time.  Just at that moment our Canadian friends, who were in the bus with us, interjected by saying that they had spent the previous day there and had seen Mario Lopez in the middle of the shopping center filming Extra!  Of course the moment the bus stopped, I was off to find AC Slater.  I spotted him right away and made my way over to him, trying to get as close as possible.  He was in the middle of shooting a clip for Extra that will be aired on August 4th!  I could not believe how normal he looked, very very cute (especially when he would mess up his line and he would laugh - his dimples were a killer!), but still just like an ordinary person.  Although he did have layers of makeup on and several bright lights shinning on him.  After a few minutes he looked at the crowd surrounding him and told us that when he turned around to give out shirts we should all scream and yell.  This did take a few shots because some star hungry individuals continued to try to get their 5 seconds of fame by waving and jumping up and down in the back of the crowd in hopes to be seen on camera even after being instructed not to.  I really can't complain though because we did get to see Mario longer.  After he was done filming he began to walk away and yelled that he would be right back.  Just then he turned and began walking towards the shops, I made a bee line to where I assumed he was headed and sure enough, next thing I knew, Mario was standing beside me.  I froze, mid step, didn't say hello, didn't smile, didn't tell him that I love him - I just froze! In the mean time some of the camera crew men began throwing out the rest of the t-shirts, Rob was all over it and snagged one right out of the air.

After meeting our second celeb (please recall Jona from Norway) we headed to the food section of the Farmer's Market and stuffed our faces, seeing as we only had a little bit of time before we needed to head back to Doug.  The food we ate was amazing and then we even topped it off with some locally baked donuts and old fashioned made ice cream mmmmm!  I learned to not ask Rob if he wants to "try" something of mine, because before I knew it, my ice cream was scrapped clean!

Now we were off to the good stuff - Rodeo Drive, Beverely Hills, and Bel air.   The brochure that we picked up in the lobby for this tour said that would be seeing 40 celebrity homes including The Playboy Mansion, Paris Hilton, Christina Aguilera, MJ, David Beckham and more.  Steph and I were psyched to be able to see celebs REAL homes!  We were hoping to catch a glimpse at a few of them as they were going about their lives as well.  As we began to crawl through the affluent towns, Dougy began pointing out houses that certain celebrities "used to live in".  Dougy, we don't CARE about "used to be's" we went the NOWS!! We saw a few homes of popular celebs such as Stevie Nicks, the cheating wh*re (aka Angelina Jolie), the actress who played Princess Lea,and Steven Lawrence.  We were able to see most of the actual houses when we drove by but when we reached the big guys, it became a different story.  MJ's old house was completely surrounded by twelve foot bushes and a concrete sliding door.  In front of his driveway was a bouncer looking man parked in his car making sure no one disrupted the late King of Pop's previous home.  Right across the street from MJ was Snoop D-O-double G's old residence.  As we continued along, we passed Elvis, Tony Curtis, and Frank Sinatra's old homes.  

Next came the biggest establishment of all, Hugh Heffner's Playboy Mansion! I was so excited to get a glimpse of this monument but once again all we could see were bushes, trees and concrete walls!  WTF!? We paid $60 a piece to not see famous houses!  Dougy, we want front doors and windows, not shrubbery and concrete walls! Letting me down Dougy, letting me down!  A few more we got to see included the following: Kim Heffner's, Liz Taylor's, the Hilton's and the Spelling's. Since Aaron Spelling recently passed away, RIP, they were preparing the house to be sold so the concrete door was open and we were able to get a sneak peek of that house.  The final house we saw is a very well known house, seen on TV for years and years, this house belonged to Will Smith's uncle, Phillip Banks!  We saw the FRESH PRINCE OF BEL AIR house!!  It looked a lot smaller than it appeared on TV but whatevs, it brought back fond childhood memories.  

After our unsuccessful celebrity house tour, we headed back to the hotel just in time to make it to the Laugh Factory!  We saw three comedians that night, the first is a mystery, the second was Eric Griffen from Workaholics and the last was TIM ALLEN!  (I hope I don't need to site what movies, shows, etc he starred in.  If it was necessary, then I have one piece of advice for you, CRAWL OUT FROM UNDER THE ROCK YOU ARE LIVING UNDER!). I can't say that any of us have laughed that much in such short period of time (with the exception of reading the blogs!). The tickets were cheap but they got you good with the two drink minimum.  The drinks cost as much as the tickets, but they didn't let us down, they were delicious!  

After wiping away our tears from laughing so much, we headed down to the Santa Monica Piers.  Here is where the historical Route 66 ends.  Also where Forest Gump ran to during his marathon across the country.  The pier was pretty standard, funnel cake, pizza, burgers, a few rides and some arcades.  We even got to see some seals while look t into the water! It was a chilly night by the ocean front so we didn't stay for too long.  It was about 11:30 and we were all getting tired.  We thought that the infants and toddlers that the fishermen and women had out at this time should have been getting tired as well, but apparently the parents thought fishing was more important.  

We finally made it back to the hotel and all passed out in a matter of minutes after a long, fun day!  Peace, love, and happiness, The Nomads!

Wait, one minute, after falling into a deep slumber, we and probably about three rooms to either side of us, were rudely awoken at approximately 3 am pacific time.  A scream, yell, howl, I'm not sure what to call it, emanated from somewhere deep down inside of Matt.  He somersaulted off the bed, still screaming with such terror, we seriously thought someone was attacking him.  Rob and Steph quickly jumped on him, started shaking him and yelling  his name until he calmed down.  After the longest thirty seconds of our lives, Matt finally awoke.  Huffing and puffing, he tried ti catch his breath.  "Sorry guys (deep breath), I thought (deep breath), that I fell into a homeless man's bed (deep breath). And him and his buddy (deep breath) were beating me up!". I  really don't know what to respond to that...we'll just leave it at that, you guys come up with your own responses.  This is something we will forget, even after we die.