Spiderman, Hannah Montana & Elmo! Oh My!

Task 5/30: See Wicked in Hollywood with .
Complete: February 2, 2008



I've lusted to see this show longer than I can remember. I do know that ever since the show came to SF over 5 years ago and a friend fell through on tickets that I assuredly would have had secured myself, I have been trying to figure out a way to see it. Well, magic happens when you have adult friends with incomes and theater habits who also have no issues splurging on nice tickets, hotel rooms and trips to strange cities. (We've been upping our momentum on trips this past year, you have to love southwest in California.) So the trip to LA was booked, a room pricelined and beautiful seats at the Pantages Theater were secured. They were off.

I flew into Ontario, the airport you think San Jose dreams about, with ample space and no security lines. I laughed, reflecting on my 7am Saturday morning wrapped into the parking lot praying I would make my flight. Having only packed for 1 night, I quickly scurried to the curb and met my partner in crime for the weekend and off we were to the beautiful Hotel Renaissance in Hollywood. Well, kinda, we thought we'd check out where we were going to maybe stay, at the Ramada, a few miles away, but that was okay, because we got a tour of the 'hood we were to "cruise" the next 36 hours. Once we were redirected, yay for the Treo, we checked into our room.



Our hotel was in the Hollywood & Highland Center, part movie set, part mall, set in front of the Kodak Theater, Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the freak show that is the Walk of Fame and Hollywood Blvd. It was a strange combination, but our hotel was actually trendy and nice and a good deal at the Priceline rate. No complaints here. We quickly dumped our stuff and went in search of food and to tour the freak show.





We landed at Johnny Rocket's, and just in time to slide up to the counter and watch some burgers "lovingly" made, but at least they give you a ketchup happy face to start. The food was yummy, and the people watching only just beginning. We were saddled up next to a Mom and a Hannah Montana fan so exhuberant that later, when we found out that it was only the movie across the street, it was even weirder. But we were ready and full of energy to start our adventure.





We went to the front of the theater and did the whole feet in the feet thing and walked amongst the tourists snapping away. This poor guy who has to stand there like a British guard while people take his picture. I felt so bad, that I took my own picture. I'm so nice. It was weird to see how old some of the prints were, and what strange things people said, and even who was there. I remember being there once as a kid, this was more fun.



It is at this point we are declared "Non-Tourists" since we "grew up there" and are just "revisiting" and get to be annoyed with all the tourists. Our evidence to this fact is our lack of amusement with the costumed freaks that the people are letting their children climb on and photograph with. Who knows how old the man in the Elmo suit is, but he wanted a hug and to take a picture with us big girls anyway. Ew. I just can't ever look at Elmo the same way. We had to get away, but before we even got to the corner, we saw this:



I wished I had hand sanitizer in my purse that I could give this girl to bathe in. We guessed maybe Suicide Girls shoot? I don't know, the guy looking back at me was a little too amused with himself and his job of towing the rolling suitcase around. It was really gross all around, but really freaking funny. We had a few more scary creepy guy incidents in the next few blocks, as this guy was parked in front of a random theater and said we could take a picture inside his car for free, and then the other guy who would "give us a star tour" in his big, scary van. Dude. Where's my pepper spray?



We walked on, into a few weird shops and where the stars were dirtier and less famous before we turned around. Hollywood Blvd with msred was some of the best laughs I have had in...ever. Seriously, that place is a trip, and on our way home we saw both Batman and Flash Gordon walking home with their McDonalds, probably earning enough tips for lunch and a break. So sad. But then, we saw this little Hannah Montana wanna be and her Hanson-like brother, who later we also saw in front of the theater at Wicked. This girl gets around!



Check out all my Hollywood Blvd. pictures here.



During our eating of yummy, but messy cream puffs in the court of the mall, we discovered that we could take a shuttle to the show for a cheap $3, rather than having to deal with directions and parking. So we ate some quick CPK while laughing at the old lady telling the bus boy he wasn't trying hard enough to seat her, and then caught our shuttle off to the show.



It was nothing short of absolutely, freaking, incredible. The story isn't anything deep, but it fills in to the Wizard of Oz nicely with a hands down blowout of a stage show. The vocals, the costumes, the scenes...just blew me away. I want to see it again and again, and again. Our seats also were really nice and I was really happy. Especially since this weekend was a birthday present to myself, I reveled in my show, hotel room and company at every chance. I love theater and I felt full of life again, ready to Defy Gravity. We went back to the hotel and watched the best part of a big rig chase through LA before they cut away and it ended lame anyway.



Sunday, we decided to kill the day driving around LA, so we went to Rodeo Drive first, the only place where you can see both these cars in 1 block. We spent some time walking around and laughing at people and shops, and made our way into a tiny little gallery. Poor lady who tried to sell us some Picassos and seemed genuinely disappointed when we didn't. Do we look like art buyers? I guess so, or she should work on her profiling, we just wanted to peek. Check out more Rodeo Drive pics here.

We roamed down Sunset through BH and Pacific Palisades, down to Santa Monica and Venice, deciding on lunch at this interesting little tourist cafe at the end of Washington. It was a good afternoon of driving aimlessly and checking our the burbs of the Inland Empre laughing at people. Ha people. It was shortly time for me to fly home, so airport bound I was and this mission was declared COMPLETE!

Project 30: Spice Girls in Las Vegas

Task 3/30: See a show in Las Vegas.
Complete: December 8, 2007



Yay! Vegas! It was off to Vegas for 36 hours of fun highlighted by the Spice Girls reunion concert. It was truly one of the most amusing and terrifying flights ever as we thought the plane was going to fall apart and the couple in front of us got into it with the flight attendant and almost had the air marshall called. I was so happy to just be off the plane and in Vegas, but was full of amusing stories much funnier in hind sight. When we got there, it turns out it was fight weekend, rodeo weekend and then for some undiagnosed reason, full of singing rugby players. It was such a strange mix as the casinos played 50% country music and cowboy hats and wranglers were easily spotted within arms distance everywhere you went. Cute boys with accents sung out from every corner of every casino and everyone was shoving boxing shirts down your throat.



We grabbed some food and freshened up in our room to get a true Vegas post-midnight start. The highlight of the evening was my only true Vegas must, cocktails at the Red Square in Mandalay Bay, the fault of my vodka obsession and a beautiful room to relax in elegance. I got to taste the Pomegranate Van Gogh I had been lusting after, and tried a delicious Raspberry lemon drop martini, and we stylishly took in the people around us. We roamed around some more, but bad shoe choices and long work days had us off to our rooms at 3am to recharge for the next night and our true mission.





After we slept and prepped, we headed out of our temporary home at the New York, New York to get some food and go shopping before the big show. I got to eat at my very first luxury buffett at the Mandalay Bay and then we strolled past the Bellagio water show where I got to see a whole one, rather than the tail end seconds in all my previous trips. The water gets so high and it's just amazing to gather around with tons of other people and enjoy it. We pondered what qualifications it takes to be the designer of such shows and what a sweet job it would be. I just want to push the on button once.



We went to M&M World! Now really, there should be more rides in there it is so big. At 4 floors, it blew us all away and we tromped through gazing at the collections of things that it was a marvel that people found need for. There was even a neat dizzy tunnel, and a 3d movie. It was all a bit much for me, and children everywhere, but neat none the less. We did some shopping at Caesar's and the mall at Planet Hollywood and got dressed up in all our new goodies and headed out to the show. The crowd control aspect was unspeakable and I tried to breathe and not punch someone that was invading my space. I had left my camera behind because I was told too on the tickets and ended up being crushed that I had no pictures of my own to show. The girls in front of us passed the time prior to the start of the show by taking camera phone pictures of their bloody new nape piercings and sending them to their friends. I was really grossed out. People watching was it's own adventure as little tiny spice girl clones ran about everywhere screeching and bouncing to the music, including an adorable set of of drag queens.



When the 5 ladies took the stage, the house came down and it was a great show complete with handfuls of set and costume changes, ten male dancers and glitter exploding from the ceiling at the end. I had so much fun after 90 minutes of pop fabulousness, I felt satisfied with my adventure. They rocked their solos and the old hits and flew around the stage with flair. I did not leave disappointed. (...and heir final screen left me amused!) See all my Vegas pictures here. Yay Vegas!

3 down...27 to go!