Mystery TripIt is 9:00 pm, and we are back in the hotel for the night. (This place smells weird!) Did I mention we are in an historic hotel that has no elevator? Yeah, so, 44 steps (with landings and turns every 6-8 steps) up to the 3rd floor every time we come back to the hotel. Add to that all the other walking we have been doing, and my knees and ankles are starting to rebel! I think this was the last time up the stairs… At least I hope so! I have to mention 2 things that have made this trip even more wonderful. 1 – Soon after we left LAX on Thursday, we found a Christian radio station at 95.9 called “The Fish.” It has truly been a blessing all through the trip – even when it got a bit static-y at times. And 2 – Britty is a GREAT driver in this crazy traffic. He hated being on the freeways, but we only had to do that a couple of times, but he was GREAT in town on this crazy streets with the insane drivers. Honk! Honk!
Today was a BLAST! I again, woke up too early and had to find a way to spend my morning. We watched TV and just slowly got ourselves around – we had no real plans for the day until the concert at the Staples Center at 3:00. So, after we got going, we decided to do some sight-seeing on our own. One of the good things about the tours we did yesterday is that we saw things in passing that we wanted to go back to as see on our own. One of those things was a scenic overlook on Mulholland road just pass outlook. This was just below the Hollywood sign in the Hollywood Hills. Once we found that lookout and explores it, we figured there were others, so off we went on Mulholland to see what we could see. We went one way for a while, and then went back the other way. We found several of these lookouts/ scenic overlooks, but we only stopped at about 4. The first two looked over Holly wood and LA, and the other 2 were Universal City and the San Fernando Valley. SO PRETTY! And not at all what we expected when we set out on this adventure.
Once we decided we were done with Mulholland Drive, we decided to see what would happen if we put “Griffith Observatory” into the GPS. Yup – went back up into the hills, and took us right to it! The park that is before you get to the observatory was PACKED with people!!! It was a beautiful day, and the first day of a holiday weekend, so it wasn’t too surprising. We drive right up to the entrance of the observatory, then turned around. Now, we decided to see what would happen if we put “Hollywood Sign” into the GPS. The results were SO FUN! While we didn’t get right up to the sign, we got to see some COOL houses and neighborhoods, and we got right up to the bottom of the sign. It was so fun! This whole impromptu morning was PERFECT and so informational and just plain FUN!
We decided we needed to head on back to the hotel to change for the concert and get some lunch. After we changed clothes, we headed to the Staples Center (with a quick stop at an ATM) – which really isn’t very far from us. EXCEPT. The highway was so crowded, our exit was closed, and the GPS wasn’t very clear. We ended up not too far off target, but not where we needed to be. We got it figured out, but we had used up some of our eating time. We found a little ice cream shop right next to the Staples Center and got some smoothies, then headed in to the Staples Center to find out seats.
Oh. My. GLEE! That concert was everything I expected, plus 100 times more. I cried when I got the tickets on Thursday, and I cried today through the first 2 songs. I told Britt the other day when we were souvenir shopping that I wanted to wait and get mine at the show. I got a T-shirt, a program, and a red loser foam finger. And I love them all! The concert was so great! LXD opened the show with an amazing dance performance before the cast of Glee took to the stage. The actors all stay in character the whole time, and you could totally tell they were having a GREAT time! There were REAL, live fireworks inside the Staples Center! That was just crazy. And when the cast “slushied” the crowd with confetti? PRICELESS! I loved the whole thing. The Warblers, New Directions, and everything in between – AMAZING! Best concert I have ever been to!
We were totally exhausted after the concert, so we headed back to Hollywood and the hotel. We knew we needed some dinner, and remembered that there was a Chinese place inside the grocery store we stopped at on Thursday. YUM! Got the Chinese to go, went back to the hotel, chowed down and watched TV for about an hour. Then, we decided we wanted ONE LAST TOUR of the city. It was close to sundown by now, so we knew we would get a show with all the lights on now! It was a nice drive, and we ended it refilling the rental car to turn it in tomorrow morning.
Early day again tomorrow. We need to be out of the hotel by 7 – even though our flight isn’t until 9:40. We have to turn the car in, and the recommend to be at the rental place 2 hours before our flight. *sigh* Sad to see it coming to an end. I will NEVER forget this trip.
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