California Trip Part Deux

Saturday (aka: Nicole's Birthday) begins our trip with the TBS portion of the trip. We woke up Saturday morning and called Enterprise to pick up our car. LOVE THAT, we didn't have to leave the hotel to go hunt down their store or anything they came and delivered the car and picked it up, now that's service!

Today is the Dodgers vs Chicago Cubs game and of course Philip is giddy as a school boy who just dangled a worm in front of a little girl and made her scream and run away. We load up on our bus and drive to the stadium. Much picture taking ensues by Philip eager to photograph every crevice of the stadium. (I have spared you some of the details in the slide show.) We're taken to a restaurant on site with mountains of free ballpark food and free drinks (this can mean only one thing for Philip and it means bad news for me) We hang out take some photos with the cast shake hands and hunt down our seats.
Score! The seats are on the 6th row behind 1st base. I think Philip let out a little shriek of joy as we sat down. The game was good, nice warm California weather, free food and drinks, what more could one ask for?!

After the game we have some down time for a few hours before the final leg of the trip. We walk Rodeo drive, find me a birthday cupcake (YUM!) and head back to the hotel.

This time we're driven to Parmount Studios where they have a dinner party waiting for us. Awesome appetizers are passed around outside as we wait for a tram to take us to the set of the show. Should've taken pics of the appetizers cuz they were yummy. Steak on sliced french bread with a cream sauce, bbq shrimp on skewers and wild mushroom quesadillas.

The tram picks us up and we drive to the studio and learn that Dr. Phil really is a giant jerk from our driver who has first hand experience with him.
**Note to self: Never approach Dr. Phil unless I have a giant hoagie in my hand to offer up as a bribe for my life.

Tour the set which is cool then back to the party room for a casino night. I'm not a big gambler and yes it was all fake, no money changing hands, but I still hated to lose my chips. I mostly played black jack and came out winning $100. Granted our dealer was cheating for us, but hey it's not Vegas so I'm sure his job is safe. ;o)

By the time I finished that and found Philip, I'm sure he was on his 12th Jack and Sprite but he was still going strong.

As always he had about 20 new friends around him including one of the cast members who later came to a local bar with us then back to the hotel bar for a few more drinks.
The cast member really was a nice guy and his girlfriend was very sweet, and after hanging with them for awhile they were already asking to be invited to the wedding. I told them sure why not, knowing they'd have forgotten by morning....I really don't need to add another 2 guests to the ever expanding wedding we have going.

Best quote of the night came to me from the cast member aka: Philip's new best friend.

"I love this guy, I never take to people right off the bat but he is awesome! He's either going to be a huge movie star or homeless."

(I'm hoping for the first option)

Woke up too damn early the next morning for our flight and by then Philip's 12 cocktails had caught up with him as he poured himself out of bed. (hehe, I did warn him to slow down, but he is going on 31 so I figure he's a big boy.)

California Trip- Friday

Today is Sunday and we just got back from L.A. a few hours ago so it's best that I write this while it's all fresh in my mind. We had a BLAST in L.A. and I think it's an awesome town that I would actually love to live in.

Let me catch you up on why we're even out on the west coast. My job had a DJ endorsing a TBS show My Boys and TBS wanted to fly the jock out there for a weekend to meet the cast and party as a thank you for endorsing their show and to use it for the DJ's to talk about. Well our DJ had plans to be in Austin that weekend and couldn't go...so darn the responsibility fell on me and I had to drag Philip along.

Upon arriving Friday around noon our driver picked us up in a town car and took us to the Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire hotel on Rodeo drive...yes I know! I had booked a rental car for the day so we could do some site seeing and it was well worth the $35. We had enterprise pick us up and drop us off and it couldn't have been easier.

From there we made our way up to the Hollywood Hills to see the Hollywood Sign. I had gotten some directions from a website and we got as close as you can get to the sign before the roads are blocked off. Driving in the hills is CRAZY, it's a one lane road that everyone who lives there parks on and you cannot see around the next turn, kind of scary but fun.

We then went to Hollywood Blvd to see the walk of fame with the stars on the street. Took pictures of the Kodak Theater where they hold the Oscars. Walked down Sunset Blvd and saw the Southern California staple: In & Out Burger and stopped in for a bite, and yes it was very good.

Then drove down to Santa Monica and down the Pacific Coastal Highway to Malibu.

Seaworld

A few weeks ago we took a trip to San Antonio that my work gave me as a gift. We decided to check out Seaworld, see the shows and pet some dolphins which was a really good day. For $5 you get 4 fish and you can feed the dolphins. They tell you to hold out the fish and when they come to get it reach your other hand out to pet them. It was a bit unnerving to see a mouth full of teeth opening up infront of your hand, but they were really nice. They feet really rubbery, but were so cute!

Look on the photos of the killer whales and see how their dorsal fin falls over to one side. In the wild the fin sticks straight up. Why is this???

The dorsal fin of adult male killer whales is tall. It maintains its shape in healthy animals because the animal swims alot, often at a good speed, and usually straight. In an inadequate captive environment, the orca does not swim as much, almost never very fast, and cannot go straight for very long. This causes the connective tissue supporting the dorsal fin to atrophy. The weight of the tall fin succumbs to gravity, and then gets stuck in the fallen-over position.

poor killer whales :o(

Nic

Horray for....

Details to come, but this weekend I will FINALLY visit California, specifically Los Angeles. It's a place I have always wanted to visit and I'm sure I will not be disappointed. And what's more perfect than visiting on my birthday weekend! Hell, I may not want to come back, although I think Philip will make me. Tons of pics to follow in a few days!

Itineray: Tour the town on Friday, Saturday Dodger/Cubs game, Paramount Studios tour and poker party return on Sunday afternoon.

Nic