My life was a Cheryl Crow for a day. My family moved out of our Disneyland hotel, which was also The Disneyland hotel, and checked in at the Holiday Inn Express just off of Hollywood Blvd and near the Dolby Theatre, where the Academy Awards are held and where currently there is a Cirque du Soleil show called IRIS.
We had big plans for Saturday, so my family wanted to rest the day before to have enough energy. I luckily spied on facebook that three of my friends from college were going to spend the day at Santa Monica pier. My friend Phoebe moved out to LA a few months ago, so she had a car. This made traveling to Santa Monica rather easy even if she refuses to use highways and freeways. It just meant that we were able to see more of he city as we drove there.
Phoebe had never been to the beach so we were happy to share that with her. Before we got to the water, we went to a burger place on the famous pier. It wasn't as grandiose as I was expecting. There were a few restaurants and a small fair like park. I don't know why I thought it would be a bigger deal. It was still an enjoyable day, though!
After the burger, we went down to the very crowded beach to get in the water. It was FREEZING. That's to be expected with the Pacific Ocean. Watching Phoebe feel water and sand for the first time was excellent. I think that's one of the reasons I'm most excited about being a tour director. I want to be there when people experience new things and see how they react to them.
After the dip in the water, we found a play ground area near the beach on the other side of the pier. It has a good amount of different exercise apparatuses that let you display your strength or lack of strength in my case. The most popular one was a set of hanging rings. People used their upper body strength to propel them selves forward to the next ring without letting their feet touch the ground. It was quite the spectacle to behold. We sat for a long time cheering people on from far enough away that they couldn't actually hear us.
Sarah joined us to go for a bite to eat in the actual city portion of Santa Monica. We found a great inexpensive fusion Mediterranean place where I got some awesome tacos. We spent the entire meal and time after singing old 90s songs while looking up the music videos to them. Phoebe mentioned liking Nickleback, and it all went downhill from there.
The next day my family did a very interesting tour of Los Angeles. Using the commonly seen hop on hop off bus tour. For each stop, we had a set list of instructions and clues to follow to figure out an answer which was worth so many points. We had so much fun getting off the bus and solving most of the puzzles. We even got a free milkshake! It was fun interacting with their placed actors along the way and solving the puzzles even if we were racing alone. It's all based on points and not time finished. Also, at the end we were given gold medals for getting enough points. I believe the company is called the Amazing Los Angeles Race, and they have these races in multiple locations like New Orleans and NYC. It's definitely worth the money.
Another highlight of the area was the El Capitan theatre on Hollywood Blvd. It's owned by Disney and has the Egyptian style architecture that was popular after the discovery of King Tut's tomb. The theatre is gorgeous and multitiered on the inside. I thought the ticket was a little pricey, but it was 3D and in LA so that balances out. Before the show classic Disney songs are played on an organ. Then, to my surprise, the people you thought were ushers do a twenty minute Broadway style song and dance medley intermingled with costumed Disney characters and ending with confetti and a large American flag being dropped from the ceiling. Finally, after all of this Brave started. The movie was great, and I recommend that everybody see it when it comes out.
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