Is there a better day to talk about the city that was our nation's capital for ten years than Presidents' Day? Probably, but this will have to do.
Last month I thought it would be a good idea to plan a day trip to Philadelphia the day after my Inauguration trip ended. After four days of running around with high schoolers, a good day of rest is needed to finish paperwork, but I went anyway so that I could get to explore the city and make a little bit of money checking a group in at the airport. People actually pay for someone to walk with them through security and watch their plane take off.
The day started out with yet another early morning trip on Megabus from Union Station and therefore a chicken biscuit and sweet tea from Bojangles. My tastes can't be tamed by DC's lack of proper Southern cuisine.
Unlike D.C. where the bus leaves from the train station, in Philadelphia you are dropped off on a random street by a parking lot behind the train station. If anyone wants to complain about public transportation in the District, they need to go to experience the metro in Philly. They don't have metro cards. Everyone pays exact change for tokens that are not available at every station entrance.
The city is divided into four major area that each have a park at their center. Most of the things of major historical significance are all in one section, so it's easy to see the highlights of Philadelphia in a day. Just don't tell anyone that works in the tourism industry that you're only planning to spend a day there because they will get confrontational. I stopped by the City Hall to ask some volunteers in the tourism office where I needed to go to see Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. When I told them I was only in town for a few hours and just needed to get some destination knowledge for my job, they seemed slightly offended that my tour company would only spend a day in Philadelphia when it deserved so much more.
In reality, you could spend a few days there if you want to go to their museums, the historic sites, and experience the culture through the restaurants and neighborhoods away from downtown. Otherwise, a day is all you really need. Everything is really walkable, and all of the historical sites are free to visit. The National Park Service has a great welcome center right by the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. National Park Rangers have really good stories about all of the areas and a worth talking to if it's not crowded at any area.
After the capital of the United States was in New York for a year, it moved to Philadelphia for the next ten before ending up in Washington. You can see the original Supreme Court building where the first cases were tried. I also learned a lot about the history of being a justice. They were mandated to travel through an assigned circuit every year and were not compensated for the money they spent on lodging. That's why they were only in session for less than three months. It was necessary at the time to reinforce the national law and show the presence of the national government throughout the country, but it was really difficult to get anyone to agree to do it or to keep the position for more than a year. I can't say that I blame them.
Right next door to the Supreme Court is Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were discussed, written, and signed along with the House and Senate chambers. Unfortunately, very few of the furniture pieces are originals, but they are historically accurate. There are also copies of different documents like the Articles of Confederation that are on display.
Across the street is the Liberty Bell in its newish building, and a few blocks away are Benjamin Franklin's grave and Betsy Ross's house. This is only the surface of the historical importance that Philadelphia has to offer, but it's plenty for a day trip. I'll be back there on tour in March to test my memory skills.
Well, that's really all that Philadelphia had for me in a few hours time. After I got the group checked in at the airport and on their plane, I made the last bus back to D.C. and slept for days before heading to Albuquerque. I'm glad I got to experience Philly, get my Hard Rock glass, and mark another city off of my go to all the places that had the Real World list. That last one's a joke. Kind of.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Saturday, February 2, 2013
The Inauguration of Mario Lopez
It's been a while, so I'll try a wrap up my first two and a half months in Washington into one or two posts. Also, I may divulge into a more travel writing style since that's what I do an everything. If you already live in the area, this first post may be a lot of things you already know.
Firstly, I am in love with this city. Washington D.C. is a wonderful mixture of people from all over the country and the world that are here to do great things. Everyone you meet is attempting to have an impact on the world in some way whether that's by going to graduate school, working at a nonprofit, or showing children how important an appreciation of culture is. People here are very focused on career goals and whom you know, so it is often one of the first questions asked when meeting someone new.
I live in Petworth, which is a neighborhood in the Northwest quadrant of D.C., and is jokingly called Notyetworth as it is in the process of gentrification. The rotunda of the Capitol is the point of origin for the city's quadrants even though it is not the geographic center of the city. It was laid out this by Pierre Charles L'Enfant way back when the capital was moved to D.C. from Philadelphia. Petworth is a nice quiet neighborhood, but I'm hoping to move to a neighborhood that has a little more going on.
All of the time leading up to the Inauguration was spent getting to know the city and the attractions better, so I've been in a lot of museums and neighborhoods doing research. It's nice to have a job in which you become better at it by doing fun things. Here are some highlights:
1. I went to the White House's Diwali Party and met Joe Biden, one of the leaders of Americorps, and was mistook for the only other white person there multiple times even though he was a foot shorter and carrying a musical instrument. Apparently, we all look the same to people from India.
2. I saw one of my favorite drag queens Latrice Royale perform, and I also went to a drag brunch with my friends Jenae, Ben, and Hillary. No offense, Birmingham, but people up here know how to put on a show. Also, brunch is the cool thing to do. I've never been to brunch so many times in my life.
3. I experienced snow for the first time in a place where life goes on as normal. Where was the line at the grocery store to get bread and milk? How were people driving? These are the musings of a Southern boy. Also, do not talk about the Blizzard of 93 with anyone. They will laugh when they find out it was only 8" of snow.
4. This may not seem monumental, but I also learned what "cold" is. My Alabama definition was below 60. Now I am so happy to see 40+ on the forecast. I now actually wear scarves, coats, and hats, and I have no clue what flip flops and shorts are anymore.
5. I've really enjoyed living in a city where there are choices for nightlife. Alabama really didn't offer much of a variety. Here there are the super divey bars of Adams Morgan, the young professional areas in Virginia, the snobbily rich clubs of Georgetown, the unique and cluttered U Street, the great dance spots in Dupont Circle, and the impossible to get to music venues of H Street in Penn Quarter.
6. I went to New York to get my license there and watched the Alabama Crimson Tide roll over Notre Dame. I also saw Peter and the Starcatcher, which was amazing, and I was lame in restaurant choice the entire time, so I need to do a better job of that next week even if Olive Garden was so good.
Since this is just an overview, I'm going to move on to my Inauguration tour, but I am going to try in the future to do short updates about cool things to do in the city.
My group was an AP Government class from a town in Connecticut, so thankfully they were accustomed to cold. The first day the bus dropped them off to meet me at the National Portrait Gallery/ Museum of American Art. These two museums occupy the same building and flow in and out of one another on each floor. The best known collection there is the Presidential Portrait Gallery, but there are also rotating exhibits of modern American artists and an amazing neon light and television screen map of the United States, picture below, by artist Nam June Paik. Behind every state is a collection of televisions depicting something that state is know for. For example, behind Idaho is a video loop of potatoes. I snuck a picture with the Obama painting while my group was walking around. I tried my best not to let any of my political leanings come out, which was semi successful.
After spending time in those museums, we walked to Ford's Theatre and Peterson House, where Lincoln was shot and died respectively. This is a good area for D.C. branded souvenir shopping, especially if you want discounted Romney apparel. From here, we continued on to the Smithsonian Museum of American History, the Air and Space Museum, and the Hirsshorn Sculpture Garden before dinner and a tour of all of the main monuments and memorials at night. One of the main tenets of student travel is to fit as many activities into a day because it is both cheaper and a tool to make them fall asleep when they get back to the hotel. Walking from Washington to Lincoln to Jefferson with stops in between will definitely do that.
The second day of tour was the day before the Inauguration, so we avoided downtown because there were so many road closures and detours. We began the day at Mount Vernon, George Washington's home in Virginia. They have a museum and education center now that make the attraction worth going to if you're not a fan of house tours. It's best to go during off season because the guides in the home can give you a more in-depth commentary of each room. With so many people here, each room guide had a minute long speech prepared that they just said over and over again. Our next stop was Iwo Jima followed by Arlington National Cemetery, but something got in the way.
As we drove up to Iwo Jima, we saw Mario Lopez filming on the side of a hill for extra right by the street. I told my group not to run across the street and bother him, but they couldn't help themselves. The segment producer told them if they were quiet they could be on the show. After twenty minutes of listening to him say the same sentences over and over, she kept her promise. My entire group stood with him and filmed a few shots of him asking questions about The Bachelor and Michelle Obama's bangs. He asked one woman what she thought about the First Lady's new haircut and her response was "Bangs! Bangs! Bangs!" This became the response to everything for the rest of the trip.
Because of our extended stay with Mario, we had to do a whirlwind tour of Arlington. If you are looking for a good workout, try jogging up and down the hills of Arlington just to get to the changing of the guard on time. The cemetery has a plethora of cool things to see like President Taft's grave, the Tomb of the Unknowns, and the Eternal Flame. Robert E. Lee's home is on the hill and has just been renovated and refilled with furniture and is worth seeing if you can handle the hike up the hill.
The next morning we left the hotel at 5 in order to get to our assigned parking location near the Nationals stadium about 2 miles away from the National Mall. When we arrived, the mall was not very full, so we decided to pick a spot toward the back to save time getting to lunch afterward. This apparently was not what the volunteers wanted us to do. They kept telling us we had to move forward but couldn't actually make us move. After about half a dozen of these people came up to up, the head volunteer came and said that we could move or the armed guard could make us move. We decided to move to the very back by the CNN tents just so we had space to roam about, get snacks, go to the bathroom, and do this thing called the Penguin Dance. As soon as the section we were originally in started filling in, we got the exact spot we had four hours beforehand.
The event itself was wonderful even for my kids wearing their Mitt Romney sweatshirts under their jackets. I was glad to have my Smithsonian sunglasses on to hide my tearing up during the speech. I loved all of the performances even the poem. My group kept getting excited for Beyonce and were let down every time someone else was announced. I think everyone needs to go to an Inauguration at least once in their lives because it's the perfect example of what American politics can be. I felt so patriotic that day. It gave me so much hope that we could move forward and work together to make the country a place that we want it to be. Will Congress get it's act together? Will President Obama keep the promises he made? Will the Supreme Court make some historical and tough decisions this year? Hopefully, so. At least we have the opportunity to work together to make things happen across party lines.
After the lip synced national anthem, we made our way through the crowds for a quick lunch at the American History Museum, which has some of the best but expensive food especially if you like barbecue. We then tried to make our way back to our bus, which was quite the trek. I have to give it to my group. They were amazing at walking long distances without complaining for the most part. We were trying to get back to the hotel so that they could take showers and get dressed for the Inaugural Ball my company threw for all of the groups. Unfortunately, the hotel lost power twenty minutes before we got there, so it was cold showers and no hairdryers. The Ball was like going to a prom except I was a chaperon sitting in a different room avoiding the dance floor. I loved getting to talk to other tour directors and coach drivers about their trips and experiences. It's an opportunity not often seen during the rest of the year.
The next day was their last, so we hurried over to the Capitol to meet the Senators of Connecticut with a few other groups and then had a page led tour of the building. One of the senators was newly elected and is serving on the foreign relations committee that did the hearing with Hillary Clinton the next day. The tour of the Capitol was great even with our guy admitting that it was only his second time. We got to see the cool little subway they use to get to and from their offices and the stairs everyone walked down during the Inauguration. When the tour was over, I had all of the groups meet at the Helen Keller statue before we did a quick run through of the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court next door.
After a lazy lunch at the Madison Building of the Library of Congress while the coach driver was getting the coach fixed, I said good-bye to my group and sadly walked back to the metro to come home. I can't believe how quickly the four days passed, and I just hope that the kids picked up on how wonderful a place D.C. is and how much they can learn by experiencing other places and how much difference they can make just by caring about what happens. I can only hope that my next group will be as good as these kids were.
My next installments will be about Philadelphia and Albuquerque!
Firstly, I am in love with this city. Washington D.C. is a wonderful mixture of people from all over the country and the world that are here to do great things. Everyone you meet is attempting to have an impact on the world in some way whether that's by going to graduate school, working at a nonprofit, or showing children how important an appreciation of culture is. People here are very focused on career goals and whom you know, so it is often one of the first questions asked when meeting someone new.
I live in Petworth, which is a neighborhood in the Northwest quadrant of D.C., and is jokingly called Notyetworth as it is in the process of gentrification. The rotunda of the Capitol is the point of origin for the city's quadrants even though it is not the geographic center of the city. It was laid out this by Pierre Charles L'Enfant way back when the capital was moved to D.C. from Philadelphia. Petworth is a nice quiet neighborhood, but I'm hoping to move to a neighborhood that has a little more going on.
All of the time leading up to the Inauguration was spent getting to know the city and the attractions better, so I've been in a lot of museums and neighborhoods doing research. It's nice to have a job in which you become better at it by doing fun things. Here are some highlights:
1. I went to the White House's Diwali Party and met Joe Biden, one of the leaders of Americorps, and was mistook for the only other white person there multiple times even though he was a foot shorter and carrying a musical instrument. Apparently, we all look the same to people from India.
2. I saw one of my favorite drag queens Latrice Royale perform, and I also went to a drag brunch with my friends Jenae, Ben, and Hillary. No offense, Birmingham, but people up here know how to put on a show. Also, brunch is the cool thing to do. I've never been to brunch so many times in my life.
3. I experienced snow for the first time in a place where life goes on as normal. Where was the line at the grocery store to get bread and milk? How were people driving? These are the musings of a Southern boy. Also, do not talk about the Blizzard of 93 with anyone. They will laugh when they find out it was only 8" of snow.
4. This may not seem monumental, but I also learned what "cold" is. My Alabama definition was below 60. Now I am so happy to see 40+ on the forecast. I now actually wear scarves, coats, and hats, and I have no clue what flip flops and shorts are anymore.
5. I've really enjoyed living in a city where there are choices for nightlife. Alabama really didn't offer much of a variety. Here there are the super divey bars of Adams Morgan, the young professional areas in Virginia, the snobbily rich clubs of Georgetown, the unique and cluttered U Street, the great dance spots in Dupont Circle, and the impossible to get to music venues of H Street in Penn Quarter.
6. I went to New York to get my license there and watched the Alabama Crimson Tide roll over Notre Dame. I also saw Peter and the Starcatcher, which was amazing, and I was lame in restaurant choice the entire time, so I need to do a better job of that next week even if Olive Garden was so good.
Since this is just an overview, I'm going to move on to my Inauguration tour, but I am going to try in the future to do short updates about cool things to do in the city.
My group was an AP Government class from a town in Connecticut, so thankfully they were accustomed to cold. The first day the bus dropped them off to meet me at the National Portrait Gallery/ Museum of American Art. These two museums occupy the same building and flow in and out of one another on each floor. The best known collection there is the Presidential Portrait Gallery, but there are also rotating exhibits of modern American artists and an amazing neon light and television screen map of the United States, picture below, by artist Nam June Paik. Behind every state is a collection of televisions depicting something that state is know for. For example, behind Idaho is a video loop of potatoes. I snuck a picture with the Obama painting while my group was walking around. I tried my best not to let any of my political leanings come out, which was semi successful.
After spending time in those museums, we walked to Ford's Theatre and Peterson House, where Lincoln was shot and died respectively. This is a good area for D.C. branded souvenir shopping, especially if you want discounted Romney apparel. From here, we continued on to the Smithsonian Museum of American History, the Air and Space Museum, and the Hirsshorn Sculpture Garden before dinner and a tour of all of the main monuments and memorials at night. One of the main tenets of student travel is to fit as many activities into a day because it is both cheaper and a tool to make them fall asleep when they get back to the hotel. Walking from Washington to Lincoln to Jefferson with stops in between will definitely do that.
The second day of tour was the day before the Inauguration, so we avoided downtown because there were so many road closures and detours. We began the day at Mount Vernon, George Washington's home in Virginia. They have a museum and education center now that make the attraction worth going to if you're not a fan of house tours. It's best to go during off season because the guides in the home can give you a more in-depth commentary of each room. With so many people here, each room guide had a minute long speech prepared that they just said over and over again. Our next stop was Iwo Jima followed by Arlington National Cemetery, but something got in the way.
As we drove up to Iwo Jima, we saw Mario Lopez filming on the side of a hill for extra right by the street. I told my group not to run across the street and bother him, but they couldn't help themselves. The segment producer told them if they were quiet they could be on the show. After twenty minutes of listening to him say the same sentences over and over, she kept her promise. My entire group stood with him and filmed a few shots of him asking questions about The Bachelor and Michelle Obama's bangs. He asked one woman what she thought about the First Lady's new haircut and her response was "Bangs! Bangs! Bangs!" This became the response to everything for the rest of the trip.
Because of our extended stay with Mario, we had to do a whirlwind tour of Arlington. If you are looking for a good workout, try jogging up and down the hills of Arlington just to get to the changing of the guard on time. The cemetery has a plethora of cool things to see like President Taft's grave, the Tomb of the Unknowns, and the Eternal Flame. Robert E. Lee's home is on the hill and has just been renovated and refilled with furniture and is worth seeing if you can handle the hike up the hill.
The next morning we left the hotel at 5 in order to get to our assigned parking location near the Nationals stadium about 2 miles away from the National Mall. When we arrived, the mall was not very full, so we decided to pick a spot toward the back to save time getting to lunch afterward. This apparently was not what the volunteers wanted us to do. They kept telling us we had to move forward but couldn't actually make us move. After about half a dozen of these people came up to up, the head volunteer came and said that we could move or the armed guard could make us move. We decided to move to the very back by the CNN tents just so we had space to roam about, get snacks, go to the bathroom, and do this thing called the Penguin Dance. As soon as the section we were originally in started filling in, we got the exact spot we had four hours beforehand.
The event itself was wonderful even for my kids wearing their Mitt Romney sweatshirts under their jackets. I was glad to have my Smithsonian sunglasses on to hide my tearing up during the speech. I loved all of the performances even the poem. My group kept getting excited for Beyonce and were let down every time someone else was announced. I think everyone needs to go to an Inauguration at least once in their lives because it's the perfect example of what American politics can be. I felt so patriotic that day. It gave me so much hope that we could move forward and work together to make the country a place that we want it to be. Will Congress get it's act together? Will President Obama keep the promises he made? Will the Supreme Court make some historical and tough decisions this year? Hopefully, so. At least we have the opportunity to work together to make things happen across party lines.
After the lip synced national anthem, we made our way through the crowds for a quick lunch at the American History Museum, which has some of the best but expensive food especially if you like barbecue. We then tried to make our way back to our bus, which was quite the trek. I have to give it to my group. They were amazing at walking long distances without complaining for the most part. We were trying to get back to the hotel so that they could take showers and get dressed for the Inaugural Ball my company threw for all of the groups. Unfortunately, the hotel lost power twenty minutes before we got there, so it was cold showers and no hairdryers. The Ball was like going to a prom except I was a chaperon sitting in a different room avoiding the dance floor. I loved getting to talk to other tour directors and coach drivers about their trips and experiences. It's an opportunity not often seen during the rest of the year.
The next day was their last, so we hurried over to the Capitol to meet the Senators of Connecticut with a few other groups and then had a page led tour of the building. One of the senators was newly elected and is serving on the foreign relations committee that did the hearing with Hillary Clinton the next day. The tour of the Capitol was great even with our guy admitting that it was only his second time. We got to see the cool little subway they use to get to and from their offices and the stairs everyone walked down during the Inauguration. When the tour was over, I had all of the groups meet at the Helen Keller statue before we did a quick run through of the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court next door.
After a lazy lunch at the Madison Building of the Library of Congress while the coach driver was getting the coach fixed, I said good-bye to my group and sadly walked back to the metro to come home. I can't believe how quickly the four days passed, and I just hope that the kids picked up on how wonderful a place D.C. is and how much they can learn by experiencing other places and how much difference they can make just by caring about what happens. I can only hope that my next group will be as good as these kids were.
My next installments will be about Philadelphia and Albuquerque!
Friday, October 12, 2012
What Not to Wear: Dragon*Con 2012
Well, this post took long enough considering my lack of daily activity, but so much of my job search and studying for my licensing exam was on the computer so I just couldn't do it anymore. Now, however, I have a job and am studied out until closer to the exam date. That can all be included in a later post. This is about Dragon*Con, which I attended at the beginning of September in Atlanta.
As the title would suggest, this event is filled with quite the assortment of costumes worn by attendees. If you don't know, Dragon*Con is a convention held every year in Atlanta celebrating the different areas of Science Fiction and Fantasy in film, television, literature, etc. My family has been going for years, but I've always had something else to do over Labor Day weekend. This time they were able to lure me with the promise of attending an acting class with Amber Benson for two days. I totally Buffy fanboyed out at that suggestion and had to go.
I stayed with my friends Karissa and Justin at their apartment in Candler Park east of downtown. I really love staying with friends as opposed to hotels because I feel like I actually get to know a city when I use its public transit and am away from the touristy areas. Enough about my lame travel habits.
The acting class with Amber Benson was AMAZING. Not really in terms of learning new things because my acting classes in college had covered all of these things, but it was just fun to meet ten new people and play improv games for two days. We also worked on cold reads and preparing for a television audition. Amber was so nice and encouraging of everyone, and she even went out with us for drinks the second night! I got to meet her mom and talk about being from Birmingham because that's where Amber and her family are from as well.
The rest of the convention was spent going to panels in the different "verses." A verse is a universe of science fiction or fantasy like Harry Potter, Doctor Who, or all things Joss Whedon. Actors, directors, writers, and fans all sit down and answer fan questions. It was really interesting getting to see all of these people talk passionately about acting and writing.
There were also some fun events. My mom and I competed with my friends Ben and April on a Game of Thrones trivia team. I have seen 0 episodes of the show, so I was a real asset... Actutally, though, I nerdily studied plot lines on Wikipedia and new some of the answers! Unfortunately, most of the score was given due to style points in little mini challenges between question rounds. One involved me pushing my mother at a running speed in her wheel chair for her to tackle a bobo clown and Tebow. There are pictures depicting this or I wouldn't believe it myself.
Karissa and I went to two dance parties the last night that were so much fun. If I go again or go to a similar conference in another city, I'll definitely dress up. If you have an ounce of nerd in you, you have to go. Just don't depend on the MARTA to get you anywhere because it sucks and will stop taking credit cards or require you to walk up the largest escalator in the South because it's broken. I even got super touristy and went to The Varsity for the first time with Amanda and Karissa to be unimpressed McKayla Muroney style. If you're looking for good food in Atlanta, go to Mary Mac's. It is a wonderful Southern style restaurant with some of the best sweet tea in the world. Believe me. I'm a connoisseur.
Coming up next my trip to DC and subsequent job offer!
As the title would suggest, this event is filled with quite the assortment of costumes worn by attendees. If you don't know, Dragon*Con is a convention held every year in Atlanta celebrating the different areas of Science Fiction and Fantasy in film, television, literature, etc. My family has been going for years, but I've always had something else to do over Labor Day weekend. This time they were able to lure me with the promise of attending an acting class with Amber Benson for two days. I totally Buffy fanboyed out at that suggestion and had to go.
I stayed with my friends Karissa and Justin at their apartment in Candler Park east of downtown. I really love staying with friends as opposed to hotels because I feel like I actually get to know a city when I use its public transit and am away from the touristy areas. Enough about my lame travel habits.
The acting class with Amber Benson was AMAZING. Not really in terms of learning new things because my acting classes in college had covered all of these things, but it was just fun to meet ten new people and play improv games for two days. We also worked on cold reads and preparing for a television audition. Amber was so nice and encouraging of everyone, and she even went out with us for drinks the second night! I got to meet her mom and talk about being from Birmingham because that's where Amber and her family are from as well.
The rest of the convention was spent going to panels in the different "verses." A verse is a universe of science fiction or fantasy like Harry Potter, Doctor Who, or all things Joss Whedon. Actors, directors, writers, and fans all sit down and answer fan questions. It was really interesting getting to see all of these people talk passionately about acting and writing.
There were also some fun events. My mom and I competed with my friends Ben and April on a Game of Thrones trivia team. I have seen 0 episodes of the show, so I was a real asset... Actutally, though, I nerdily studied plot lines on Wikipedia and new some of the answers! Unfortunately, most of the score was given due to style points in little mini challenges between question rounds. One involved me pushing my mother at a running speed in her wheel chair for her to tackle a bobo clown and Tebow. There are pictures depicting this or I wouldn't believe it myself.
Karissa and I went to two dance parties the last night that were so much fun. If I go again or go to a similar conference in another city, I'll definitely dress up. If you have an ounce of nerd in you, you have to go. Just don't depend on the MARTA to get you anywhere because it sucks and will stop taking credit cards or require you to walk up the largest escalator in the South because it's broken. I even got super touristy and went to The Varsity for the first time with Amanda and Karissa to be unimpressed McKayla Muroney style. If you're looking for good food in Atlanta, go to Mary Mac's. It is a wonderful Southern style restaurant with some of the best sweet tea in the world. Believe me. I'm a connoisseur.
Coming up next my trip to DC and subsequent job offer!
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
How We Do Things in Second Samuel
I have never been more uncertain about being a part of a show in my life. Please don't hate me for this part. I read the script for Second Samuel and almost died of the morbid sentiment. It was so cutesy that I didn't know if it really fit my acing style and was worth putting time into. Even after the read thru I wasn't convinced. My previous experience with Park Players had not served me well in the friend department even though I loved doing the show. I came in with the fear that this show would go the same way. Luckily for me my first impressions were incorrect.
I can't exactly pinpoint it, but along the way I fell in love with the show and the people in it sometime near the discovery of the spider backstage. What I had taken for cheesiness was transformed into quaintness. I found the beauty in the show that the script itself cannot convey alone. It needs humanity breathed into it, and I was fortunate enough to be grouped with an amazing assortment of actors and a director that gave me everything I needed to pull off my performance.
B Flat could have easily been an overdone narrator with an obvious mental disability and no depth. For me at least, the script gave very little in terms oh character development, so all of that was discovered in working with these other incredible people. It became one of the shows I will miss the most and one of the roles I will always cherish. It challenged me in ways that I could not imagine.
Clay, thank you so much for picking me because I ran around that outdoor stage two years ago. I would not have auditioned otherwise. You saw a role that was perfect for me and my abilities even if I didn't. You gave me the freedom to do what I needed and never pressured me into doing any vision you had of the character. Thank you so much for that ability to grow and work, and I hope I met expectations.
Brad, Nicole, and Mike, thank you all so much for the time you put into the show either in advertising and promotion, learning light boards, or giving me a high five and keeping up with props backstage. You are all greatly appreciated for your work that made the show possible.
Ken, due to your reclusiveness I don't even know if you'll read this, but you were an amazing person with which to work. I feel like you had a handle on your character so quickly and only grew from there. When I wasn't talking to myself onstage, it was often directed at you, and I could not have chosen a better scene partner. Connecting with you was easy and necessary for my angry monologue at the end to have any weight. The preparation you put into getting into character is admirable, and it definitely showed in your performance.
David Coker, you just have one of those names where I have to include the last name or leave out the first. I guess that works for a teacher. Anyway, thank you for how extremely positive you were about my work throughout the process. I don't need praise to feel like my effort is working, but your kind words after mediocre rehearsals were very welcomed.
Dianne, finally we work together! After years of a vague awareness of each other's existence, we actually got to know one another. I hate it took this long. I was so impressed with your ability to get emotionally invested in the show every night. I tend to get desensitized especially if I'm the one talking, but you were able to connect to it without fail.
Greg, I don't know if you felt this way or even would have considered it, but I realized the last week of rehearsal how important the scene between Doc and B Flat is. It's where B Flat decides for himself how he feels about Ms Gertrude being a man. Because of that, I started to play with the nickel you flicked, given it landed on the bar, before the first of many emotional monologues because it gave B Flat the strength to stand up for what was right. Thank you for that and for becoming such a wonderful, supportive friend.
Scott, you were the only person I had acted with before, but I don't think we really shared much stage time in Taming. It's not easy to play a character that everyone hates because you rarely hear if you're doing a good job, especially when your blocking involves sitting. Thus I want to tell you that you did an amazing job. I needed your bigoted lines to get worked up at the end, and you delivered.
Howard, OMG... . We may have never cleaned glasses in sync, but you had to be one of the funniest parts of the show. I laughed every time you said "toot" for the first few weeks, and your ad libs were as funny as your given lines. Even if you looked like a Solid Gold dancer, you delivered a great performance worth being proud of.
Steven, I'm glad I got to see you onstage for once instead of taking pictures. Mansel was a perfect part for you. You kept a character relevant that could easily have strayed into overdone randomness. I will always laugh when I think of the rehearsal when I couldn't open the bottle under the bar in order to sip and spit in time.
Becky, I think we need to look for some synchronized acting competitions, or if you ever get famous enough to have someone do you in drag I might consider impersonating you for money. Except not all. I'm glad you got to be the "hero" of the show and gave me a character worth reacting to. I'm also thankful that you laughed at my joke regardless of appropriateness and that you accepted my beer pong invitation.
Amy, I will never drink a Coke again! I could not imagine doing what you did, being one role and changing halfway through to another role that is completely different in personality. You did a great job challenging yourself to be someone that is so far from yourself, which is what acting is meant to be. Keep it up!
Karen, I will be eternally grateful that you got brought into this show. Our friendship grew with a dinner of Indian food and general life talk, and it's been all gifs from there. I hope we can work together even more and it won't involve you sending me to get bags of hair from the back. Thanks to me you didn't really have a full rehearsal until the end of July, and that's impressive. I'm glad you were able to conquer, at least momentarily, your insecurity with crying onstage.
Yes, that was in reverse curtain call order. Be impressed. I love and miss you all. Thank you for everything you taught me and helping me learn that people make a show more than a script does. It's rare in a show that you get to have moments with every actor on stage, so I am glad that I was blessed with that. I am honored to have worked with you, shared gifs with you, worn overalls and the tightest jeans in front of you, and made you cry with my stuttering of simple truths. It said on the cover of the script something like "laugh cry but don't leave unchanged." Even though the lack of punctuation and capitalization killed me, this statement could not be more true. I laughed everyday from something one of you did. I cried onstage that last night because of what it meant to me. I have not left the experience unchanged. o.O
I can't exactly pinpoint it, but along the way I fell in love with the show and the people in it sometime near the discovery of the spider backstage. What I had taken for cheesiness was transformed into quaintness. I found the beauty in the show that the script itself cannot convey alone. It needs humanity breathed into it, and I was fortunate enough to be grouped with an amazing assortment of actors and a director that gave me everything I needed to pull off my performance.
B Flat could have easily been an overdone narrator with an obvious mental disability and no depth. For me at least, the script gave very little in terms oh character development, so all of that was discovered in working with these other incredible people. It became one of the shows I will miss the most and one of the roles I will always cherish. It challenged me in ways that I could not imagine.
Clay, thank you so much for picking me because I ran around that outdoor stage two years ago. I would not have auditioned otherwise. You saw a role that was perfect for me and my abilities even if I didn't. You gave me the freedom to do what I needed and never pressured me into doing any vision you had of the character. Thank you so much for that ability to grow and work, and I hope I met expectations.
Brad, Nicole, and Mike, thank you all so much for the time you put into the show either in advertising and promotion, learning light boards, or giving me a high five and keeping up with props backstage. You are all greatly appreciated for your work that made the show possible.
Ken, due to your reclusiveness I don't even know if you'll read this, but you were an amazing person with which to work. I feel like you had a handle on your character so quickly and only grew from there. When I wasn't talking to myself onstage, it was often directed at you, and I could not have chosen a better scene partner. Connecting with you was easy and necessary for my angry monologue at the end to have any weight. The preparation you put into getting into character is admirable, and it definitely showed in your performance.
David Coker, you just have one of those names where I have to include the last name or leave out the first. I guess that works for a teacher. Anyway, thank you for how extremely positive you were about my work throughout the process. I don't need praise to feel like my effort is working, but your kind words after mediocre rehearsals were very welcomed.
Dianne, finally we work together! After years of a vague awareness of each other's existence, we actually got to know one another. I hate it took this long. I was so impressed with your ability to get emotionally invested in the show every night. I tend to get desensitized especially if I'm the one talking, but you were able to connect to it without fail.
Greg, I don't know if you felt this way or even would have considered it, but I realized the last week of rehearsal how important the scene between Doc and B Flat is. It's where B Flat decides for himself how he feels about Ms Gertrude being a man. Because of that, I started to play with the nickel you flicked, given it landed on the bar, before the first of many emotional monologues because it gave B Flat the strength to stand up for what was right. Thank you for that and for becoming such a wonderful, supportive friend.
Scott, you were the only person I had acted with before, but I don't think we really shared much stage time in Taming. It's not easy to play a character that everyone hates because you rarely hear if you're doing a good job, especially when your blocking involves sitting. Thus I want to tell you that you did an amazing job. I needed your bigoted lines to get worked up at the end, and you delivered.
Howard, OMG... . We may have never cleaned glasses in sync, but you had to be one of the funniest parts of the show. I laughed every time you said "toot" for the first few weeks, and your ad libs were as funny as your given lines. Even if you looked like a Solid Gold dancer, you delivered a great performance worth being proud of.
Steven, I'm glad I got to see you onstage for once instead of taking pictures. Mansel was a perfect part for you. You kept a character relevant that could easily have strayed into overdone randomness. I will always laugh when I think of the rehearsal when I couldn't open the bottle under the bar in order to sip and spit in time.
Becky, I think we need to look for some synchronized acting competitions, or if you ever get famous enough to have someone do you in drag I might consider impersonating you for money. Except not all. I'm glad you got to be the "hero" of the show and gave me a character worth reacting to. I'm also thankful that you laughed at my joke regardless of appropriateness and that you accepted my beer pong invitation.
Amy, I will never drink a Coke again! I could not imagine doing what you did, being one role and changing halfway through to another role that is completely different in personality. You did a great job challenging yourself to be someone that is so far from yourself, which is what acting is meant to be. Keep it up!
Karen, I will be eternally grateful that you got brought into this show. Our friendship grew with a dinner of Indian food and general life talk, and it's been all gifs from there. I hope we can work together even more and it won't involve you sending me to get bags of hair from the back. Thanks to me you didn't really have a full rehearsal until the end of July, and that's impressive. I'm glad you were able to conquer, at least momentarily, your insecurity with crying onstage.
Yes, that was in reverse curtain call order. Be impressed. I love and miss you all. Thank you for everything you taught me and helping me learn that people make a show more than a script does. It's rare in a show that you get to have moments with every actor on stage, so I am glad that I was blessed with that. I am honored to have worked with you, shared gifs with you, worn overalls and the tightest jeans in front of you, and made you cry with my stuttering of simple truths. It said on the cover of the script something like "laugh cry but don't leave unchanged." Even though the lack of punctuation and capitalization killed me, this statement could not be more true. I laughed everyday from something one of you did. I cried onstage that last night because of what it meant to me. I have not left the experience unchanged. o.O
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Off on a Toot
I can't believe I've been back from San Francisco for two weeks now. I had to wait that long for enough interesting things to happen to making posting worth it. We'll start with "professional" updates and go on to the more ridiculous.
I have a job like offer! I was getting nervous just because I had sent out a dozen resumes and heard NOTHING besides one company telling me that they only hire in destination countries. To which I replied, "How's that Antarctica trip working out for you?" Then a week ago I heard from Smithsonian Student Tours. They have partnered with EF Tours, a company with which I have traveled three times. After a phone interview, I am excited to announce that I'll be attending their three day orientation and final interview in Washington D.C. to hopefully work a tour during the Inauguration with hopes of full season employment after that. Someone else in my San Francisco class will be there as well, so I'm excited to catch up and hopefully impress them with more success than impressing McKayla Maroney.
Speaking of McKayla, I am doing my best to educate my fellow cast members of Second Samuel on the ways of the internet generally through the usage of abbreviations, emoticons, and memes. o.O has become a popular one due to the amount of awkward situations we find ourselves in. I am so glad I was given the opportunity to do this show. It's filled with great people, and I don't even mind wearing the overalls at this point. We're having an audience for our final dress tonight, so I hope it goes well especially since it's Greg's birthday and all....
In the Health and Wellness are of my life, Sarah Rogers and I are on top of our game. We recently discovered that both of our families purchased memberships to the YMCA near our homes. We decided to take advantage of this membership because we doubt either one of us will actually pay for a membership on our own. Today we thought it would be a good idea to get a total body work out by taking the Y Cross class at 8:30 this morning. In true mature fashion, we laughed through the entire thing because we are ridiculously out of shape and barely made it through the hour and half. There are no water breaks! The instructor encouraged us to stay for the second class immediately after. I would have been dead on the push-up ball.
To fill up some of my time, I have started volunteering at the Birmingham Jefferson Red Cross downtown. My first day there was quite an interesting one. It started with discovering a squished plum in my backpack that I had placed there on July 21st. I had been seeing all these fruit flies upstairs and internally blaming it on my brother for leaving food in his room. I guess that was karmic. Then I rush downtown to meet with the woman who will show me where everything is in the office, and she had left hours earlier. After thirty minutes of waiting for another staff member to come back, the woman answering the phones left and promised another man was coming to take her place. JK He never showed up, so I attempted to answer the phones, but they were much fancier than the Tuscaloosa model. I eventually figured it out, and boy am I glad I did. I called someone to ask them to complete a survey. They didn't answer, but their voicemail was as thus in the automated voice "You have reached the voicemail box of..." and in her voice "Baby Child."
Well, now I am really engrossed in finding out if Scooby and the gang will be able to capture the Snow Ghost and still enjoy their skiing weekend. If your in Birmingham, come see my show this weekend or next!
I have a job like offer! I was getting nervous just because I had sent out a dozen resumes and heard NOTHING besides one company telling me that they only hire in destination countries. To which I replied, "How's that Antarctica trip working out for you?" Then a week ago I heard from Smithsonian Student Tours. They have partnered with EF Tours, a company with which I have traveled three times. After a phone interview, I am excited to announce that I'll be attending their three day orientation and final interview in Washington D.C. to hopefully work a tour during the Inauguration with hopes of full season employment after that. Someone else in my San Francisco class will be there as well, so I'm excited to catch up and hopefully impress them with more success than impressing McKayla Maroney.
Speaking of McKayla, I am doing my best to educate my fellow cast members of Second Samuel on the ways of the internet generally through the usage of abbreviations, emoticons, and memes. o.O has become a popular one due to the amount of awkward situations we find ourselves in. I am so glad I was given the opportunity to do this show. It's filled with great people, and I don't even mind wearing the overalls at this point. We're having an audience for our final dress tonight, so I hope it goes well especially since it's Greg's birthday and all....
In the Health and Wellness are of my life, Sarah Rogers and I are on top of our game. We recently discovered that both of our families purchased memberships to the YMCA near our homes. We decided to take advantage of this membership because we doubt either one of us will actually pay for a membership on our own. Today we thought it would be a good idea to get a total body work out by taking the Y Cross class at 8:30 this morning. In true mature fashion, we laughed through the entire thing because we are ridiculously out of shape and barely made it through the hour and half. There are no water breaks! The instructor encouraged us to stay for the second class immediately after. I would have been dead on the push-up ball.
To fill up some of my time, I have started volunteering at the Birmingham Jefferson Red Cross downtown. My first day there was quite an interesting one. It started with discovering a squished plum in my backpack that I had placed there on July 21st. I had been seeing all these fruit flies upstairs and internally blaming it on my brother for leaving food in his room. I guess that was karmic. Then I rush downtown to meet with the woman who will show me where everything is in the office, and she had left hours earlier. After thirty minutes of waiting for another staff member to come back, the woman answering the phones left and promised another man was coming to take her place. JK He never showed up, so I attempted to answer the phones, but they were much fancier than the Tuscaloosa model. I eventually figured it out, and boy am I glad I did. I called someone to ask them to complete a survey. They didn't answer, but their voicemail was as thus in the automated voice "You have reached the voicemail box of..." and in her voice "Baby Child."
Well, now I am really engrossed in finding out if Scooby and the gang will be able to capture the Snow Ghost and still enjoy their skiing weekend. If your in Birmingham, come see my show this weekend or next!
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
I Left My Heart in San Francisco
I have no idea how I am going to compile a little over two weeks of an experience into one post, but I'm going to try.
Firstly, leaving LA involved a bit of foreshadowing into leaving San Francisco. The slider broke off of the zipper on my suitcase. Luckily, I was able to reattach it before my 6 hour bus ride up the Golden Coast.
For the entire time I stayed in a lovely home near the corner of Rivera and 44th Avenue only four blocks away from the Pacific Ocean. The first night after having Indian food delivered for dinner, I met my fellow housemate and soon to be friend Clare. She is a teacher from New Hampshire around my age. We hit it off very quickly, and thank goodness because we had a 30-40 minute commute into downtown everyday!
The number one thing I have to say for San Francisco in terms of convenience is that the public transportation is PHENOMENAL. The MUNI is the subway system that reaches through the center part of the peninsula from the Pacific Coast to Bayside. The subway cars are emition free and run on electricity once they get above ground as do some of the buses. There's also a bus system under MUNI that goes to all the other parts of the peninsula. It's only $2 a ride, but stops running around midnight. This dashed my dreams of any club action on a night off, but that was probably for the best.
BART, or Bay Area Rapid Transit, goes all the way from the airport across the Bay and into Oakland and Berkley. It's more expensive to ride but has nicer seats and less stops. Both of these systems played a key role in my carless adventures around the city. I'm the kind of person who hates driving, so this city was a dream. It's actually rather expensive to have a car because some places require you to pay to park it per month along with rent, and that charge can be as high as $500 or more.
I am going to have to be careful not to ramble on because I want to say so many things about this city I fell in love with so quickly. I'll just have to take you there to divulge all the information that wants to spill from my fingers.
For the entire two weeks, I was enrolled in a program called ITMI, or the International Tour Management Institute. It was started by Ted Bravos and his friend Bill. Ted is still an instructor along with Randy and a few guest instructors throughout the two week program. I had no idea what I was getting into. I thought it might just be a $3000+ referral agency, but it's so much more. I now feel confident in doing something I never realized was the perfect career option for me. It mixes a love of people, theatre, and traveling into one job. I have to thank Ted, Randy, Reggie, Sandi, and Korey so much for everything. I also have to give a shout out to my 20 female classmates. I was class 277, and it was the first time there was only one guy ever.
Back to San Francisco, originally called Yerba Buena, or "Good Herb" after a peppermint like plant in the area. It was one of the last missions established by the Spanish born Franciscan monk Junipero Serra on his Camino Real up the coast of California. Due to its geographical location, it tends to be on the cooler side temperature wise, especially during the summer months. The heat from the Eastern side of the state pulls the cold wet air mass of the Pacific over the city enveloping it in a beautiful fog. You can literally see it roll into the city in the morning and come back again before the sunsets. It's gorgeous.
Another thing I love about San Francisco is the diversity. There are over 90 distinct neighborhoods with individual personalities. From the Latin American Mission to the LGBTQ friendly Castro, there's something for everyone. The food as well spans the many types of cuisine. Here are some highlights:
1. Homeroom: gourmet mac and cheese in Oakland for less than $10 a entree. I WANT TO EAT IT ALL. I ended up getting the garlic with two types of cheese. It was phenomenal.
2. Bristol Farms: San Francisco is all about eating healthy and organically. This market has multiple locations and serves the freshest foods. I had their Tomato Basil soup more times than I care to admit in a sourdough bread bowl.
3. Lefty O'Doul's: named for a San Franciscan baseball legend, this cafeteria style restaurant and bar serves freshly carved sandwiches and daily specials for a crazy affordable price. I had their spaghetti, which was magnificent.
I hope to return to the city often. It will always have a special place in my heart because of it's promise of a new career, the new family I have in that career, and of all the things I learned and experienced there. Standing before Frida y Diego at SFMOMA was one of the highlights of this summer along with seeing the beauty of Burney Falls and realizing that there is a career out there for me in which I can find success and still be happy. I don't know if I'll ever be able to sit at a desk again, and I don't plan to find out. I do know that I will always have a good suit case so that I never again struggle up to the plastic wrap station at the airport because my bag has no sliders on the zipper and is held together with two belts and a trail of painters tape spanning two MUNI rides and one BART commute. If you're ever bored, please let me talk your ear off about this wonderful experience. Taylor got plenty of it after he picked me up from the airport at 1 in the morning. I can't wait to get started, so I already called and am visiting the department of tourism for Birmingham and hopefully getting a job as a local guide to save up some money for DC!
Firstly, leaving LA involved a bit of foreshadowing into leaving San Francisco. The slider broke off of the zipper on my suitcase. Luckily, I was able to reattach it before my 6 hour bus ride up the Golden Coast.
For the entire time I stayed in a lovely home near the corner of Rivera and 44th Avenue only four blocks away from the Pacific Ocean. The first night after having Indian food delivered for dinner, I met my fellow housemate and soon to be friend Clare. She is a teacher from New Hampshire around my age. We hit it off very quickly, and thank goodness because we had a 30-40 minute commute into downtown everyday!
The number one thing I have to say for San Francisco in terms of convenience is that the public transportation is PHENOMENAL. The MUNI is the subway system that reaches through the center part of the peninsula from the Pacific Coast to Bayside. The subway cars are emition free and run on electricity once they get above ground as do some of the buses. There's also a bus system under MUNI that goes to all the other parts of the peninsula. It's only $2 a ride, but stops running around midnight. This dashed my dreams of any club action on a night off, but that was probably for the best.
BART, or Bay Area Rapid Transit, goes all the way from the airport across the Bay and into Oakland and Berkley. It's more expensive to ride but has nicer seats and less stops. Both of these systems played a key role in my carless adventures around the city. I'm the kind of person who hates driving, so this city was a dream. It's actually rather expensive to have a car because some places require you to pay to park it per month along with rent, and that charge can be as high as $500 or more.
I am going to have to be careful not to ramble on because I want to say so many things about this city I fell in love with so quickly. I'll just have to take you there to divulge all the information that wants to spill from my fingers.
For the entire two weeks, I was enrolled in a program called ITMI, or the International Tour Management Institute. It was started by Ted Bravos and his friend Bill. Ted is still an instructor along with Randy and a few guest instructors throughout the two week program. I had no idea what I was getting into. I thought it might just be a $3000+ referral agency, but it's so much more. I now feel confident in doing something I never realized was the perfect career option for me. It mixes a love of people, theatre, and traveling into one job. I have to thank Ted, Randy, Reggie, Sandi, and Korey so much for everything. I also have to give a shout out to my 20 female classmates. I was class 277, and it was the first time there was only one guy ever.
Back to San Francisco, originally called Yerba Buena, or "Good Herb" after a peppermint like plant in the area. It was one of the last missions established by the Spanish born Franciscan monk Junipero Serra on his Camino Real up the coast of California. Due to its geographical location, it tends to be on the cooler side temperature wise, especially during the summer months. The heat from the Eastern side of the state pulls the cold wet air mass of the Pacific over the city enveloping it in a beautiful fog. You can literally see it roll into the city in the morning and come back again before the sunsets. It's gorgeous.
Another thing I love about San Francisco is the diversity. There are over 90 distinct neighborhoods with individual personalities. From the Latin American Mission to the LGBTQ friendly Castro, there's something for everyone. The food as well spans the many types of cuisine. Here are some highlights:
1. Homeroom: gourmet mac and cheese in Oakland for less than $10 a entree. I WANT TO EAT IT ALL. I ended up getting the garlic with two types of cheese. It was phenomenal.
2. Bristol Farms: San Francisco is all about eating healthy and organically. This market has multiple locations and serves the freshest foods. I had their Tomato Basil soup more times than I care to admit in a sourdough bread bowl.
3. Lefty O'Doul's: named for a San Franciscan baseball legend, this cafeteria style restaurant and bar serves freshly carved sandwiches and daily specials for a crazy affordable price. I had their spaghetti, which was magnificent.
I hope to return to the city often. It will always have a special place in my heart because of it's promise of a new career, the new family I have in that career, and of all the things I learned and experienced there. Standing before Frida y Diego at SFMOMA was one of the highlights of this summer along with seeing the beauty of Burney Falls and realizing that there is a career out there for me in which I can find success and still be happy. I don't know if I'll ever be able to sit at a desk again, and I don't plan to find out. I do know that I will always have a good suit case so that I never again struggle up to the plastic wrap station at the airport because my bag has no sliders on the zipper and is held together with two belts and a trail of painters tape spanning two MUNI rides and one BART commute. If you're ever bored, please let me talk your ear off about this wonderful experience. Taylor got plenty of it after he picked me up from the airport at 1 in the morning. I can't wait to get started, so I already called and am visiting the department of tourism for Birmingham and hopefully getting a job as a local guide to save up some money for DC!
All I Wanna Do is Have Some Fun
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.
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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