Up first, "Day 1: I love LA, my rental car, and not being at work!"
We arrived in LA and the weirdo's appeared before we knew it! It was a pretty long flight. This lady was apparently cramping up or something.
Originally, I was standing to her right, next to Sean. That was of course before she threw her leg up on the luggage carousel and started stretching out like she was going to run a marathon or something. I took like 20 pics of this lady stretching her shit out, but I'll spare you. I couldn't stop laughing, so most of them are blurry.
After the hilarity that was waiting for luggage, we made our way to the rental car place to pick up our transportation. This would end up being the best decision we could have ever made on this trip.
Side note: At this point, less than an hour into my vacation, I got upset about something dealing with work. I screamed obscenities in the Enterprise Rental Car garage while Sean looked at me like a crazy person and the sales girl reminded me I was on vacation. This is only important because I think it allowed me to get it all out of my system and I can honestly say I forgot I even had a job for the next three days...eeeeenddd scene.
Anywho, we had made a reservation for a compact car and Salesgirl tries to get us to upgrade to a PT Cruiser or something just so that we could have power locks and windows. She obviously must have been confused regarding the definition of "upgrade" or about what exactly a PT Cruiser looks like...because I mean really...upgrade? To a PT Cruiser? So, Sean explained to her that he drives a 1994 Honda Civic that doesn't even have POWER STEERING on a daily basis, so thanks, but no thanks...we'll stick with the car that doesn't make us look like complete buttwads.
We ended up getting the car we wanted, the Nissan Versa. Without this car (or any really) we never would have been able to get all the places we did! And on one (that's 1) tank of gas for the whole week!
Here she is, in all her little red glory. My favorite part about having the Versa, was parking...especially valeting...it when most cars in the parking lot or hell, even parked on the street, cost about 4 times the price. It was a good little car and I miss it.
So, moral of the story: If you ever go to LA and you want to see more than your hotel bar, rent a car. Moreover, rent a cherry red Nissan Versa (and pronounce Versa like Vhairsa to make it even more fun). *You may be thinking that this is still a buttwad car, but nah...it's pretty much the coolest.
SO! In the rental car, we program our GPS...yes, I said GPS! The one thing that may have been even more crucial in the ultimate success of our vacation was this beauty:
(Garmin) I have no idea if this is the exact model we used, but it looks like it. Not important. What is important, is the fact that this thing is awesome and got us everywhere we wanted to go. I can honestly say we never got lost once. And after about a day with this thing, you start talking in the same accent as the woman who reads the directions. We were lucky enough to get this one on loan by a very trusting, very kind, Ted. But if you don't have your own Ted or you happen to be a clutz, a clepto, or just generally un-trustworthy, and no one will let you borrow theirs, you can always rent one when you go to pick up your Nissan Versa. It's not that much more and TOTALLY worth while. I don't think I've stressed that enough.
Okay, back to the trip to the hotel. Everyone says traffic in LA is the worst. We really didn't experience anything worse than what we would driving on the Kennedy, but it was a holiday by the time we got there. I think this is why it was pretty light. We did notice however that there aren't very many speed limit signs on the highways. We saw one the whole time and we came to the conclusion that it's because you really don't go over 35 the whole time. I say it's not so bad because at least you're moving...unlike in Chicago, where you can sit in the same spot sucking up the exhaust of the cars around you for 10 minutes before inching up and doing it all over again. Which brings me to one more difference, the cars emit cleaner exhaust. You can tell when there is a car around from another state because you suddenly remember what exhaust smells like and then you remember how much you hate it.
We're en route to our destination, the Hilton Checkers, in Downtown LA and we find Indie 103.1, an awesome radio station that we pretty much listened to the whole time. It was like the perfect sound track to the perfect trip. Sean was already privy to it's goodness as he listens to it online at work. I am not allowed to do such things at work, so this was a great discovery to me.
We pass the staples center, where later that night the Lakers would win a basketball game against the Spurs and send various douche bags cheering into the streets. We get into the downtown area and I kind of feel like I'm in the Loop. I was a little disappointed at first.
There are a few cool things to see in the downtown area, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and FIDM, where Lauren Conrad "studies" fashion!!
We didn't get to see any of the above attractions, but we did pass by them on the way to our final destination, our hotel. The hotel was overall very nice. We didn't spend too much time there, pretty much just to sleep and get ready, but the staff was nice and the digs were splendid. Small, but splendid. (It's a boutique hotel.) There is a pool on the rooftop, which we never went up to see because it was all of 60 degrees and cloudy the first two days we were there. It looks cool though.
After checking in and getting settled, Sean stole wireless internet from someone near by and searched for a place for dinner. I sat on the bed, ate flavorblasted goldfish and fruit snacks and I watched three back to back episodes of the "Dog Whisperer." I was on vacation! I can do what I want!
We decided to have dinner downtown because we were meeting up with Jen, Dennis, Eric and Jen afterwards for drinks. We went with Engine Co. No. 28. The restaurant is an old renovated firehouse and the food is delicious! I had the Southern Style Pan Fried Chicken. I stuffed myself silly full of it's fried goodness and the mashed potatoes that accompanied it. When we were walking there, Sean was able to see lots of spots from his skate videos in real life. This was exciting for him. I would experience this same joy later when I saw the Bolthouse offices where Heidi "works" as well as various other locales from "the Hills."
After our meal, we rolled ourselves down the street to the Figueroa Hotel. On the way there we passed many a proud Laker's fan. Go sports!
We ended our night meeting up with everyone at the hotel's Moroccan lounge.
We tried to sit outside, but alas it was freezing and it started to rain.
We saw plenty of shorty shorts, shorty dresses, and a really odd blond Asian girl who was wearing a dress that was EXACTLY the same color as her skin.
All in all it was a great night!
(Note: I'm pretty much wearing this scarf in every picture, as it was unseasonably cold while we were there and I wasn't really prepared for cold weather.)
Sean ended the night by spotting a car wash that he was convinced (and then later may have changed his mind?) was from some rad skate videos. He screamed about it for like two minutes, then I pushed him into a cab and we went back to the hotel. He would go on about this car wash for the next two days until we saw another one that made him second guess himself. In the end I'm not really sure what happened with the great car wash debate of 2008. But it was an honor just to be in their presence.
Day 1...over.
Next up, day 2: The best grill cheese of my life, the world of "cool" that is Silverlake, and drunk Indian guy pukes at Beauty Bar in Hollywood, plus much, much more!
TTFN!
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