California {Hollywood!}

Note: The photos in this post don't flow with the text like I usually try to do, I just wanted to do a better job of breaking up text since the end of the post would have otherwise been VERY photo heavy.


Other than booking a hotel, we purposely didn't make any plans for our time in LA. Too many times on vacation, we tend to overbook ourselves and just get overwhelmed or feel like we didn't have time to take advantage of things.

However, a friend mentioned something a couple weeks prior about TV shows. I didn't realize it, but you can get free tickets to a lot of tapings! Unfortunately, the good shows that we love (Big Bang, Two and a Half Men, Two Broke Girls) all had full lists AND waiting lists for the shows while we were there. Even the Price is Right was booked until the day we flew out (BOOO!) But we still wanted to do SOMETHING, so we ended up getting tickets to the Dr. Phil Show.

The taping was to start at 9:30 and our tickets said to be there by around 9. Google maps indicated that it would take us around 25 minutes to get to the studio, so we left around 8:20 to get there and have some extra time. Or so we thought. This is where gridlock came into play again, it took us over an hour to get there. By the time we arrived at the studio, unfortunately, it was too late.

 

BUT they do two tapings, so told us to come back around 10:45 and we could be in the second. We killed some time by walking to a nearby café and having coffee/tea. Once we got back (early this time!) we waited. A LONG time. The first show was pretty dramatic apparently and became a two-part episode. It went over so long that they ended up ordering pizza - but it arrived just before it was time to start taping the show we were there for!

We weren't allowed to have phones, cameras or anything at the studio, which is why I have nothing to really document it. But our show was about a case of domestic abuse. It was even an Opera-type day, because there was a giveaway! Robin McGraw, Dr. Phil's wife, has a skincare line that benefits women/children affected by domestic abuse, so we filled out vouchers to receive them (which I just realized, haven't come in the mail yet. Hmmmmm)

Once we FINALLY got out of the taping (I think it was between 2 & 3?) we scarfed down a couple slices of pizza and then headed down to Hollywood Blvd. We were still kinda hungry so we stopped at a bar for a couple drinks and appetizers (gotta love happy hour!) We also changed clothes (the studio was cold and they wanted you dressed nice, so we ditched the dress pants and nicer shirts in favor of shorts and comfy clothes!)

Then we decided to just walk the Boulevard. Cooper is obsessed with Mickey right now so we HAD to take a photo with the Mouse! Hubby posed with Marilyn and I also had to hug up on Cinderella (even if she was the tranny version) because she is my favorite princess.

We continued to just walk up the strip. We stopped at the Chinese theatre and checked out some of the stars. We stopped in Hooters for drinks, and decided to go ahead and get another appetizer there as well. After that, it was beginning to get dark, so we decided to go up to the Griffith observatory.



That was super cool! Unfortunately it was too dark to get a good picture of the Hollywood sign, but it was neat to have that bird's eye view of the city!

Since traffic was so bad that morning, we realized that we could take one of the more popular streets rather than the I-10. We followed Sunset Boulevard until we hit the ocean and had to turn. It was pretty cool to go through neighborhoods like Bel Air! And so much better than getting caught in gridlock.



By the time we got back, we needed some more supplies for breakfast so found a grocery store to grab those items, then went back to the hotel and passed out. It was a great day!

Up next: Beach time and the pier!


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