A Day, A Week, Hemant, A Year

If you’ve been keeping up with my posts over the last ten days, you know that my vacation was a busy affair. Ryan, Connie, and I were running around non-stop visiting many of the great tourist destinations of the greater Los Angeles area and Las Vegas.

I hadn’t been on a decent vacation in some time so it was definitely great to finally go on one. It may have had a little hit on my pocket book, but ones got to live - that’s what money is for. So as I sit here on my couch a day after getting back with my thirst to travel quenched, I find myself already planning my next trip.

And last but not least I want to take this moment to thank Ryan and Connie for having me in their home for the last ten days, and trucking me around from one great destination to the next. We sure put on a lot of kilometres. I look forward to visiting you guys again, wherever you may be.

If you didn’t get a chance to read all of the posts, you can see them all here. You can also see all of the photos from the trip at the following links:

• The Getty Center
• Hollywood and the Magic Castle
• SoCal Beaches
• Los Angeles Lakers vs Phoenix Suns
• Las Vegas
• NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

I was up pretty early Thursday morning even though I had packed the night before. Ryan and I hung out for a bit before he left for work at around 6:30. I watched some T.V. before getting into the shower. My flight was scheduled for departure at 1:30 out of LAX so Connie and I left at about 9:15, leaving time for traffic issues so I could get checked in with at least two hours to spare. Surprisingly the traffic was really good and we ended up getting to the airport in less than an hour.

I checked in as soon as I got there and it was only 10:30, so I had about three hours to kill. I wandered around, grabbed something to eat, and read. Nothing too exciting. LAX is lame, so my options were limited. It’s been a while since I’ve been through a U.S. airport security point, and I was flabbergasted that they didn’t check anything. In Canada, they make you take out electronic equipment so they can test it for explosives and such. At LAX, they didn’t do anything like that. Unless they have some type of machine that we don’t, it seemed pretty strange since they make it out like they are so concerned with security.

The flight was on time and went well. Once again I had a T.V. so I managed to make the time pass nice and quick. I had some little girl behind me who was imitating a coyote for a good portion of the flight which I could have done without. I’m currently sitting in the Calgary airport killing time again. I now have over a four hour layover before my flight to Saskatoon. After going through customs I pitted in Kelsey’s for a brew and something to eat. I did ask if I get could get on an earlier connecting flight to Saskatoon, but everything was pretty much full and I would have to pay a small fee to do it. I couldn’t be bothered. I should be landing in Saskatoon shortly after 11:00 tonight. I’ll catch a cab home and then crash in my bed. It’s been a busy ten days.

Wednesday was the last full day I had in Los Angeles and we had a trip planned to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. There is only one tour a week so today was the only day we could do it. For those who are not familiar with JPL and what role they play in space exploration, here’s a short excerpt taken from the JPL website.

“Do not go where the path may lead,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. “Go instead where there is no path, and leave a trail.” That could be the motto of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Trailblazing has been the business of JPL since it was established by the California Institute of Technology in the 1930s. America’s first satellite, Explorer 1, was created at JPL. In the decades that followed, we sent the first robotic craft to the Moon and out across the solar system, reconnoitering all of the planets. Pushing the outer edge of exploration, in fact, is the reason JPL exists as a NASA laboratory.

The tour was scheduled for 1:00 pm so Connie and I were planning on picking Ryan up at work (his first day back since I got here) and have lunch at the “Dirty Truck”. Apparently a mobile catering truck would stop by their office everyday at lunch serving pretty good Mexican food. The truck came to be known as the Dirty Truck, even though it wasn’t really that dirty. For some reason I was really excited to try it out.

Connie and I arrived at the office on schedule at 11:30, giving us enough time to grab a bite to eat and head to JPL which would be about a 30 minute drive. They recommended checking in around 12:30. Ryan met us outside the office by the “Dirty Truck” and asked Connie if she had brought their passports. Apparently you need them to get into the facility if you are not an American citizen. I carried mine with me at all times while here, so I had mine. There must have been some miscommunication because Connie knew nothing about bringing passports. The real story is still under investigation.

We looked at the time and decided we had no time for lunch and would have to drive back to Rancho Cucamonga (about 15 minutes), grab the passports, and then drive to JPL in Pasadena. We would be cutting it close. Ryan jumped in the driver’s seat and we were off at breakneck speeds. Luckily the freeways weren’t too busy. We picked up the passports and headed to NASA. As we got back on the freeway the fuel light came on, adding another element to this adventure.

We finally arrived at JPL at about 12:45 and had no problems getting through security. We got to the visitor’s building and they were not checking people in yet. We made it just in time As we were waiting in the lobby, I overheard some people talking about Saskatoon. I went over to them and asked, “Did I hear someone say they were from Saskatoon?” I kid you not, there was a young software developer for Dreamworks Animation whose parents were visiting from Saskatoon. What are the odds of that? We chatted for a couple minutes before we checked in with our tour guide.

The tour started off by watching an interesting film (narrated by Harrison Ford) giving an overview of JPL and what unmanned planetary missions they’ve been responsible for. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Once the film finished the tour guide took over and started to talk about the replicas of satellites in the room including Voyager and Galileo. Ryan and I noticed that he seemed to repeat himself quite a bit.

After we finished in this area we moved on to another place that had more replicas of famous unmanned probes including the first one launched into orbit by the United States - Explorer 1. There was also a display for the world’s lightest material called Aerogel. It was pretty neat how it looked like it was there, but kind of like a hazy hologram. Here’s a picture of Ryan checking it out.

After this piece of the tour we moved on to another facility where JPL’s mission control was housed. This room was pretty cool and you could see live telemetry coming from actual spacecraft in real time. There was also two giant screens showing the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and countdowns to their next two missions. Sounds pretty straightforward, doesn’t it. Well, our tour guide went into about a ten minute talk on UTC, continually repeating statement after statement. Ryan, Connie, and I were having a tough time keeping our composure. It was ridiculous. There were fairly young children in the group (one was wearing an orange NASA flight suit), but come on - they likely weren’t following much anyway. Then when the guide finished his big lecture on UTC and how to tell time, he asked if anyone had questions. One of the children raised his hands and asked, “What is the UTC on those clocks?” It may have been the most hilarious thing we’ve seen in while and I can’t believe none of us cracked up. The tour guide started explanation again, but made it real short this time. I’d like to think that the child was actually sticking it to the tour guide - mocking if you will….but I highly doubt it - he was only about four.

The guide then started to talk about the planets and the distance between them, making it difficult for spacecraft to communicate efficiently with mission control. He continued to repeat himself over and over. Another child asked the question, “Can I sit on the edge of Saturn’s rings?”

We then moved on to the final facility that housed the test room for the Mars Rovers. This was easily the best part of the tour, especially since a different tour guide made the presentation. She proceeded to explain (without the repetition) how they used the test room to run simulations prior to missions, and how they still use it to mimic problems the rover may encounter or is currently encountering on the Martian surface. She was pretty thorough and did a good job of explaining the rover to us.

This wrapped up the tour and we were lead back to the visitors center. The tour was decent and I liked getting to see what I did, but I was disappointed with how elementary it was. I’m not saying I’m a genius or anything, but they didn’t talk about anything I didn’t already know (and I’m pretty sure that most people who are even interested in going on a tour of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have a basic knowledge of the solar system and the major unmanned missions). The only thing I really learned about was the history of the facility. The last tour guide did mention there was an open house in May where the actual engineers are to speak. That would probably be more interesting, but I’m not going to be around.

Since we had to skip lunch we were all pretty hungry. I wanted to make sure I had Mexican food while in California so we hit a place Ryan and Connie had been once before. It was quite good, but I mistakenly ordered a burrito that had no meat in it. We’re not sure what was actually in it, but it looked like a pancake. You can see more picture from the day here.

We had a few items on the agenda for Tuesday in Las Vegas. I had known about a Star Trek : The Experience attraction since it opened a few years ago and made a point to see it if I was ever in Vegas. My brother actually saw it when he was in Vegas recently and said it was pretty good. Since I am a pretty big Star Trek geek and Ryan is a closet Trekkie, we decided to go check it out. Connie claims she does not like Star Trek, so she decided to enter a poker tournament while we, “boldly went where no one had gone before.”

Star Trek : The Experience was at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel so we checked out from Treasure Island and headed over there. We had breakfast at the Hilton’s buffet which was pretty good. The selection was decent, but not spectacular. I’m not a huge fan of buffets (again, my germophobia), but when in Rome…

A poker tournament was just starting when we finished breakfast, so Connie got into that and Ryan I made our way to the Experience. There was a huge gift shop with all sorts of cool Star Trek things. I would have bought a few bottles of Klingon Blood Wine or Romulan Ale for sure, but I didn’t want to risk losing it at customs. Once we finished in there we decided to go have a drink at Quarks Bar and Restaurant. If that doesn’t make you smile, then you’re not a Trek fan. Quarks Bar is a replica of the bar by the same name from Star Trek : Deep Space Nine.

We were just planning on having a Romulan Ale (blue lager), but when we walked in there was a guy drinking this green bubbling thing which we found quite intriguing. We sat at the bar and went through the menu. We weren’t sure which one it was so we asked the bartender (she wasn’t a Ferengi, or a Dabo Girl). She told us that they were The Borg Sphere and the Warp Core Breach. When we read what they were on the menu, we had second thoughts since it was only 11:45 am.

• Warp Core Breach: (for two or more) (10 oz. of liquor) Red alert! Order this drink and prepare to separate our saucer section! Sensors indicate five different flavored Rums, Razzmatazz, and fruit juices. We add pure ice crystals from the planet Exo III. You’ll need more than one officer to handle this situation.
• Borg Sphere: (for two or more) (10 oz. of liquor) Prepare to be assimilated! Resistance is futile…when you consume this beverage consisting of Gin, Rum, Vodka, Melon Liqueur, sour mix and Sprite.

10 ounces of liquor before lunch is pushing it. Luckily they had mini version of each of these drinks with only 5 ounces of alcohol. That’s much more doable. We figured it was after noon somewhere in the galaxy. Ryan ordered the Borg Sphere and I ordered the Warp Core Breach. I could just post pictures of these drinks, but that would just not do them justice. So instead, check out the video below.

As we were sipping our drinks, a Klingon warrior came by to hassle us. He looked at us and said he could tell we were probably from California since he could smell the smog on us. He also laughed at us for getting the mini versions of the Borg Sphere and Warp Core Breach, claiming that children on his home world drink the full size versions. We managed to convince him to let me have my picture taken with him, even though we seemed to disgust him.

We finally managed to get through our drinks and we headed to buy our tickets for the two simulators the Experience offered - Borg Invasion and Klingon Encounter. We spent a little time looking at the exhibits they had featuring a running time line of major historic Star Trek universe events, as well as historical artifacts.

We got in line for the Borg Invasion 4-D experience. There was trivia questions being asked as we waited in line. I got them all correct - usually without even having to wait for the multiple choice options. Yes, I’m a geek. They finally let us in and the first encounter was underway. They use live actors as well as actual sets to make the experience more genuine. We were greeted by a lieutenant who directed our attention to a view screen. The Doctor, from Star Trek : Voyager explained to us that we were going to be part of a Federation experiment because we had a certain gene that would help fight off diseases, and more importantly, Borg nano-probes.

Midway through his briefing, the station we were on came under attack by the Borg ship. The lieutenant and another officer then proceeded to lead us through the station to a waiting transport - all while being chased by Borg drones who had transported aboard. We all eventually boarded the transport and departed the station, only to be intercepted by the Borg ship’s tractor beam.

Events continued to play out on the ships view screen until we eventually escaped and the ride came to an end. As we walked out we saw there was a box of goggles which we are pretty sure we were supposed to be wearing to get a 3-D effect of the view screen. Maybe that’s why that part of the experience didn’t seem right. Oh well.

We were running behind schedule since it was already 1:30 and we were supposed to meet Connie at 1:00. We found her and told her we still had one thing to see. She decided to go have a drink at Quarks bar while she waited. Ryan and I got in line for the Klingon Encounter.

In this one, we are transported from our present time to the future, where a group of Klingons believe that one of us is the ancestor of Jean Luc Picard. Their plan is to kill that ancestor so Picard is never born (we believe that Ryan was that ancestor). Luckily the Starship Enterprise was able to intercept the Klingons transporter beam and get us on their ship. An officer lead us from the transporter room through some corridors to a shuttle bay where we all boarded a shuttle that was to take us through a rift in the space time continuum to get us back home.

As we launched out of the Enterprise’s shuttle bay, the ride really took off. I’ve never been on these types of simulators before and I must say that they are pretty convincing. I really felt that we were flying through space and that we were in the middle of a space battle between the Federation and the Klingons. They made sure we strapped in when boarding the shuttle, and that was definitely a good idea because we were thrown around hard. They did warn people not to get on if they had back problems, heart problems, or were pregnant. One poor dude stayed back.

There were windows in the front and top of the shuttle that really made the experience realistic, especially when the Enterprise and Klingon ships flew overhead. As the battle waged on, we finally made our way through the time portal and were now flying over the strip of Las Vegas. It was pretty cool. But the Klingons managed to follow us and the battle continued for a bit. Once they were defeated, the shuttle proceeded towards the Hilton to drop us off. We all go off of the shuttle and as we walked down a hallway there was a T.V. on a local news channel. The story was how unidentified flying objects and explosions were being reported in Las Vegas.

The Klingon Encounter was quite a bit better than the Borg Invasion simulator according to me. It just seemed a lot more convincing. Maybe if we actually had the 3-D glasses for the Borg Invasion it would have been better. I’ll have to ask my brother if he wore glasses when they went through.

We went back to Quarks Bar to get Connie. She chickened out and didn’t get the Warp Core Breach or Borg Sphere. Instead she got this one.

• The Royale: A cosmic cosmopolitan, a favorite at Hotel Royale as well as in finer intergalactic establishments throughout the Quadrant. Made with Raspberry Vodka, Orange Liqueur, cranberry juice, and lime juice.

I wanted to get a souvenir so we went back to the gift shop and I took a look around. I was tempted to buy a Tribble. Connie loved them. I just decided to get a t-shirt instead.

Something we did see in the hotel that was pretty surprising was an iPod vending machine. It was an actual vending machine that you could buy a full blown iPod from. It had a pretty good selection. Here’s a picutre simulating Ryan shaking the vending machine after hypothetically putting in $300, and having the iPod get stuck on the way down.

Our next stop was Hoover Dam which was about a 30 minute drive from Vegas. Ryan and Connie had been there once before, but didn’t mind going out there again so I could see it. We didn’t take an actual tour of the dam, but just walked from one end to the other, enjoying the great structure.

After getting our fill of the dam, we decided to head back to Los Angeles. What should have been a fairly smooth drive turned into a bit of a headache once we hit an hour long traffic jam about halfway back. The highway was marked as “under construction” and traffic was backed up for miles. Once we passed the “construction” zone, it turned out to be two guys measuring a little piece of the shoulder. It was brutal.

We rolled back into Rancho Cucamonga at about 8:30 and just chilled for the rest of the night. Even though I’m not a gambler, and have never really had a drive to make a dedicated trip to Las Vegas, I’m glad I had a chance to see it. It is definitely something to behold, and I would definitely consider going back at some point to see more of the great shows they have to offer. You can see more pictures from the Las Vegas trip here.

Since Las Vegas is fairly close to L.A., we thought it was a good idea to make a trip out there while I was here. We left at about 10:00 on Monday morning. The drive was pretty cool across the Mojave desert. I’ve never seen terrain like that before. I made sure not to let Ryan take any shortcuts because I have seen what happens to tourists in movies like “The Hill Have Eyes”. Many stretches saw the desert covered with Joshua trees. There is a national park named for them, but we won’t have a chance to visit it on this trip.

We stopped for lunch in a 50s diner in some U.S. Marines base town. We tested our 50s entertainment knowledge and failed miserably. We also stopped at an outlet mall, but mostly just looked around.

We rolled into Las Vegas just after 3:00 and checked into our hotel right away. We stayed at Treasure Island which is right on the strip. We had tickets for the 7:00 show of Cirque du Soleil : Love so we didn’t have much time to do anything before. We just got changed and had dinner at a Vietnamese place in the hotel. Everywhere you go in the hotel you can hear the “dinging” of the slot machines. I’m not sure how the workers take it.

The show was playing at The Mirage which was right next to our hotel so we just walked over there. We picked Love since Ryan and Connie had seen all of the other Cirque du Soleil shows that are playing in Las Vegas. Here’s a little description of the show.

With LOVE, Cirque du Soleil celebrates the musical legacy of The Beatles

Born from a personal friendship and mutual admiration between the late George Harrison and Cirque founder Guy Laliberté, LOVE brings the magic of Cirque du Soleil together with the spirit and passion behind the most beloved rock group of all time to create a vivid, intimate and powerful entertainment experience.

With LOVE, Cirque du Soleil celebrates the musical legacy of The Beatles through their timeless, original recordings. The exuberance of The Beatles will be channeled through the youthful, urban energy of a cast of 60 international artists. Using the master tapes at Abbey Road studios, Sir George Martin and Giles Martin have created a unique soundscape of The Beatles music for LOVE. With panoramic sound and visuals, the audience will experience The Beatles as never before. Only at The Mirage, Las Vegas.

The show was pretty cool. I had never seen a Cirque du Soleil performance before and I would definitely see one again. The performers can do some rather amazing things and have a lot of guts. You couldn’t catch me hanging from the ceiling like they were. Apparently this one didn’t have as much acrobatics as other ones, but there was a lot of great dancing. I really liked the dancing, but I would also see one more focussed on acrobatics some time.

The show finished at about 8:30 so Ryan, Connie, and I just walked down the strip. There was definitely a lot of people there and the weather was cooperating nicely. I think the forecast said it was 30 degrees celsius. We stopped by an outdoor bar at one of the hotels and each got a drink. It was a pretty good deal - only $30 with tip. I thought we would just sit there until we were done, but according to Ryan and Connie, they said we could walk around the strip with them. Even though they said it was OK, it didn’t feel right to me and I kept trying to hide my beer. We finally some some other people walking around with their drinks, so I was a little more at ease.

We stopped at the Bellagio to watch the famous watershow. We managed to find a space around the ledge despite how busy it was for a front-row seat. We watched a couple of the shows - one to Faith Hill’s, “This Kiss”, and some opera song. It was awesome.

We continued to walk around more and then Connie decided to head back to the room. Ryan and I hung out in the Treasure Island casino for a while and I decided to put some money in a slot machine. I’m a high roller so I went to the quarter slots and put in $275. I lost it within one minute. Oh wait, did I say $275? I meant $2.75. Like I said, I’m a high-roller. Here’s a picture of the intensity of the game.

Since Ryan and I were so devastated by the loss, we had to call it a night. It completely deflated our enthusiasm. We went back to our room, watched a little tube, and went to bed.

Most people who know me are aware that I am a huge NBA fan. Since I was going to be in Los Angeles, there was no way I wasn’t going to see a basketball game. With two teams in the city, it was really a no-brainer to want to see the Lakers as opposed to the Clippers. Even though the Lakers are a playoff bound team, they would definitely not have much going for them if it wasn’t for Kobe Bryant.

Not only was I going to have the chance to see a legendary team and one of the premier players in the league - I was also going to see them play one of the best teams out there in the Phoenix Suns, featuring fellow Canadian and two-time league M.V.P., Steve Nash.

Tip-off was at 12:30 at the Staples Center. Ryan, Connie, and I were on the road by 10:00 and stopped for breakfast at a place whose portions sizes could feed a small family. Despite the restaurant being pretty busy, we were in and out of there in no time and on our way to the stadium.

It was about a 45 minute drive to downtown L.A. and traffic cooperated with us. I was not surprised to see a statue of Magic Johnson outside of the Staples Center, but I was surprised to see one of Wayne Gretzky. Ryan and I both agreed that he should have been wearing an Oilers jersey as opposed to a Kings jersey.

Prior to the game the three of us took a quick peak in the Lakers store to see if there was anything interesting that we wanted to buy. Since it was so busy we decided to go in there again after the game. We made our way to out seats in the upper 301 section. As far up as they were, the view was still pretty good. The stadium is built with the seating sections so steep that it is pretty hard to get a bad seat.

The usual celebrities were there including Jack Nicholson and Penny Marshall, as well as some other well-known stars such as Tobey Maguire and Terrence Howard sitting courtside. We were also graced by some NBA legends including Clyde Drexler and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

The actual game was not a complete blowout as we expected. The Lakers did a pretty good job of hanging around for most of the game, but Phoenix’s shooting and fast-paced game were too much for them to keep pace with. Ryan was cheering for the Lakers, but Connie and I were pulling for the Suns - although I did cheer for good plays by both sides. Kobe had some pretty sweet moves that you just couldn’t help but cheer for. Steve Nash’s penetration into the Lakers’ zone was completely dismantling the Lakers defense so I pointed out some defensive plays to Phil Jackson.

Following the game we made our way back to the Lakers store which was probably more busy than it was before the game. Connie got in the huge lineup while Ryan and I went through the store looking for something to buy. We both ended up buying a Kobe t-shirt illustrating his 81 point explosion last year against the Toronto Raptors. Since I couldn’t buy any actual Raptors merchandise at this store, I figured this was the next best thing - I get a little piece of Lakers and Raptors history.

After we left the stadium we just decided to drive around downtown for a bit so I could see it. This didn’t work out too well since a bunch of the major streets were closed off. After sitting in traffic jam after traffic jam, we just decided to head back to Rancho Cucamonga. You can see more pictures from the day here.

Even when stuck in a traffic jam in downtown L.A., something sweet can go down. See video below:

Saturday was southern California beaches day. We were on the road by 9:00 and the plan was to visit three beaches:

1. Santa Monica
2. Venice Beach
3. Bolsa Chica (Huntington Beach)

Here is a map (click it for a full-size picture) of the route we took. We started at Rancho Cucamonga in the north east.

The weather wasn’t the greatest for going to the beach, but we weren’t planning on doing any sun bathing. Our first stop was Santa Monica. We stopped at a Farmer’s Market during our walk from the parking lot to the beach. Ryan and Connie sampled some of the fruit and vegetables, but I didn’t because I’m a germophobe.

I was really surprised at how big the beach was. Not just length, but how deep it is as well. It wasn’t really crowded, but I can only imagine how insane it gets during the summer. Santa Monica is home to the first muscle beach. It’s a place for people to show off how strong they are. This one doesn’t have any weights, but it does have lots of other old school apparatuses. Ryan attempted to demonstrate his strength on some of the exercise equipment. After his workout, we walked out to the Santa Monica Pier.

Our next stop was Venice, just south of Santa Monica. A little history lesson - Venice used to house the Pacific Ocean Park which was also known as Dogtown, the birthplace of modern day skateboarding. If you’ve never seen “Dogtown and Z-Boys” or “Lords of Dogtown”, I’d highly recommend renting them. It is also the home of the second muscle beach - the place where Arnold Schwarzenegger was discovered. Here we walked down the Venice Beach boardwalk, and checked out the “local wildlife”. We also watched a little streetball at the world famous Venice Beach basketball courts. We passed a body piercing shop so Connie decided to get her nose done. You can see a video of it below.

Once we finished off at Venice, we got back on the road and headed south-east to Bolsa Chica, a.k.a. Huntington Beach. The main reason for going here was for Ryan to get some surfing in with his new board - a 6′3″ Surftech Channel Island Flyer II. I decided not to try surfing because I’m not the strongest swimmer, and the water is extremely cold at this time of year. Connie and I just decided to pull up some beach chairs and watch from the sidelines. There was a few other surfers out, as well a bunch of dolphins. They started to congregate around Ryan making us think that they were plotting something against him.

Ryan stayed out for about an hour before coming in. The wind had really picked up and it was quite chilly so we decided to call it a day. I was really surprised to see kids out in the water in only bathing suits. I put my feet for about three seconds and almost froze them off.

On the way home Ryan decided to stop by a surf shop in the city of Orange to pick up a bag for his new board. The shop was located near the Vans Indoor Skatepark so we decided to go and check it out. There weren’t any real good riders there at the time but it was still cool to see the world-class facility.

We got back to Rancho Cucamonga around 6:00 and just took it easy for the rest of the night. You can see more pictures from the day here.

While at the NBC studios we had an exciting moment with a possible celebrity sighting. A cry went out that was believed to be, “Look, it’s Ted Danson”.

There was clear disappointment in the car when it turned out the call was actually, “Look, it’s a chic dancin’.”

Since we had so much “fun” on Thursday night at The Magic Castle, we really didn’t think we could handle any more “fun” at a wine tasting in Temcula so we decided to just take it easy and do some shopping and see a movie. In the morning, Ryan and I went out to a nearby basketball court and played some hoops. We played some one-on-one, 21, and ran some shooting and post drills.

In the afternoon we went to a mall in the area and grabbed something to eat in the food court before going to see Grindhouse. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but it was pretty long, so be prepared. It’s almost three and a half hours long. After the movie I wanted to buy some clothes so we went to the Quicksilver store and I loaded up. I’m not sure I’ll have enough room in my suitcase to hold everything.

Since we wanted to try and see The Tonight Show again on Thursday, Ryan, Connie and I were on the road by 8:00 and hit the NBC studio by 8:30. But once again all we could get was standby tickets. We decided we would give it a try today anyway, since this would probably be our last chance to see it. We had to be back to the studio by 3:30 since taping was at 4:30.

From Studio City we made our way to Hollywood. It was pretty hazy out so you couldn’t see the sign in the mountains. We walked down the Hollywood Walk of Fame and made our way down to Mann’s Chinese Theater. We looked for some key stars and ‘hand and feet’ prints such as the cast of Star Trek, Harrison Ford, and the characters of Star Wars.

Connie needed a dress for our evening at The Magic Castle so we spent some time at a mall called The Grove. After we finished up we headed back to the car and toured around some of the more affluent areas such as Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive. There are definitely some impressive houses and properties to see in the Hills. We are pretty sure we saw at least one famous person’s house since there was a star tour bus in front of it and all of the passengers were taking pictures of it. We drove down Rodeo Drive, but didn’t have enough courage to actually go into any of the prestigious shops.

We had lunch at Canter’s, a famous L.A. deli / diner. I had a Fairfax sandwich that has a ton of corned beef and pastrami on it. It was good.

We killed some time before heading back to the NBC studio to get in line for The Tonight Show. There were a ton of people already lined up so we checked in with the other standby people. After about fifteen minutes the standby people were told to go join the lineups. There was a group that was entering the studio and we were told that they were special guests of Jay Leno’s. You’d expect there to be about ten or so guests. Nope, there were about one hundred. Jay has lots of friends.

There were pages armed with walkie-talkies walking up and down the line counting each person. But whenever they were asked how many people could fit in the studio, they would always claim that no one knew exactly how many could fit or how many would get in. So we’re not really sure what they were counting for. We just wanted to know whether we were getting in or not so we didn’t have to waste our time in line, but the pages loved their “power” and would give information to no one.

Shortly before 4:30 one of the pages informed us that no one with standby tickets would be getting in today. It was obviously disappointing that we would not get to see the show, but what really cheesed us off was that we didn’t need to wake up so early, and could have still accomplished the stuff we wanted to do. The one upside of not getting in was that we would not be rushed, or more likely late in getting to The Magic Castle.

There is a dress code for The Magic Castle and I didn’t bring a suit in my luggage. Luckily Ryan had a suit that fit me so we were in business. Since we didn’t want to be stuck in formal wear all day we ended up getting dressed in a parking lot on Hollywood Boulevard in the back of the car. The paparazzi only managed to get one shot.

We only had four blocks to drive, but it was rush-hour and it ended up taking nearly forty-five minutes to get there. It was insane, and funny at the same time, but we still arrived at the castle in time. Here’s a little description of what The Magic Castle is all about.

The Magic Castle is the private clubhouse for the Academy of Magical Arts, Inc, a very special organization devoted to the advancement of the ancient art of magic. The purpose of The Academy is to encourage and promote public interest in the art of magic with particular emphasis on preserving its history as an art form, entertainment medium, and hobby. Beginning with a charter membership of 150, the Academy has grown into a world-renowned fraternal organization with a membership of nearly 5,000.

You can only get into The Magic Castle if you are a member or if you are invited. At a previous visit with some co-workers, Ryan was invited back by one of the members. The castle is an old mansion with a restaurant and rooms for magic performances. There was also a haunted piano that played by itself, and took requests. We asked it to play Moonlight Sonata and the theme from Cheers.

The first show we saw after dinner was a close-up performance. In these shows there are 22 people in a small room and you are extremely close to the magician. The performer focussed heavily on coin tricks and it was real cool seeing it up close. Right after this performance we went to the main room which actually had a stage, and was a more typical magic show with lights, music, and all of that jazz. The room held about 100 people, but was still not very big. We sat right at the front.

The first magician in this room performed with his wife and was incredible. This is probably the best magic I have ever seen live, or on TV. It was so weird seeing this stuff from so close up. It really blew our minds. I participated in a card trick where the magician’s daughter picked a card I chose. She was about 2. His finale included him making his wife disappear while levitating under a sheet. He was wearing a vampire cape and wrapped himself completely up in it. When he opened it up, it was not him, but his wife wearing the cape. He was somehow at the back of the room.

The second guy in this room had a lot of humour in his act and was awesome as well, but I definitely preferred the first guy. Throughout the night we saw another close-up performance and 2 Prestidigitation performances. One of the more impressive tricks was when a magician had a person from the audience circle the page number and the headline of any story from a newspaper with a red marker. He opened up an envelope and had a xeroxed copy of that exact page - with the red marks. It was unreal.

We finished up at about midnight and headed back home. All I can say is that The Magic Castle is easily one of the greatest things I have ever seen. It’s one thing seeing these illusions on TV, but seeing them up close and personal is incredible. This may end up being the highlight of the whole trip. You can see more pictures of the day here.

I was up around 7:30 this morning and read a bit of news on the net before jumping in the shower. Ryan was gone to work by 5:30 and Connie and I watched some sports highlights while we had our morning coffee. Let me tell you, the ESPN version of Sportscenter is the way to go as opposed to TSN’s version. Here you get 25 minutes of NBA highlights followed by 5 minutes of the “other” sports - the way it should be. In the Canadian version you get 25 minutes of hockey highlights (and to be more precise, that’s 25 minutes of Leafs highlights) followed by 5 minutes of the “other” sports.

We needed to stop by the NBC studio to pick up The Tonight Show tickets so we headed out at about 9:00. The traffic was decent and we rolled into Burbank and Studio City in good time. When I went in to get the tickets all they could give me were stand-by ones. The deal was that you show up at 3:30 and you’d know if you were getting in by 4:30. Since we didn’t want to hang around this area of the city all day and then end up not getting in, we decided it was best to do some schedule shifting.

We decided to go to the Getty Center today, and try The Tonight Show another day. Since we had no idea how to get to the Getty Center we tried to call Ryan at the office to get us directions off of the internet. We needed to find a pay phone since neither of them have a cell phone. I’m serious.

We couldn’t get a hold of him so we just asked a guy at a gas station and he filled us in on where we needed to be. We were now on our way to see some art. For those who don’t know what the Getty Center is, here’s a blurb from their site.

The Getty Center presents the Getty’s collection of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present against a backdrop of dramatic architecture, tranquil gardens, and breathtaking views.

Connie and I were most interested in the photography exhibits they had. The first one we saw was Sigmar Polke: Photographs, 1968-1972. His work was known to be experimental and I honestly didn’t care for them. Below is a picture of Connie enjoying old Sigmar’s photos. Apparently I wasn’t supposed to be taking pictures in this exhibit, but I managed to sneak a few in….before I was told it was forbidden and sternly reprimanded.

Another photography exhibit was The Old Order and the New: P.H. Emerson and Photography 1885-1895. His pieces focused on images of, “the isolated region of East Anglia in England during the late 19th century, a time when traditional life and work along the Norfolk Broads were increasingly threatened by advances in modern technology.” I did like his work, but there were a lot of his pieces, and they all seemed to become very similar near the end.

The photography exhibit I enjoyed the most was A Place in the Sun: Photographs of Los Angeles by John Humble. From the Getty site.

John Humble (American, b. 1944) has lived and worked in the Los Angeles area for 30 years. During this time he has created a strong body of photographs inspired by architecture and its surrounding natural environment, often focusing on the incongruities and ironic juxtapositions of the Southern Californian landscape. This two-gallery exhibition features approximately 35 color photographs, many of which were acquired by the Getty Museum in January 2006, with the generous assistance of the Getty Museum Photographs Council, which also underwrote the accompanying publication. Both the exhibition and book celebrate Humble’s distinct view of Los Angeles. From the concrete channels of the Los Angeles River to brightly colored commercial buildings, his photographs of the built environment capture that which is instantly recognizable yet very often overlooked.

We made our way through many of the other exhibits, but you have to understand that the Getty Center is huge, and you could spend a lot of time in there. We saw a ton of paintings and sculptures, along with a really neat look at the process they used to determine whether a so-called 15th century cabinet was the real-deal. The centre also has an incredible garden to walk through.

We decided to head back home shortly after 3:00. Traffic was brutal at some places, but cleared up and let us actually go above 20 km/hour. When we got back, Ryan had also just arrived from the office. We had some dinner and watched basketball before heading to the hot-tub for a dip. Connie didn’t join us since she needed to go buy a dress for a show we are seeing tomorrow called The Magic Castle. From what I hear it is supposed to be awesome. Check back for details on Thursday.

I’ve also posted some picture from the day here. There aren’t many, and I’m a little disappointed I didn’t have my big camera with me at the time (since I thought we were going to be at The Tonight Show today), but there were still some decent shots.

We were a little delayed getting out of Calgary due to the weather. By the time the plane was de-iced we were running about 20 minutes late. The flight was packed with families heading out for Easter vacation, but everything was decent. I’m glad it was a new WestJet plane so I could pass the time watching T.V. I got to watch a documentary on perpetual motion machines on the Discovery Channel, and an episode of Star Trek : The Next Generation (“The Emissary”).

After arriving in L.A. the first thing I noticed was that LAX looks like it was pulled straight out of the 70s. That airport needs some upgrades - not was I was expecting at all. I made my way down to the luggage claim and saw Connie pull up outside. She circled around the area a couple times while I waited for my bags to come.

We rolled out of there in no time and headed for their place in Rancho Cucamonga by San Berardino. It was about an hour and fifteen minute drive back to their place. We stopped at In-n-Out Burger for some drive-thru since I hadn’t eaten in some time. Connie said I needed to try it before I left - “best burgers as far as fast food goes”, was her claim. For the record, it was quite good.

We just hung out and watched some TV when we got back. Ryan left specific instructions for me not to touch his new surf board. He also called numerous times to remind me. I took it out to the parking lot and did a dry-run. It wasn’t that great. He got back to the house around 5:00 and we just chilled and went out for dinner. Pretty low-key day.

We decided to twiddle with the schedule slightly. Tomorrow (Wednesday), Connie and I are going to go to The Tonight Show taping (guests include Jennifer Love Hewitt, Robert Rodriguez, and Brandi Carlile) while Ryan goes to work. We have to line up for the tickets in the morning since they didn’t arrive in the mail in time.

I’m just sitting at my gate in the Calgary airport to take off for L.A. I was up nice and early this morning - around 3:15. My cab arrived at about 4:15 to take me to the airport. No problems in security or customs in either departure city so that was good. There was a bit of a wait for my luggage at customs so I just decided to go grab some breakfast while they sorted it out.

The weather in Calgary is brutal - snowing and blowing. Looks like I picked a good time to get out of here. The weather in L.A. looks solid - mostly sunny and reaching about 21 degrees celsius this afternoon. Ryan is working today so Connie is picking me up at the airport. Everything is on time and I should be landing at LAX at about 12:49 pm local time.

Anyway, that’s it and I’ll check in again to let you know I made it.

On another note, it is now confirmed that Jeffrey is online 24/7. I got on the net this morning at 4:00 to check the status of my flights. I kid you not, Jeffrey instant messages me about one second later.

“Dood, you’re gonna be late.”

Granted, it is was 6:00 in Montreal, but come on!

Three days and counting. It’s been a while since I’ve had a real vacation. Probably over seven years when I went to Maui for my sister’s wedding in January of 2000. Sure I’ve taken ‘vacation’, but it was usually spent visiting my family and friends in Saskatchewan and Alberta while I was living in Ontario. I’m not trying to say those vacations weren’t anything special, but they just weren’t ‘go somewhere cool’ types of vacations.

My friends Ryan and Connie are currently living in Los Angeles, California. As Ryan put it, they are “on a global project.” A quote from their website sums it up.

Leaving Edmonton in September, our home sold, our belongings in storage we have started a new life working on a “global project”. Currently in California, not sure where we are going next (or when), we are enjoying the ride….

As an engineer, Ryan is hopping around the globe from project to project. Los Angeles is their first stop, with rumours of Europe being next. I figured I better take advantage of their journeys and try and visit them in each locale. They’ve been in L.A. for well over a year now, and I was supposed to actually visit them about a year ago. But since I had just made a big (and expensive) move from Guelph to Saskatoon, my trip needed to be postponed until now.

I leave for the city of angels early in the morning of Tuesday, April 3rd and return on Thursday, April 12th giving the three of us plenty of time to do lots of “stuff”. And let me just say, our schedule is FULL of all sorts of “stuff”. Here’s a quick look at our schedule.

• Tuesday, April 3 - Depart for L.A.
• Wednesday, April 4 - Temecula Wine Country
• Thursday, April 5 - The Getty Center
• Friday, April 6 - Hollywood, Rodeo Drive, Sunset Strip, The Tonight Show
• Saturday, April 7 - No plans - just chilling
• Sunday, April 8 - Tour downtown L.A., Lakers vs. Suns NBA game
• Monday, April 9 - Las Vegas, Cirque du Soleil (Love)
• Tuesday, April 10 - Las Vegas
• Wednesday, April 11 - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory tour
• Thursday, April 12 - Depart for Saskatoon

As you can see, I wasn’t kidding. I figured that if I’m going to be out there, I may as well see as much as possible. I’m more-or-less ready to go, and have just a few things to take care of. Today I’m going to buy some American money and shop for some summer-esque clothes. Then I just need to pack, and I’m good to go. I plan on posting everyday while I’m out there, so be sure to check back here to see how everything is going. Hang ten, bra!