DAY 8 Mon Nov 12th:
Our first day in LA!!! Ely made us a very nice breakfast that we consumed with massive amounts of coffee. That wasn't until after I of course met her very, shall we say, intense neighbor!! When walking to her apartment a pot fell off this tiny ledge outside his apartment. I knocked on his door to inform him and he rudely barked orders to clean it up without even cracking open his door. Ely later told us he is a very old man who simply walks around in nothing but his underwear so thank goodness that door was never opened!!
After breakfast we went to Runyon Canyon for a nice morning hike... Thankfully it was no challenge when compared to the Grand Canyon! We walked for a little while before reaching a lookout point where we could see not only the city but the infamous "Hollywood" sign as well. After that it was time to get back to the car (parked just down the road from Sheryl Crow's house) and get Ely, the up and coming actress, to USC for her audition! Katie, Samm and I had planned to park on campus and walk around while we waited but Samm had already made one gutsy move cutting between closed gates in front of a cop so we decided to hang in the car and simply wait. Again, thank goodness for those puzzle books of Katie's! Samm found a shady spot and we all worked on crosswords until Ely was done. I thought students at MSU were crazy... these kids didn't seem to even notice cars driving around campus! Spencer works over at Paramount and was nice enough to get us all passes to get in for free! So after the audition, Ely led three very giddy girls through the gates and into what seems like an entirely different world all together. Spencer picked us up off the streets of "New York" in a golf cart and gave us an incredible, and very behind the scenes tour of Paramount!!!! We got to see different studios, Spencer's office, an actual set for a TV show (they're so crammed together) and even drove by Chevy Chase's car!! Little did we know five mins later we would see Chevy Chase. IN PERSON!!! "Are you happy now, Clark?? She's deaf!!" We drove right by him and had to do everything in our power to not go crazy and start yelling at him. (Being from MI doesn't warrant a lot of star sightings). Not five mins later I thought I was going to have to hold Samm from jumping off the back of the cart as we drove by Kevin McHale (he plays Artie in the TV show Glee). Unless he wears his costume around in real life they must have been in the middle of shooting an episode. After all the excitement we went to the gift shop where Samm picked up a coffee mug before us three ladies had to part ways. We said our thank you's and goodbyes until later and took off toward Hollywood Blvd. I had never been so Katie and Samm took me down to see all the stars impressions. Somehow I missed Tom Cruise but got a picture with a framed photo of him leaving his mark outside the Chinese Theatre. We didn't however miss the cast of Twilight (the final movie comes out in four days)!!!! Next it was up a set up stairs turned into a piano (yes it in fact plays music as you step on each step) and off to Hollywood and Vine where Samm was more amused by the people walking around than anything. It was starting to get dark and we were all famished so we went back to the apartment and ate leftovers. Spencer and Ely were going to take us to Universal City Walk after her class but Katie, Samm and I were so exhausted we watched "Accepted" and passed out instead.
DAY 9 Tues Nov 13th:
Samm looked online last night and found a reasonably cheap hotel two hours north of LA right on Avila Beach; so we awoke relatively early, had breakfast, packed up the car and went on our way. Of course not before Ely played paparazzi and snapped a million pictures of us.
The hotel was very homey so the three of us settled in, took in a sunset on their gorgeous sunroof then made some spaghetti for dinner. We got some California wine and settled in to watch the first part of Twilight Breaking Dawn as Katie had yet to see it!!! It took us about four hours to get through the movie as we paused it on several occasions to get in some much needed girl time as well as making a mad dash to the only store in town for another bottle of Moscato!! In order to enhance our movie viewing experience we took one bed and turned it perpendicular to the other one so we could all be close. It was still early when we did finish Twilight so we took our wine on the roof an hung up there until bed time!!
DAY 10 Wed Nov 14th:
Maybe the bed arrangement for our "movie viewing" experience wasn't the best for sleeping. Samm awoke completely turned around on the rearranged bed, the sheets all torn off! We moved it back around expecting to be checking out that day. After further discussion, however, we all decided we wanted to have a day of complete relaxation instead. So we booked a second night and headed across the street to catch some rays along the beach.
I went for a short run along the water before meeting up with the girls on the beach. Its official... when I eventually settle down it will be along the water. The hotel let us borrow chairs so we sat on those and tried to remember how to do absolutely nothing!! After a while hunger took over and we went inside to make some sandwiches before moving to our favorite spot: the rooftop!! There Katie and I curled up on a hammock and Samm took to a very comfy chair with lots of pillows!! We read, worked on puzzles, napped, whatever suited us until snapping shots of a gorgeous sunset!! Katie broke our usual pattern of indecisiveness and decided we should continue to do nothing and go out for dinner instead of cook ourselves.
After changing and freshening up we went to the only bar in Avila: Mr. Rick's. Thankfully this place is nothing like the Ricks of EL! We got some beer for happy hour, ate seafood and enjoyed one another's company in a bar where we didn't know a soul (a rare experience for us after living on Mackinac). Well one pitcher turned into two which quickly became three and before we knew it we were singing karaoke. Correction: Samm and Katie were singing and I was simply laughing anytime the microphone came near me. It was there we met the bartender Levi who gave us some helpful tips on things to do on our way up to SanFran! He also gave us directions to some natural hot springs right down the road from our hotel. They usually smell like rotten eggs but thankfully the one we went into was small and did not. What a way to finish off Avila!!!
DAY 11 Thurs Nov 15th:
Sadly it was time to say goodbye to our cute little hotel We will not miss the construction going on right outside our door or the lack of Internet but it was certainly a fun little town to spend two nights in!! From there it was off to Salmon Creek Trail along the Pacific Coast Highway! I felt like Little Red Riding Hood as we literally went over a river and through the woods to see this incredible waterfall. Words cannot even begin to describe how amazingly beautiful it was. If it was warmer and I didn't have three different electronic devices on me I would have jumped in the water!! I thought for sure this view would come in second to the Grand Canyon but I was put in my place about twenty minutes later as we started making our way up the PCH also known as US-1... It was difficult to drive along this twisty turny road and take in the views all at once but thankfully there were plenty of opportunities to pull off to the side and take pictures. So we did just that! What should have been a three hour drive to our hotel (The Sofitel in Redwood City... Thank you Mr. Heberlein!!) ended up being the most breathtaking six hours! As a tribute to Miles and Greg we played, "Circle of Life" while Samm videotaped some of our drive. At one point we hiked down this slope to get pretty close to the water and make a rock formation of the mitten!! We had to leave our mark somehow. I could go on all day about all the incredible views but I figure I will let Samm's pictures do the talking instead...
Once we got out of the mountains and reached civilization, Samm took over for the final stretch into Redwood City. We arrived at The Sofitel and Samm parked the car while Katie and I carried our bag of clothes that very much resembled a dead body (yes people commented) up to the nicest room we have stayed in thus far on the trip! It was just after dinner and Samm and Katie nicely dealt with my not so pretty "hungry side" as I ordered us some Dominos. We quickly stuffed our faces before getting ready for bed and watching the Hangover Part II... Definitely a replica of the first but funny nonetheless. Nighty night!
DAY 12 Fri Nov 16th: KATIE'S BIRTHDAY!!!
Happy Birthday, Katie!!! Last night we had found a theater to watch the new Twilight movie at so we once again packed up our lives and headed out from our seventh home in the past week and a half. The movie was amazing (aside from the few points where Samm almost left the theater ha) to anyone that has followed the series and has yet to see it. It was rainy and gross out so we just decided to make our way to SanFran and figure it out from there. We were staying at my friend Kris's house and he didn't fly back in from work until 10 so we has plenty of time to kill. We started off by driving past the house they used for Full House (even though there are several locations listed as being the one we of courseeee saw the real one :P). Next it was a quick drive through the park before heading to the bridge. They had a place to pull off at so we were able to walk around for a few and get some sweet pictures despite the rain. Our final stop was Fisherman's Wharf!!! Unfortunately it was rainy and dark so we didn't get to do everything we wanted. We did however stop and get some CA souvenirs before we got completely drenched.
Samm and I had been dying to eat sushi while in California so we headed to Sushi Hunter for an all you can eat menu. It was only thirty each and we split eight rolls plus edamame... Ah!! Katie is not a fan of sushi and was a very good sport as she ate some edamame while we stuffed our faces. We offered her some food but she politely declined. It wasn't until she stepped out to smoke that Samm realized she was sitting right in front of an octopus' leg. No wonder she wanted nothing to do with even a taste!
Kris's flight got delayed so we had another hour and a half to kill. We took this time to finally change out of our wet clothes and move the car to a location where we could park overnight. We unanimously agreed living in a big city would be a pain in terms of dealing with parking 24/7. We attempted to go to a bar for Katie's birthday but were having trouble finding one and were getting cold so we went back to Dante, packed some overnight bags and waited until Kris got home. One final walk in the rain and we were finally at our end destination. It was so nice seeing Kris!! I felt bad we couldn't do more for Katie's birthday but the rain took everything out of us. There was a mattress in the living room that Katie and Samm shared right next to the couch I curled up on.
DAY 13-DAY 15 Sat Nov 17th-Mon Nov 19th:
We had planned to stay in SanFran one more night but after yesterday we decided it was time to start the long journey home. I headed out to go grab the car only to find Dante had died Thankfully Samm had jumper cables under the floor in the trunk of her car (which I had to access from the back seat) and Kris met me after the gym to get us back on track. Not to say he didn't have to block an entire lane of traffic and make a bus driver very angry but all is well that ends well. We did some laundry while Kris made us a very yummy breakfast to start us off on the right note.
At around 3:30 we got on the road and started toward Michigan!!! Crazy to think the trip is over already... Accounting for the lost hour we made it to Cheyenne, WY in twenty hours!! The three of us showed up just after noon on Sunday exhausted and barely able to put sentences together. Katie's boyfriend, Keogh, met us there from Colorado and was more than generous in booking Samm and myself a room of our own to pass out in for eight hours. We showered up and watched about five mins of the Lions vs Packers game before setting our alarms for 9:30 pm, saying good afternoon and passing out-each in our own bed!!
I could not fall asleep for more than an hour here and there so finally after tossing and turning in bed for two hours I got up a little before nine (10 pm Chicago time) to call my sister. She was just headed to bed so after a quick chat I hung up just as Keogh came into the lobby. We hung out with Katie until Samm got up which meant we once again had to say goodbyes After about six rounds of hugs we finally got in the car... And then there were two! Thankfully Samm took one look at me and knew I could not handle the first shift as originally planned. She started out the first part and I passed out in the back seat. Even though it was a million times less comfortable than the bed at the hotel, I was out instantly and for the entire first leg! After that it was just more and more driving and jams until we finally reached Chicago!!!
Those were the final entries from Kara on our trip! I will put more pictures up on Facebook and the blog as I get them edited!! Hope you enjoyed. The trip was amazing and I highly suggest it to anyone else that would want to go!!!
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