6 days in Los Angeles, and I loved it!

Friday September 11, SO and I took separate flights to Los Angeles. SO on free tickets. I arrived on United via Chicago on-time and waited at the USAirways terminal 1. His flight is delayed due to weather in Philadelphia. Once SO arrived, ( I waited just over 4 hours sipping on over priced airport starbucks) we decided to take the super shuttle, ($15. each one way) as it was now dark outside. The driver dropped us off at our priceline bid of $60 per night at the downtown Marriott. Check in was fast and was given the PH floor, excited about what was on the PentHouse floor we navigated our way to the elevators. Once inside the elevator, noticed the floor went to floor 12 and the PH is also known as the 13th. The room was average and had a awesome view, floor to ceiling windows looking south down Figueroa Street at the skyline of downtown LA.

***SUPER SHUTTLES WILL GO AROUND AND AROUND THE AIRPORT TILL THEY FILL UP SEATS WHICH CAN BE ANNOYING. The driver picked up this elderly couple from Oregon that was attending their favorite nieces wedding, well there had to be 3 men plus the driver to help her into the van, she explained that she has a prosthetic leg. You poor thing, oh honey no, is that right, you two are such a cute couple, this was the conversation into downtown LA. Prosthetic and hubby were dropped off first at the Westin and we watched with amusement how fast she carried herself out of the van and into the hotel. ***

We dropped our bags and awed at the view and quickly made our way to Ciudad restaurant which was a block down from the hotel. It was around 8:30 PM and seated immediately. SO and I decided on the prefixed special, choice of 1 from the appetizer, main and desert. We were to tired to think. Our drinks arrived as a camera flash went off. Another flash and I turned around to be greeted by Danny Devito. I thought 'wow he really looks like Danny Devito.' Then I see his wife Reah. They were dinning with another women that looked like Reah and two little girls that were flashing their cameras. Today, I saw three stars, Danny, Reah and Terrance Howard who was also on SO flight from Philly.

***Ciudad was excellent and recommend it to anyone. www.ciudad-la.com 445 So. Figueroa Street***

Saturday September 12. Woke up and our back is killing us. The bed is way too soft. I noticed that there is no minibar? I usually like to put my personal drinks in the mini bar to chill. We decided to try the Pantry for breakfast. It is about a 20 minute walk straight down Figueroa Street. There was no wait time and was seated immediately. We both ordered the simple breakfast of eggs, home-fries, toast and a side of bacon. We are the 'granola type’ at home, but who cares. I was disappointed with their homefries, no flavor, nothing to write home about. I thought it was odd that the latino girl next to me was eating coleslaw with her pancakes? Coleslaw and pancakes. I've been through Mexico and just got back from Guatemala, never saw coleslaw and pancakes on the menu, YUK

We walked over to the 7th street/metro to purchase a day pass for $5. We then took the Red Line subway to Hollywood and Vine. The metro stop is in front on the Pantages theatre right on Hollywood Blvd. We started to walk towards the Kodak theatre. We found ourselves looking at the sidewalk looking for icons like Marilyn Monroe and snapping pics, so cool, so tacky who cares. Has anyone notice that some people have more then one star? Made it to the Kodak theatre and the Grauman's Chinese theatre. Snapped shots of the hollywood sign, and decided that this was to disney like for us, so off to Beverly Hills.

There at the Kodak theatre was a welcome to LA booth. I asked how to get towards Beverly Hills/Rodeo drive. Minutes later, we are on a public bus in the direction of Beverly Hills. We pass the CBS television center, I can hear Johnny Olson in my head saying, 'for tickets to the Price is Right, send a self stamp addressed envelope to the Price is Right, 7800 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, California 9double036.' I was so sad when he died in 85? As a LITTLE kid I wanted to be Janice Pennington! That is when Mom knew I was special. As we followed the map in which the bus was heading, we decided to get off at Wilshire Blvd and walk over to the LaBrea Tar Pits. Snapped a few pics and caught another bus heading to Rodeo Drive.

I'm enjoying your trip so far, thanks for posting! An L.A. trip report including public transportation is a rarity and a treat.

PS: Aren't those mangey costumes on those characters in front of the Chinese Theatre just disgusting? Who knows what sort of bacteria are living in Elmo's fur.

Glad you enjoyed your trip. Yes we do have public transport and if you stay downtown/Hollywood (vs Santa Monica) it makes sense to use it.

The Pantry is famous for their coleslaw (perhaps unjustly, I think their food is pretty awful. I doubt that the unusual breakfast combo had anything to do with Mexico, just that person likes the coleslaw...there aren't any rules here!.

>>As a LITTLE kid I wanted to be Janice Pennington! That is when Mom knew I was special.<<

Great report so far!

Lee Ann

Thanks everyone. The TR continues,

Beverly Hills, Rodeo drive. As the bus cruised down Wilshire in the direction of Rodeo, there she was the famous BEVERLY HILLS sign post! My head is spinning 360' catching anything that dripped with wealth. How the rich live well. We relized that this had the same feel as Worth Ave or Bond Street, No paparazzi means no one famous while there. We sat on a bench with all eyes open just in case someone famous came strolling by. If there was a time I wanted to be filthy rich, today is the day. Done, seen it we head back downtown.

Walked back over to Wilshire and waited for the local bus to come. The RAPID bus kept passing us and would not stop. No we were not at the RAPID bus stop and SO got made at me when I saluted them. Finally the local comes.

Up Bunker Hill (this kiddie hill nearly killed the both of us) to the Walt Disney Concert Hall which is stunning as we were out of breath and sweating. Continued towards the US bank tower. As we headed South, the police had traffic stopped and pedestrians prevented from crossing some downtown street. There was a MAJOR MOTION PICTURE being shot in which we saw Leonardo DiCaprio doing a New York City scene in a down pour rain. That is amazing how they do that, make it rain and trick the viewers that you are in NYC with cab and all. I don't no what the name of the movie is, SO does as he talked to the YOU CAN"T CROSS THE STREET guy. Then we see posters and sign that we may be captured in the film and we have no rights etc. I have to admit, never saw a Leonardo film in my life. I will have to check this one out just to see if I'm in it. We walked through the historic section and the jewelry section and decided that our legs were done for the day, thanks to Bunker Hill. We found a pub and had a few drinks and dinner. Went for a swim at the hotel and called it a night. Only one star today. Universal Studios is our plan for tomorrow.

Sunday September 13. Woke up again with our backs killing us. Other then the beds, this is not a bad hotel. We walked over to the 7th street/metro and caught the redline to Universal City. We wanted to see the Bates motel and the Psycho house. To get to Universal Studios is easy. Get off at Universal City stop and follow the crowd across the street where there is a shuttle tram to take you up the hill to Universal Studios. We purchased the basic ticket type and had to wait a few minutes for the park to open.

What can I say, loved Universal Studios. Me at 44 and SO at 53 acted like kids! Went on the Simpson ride 3 times, the mummy twice. Saw the Psycho house and motel. The longest wait for a ride was about 20 minutes. Most rides were about a 5 minute wait. Would we go back, probably not. We got back downtown at around 7pm and decided to eat at California Pizza Kitchen, first time eating at one. Went back to the room and watched our Sunday night lineup as we sipped on red wine that we purchased from a store around the corner. Tomorrow we leave downtown and recheck into the Crown Plaza at LAX and visit the beach communities. I will post again after the weekend, thanks everyone,

I love it, your major star sightings are DOWNTOWN, (not Hollywood)!

That's the way it happens around here.

I recently stumbled on an outdoor shoot of Monk, in Long Beach, which was standing in for Venice.

Such a great report!

as lvk has said: a TR with public transportation in La is such a rarity! Glad to know that tourists CAN get around on public transportation.

FYI: The movie that DiCaprio is filming downtown is called "Inception" and is directed by Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight).

Although years ago stars would actually shop in Beverly Hills, the star sightings these days are more likely on Bedford Drive where all the plastic surgeons' offices are located. No kidding. I've stopped driving down Bedford on my way home from work because the paparazzi will stand in the street to get shots of celebs leaving their doctors' offices. Traffic is bad enough without a human obstacle course.

Here's an article on the filming of "Inception" in downtown L.A.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-movieshoot20-2009sep20,0,169097.story

Thanks everyone for your comments, You are right about the name of the movie. Bedford Drive! Never heard of it, thanks for the info. TR continues.

Monday September 14. We checked out of the Marriott and took the dash bus to Union Station to catch the flyaway bus to LAX. Love these little dash buses. They only cost .25 cents. We got off at Union Station and marveled at the architecture. The flyaway bus stop is at the other end of the terminal. If we had stayed on the dash bus which would had stopped at the other end, we would have missed the grandeur of Union Station. The flyaway was $7 each one-way to LAX. We are now moving to the Crown Plaza LAX  priceline bid of $40 per night for the next two nights. Caught the hotel courtesy bus at LAX and checked in. The nice lady behind the counter gave us the 15th floor with a runway view, very nice. The rooms is in need of renovations but for $40 per night, I don't care. 

A Qantas A380 is landing as we made our way to the LAX bus terminal. We are now onboard a bus heading in the direction of Long Beach. From what I can see were on the Pacific Coast Highway. We have no itinerary, no plans. When it seems right, we will get off. As we cruised down PCH, a middle aged attractive blonde female boards and falls into the lap of an older asian women. Her beer breath was beyond foul. We passed Redondo beach.

Redondo beach, I heard of it, Miss Little Sunshine? Anyways we walked around the pier window shopping talking about the blonde drunk. We are now walking through a garage which leads us out to more restaurants. It's around 11:30 am and were hungry. I stop to get some quarters from a gaming/amusement place so we have change for the bus. We decided on this fish market were everyone is having lobster. We both ordered fish tacos and a Corona. Everyone at home thinks fish tacos as disgusting. They never heard of them. We love them. After finishing our meals we walk to a bus stop and see that this line goes through all the beach communities between Redondo beach and the LAX bus terminal.  From the brochure, this is the bus that we should have taken from LAX bus terminal. You can get further info at www.beachcitiestransit.org Fare is $1.00. 

We stop at Hermosa beach and see that this bus line runs infrequent. We stop for an hour and then head up to Manhattan Beach. Manhattan Beach seemed more lively then Redondo and Hermosa, I did like Hermosa, not wild about Redondo. We walked the pier, alot of people but no action on the beach, darn it I wanted to check out the really hot volleyball players. Shopped in town and finally settled at a bar to relax. We both ordered a beer and watched the Bills play New England. At half time we left in search of food. I have no idea what the name of the restaurant was but it was extremely busy as there appetizers were 1/2 price until 7-7:30pm. We lucked out as there were 2 stools at the bar and just made the 1/2 price deadline. Ordered a bunch of the 1/2 price appetizers which were excellent. Wish I knew the name.

*** There is a bus that operates between the hotels on Century Blvd, (LAX) and Manhattan Beach. This offer my be easier for those that do not want to bother with public transportation***

Tomorrow we pick up the car rental and see a taping of the New Adventures of Old Christine.

Nice report. Keep it coming!

Tuesday September 15. We got a cheap deal at Thrifty car rental. I don't understand why people are stupid about buying additional insurance. Off we go with FULL insurance. We got a brand new black Ford SUV. We have to be at Warner Brothers studio in Burbank by 3pm for the 5pm taping. Traffic is moving very s-l-o-w! Finally we decided to exit the expressway at Venice Beach. We made our way down Abbot Kinney Blvd towards Santa Monica. We did not stop on Abbot Kinney as the stores were not open yet. We decided to grab breakfast. We parked the car in one of the many car lots and knew that we were in Santa Monica from the waste bins. Walked along this charming street and decided to dine at Joe’s Grill, 2917 Main Street. Breakfast was very nice. We decided that this would be the place we would want to live if we moved to LA.

We start heading north and drive through the upper end of Santa Monica. I much preferred the south end of Santa Monica. The north end IMO was to sterile. The road stops and I just follow this car in front of me. SO let’s me drive as I am one of those. I scream a lot as a passenger. After 5 minutes I am in need of medical assistance. So I do ALL driving. OMG were in Brentwood, Bel Air, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, so on. We have a blast driving in and out of the neighborhoods. We are now in Hollywood and decided to find the Warner Bothers Studio in Burbank. We got on some expressway by the iconic Capital records building and got lost. Were in the direction of Sherman Oaks, were going in the wrong direction. I get off cross over and back onto the expressway. What is this, red light to get onto the expressway, I’m already on the ramp and there is a red light. What the F***. I just go. Not sure if there is a camera around. Did not receive any tickets in the mail so I guess I’m ok. I get off the expressway and still not near Burbank. Studied the map since SO is not helping. Ok I see Universal NBC skyscraper and knew that Warner Brothers was to the east of it as we saw it Sunday at Universal Studios. Finally found the studio and parking garage #3. We have just under and hour so we keep driving.

Mulholland Drive. I was not expecting this. SO is screaming with delight as I was shitting my pants. Twisting bends as we drive towards the heavens. What seems like hours of pure hell I see a look out point. I’m screaming at the lady who is clueless as she stands in front of traffic snapping pics of a ******** tree. I park the car which is on the EDGE of a cliff. Once I calmed down by a family from India, the view was incredible. Straight down was the hollywood bowl and all of LA as far as I could see and to the left you can see the Hollywood sign.

We pulled into parking garage #3 and the parking attendant gave us a pass to put in the window and instructed us after we parked to walk outside to a holding area for the Christine show. As instructed we found that a group of people already there. We were #17 and 18 and what seats they had has been taken. The Ellen show has a waiting area inside the garage with plenty of seating. Confused why we can’t use the ‘ELLEN’ area, I did not ask. I left everything in the car as instructed and even replaced my hearing aid batteries with fresh ones. As a women stamped a WB logo on our hand we were grouped into 25 to cross the avenue to the sound stage. We all had to go through security and the WB logo was checked also. At this point we are asked if anyone needs to use the restrooms. You will not be allowed to use the facilities once inside the sound stage. We declined.

I am so glad that we got there early. As #17 and 18 we got the second row in front of the living room set, the school is to the left. I’m sure that the people in the back of the bleachers could see very little and had to rely on the TV monitors. Our guest relations host engaged the audience by asking us if anyone has seen the show. Honestly, I never had. It was the only show that was available on tvtickets.com. The majority of the audience didn’t see the show either. But this was cool. I’m seeing Elaine, I mean Christine. The taping for this episode is were Christine gets a lawyer played by Corbin Bernsen for alimony from Wanda Sykes. The episode has not aired yet. The tapping lasted from 5pm until 8:30pm. We were served a slice of Little Caesars pizza and bottle of water about halfway through the taping. It was fascinating how they put the episode together, there had to be at least 7 writers and if the audience didn’t laugh, well the writers would rewrite the script. All the actors fumbled with their lines and retakes were common. Needless to say, you can only laugh at the same line so many times. I was shocked in between taping that they would blast music that loud that I even had to turn off my hearing aids off. Again the host was funny. He would say things into the mic when allowed such as LET’S CLIMB OVER THE RAILING AND SIT IN HER LIVING ROOM, YOUR DIEING TO TAP ON JULIA’S SHOULDER AND HAVE A CHIT CHAT. Julia really never paid attention to her new found fans, however the character that plays her brother did. The ELLEN waiting area has a restroom. Heading towards Sherman Oaks and then down to LAX.

We forgot how hungry we were since we had nothing since out teeny slice of pizza pizza. We stopped, yes Carl’s Jr on Century Bvld. Never heard of Carl’s Jr, not bad for fast food. Dropped the car off at Thrifty and kindly asked the driver if he could drop us off at the Crown Plaza. He told us about the company’s polocies. The kind man did indeed drop us off. Inside the hotel lobby the bar was filled with airline crew members. We decided to head over to a liquor store that was behind the Crown Plaza. We settled down to a bottle of red as we dazed over the runway of LAX.

The End

landineen (and others coming to L.A.), the red lights on the freeway on-ramps are to even out the flow of traffic entering the freeway. Some ramps (but not all) have two lanes: one with the traffic light, and the other with a diamond painted on the pavement which is the symbol for carpool. A car carrying two or more people can use the carpool lane and is not required to stop. A car with only a driver, no passengers, must stop at the light until it turns green. The wait is only several seconds. If there's only one lane with a light, every car must stop if the light is red.

bm- great meeting u2