well, since the craziness of the last 2 weeks is over, it's time to debrief.
on february 10, brian received an email that he had won a contest through flip video. the prize? trip for 2 to los angeles for the nba all-star game. after a lot of finagling, we both managed to get the time off and childcare arrangements made, and 9 days after that first email, we were on a plane to california.
all went smoothly on the flight out, and we were picked up at the airport by brian's friend shaun who has lived in LA for a few years. we got checked in at the hotel (intercontinental century city) and shaun decided that we needed to go to the nba events that night (slam-dunk contest, etc). we had no interest and were extremely hungry, but we went anyway because we are pushovers. we only stayed for a bit, and then shaun took us to a restaurant called the apple pan for supper. the apple pan serves burgers, fries, and pie. that's it. the burgers were freaking awesome...they did something to the ketchup that was really interesting, and i wish i could have figured out what they added to it. tasty fries as well, and coke in those weird cone cups in metal holders. i got a slice of pecan pie to go, too, since they were out of the apple. after we ate, shaun took us back to our hotel, where i realized that i was missing my phone charger. sigh.
the next morning, we got up and decided to utilize the hotel's car service to go to the radio shack and get me a new phone charger. the car that the hotel has is a mercedes s300 hybrid, and undoubtedly the nicest car we've ever been in. it was fabulous. so, the radio shack that we went to was the beverly hills radio shack, which is a whole new level for us. the car dropped us off there, and we had some time before it opened, so we walked around beverly hills for a while, and had brunch at a diner there. we walked up and down rodeo drive, where i fully expected people to point at us and yell "you don't belong here! what do you think you're doing??? you're wearing clothes from old navy and target!!" luckily, that didn't actually happen. so, after doing that, and then finally purchasing the phone charger, the car picked us up to take us back to the hotel. after we got back there, we spent some time charging my phone, and then got a cab to take us to hollywood to the kodak theater, where the oscars are held. VERY crowded, VERY touristy, but very cool. disillusionment of the year: the kodak theater is actually IN A MALL. yes, the oscars are held in a mall. there was a pretzel cart right next to the entrance to the actual theater. the cognitive dissonance was almost too much for me, and i will never look at the oscars the same way again. we also walked around mann's chinese theater, which is right next to the kodak, and has all the handprints and footprints in front of it. before heading back to the hotel to catch the shuttle to the game, we stopped in a tourist store and i bought a miniature oscar statue with "best cousin" on the bottom, which is now serving as the prize for kim's and my annual oscar pool. we got back to the hotel, changed clothes, and got ready to head to the game. the shuttle was a tour coach bus, and i swear that the driver needs some sort of medal because he was either the best driver in the world or suicidal and ready to take all of us with him. we got to the staples center and were famished, so beer and giant pretzel were acquired at the entrance, and then we got real food when we got close to our seats up in the nosebleeds. the game was pretty good, as far as we non-basketball fans were concerned. the celeb spotting was the undisputed highlight for us...including jay-z and beyonce, rihanna, justin bieber, spike lee, stevie wonder, p. diddy, jason sudeikis, will forte, dustin hoffman, warren beatty, noah wyle, snoop dogg, kanye west, and others that i'm sure i'm forgetting.
the next morning we got up early to have breakfast at the hotel like fancy people before going to the airport. we got there in good time, and found out relatively quickly that our first flight was delayed, which would cause us to miss our connecting flight from denver to chicago. after standing in the customer service line for a while (in front of a couple from madison!), we managed to get on "priority standby" for a direct flight from LA to chicago that was leaving right then. having been bumped up to priority standby, we were numbers 3 and 4, and there were 5 open seats. so, we totally lucked out, and even though we didn't get to sit together, it was a much better option. had a little layover in chicago where we ate supper, and then flew to appleton. we had planned on driving home that night, but the weather was not great, so we opted to wait till the next morning.
all in all, it was a quick trip but a nice getaway.
i'll detail the next trip in the next entry, because this is already super-long.
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