Los Angeles Hotels
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Day 1: Some Wicked L.A. Traffic
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It's finally here! We left about 4:30 p.m. from Salt Lake, after we dropped off Lexie with Stacie's parents. We walked down to the Delta terminal, all the way to the end where they keep the small business class planes. Of course, our plane was late arriving, so we spent an extra 30 minutes next to the "Cancer In The Box" smoking room. We had an uneventful flight, and got to LAX in the evening. I had surprised Stacie with tickets to see "Wicked" for Valentine's Day, so we had to find our bags and race over to the Enterprise car rental. Once we got a car, we took off into the LA night for some fun.
The show started at 8:00 p.m., which would have been plenty of time if our plane wasn't delayed for nearly an hour. Plus, we managed to get a little turned around, and the Mapquest directions that I had printed out were no match for the confusing Los Angeles layout and the oppressive traffic Stacie enjoyed a white-knuckle ride, trying to shout out directions and praying that we didn't get in an accident. Not getting out of the carpool lane in time (something Stacie actually called out and I didn't execute) afforded us a nice little detour past the Staples Center, and some LA skyscrapers, but I was so intent on getting there that it was just a big neon blur in our rear view mirror.
Fortunately, we were only about 20 minutes late to the Pantages Theater (right on Hollywood and Vine), so we parked the car with all of our luggage still in the trunk, crossed our fingers, and raced through the rain to the theater. We had planned to get into our hotel room before going to the show, so we were still in our "travel clothes". I plan very carefully what to wear when I go to the airport, so that I can navigate security easily. And while pajama pants, a T-shirt, and shoes with untied laces work in the airport, it definitely put me in the "Obscenely Underdressed" category at the theater. Stacie's lounge pants were only a slight improvement, and I actually appreciated the darkness as we were escorted in pitch darkness to our seats, past couples in suits and fancy dresses.
The show was truly amazing! We missed the first song, and had to wait until intermission to look through the program.
We found out that Elpheba was actually the understudy that night...not that we could tell. She had an amazing voice, and the show was a lot of fun. After the show, we ran through the rain down the Hollywood Walk Of Fame ("Hey look...Tom Mix!" "Who's that?"), drove down Hollywood Boulevard and saw where they had set up the tents for the red carpet for the Academy Awards this Sunday, and then we headed back to the hotel. After checking into the hotel (where I wintessed a car drive directly into a traffic light pole), we returned the car, got a quick bite to eat, and crashed into bed for a couple hours of sleep. Lots of fun, but as we got to our room, I asked Stacie, "So when does this relaxing vacation start?" We'll have to work on that...
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