Days 34-35: Los Angeles - How high are your heels?

Well blog readers, it's Emmie here. I found out about two weeks ago that I will be moving out to California, specifically Los Angeles, to do community service work starting in mid-August. So my trip to LA had special meaning, in that I was partially checking out my future digs. Also, it should be mentioned that Parm was still in Nebraska at her family reunion so Katie and I were spending lots of one on one time this weekend. We didn't just leave Parm by the side of the road...though tempting when she wants to play Mama Mia for the 50th time.

We arrived at the Fairfield Inn Beverly Hills (cue Weezer) about 3 quarters of a mile from Rodeo Drive around 10:30PM. We drove right past Calabasas on the way south to LA, and I was very tempted to stop so that we could drive to the Kardashian house. In preparation for Kardashian sightings I would say "bible" (as in "bible Khloe, he just called me!") in every sentence and bust out my too-large-for-my-face sunglasses. Unfortunately, it was already late, so Katie talked me out of it. I'll be back though, I promise you that.

Parm, me, Katie...BIBLE!

We were super pumped to be upgraded to a suite that had a sitting room and two individual bedrooms with their own bathrooms. It was like we were back in our Madison apartment, where we could just go in our own rooms and shut the door. So we went straight to bed. Kind of lame, but whatever, we earned it.

The next morning we partook of free breakfast downstairs and Katie headed off to go outlet shopping with her friend Tiffany's mom who lives nearby. She purchased three very cute dresses at the BCBG outlet, btw. I stayed behind and polished my Yosemite post and headed over to Rodeo drive. I did not reenact the famous scene from Pretty Woman which was a ..."big mistake...huge!" but I did take a gander through David Yurman (future husband, if you're reading this take the hint)... it was SO gorge. And I ate some cupcakes from the bakery Crumbs.

Coconut cupcake and iced coffee. This was shortly before my bliss was interrupted by an impatient man who asked when I would be done with my table. My reply was "not soon."

Then Katie and I met up, and we window shopped a little bit more and pretended we were totally LA until we took this cheesy touristy picture.

As if our pasty skin doesn't give us away...but Katie has the swag

After a quick workout, we got gussied up (this involved me wearing animal print and Katie wearing her sexy heels) and headed out to dinner for some excellent Italian food.

Then we headed to Santa Monica right by the pier and went to a Ma'Kai for some drinks. It was fun, but the people watching was way more fun. It also reminded us that people get super dressed up in LA and that we probably should get a spray tan sometime soon. Then we took some pictures with animal statues on the third street promenade by Santa Monica which is a huge shopping area, great place to grab dinner or a place to see street performers. Why take pictures? Why not.

Katie and I were in agreement that this was a Stegosaurus.

Clearly this is a triceratops. You can trust me, I am an anthro major and a Land Before Time aficionado.

The next day, we got up and had some wonderful brunch at a little french place Katie had been with her parents on Santa Monica but much closer to where it intersects with Rodeo, as opposed to where we were the night before. It was tre cute. And wouldn't you know it, Sprinkles cupcakes is just across the street. We actually wouldn't know it, because we circled the block twice looking for it. Eventually we arrived there. Katie got red velvet. I got PB/chocolate.

Sprinkles!!

Reppin' the hood back in WI

Then we headed toward Santa Monica pier for a beach day. We got kind of a late start and LA traffic is ridonk, so we only had about an hour there before church. But it was pretty awesome. The pier was packed due to 4th of July weekend traffic, so we mostly vegged on the beach. I read my book...

More of the windblown look over Santa Monica pier

Santa Monica Pier in the background

Katie, on the other hand, took pictures of an attractive lifeguard and tried to convince me she was snapping an "artsy shot contrasting the metal detector with the lifeguard." Save it for the judge McGuckin :)

I could write a great 10th grade paper analyzing this

Then we learned many lessons- we went to church (see lessons learned) and went to see Bad Teacher (see lessons learned) got some Mexican food, and then and went to see the Hollywood sign (see lessons learned).


Lessons Learned about Los Angeles
1. The Hollywood sign is not lit up at night. Apparently they tried to light it up once in the 1999 for the millennium celebration, but because it is nestled in the Hollywood hills where the streets are only one lane wide, the roads were so packed with cars,that emergency vehicles couldn't get through. This resulted in very unhappy residents. You can still see it with the naked eye if you drive up there at night, but if you try to take a picture of it in the dark it looks like this:

TA-DAAAAAAA!

2. The churches in LA are not filled with your standard slightly off pitch 65-year-old women who also play the organ, at least kind of, and have graciously volunteered their time and talent. Instead, St. Monica's in LA is filled with singers who have broadway level talent and full make-up, hoping that there is an agent somewhere in the audience who will sign them to a record label. I'm not exaggerating. I felt like I should have paid admission, the singing was THAT good. Not to mention that the choir sang songs like "His Truth is Marching on" with extreme vibrato and improvisation in the style of Christina Aguilera. 

"GLORY GLORY ALLELUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUIAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Then at one point the choir leader yelled, throwing up her arms for emphasis, "Come on church!!!" Granted, we chose to attend contemporary mass, but I burst into giggles. Even Katie, a choir singer in college, raised her eyebrows at that one. After wiping tears of joy from her eyes.

3. Always check rotten tomatoes before going to see a movie. Ugh Cameron Diaz, ugh.

4. Relative to LA natives, Katie and I do not accessorize well, our heels are not high enough, and our cars are certainly not nice enough. Well maybe Katie's car is nice enough. But in any event, we also discovered that we don't really care about any of that. Katie wore her glasses out in rebellion. I was proud.


It was very relaxing weekend since pressure was off to see every sight. Katie had been to LA and I will soon be a native. Next stop is San Diego, the most anticipated part of the trip!