EXTRA! EXTRA! TOURISTS TRAPPED IN ABANDONED ZOO!

Los Angeles, CA

(April 9, 2012)

Wait a second! Wait a second! I think I'm getting a little ahead of myself with that title. Let's back up and start at the beginning, shall we?

We didn’t have a lot planned for our third day in LA, but we had a long wish list, so we thought we’d start tackling it, and it turned into a crazy, fun-filled day, starting with trying to get day-of tickets to the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Ellen films her talk show weekday afternoons, and by the time we figured out when we were traveling to LA, the ability to request tickets for our week of travel was already gone, so we crossed our fingers we could get the standby tickets. Our goal was to try every weekday we were available, with the hopes of scoring a pair of tickets. We had to call a specific phone number starting at 9:00 a.m., leaving our names, phone numbers, and how many tickets we needed for that day. If we were lucky enough to get tickets, we would be contacted later that day. We made sure to call right away, since we weren’t sure if it was based on a first called, first served basis or if it was done through a lottery system—we didn’t want to take any chances. Good thing we did, too, because although it says on the website that they take calls until noon, the voice mail fills up by around 10:00 a.m. 

Let me lay it out for you right now: we did NOT get tickets to Ellen. Sadness. We tried. Every day. And at one point Miriam got a call from a strange number, so she answered it and the woman said, “This is Ellen [wait for it] from Dr. Birnbaum’s office.” Doh!

Anyways, we were in LA, and when you’re in LA you should try to see a television show being filmed-- and if you’re lucky you could actually get ON TV. I mean, why not? They make it so easy! Tons of shows are filmed there, and tickets are free—if they’re even needed at all. Over the weekend I remembered about Extra, the entertainment news show that often films in the Grove, a shopping center, and I recalled that, when I’ve watched the program, there were always regular people standing right behind the hosts of the show. So I looked up exactly where and when they filmed at the Grove, and we headed over after we made our obligatory Ellen stand-by tickets phone call.

Yep. That's the real deal, folks.

Mario Lopez

The day was gorgeous, but hot, which worked to our advantage because not a lot of people were by the Extra set. We sidled right up near the front and caught a couple segments of the program with hosts Mario Lopez and Maria Menounos. They then took a break to go film in other indoor locations, but before doing so Maria posed for pictures with us and I was even allowed to hold the actual Extra microphone. Awesome. In the interim, they allowed us to move up onto the stage where Mario and Maria stand so that we could be in the shade and they handed out free bottles of water and little red tickets that we could turn in at the end of the shoot for the Extra Friends giveaway-- they always feature a product of some sort on the show that they give away to lucky viewers through a contest on the website, but if you’re at the shoot early enough to snag a ticket and stay around until the end, you can get it for free just for being there! Sweet. Miriam got a ticket, but when they found out we lived together, they wouldn’t give me a ticket. Boo. Whatever. We wouldn’t have needed two anyways.

Hanging with Maria Menounos

Maria getting a touch up on her makeup before rolling.

We waited long enough for the shooting to resume that a number of people left and we had primo spots near the front. We were going to be filming the opening of the program and the end of the program, plus a number of promo spots for different cities all around the country. It was fun playing with Mario as he came through the crowd for the opening sequence.

Then it was time for the end of the program and the Extra Friends giveaway. They were giving away the Oscar 2012 Limited Edition Sonic Spatula by TEI Spa, which has a $350 value. And for a girl with lots of skin issues, I was pretty excited about scoring this!

The episode aired later that day, so we made sure to let all our family and friends know to watch for us. We totally made it on TV, me more than Miriam because she was standing directly behind Mario for most of the shoot, but she got in a pretty funny reaction at the end as they were handing out the TEI Spa Sonic Spatulas. Always hamming it up for the cameras!

The Grove

After we finished with Extra we walked around the Grove, taking pictures by the water fountain and stopping in some of the shops to browse. We then walked over to the Farmer’s Market, which is hooked to the end of the Grove shopping area, in the hopes of finding something for lunch. We ended up not finding lunch but we did find this fabulous pasta stall with amazing pastas available to buy called Pappardelle’s Pasta. We were just browsing with no intention on buying when Miriam mentioned she was on Weight Watchers and wondered how many points some of the pasta might be. The guy working the stall overheard her and said he was on Weight Watchers, too, and they struck up a conversation about their personal weight losses and compared belt notches. It was pretty funny. He then recommended a pasta that only has 1 WW Point Plus per serving. Miriam was intrigued, so we grabbed a bag. What really drew us to the stall in the first place was the chocolate pasta. He let us sample a dried version of it and said it’s great with vanilla ice cream or caramel sauce. Um, yes, please. We couldn’t stop there, either! The guy was so much fun and the flavors all looked so amazing that we ended up getting four bags of pasta, including a pasta blend and a spicy Thai linguine along with the dark chocolate linguine and the WW pasta. So good!

In front of the synchronized fountain at the Grove

The trolley between the Grove and the Farmer's Market.

We continued to wander in search of lunch when I came upon a stall selling candied apples. One in particular caught my eye, and I couldn’t say no: the cheesecake caramel apple. And I’m drooling just thinking about it. So we snacked on that and decided we would hit up a famous hot dog place for lunch instead of trying to find something at the Farmer’s Market.

The Magic Nut & Candy Company. Yummy.

We hopped on the trolley that travels through the Grove and the Farmer’s Market to save us from having to walk all the way back to the parking garage, and then we were on our way to Pink’s.

On Saturday, we passed by Pink’s hot dog stand and saw a HUGE line outside of it. We were curious what the big deal was. Then, whilst on our TMZ tour on Sunday, our tour guide pointed it out as we drove by, saying it was a must for anyone visiting LA. They, apparently, have amazing hot dogs and always have a long line. Well, we were sold. We had to try Pink’s. So we headed on over to Pink’s after our failed attempt at finding lunch at the Farmer’s Market and joined the long line. The line was reminiscent of our time in the security line at JFK airport... interminable. After 45 minutes we finally got up to place our order. Their menu consists of hot dogs of various sizes smothered in a variety of crazy things, from your typical ketchup, mustard, or chili to guacamole, coleslaw, or even bacon, and all with funky names like the Three Dog Night (three hot dogs wrapped in a giant tortilla with three slices of cheese, three slices of bacon, chili and onions-- also known in my world as a heart attack waiting to happen...). Don’t like hot dogs? Don’t worry. They sell burgers and grilled chicken, too, as well as fries, onion rings, and nachos. 

Both Miriam and I got a chili cheese dog. We found a cozy table inside and sat down to try what we had waited almost an hour to try...only to be disappointed. I hate to say it, but neither of us cared for our Pink’s hot dogs. The casing was really thick and hard to bite through, and the hot dogs don’t hold a candle to New York’s own Nathan’s Hot Dogs. We both ended up discarding our hot dogs and eating the chili and cheese. Oh, well. At least we gave it a try.

Then we were off to Griffith Park to see Griffith Observatory and to go in search of the abandoned zoo. We had been warned that Griffith Observatory was closed on Mondays, but the grounds were still open, so we could at least walk around and take in the views of the city. 

Griffith Observatory

Miriam taking in the view

Griffith Observatory is a monument to astronomy, on a hilltop surrounded by the beautiful expanse of Griffith Park. When open, it offers a planetarium, a theater, and free use of telescopes. The building itself was awesome to behold, as were the views of Los Angeles and the Hollywood sign. We had a lot of fun roaming the grounds and taking pictures.

Then we went in search of the famous Old Zoo, also known as the Abandoned Zoo, in a different area of Griffith Park. Our friend Lori turned us on to this adventure—this was the original Griffith Park zoo from the early 1900s, but as the zoo expanded and the laws for animal rights changed, the zoo was abandoned for a new and improved zoo elsewhere in the park. What’s really cool is that a number of the animal cages and compounds still exist for people like myself to go explore. Nothing like letting two nuts run free in a zoo! We had a ton of fun pretending to be wild animals held captive in the cages. 

After we had exhausted ourselves at the Old Zoo, we headed back to Sal’s place to freshen up and grab a bite to eat. Sal brought us to a restaurant called Take a Bao (pronounce bow), which is a modern take on Asian cuisine (bao is a part of dim sum). The food was delicious! They claim to use only fresh, quality ingredients, local produce, and all natural meat. Everything we had was incredibly tasty, and the décor in the restaurant was super chic and added to the lovely ambiance. 

After dinner, Sal headed home and we made our way to the West Hollywood area to Eleven Nightclub, where Miriam’s friend Ryan LaConnor hosts Musical Mondays – Los Angeles every Monday at 10pm. Sing-a-long videos start earlier in the evening, but Ryan brings special guests to come in and perform live at 10pm.

Ryan and Miriam

I finally got to meet the infamous Ryan whom Miriam had been telling me about for quite some time, and I was instantly enamored. He gave us a few free drink tickets and we settled in to watch the show. At the same time, our friend James, who is currently bicoastal as he works on the “Jerseylicious” and current spin-off “Chicagolicious” reality shows, came out to meet us. We were finally able to grab a table near the end of the show, at which point Ryan came and joined us, and we all gabbed for a long time.

Even though Miriam and I were prepared to make it a late night, we were all old farts and ready to head home relatively early, so we said goodbye to the boys and headed back to North Hollywood.

We needed our beauty rest, after all, because we planned on hiking to the Hollywood sign in the morning!

Lock the door and throw away the key!

THE THIRTY MILE ZONE

Los Angeles, CA

(April 8, 2012)

We woke up on day two in Los Angeles to discover that the Easter Bunny had paid us a visit! Yay! Well, in truth, Miriam, the ever-prepared wonder, thought ahead and brought delicious chocolates from our favorite chocolatier in NYC, Jacques Torres, with a couple of traditional Hershey’s and Dove chocolate bunnies thrown in. The little sneak got up in the middle of the night to hide chocolate Easter eggs all over Sal’s apartment, and Sal and I, still dressed in our PJs, had fun finding them all on Easter morning. 

This day was going to be loads of fun, starting off with brunch with Sal and one of Miriam’s oldest friends, Rightor. Miriam and I, having watched a lot of TMZ, a paparazzi/entertainment based news program, wanted to hit up a brunch place often featured on the program called Toast, located in Hollywood. Apparently, it’s frequented a lot by celebrities. I wanted to go there, not for the possible celebrity sightings, but because I had seen it so often on TMZ that I had to check it out. 

Sal & the tea bag selections

Rightor & his coffee

Sal dropped us off and went to park the car, and we started catching up with Rightor while our table was prepared. Miriam and Rightor grew up together in New Orleans, and for a while we all lived in New York, but very recently, a television series he’s been writing garnered the interest of a major producer in LA, so he has “temporarily” relocated to LA to write more episodes in the hopes that a studio will pick it up. We’ll see how temporary that move is…
The brunch menu at Toast looked AMAZING! We all had a difficult time deciding what to get. Miriam and I settled on something sweet (pancakes and French toast covered and stuffed with all sorts of goodness), Rightor on something savory, and Sal, the skinny snot, couldn't decide, so he ate two meals to get a sweet AND savory fix!

My chai came with cookies!

We had a blast over brunch, chatting as though it hadn’t been a millennium since we’d last seen each other. We had a lot of laughs and a lot of fun, and I think we highly amused our waitress.

Once brunch was over, we said goodbye to Rightor, and Sal dropped us off on Hollywood Boulevard by the Grauman’s Chinese Theater (also know as Mann’s Chinese Theater). Miriam and I were going on the TMZ Hollywood tour, and we couldn’t have been more excited about it!

We got there a bit early for our tour, so we checked in at the tour booth and then played around with all the famous hand and foot prints that are pressed into the cement outside the Chinese Theater. As a tourist, you can’t have a real Hollywood visit without testing your hand and foot size against those of some of the most famous music and screen legends. At the same time, I can’t even imagine what has been in those handprints we were all so willingly touching…if you’re squeamish, bring some hand sanitizer.

Miriam matching up with Cher

Finally, someone with bigger hands than me! (Arnold Schwarzenegger)

AKA, my mom's side of the family

We also took some pictures of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the many blocks of stars gracing the sidewalks around Hollywood Boulevard that idolize celebrities from musicians to television personalities, all the while trying to avoid the costumed characters wanting to take pictures with you for money. No, thanks.

Finally, it was time to join our tour!

Here’s a little back-story: TMZ is an entertainment news source, using both a website and a television show to promote the news of the entertainment world. Their television show takes place at their morning pitch meetings, where the TMZ employees pitch their stories to Harvey Levin, the creator of TMZ, in the hopes of getting the stories posted on the website. I absolutely LOVE watching these morning pitch meetings. They are ridiculous and hilarious. Personally, I could care less about the videos and pictures they get of the various celebrities-- I’m more interested in watching the camaraderie of the employees. I find it so entertaining that I actually DVR it so I can make sure to watch it every day.

Anyways, TMZ stands for “Thirty Mile Zone,” a term from the 1960’s, which meant that any film shooting outside this zone was considered a location shoot-- location shoots require per diems and paid travel and living expenses, so to film within this thirty mile zone was cost effective and ideal for producers. The Thirty Mile Zone basically sits on top of the center of Hollywood. Harvey Levin thought it would be a fun throwback to name his entertainment news website after the Thirty Mile Zone, since a lot of their news comes from, but it’s not limited to, Hollywood.

So, Miriam and I were super pumped to be going on the relatively new TMZ Hollywood tour (it was less than a year old when we went). It’s different from your typical sight-seeing tours because the tour guides are TMZ employees and could even be one of the people you see on the television show, and rather than point out the expected LA sights, they point out where celebrity happenings have occurred (i.e. the corner where Hugh Grant picked up the prostitute or the Laugh Factory where Michael “Kramer” Richards had his racial rant), all while scoping for celebrities. 

Van!

We were really hoping our tour guide would be Van, the young black guy from Louisiana often featured on the show. We were so hoping it would be him that we decked ourselves out in New Orleans and Saints t-shirts. And wouldn’t you know, our tour guide was Van! 

We let him know right away that we were going to be a fun pair, but it looked like the rest of the people on the bus were going to be quiet and unresponsive. I decided right then and there to make up for that. I was joking with him and trying to give clever answers to his questions and even tried to get the other people on the bus involved. They were boring. But at least I was entertaining myself and Van. Miriam just shook her head and laughed at me.

The tour is in a big, open-air van. Well, bigger than a van but smaller than a full-sized bus. It has a roof but no windows, just giant open spaces that we could hang out of if we felt adventurous—ah, the glories of living in a desert without the real worry of rain. We could see everything around us without the hindrance of windows but still kind of be out of the sun. That was sweet.

Our friend Lori had gone on the TMZ tour the month prior so she let us know that they’d ask for volunteers for games along the way, with the potential to win a free t-shirt. Well, I wanted that t-shirt. The minute Van started saying the word “volun-” my hand shot up in the air. The game I played was whether or not the celebrity in the video would wave at the camera or give the finger. The whole bus thought my celebrity would give the finger, but I said he would wave. And guess who was right? That’s right, baby. I’m the proud owner of a TMZ Hollywood tour t-shirt. Boo-yah. I won’t tell you who my celebrity was in case you, reader, end up on this tour and happen to get the same celebrity video. No cheating!

We ended up playing the game twice more and both contestants got it wrong, so in an effort to give away his last t-shirt, Van asked everyone where he was originally from. I was the first to answer, but since I already had a t-shirt I couldn’t win again.

The tour cracked Miriam and I up. We stopped by all sorts of crazy places, including the hospital where celebrities are born, go crazy, and die, the Hollywood precinct, which has a special rule in place where they won’t release mug shots (celebrities, if they are going to be arrested, hope to be in the Hollywood precinct at the time of their arrest…), various restaurants celebrities frequent when they want to be seen (like Boa), and an apartment building with some very famous inhabitants (like Elton John, for instance, who has a separate apartment for his baby…because the baby can take care of itself, right?).

Surprise carrot cake!

Van, who was mic’ed the whole time, would start up conversations with people on the street or in the cars next to us when we were stuck in traffic. At one point he started up a conversation with the couple in the car next to us, asking what they were doing for their Easter Sunday, at which point the lady lifted an unexpected carrot cake from her lap! WTF?! Where did that come from?? We had fun with that one. 

We only had one brief celebrity sighting—Wayne Brady—as he waited to be seated at a brunch place Van was pointing out to us. Van then told us how he has some bad blood for Wayne Brady after Wayne’s production company optioned his screenplay about Hurricane Katrina and then never did anything with it. It’s what brought Van to LA in the first place. He may be slightly bitter about it, but he’s now a celebrity in his own right. Shoot, the guy was invited into the back of Cee-Lo’s limo when they both showed up at the same fast food joint. Cee-Lo recognized him from TMZ and asked him to join him in his car! He said it was wild eating his value combo in Cee-Lo Green’s limo. Pretty funny stuff.

One of my favorite moments was when we passed by the Chinese Theater (remember the costumed characters I mentioned earlier?). On the count of three he had us all say hi to Spongebob, who happily turned toward our bus and waved. Then Van had us watch a video where that very Spongebob got beat up by two women who thought he said something disparaging about one of their mothers. It was the perfect set up. We were so happy and then completely mortified. It was hilarious! Trust me, it was hilarious.

Then, sadly, the tour came to an end. We, happily, gave Van a nice tip (always tip your tour guides!) for the very entertaining tour we took and asked him to take a picture with us outside the tour bus. My reaction to the picture (“Sweet, wounded...That’s beautiful.”) sent him into hysterics, at which point he hugged us both and told us he loved us. Aw.

After the tour, we ventured into various shops along Hollywood Boulevard until Sal could come pick us up, then we all went to the West Hollywood It’s a Wrap (yes, again) since Miriam and I only had 15 minutes there the day before. Sal had never been and really wanted to check it out.

I totally scored at this It’s a Wrap, finding two perfectly fitting pairs of dress pants from the television show “Brothers and Sisters” and the Adam Sandler movie Jack and Jill. I also found a really nice dress shirt for my brother (it was his birthday in a week, after all), and a pair of stainless steel hoop earrings from the Selena Gomez television show “Wizards of Waverly Place” that only cost 90 cents. 90 cents! Total steal.

My fried burrito

The fun cactus chandelier

After we drained It’s a Wrap dry, we headed back to Sal’s apartment to freshen up, randomly running into a friend of his driving by and convincing her to chat for a second in a convenient parking lot-- LA really is a small town sometimes! Then we met up with Sal’s friend, Isabella, for dinner at the Mexican restaurant Don Cuco, where I got an amazing fried burrito. Dinner was a blast and Isabella was so much fun.

By the end of the evening we were so tuckered out by our long and eventful day that we couldn’t wait to pass out...but not before having some Easter Bunny chocolate...

Sal, Isabella, and Miriam outside Don Cuco's