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Boyfriend and I just got back from a short little trip to Los Angeles last night. It was great! Extremely busy and we're both exhausted still, but great.
Saturday:
It started Saturday morning, when we drove to Houston (about a 3-3.5hr drive for us) to attend the Blizzard Live! and Video Games Live! concerts being performed by the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Blizzard Live! was from 3:00-4:30 and VG Live! was from 7:30-10:00. In-between, we met one of boyfriend's college friends for dinner at an Italian place called Spaghetti Warehouse, that's supposedly haunted. Well, we didn't see any ghosts or anything, but the food was really good. And the concerts were EXCELLENT. They had three large screens set up right above the orchestra, that they played videos on while the orchestra was performing, and everything was coordinated perfectly -- when there was a flash or explosion on the video, the music fit right in perfectly with it. During the VG Live! concerts, they played a lot of our favorite music, including segments from Mario, Zelda, Castlevania, Metroid, Megaman, Final Fantasy, and Chrono Trigger. Some of them (the Megaman and Chrono Trigger segments) were brand new and had only been played once or twice before ever. Also, they didn't just do straight up music, there were a lot of "activities" during the show; for example, at one point they pulled someone from the audience on stage and had him play Space Invaders on the big screen, while the orchestra played the music for him. And they had a Guitar Hero contest before the concert, and the winner got to play on stage, again with the orchestra providing background music. All in all, it was a pretty amazing concert, and I would recommend any video game fan to try and see it, they tour all over the US.
We got out of the concert a little after 10, and drove back home, since we had a plane to catch the next morning. We got home around 1:45, after being pulled over for speeding around 12:30 (we were going 72 in a 65 zone...the trooper was very nice, though, and let us off with a warning and just told us to stay safe.) Got to sleep around 2:00 and back up at 8:30.
Sunday:
We were pretty much packed already and our plane didn't leave until 11:00 so we didn't have to get up super-early. Got in to LA around 12:30...and had to wait around in line at the Dollar rental car place for nearly an hour and a half.
I've never rented a car before, but boyfriend has, and he said it was NOTHING like this last time...barely any wait...of course, this was LA. Is it normal for rental car places to be so busy?
Anyway, we finally got to our hotel around 2:30. We hadn't eaten anything since we got up at 8:30 (and LA is two hours behind us, so it was effectively 4:30 for us) so we immediately hit the hotel restaurant and learned that LA likes to bleed our wallets. A burger was $11 and a club sandwich was $12. Also, our hotel had its own parking garage, which cost $12/day to park in. Actually, we had to pay for parking everywhere we went in LA, very different from where we're from in Texas, where the only parking spots you need to pay for are central downtown -- everywhere else has large, open, free parking lots.
A friend of ours was getting married Sunday night, which was our main reason for going to LA in the first place, so after we finished "lunch", we had to get ready for the wedding; we had been hoping for an hour or so to rest before having to leave again, but since the rental car place became such a time sink for us, we didn't have the extra time. We left the hotel around 4:10, the wedding was supposed to start at 5:00, and was only about 10 miles away from where we were staying...but it's a good thing we left when we did. Traffic was horrible! Again, something so different from where we live...also, we brought our own GPS unit with us, and it was a complete life saver. We can't imagine trying to navigate LA traffic and roads with Google paper maps or something. We made it to the wedding right before 5, but it didn't start on time anyway.
The wedding itself was very nice, if a little awkward for us. See, this friend of ours who was getting married...we'd never actually met her. We've both known her online for years and years (we all met in the same chat room, actually, about 12 years ago) but we'd never met her in person. In fact, we didn't even know what she looked like. And of course, we didn't know any of the other guests. We ended up sitting outside for a little while just watching people, and eventually figured out who the groom was. We were just about to get up and introduce ourselves when he came over to us and addressed my boyfriend by his old online screen name.
It was hilarious to hear him being called them in-person. The groom is an awesome guy, very friendly and nice and happy to meet us. He said we'd probably wouldn't get to meet the bride till after the wedding, since she was "hiding" at the moment.
Okay, this post is getting too long as it is, so I'll summarize the wedding briefly: It was very non-traditional, the bride is Irish and the groom is Taiwanese so they basically made up the whole ceremony with a combination of the two cultures, wrote their own vows, etc. It was awesome and beautiful, although boyfriend and I agreed it was way too formal for anything we ever want (we're going to elope.) We also got to meet several other online friends of ours who we haven't talked to in years and knew only by their screen names, so it was really funny walking around and introducing ourselves by our online names, rather than our real names.
We left around 10:00 and went back to the hotel to collapse.
Monday:
Naturally, we woke up early -- around 6:45, since we were still on Texas time, which would have been 8:45 for us. We didn't really get going until around 10:30, though. We drove to a bookstore in Little Tokyo and hung out there for about an hour, then the bride and groom met up with us and we all went to lunch together. Then they spent about 3 hours showing us around Little Tokyo! It was awesome. They were completely cool about everything, showed us all their favorite shops, basically were just awesome hosts to us tourists. We all spent a lot more money than we probably should have, but it was well worth it. Among other things, boyfriend and I got: A Tales of Vesperia artbook, a Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past manga, a piano arrangement of the soundtrack to Megaman 9, some Dragon Quest 1 magnets, a Claymore backpack and keychain, a backpack in the shape of a white dog that's apparently from Naruto (I got it for cos-play reasons, though), the soundtrack to Final Fantasy IV DS, a figurine from Gurren Lagan, and some food from an Asian market (mmm, curry!) The bride and groom didn't buy as much, but they did pick up a few odds and ends, and he got a giant Yoshi plushy for her that she'd apparently wanted for a long time. And when I say giant, I mean giant -- it was nearly bigger than she was (admittedly, she's only 5'2, but still!) Boyfriend usually goes to A-Kon every year, and this year he missed it 'cuz his kitty was sick when the con was going on but after our trip to Little Tokyo, he said it sure felt like he'd gone to A-Kon!
Around 4:00 we headed back to our hotel, but we were planning on meeting up with the bride and groom again for dinner/dessert later on. Well, the place we were going to go to ended up being closed on Mondays but they got a recommendation on a good Italian place instead, so we went there, and it was excellent. Boyfriend had Gnocchi, I had spaghetti carbonera, and the bride and groom each had some kind of a spaghetti with smoked salmon, and everyone commented on how great it was. Plus a slice of creme brule cheesecake with vanilla beans.
Again, back to the hotel to collapse.
Tuesday:
One word: DISNEYLAND! Yeah, we decided to go for one day. It was boyfriend's birthday, so he got a free pass in, and I'd never been, so we figured it would be a good way to spend our last day in LA. We actually didn't buy very much there; I got a necklace and a bracelet, and boyfriend got a hat (mostly so his head wouldn't get sunburned) but other than that, we didn't come home with any physical goods. We did go on lots of rides (none of the ones with the really long waits, though) and had a really good meal at the Blue Bayou (short ribs and gumbo!), and we watched the fireworks show over the castle at 9:30. I could've stayed until closing at midnight, but by then boyfriend was ready to collapse, so we headed back to the hotel to pack.
Wednesday:
The return trip was pretty uneventful. I will say it's nice to be home. LA was fun to visit and it was great to see Little Tokyo and Disneyland, and our friends were a blast to hang out with...but both boyfriend and I said we'd never want to live there. It's very nice to be back in our little corner of the world. Our apartment feels so homey and familiar. And things are cheap again. <3
Saturday:
It started Saturday morning, when we drove to Houston (about a 3-3.5hr drive for us) to attend the Blizzard Live! and Video Games Live! concerts being performed by the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Blizzard Live! was from 3:00-4:30 and VG Live! was from 7:30-10:00. In-between, we met one of boyfriend's college friends for dinner at an Italian place called Spaghetti Warehouse, that's supposedly haunted. Well, we didn't see any ghosts or anything, but the food was really good. And the concerts were EXCELLENT. They had three large screens set up right above the orchestra, that they played videos on while the orchestra was performing, and everything was coordinated perfectly -- when there was a flash or explosion on the video, the music fit right in perfectly with it. During the VG Live! concerts, they played a lot of our favorite music, including segments from Mario, Zelda, Castlevania, Metroid, Megaman, Final Fantasy, and Chrono Trigger. Some of them (the Megaman and Chrono Trigger segments) were brand new and had only been played once or twice before ever. Also, they didn't just do straight up music, there were a lot of "activities" during the show; for example, at one point they pulled someone from the audience on stage and had him play Space Invaders on the big screen, while the orchestra played the music for him. And they had a Guitar Hero contest before the concert, and the winner got to play on stage, again with the orchestra providing background music. All in all, it was a pretty amazing concert, and I would recommend any video game fan to try and see it, they tour all over the US.
We got out of the concert a little after 10, and drove back home, since we had a plane to catch the next morning. We got home around 1:45, after being pulled over for speeding around 12:30 (we were going 72 in a 65 zone...the trooper was very nice, though, and let us off with a warning and just told us to stay safe.) Got to sleep around 2:00 and back up at 8:30.
Sunday:
We were pretty much packed already and our plane didn't leave until 11:00 so we didn't have to get up super-early. Got in to LA around 12:30...and had to wait around in line at the Dollar rental car place for nearly an hour and a half.
I've never rented a car before, but boyfriend has, and he said it was NOTHING like this last time...barely any wait...of course, this was LA. Is it normal for rental car places to be so busy?Anyway, we finally got to our hotel around 2:30. We hadn't eaten anything since we got up at 8:30 (and LA is two hours behind us, so it was effectively 4:30 for us) so we immediately hit the hotel restaurant and learned that LA likes to bleed our wallets. A burger was $11 and a club sandwich was $12. Also, our hotel had its own parking garage, which cost $12/day to park in. Actually, we had to pay for parking everywhere we went in LA, very different from where we're from in Texas, where the only parking spots you need to pay for are central downtown -- everywhere else has large, open, free parking lots.
A friend of ours was getting married Sunday night, which was our main reason for going to LA in the first place, so after we finished "lunch", we had to get ready for the wedding; we had been hoping for an hour or so to rest before having to leave again, but since the rental car place became such a time sink for us, we didn't have the extra time. We left the hotel around 4:10, the wedding was supposed to start at 5:00, and was only about 10 miles away from where we were staying...but it's a good thing we left when we did. Traffic was horrible! Again, something so different from where we live...also, we brought our own GPS unit with us, and it was a complete life saver. We can't imagine trying to navigate LA traffic and roads with Google paper maps or something. We made it to the wedding right before 5, but it didn't start on time anyway.
The wedding itself was very nice, if a little awkward for us. See, this friend of ours who was getting married...we'd never actually met her. We've both known her online for years and years (we all met in the same chat room, actually, about 12 years ago) but we'd never met her in person. In fact, we didn't even know what she looked like. And of course, we didn't know any of the other guests. We ended up sitting outside for a little while just watching people, and eventually figured out who the groom was. We were just about to get up and introduce ourselves when he came over to us and addressed my boyfriend by his old online screen name.
It was hilarious to hear him being called them in-person. The groom is an awesome guy, very friendly and nice and happy to meet us. He said we'd probably wouldn't get to meet the bride till after the wedding, since she was "hiding" at the moment.Okay, this post is getting too long as it is, so I'll summarize the wedding briefly: It was very non-traditional, the bride is Irish and the groom is Taiwanese so they basically made up the whole ceremony with a combination of the two cultures, wrote their own vows, etc. It was awesome and beautiful, although boyfriend and I agreed it was way too formal for anything we ever want (we're going to elope.) We also got to meet several other online friends of ours who we haven't talked to in years and knew only by their screen names, so it was really funny walking around and introducing ourselves by our online names, rather than our real names.
We left around 10:00 and went back to the hotel to collapse.
Monday:
Naturally, we woke up early -- around 6:45, since we were still on Texas time, which would have been 8:45 for us. We didn't really get going until around 10:30, though. We drove to a bookstore in Little Tokyo and hung out there for about an hour, then the bride and groom met up with us and we all went to lunch together. Then they spent about 3 hours showing us around Little Tokyo! It was awesome. They were completely cool about everything, showed us all their favorite shops, basically were just awesome hosts to us tourists. We all spent a lot more money than we probably should have, but it was well worth it. Among other things, boyfriend and I got: A Tales of Vesperia artbook, a Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past manga, a piano arrangement of the soundtrack to Megaman 9, some Dragon Quest 1 magnets, a Claymore backpack and keychain, a backpack in the shape of a white dog that's apparently from Naruto (I got it for cos-play reasons, though), the soundtrack to Final Fantasy IV DS, a figurine from Gurren Lagan, and some food from an Asian market (mmm, curry!) The bride and groom didn't buy as much, but they did pick up a few odds and ends, and he got a giant Yoshi plushy for her that she'd apparently wanted for a long time. And when I say giant, I mean giant -- it was nearly bigger than she was (admittedly, she's only 5'2, but still!) Boyfriend usually goes to A-Kon every year, and this year he missed it 'cuz his kitty was sick when the con was going on
but after our trip to Little Tokyo, he said it sure felt like he'd gone to A-Kon!Around 4:00 we headed back to our hotel, but we were planning on meeting up with the bride and groom again for dinner/dessert later on. Well, the place we were going to go to ended up being closed on Mondays
but they got a recommendation on a good Italian place instead, so we went there, and it was excellent. Boyfriend had Gnocchi, I had spaghetti carbonera, and the bride and groom each had some kind of a spaghetti with smoked salmon, and everyone commented on how great it was. Plus a slice of creme brule cheesecake with vanilla beans.Again, back to the hotel to collapse.
Tuesday:
One word: DISNEYLAND! Yeah, we decided to go for one day. It was boyfriend's birthday, so he got a free pass in, and I'd never been, so we figured it would be a good way to spend our last day in LA. We actually didn't buy very much there; I got a necklace and a bracelet, and boyfriend got a hat (mostly so his head wouldn't get sunburned) but other than that, we didn't come home with any physical goods. We did go on lots of rides (none of the ones with the really long waits, though) and had a really good meal at the Blue Bayou (short ribs and gumbo!), and we watched the fireworks show over the castle at 9:30. I could've stayed until closing at midnight, but by then boyfriend was ready to collapse, so we headed back to the hotel to pack.
Wednesday:
The return trip was pretty uneventful. I will say it's nice to be home. LA was fun to visit and it was great to see Little Tokyo and Disneyland, and our friends were a blast to hang out with...but both boyfriend and I said we'd never want to live there. It's very nice to be back in our little corner of the world. Our apartment feels so homey and familiar. And things are cheap again. <3