My new boss was wonderful enough to send my co-worker and me to Los Angeles for training at the Adobe MAX conference. We arrived Sunday morning and were able to take in LA for the day. This was our hotel: The Hotel Westin in Downtown LA.
We decided to take in the city by tour bus and hopped on one of those double-decker, hop-on-hop-off busses. I have to admit, we weren’t entirely impressed with the views along the interstates headed for Hollywood. We just kind of thought it would be cleaner, shinier.
Our first stop: Hollywood Boulevard at the Hollywood & Highland Center. We had lunch, walked through the center and got a great view of the Hollywood sign.
Then we walked next door to Grauman’s Chinese Theater.
Do you know where John Travolta was the day before you were born? I DO!!! Check out the date on his square!
We got to check out the stars on Hollywood Boulevard too and found Steven Spielberg, Susan Sarandon, Snow White and many more!
Then it was off to Beverly Hills where we also saw City Hall, the police station and fire station.
The City Hall building is pretty impressive since the top of it is actually gold plated. Only in California can you have a government going bankrupt and find a stash of gold right out in the open.
We also got to see Rodeo Drive and all the expensive shops that were tempting to visit. I almost wanted to buy something irrationally expensive just to say I did. But chances were, anything on that street was going to be WAY out of my price range anyway.
Then we arrived at Santa Monica Pier. I was surprised with how many people were there considering how chilly it was that day. But there were people even in the water… fully clothed, but they were in the water.
Oh, got a good glimpse at gas prices, which I noticed went up and down depending on the area of town we were in. This was about the highest we came across.
We also got a peek at the Farmer’s Market, which is where we planned to return to go shopping and have dinner one of the nights we were in town.
So, long story short, we also ended up missing our last bus exchange on Hollywood Boulevard because another tourist tour guide was harassing us. So, since we had to find another way back to our hotel, we took him up on his 1/2 tickets for a tour of the stars homes and stayed out past bedtime. We ended up taking the subway back to the hotel, which was an experience all in its own.
Oh, that’s right, we still have a convention to go to!!!!
Bright and early on Monday morning, we boarded our shuttle bus to head a few blocks away to the LA Convention Center, which is next door to the Staples Center and…
The Nokia Theater, which is where they hold ESPY Awards, the American Music Awards, MTV has had it’s Video Music Awards show there in the past, and American Idol now holds it’s finale there. It was quite the presentation. When we walked in, they had the work of digital artists displayed across the screens. Then they turned into the presentation screens for the Adobe product reveals.
We wanted to wrap up the night at a brew pup but when we talked to the Concierge, he had gotten bad reviews about some that were near and others were too far away. It turned out our hotel had its own! So we got cleaned up and headed to the bar for a nice sampler. I tried my first IPAs and actually liked them.
The instructor for my hands-on sessions was Julieanne Kost so I sat front and center!!! She was fabulous to learn from and so entertaining!
And after 3 days of sessions, it was over.
But that night I got to see a former co-worker, Tony! He picked up Renee and I and took us to a little Mexican restaurant for dinner and then let us check out Amoeba Music, an amazing record store on Sunset Boulevard.
I also mentioned I wanted some of his work for the kids… He’s now an artist for My Little Pony comic books! These are some of the covers he’s done. He even signed them for my little munchkins. Trust me, they won’t be getting their hands on those for a while! For now they get put in plastic and will join my other Tony Fleece designs.
We had a early flight Thursday morning because Renee needed to get back for an event that night. Well, our airline found some problems with the plane as we were boarding, specifically with the yoke, and so we had to try to get on another flight. We ended up waiting in LAX for 12.5 hours for a 6 p.m. flight. Renee missed her event. But while we were waiting, there was an earthquake. The whole concourse where we were sitting shook. I thought something had hit the building, but an employee said that it was an earthquake. And sure enough, it was a 2.9 magnitude quake with an epicenter a few miles from the airport.
We got on our flight and headed for Denver and for some reason, that flight was also having problems so it was a little behind in landing. We had 15 minutes to BOOK it across the Denver airport from gate 22 to gate 92! We ran our little butts off and just made the flight. And thanks to that hustle, we got into Sioux Falls just after midnight instead of spending a night in Denver. Whew!
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