A few times each year I seem to find myself boarding a plane or driving south on I-5 bound for Los Angeles. Usually its for a brief stay and there’s only really time to take of business and then move on.
But, things are vastly different when you’re traveling with LA virgins. Those who have never experienced the smog smothered, celeb centric, gridlocked glory that is the City of Angels. Enter the fam from Down Under; Rod, Sue and Court. They were stoked to take in the city and be close to all the filmmaking action.
In the company of newbies, things that you usually ignore and overlook become novel again.
Like the Universal City Walk.
Or observing the city from viewpoints on Mulholland Drive.
My Aunt Jonella knows everything there is to know about Hollywood and drove us around to star homes (she should really be a tour guide!). Everyone from Cher and Britney Spears to Clint Eastwood and Keanu Reeves.
Ron Howard’s pad
The fam marveled at the palm trees.
And the traffic.
They loved frantically searching for the stars of their favorite celebs.
Court went nuts shopping on Rodeo Drive.
We also made a pilgrimage to the hippie haven of Venice Beach.
muscle beach man
It should be known that Sue is a germaphobe, so imagine her distress when she got pulled in to be an assistant for a street performance by the Glass Man. (The dude literally walks on pieces of broken bottles and ends the show by jumping from a chair into a mound of jagged shards)
Bless her for being a good sport; she took it in stride. Although being wrapped in a sarong and forced to hold a bottle of rum up-side-down in one hand and a plastic iguana in the other certainly pushed her out of hr comfort zone.
Today, I find myself in LA yet again, but sans the fun travel buddies with kick ass accents.
Last night was -30- Banquet, the annual awards ceremony for UCLA’s newspaper the Daily Bruin. My sister made the DB home during her time at UCLA and last night we paid homage to her love of photojournalism and travel by awarding the Bridget O’Brien Memorial Scholarship.
More to come.
And for more Photo Friday head over to Delicious Baby.
