Finally! About our trip to LA...

Apr 04, 2005 23:06

Well, I know it's been a while, but Tracie and I wanted to share what had happened on our trip to Los Angeles in a creative way. So, we came up with this little story, complete with pics!...



The Adventures of Thelma & Louise in L.A. 2005…

Starring: Tracie auntof3 as Thelma and Emily oldromantic as Louise.

The adventure began as all do, with excitement and yet some slight fear of venturing into the unknown, but Thelma and Louise barreled into it with gumption. Searching for all things Alias related as was their goal from the onset of their “vacation”, it started early - 6 a.m. early, when they discovered that their flight was leaving out of Gate A11 from the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. They felt that it was a good sign having MV’s favorite hockey jersey number as their gate number (never mind that it was switched at the last minute to Gate A7, because they only took that as an Alias sign in itself as well - don’t ask me how.
).

So, then they were off, and as they entertained themselves with chatting with each other and answering the silly little quiz questions that were flashed on the monitor in front of them, they were tickled to find one of the questions made them think of Nadia because the answer was “Argentina”. Again, they silently smiled at one another because they’d seen that (and subsequently wrote it down on the list that they felt would quickly grow).

Landing in L.A. was no less adventurous. After waiting for well over twenty minutes for the rental car company’s transportation to come and pick them up so they could get our car and be on their way, they got on the bus and soon saw another bus numbered 47 pass by. They shared another smile.

But the real moment for squeeing was when they realized that the car they were being given to drive for the next three days was none other than a Ford Focus.



Disappointed only a little that it wasn’t the blue hatchback they’d seen in the show, they were off in the little car that quickly became known as “The Bitch” when she didn’t want to start up right away. The name seemed to suit her well when they discovered she had a mind of her own about the usage of the damned windshield wipers, and she turned them on and off at her prerogative...during the middle of a freaking rain storm. Moving on...

As soon as they were on the 405, the references began to slack off, but they did notice this license plate that had Thelma leaning out of the window, looking like a crazy person as she tried to take this picture:



(Okay, not really leaning out of the window, but it sounded funnier.
) They were sure that the driver of that car thought that their little grey Ford Focus with the two crazy, female occupants was stalking them.
So, after taking the picture, they quickly passed the White Sentra to ward off their suspicions.

After a quick visit to Louise’s (I mean, Emily’s) brother’s house to borrow a map book, get some directions to some good places to eat and sights to see, they stopped to get some gas and noticed a sign for France on the bus stop beside them. They wrote that down too, thinking of MV. Then they saw a sign for a housing development called, “Tuscany” that made them think of Sloane that also went on their list. There was even a “Michael’s Coffee House” as they drove to pick up something to eat at In-n-Out on the way to the highway. So far, they were doing good.

Then they were off with one goal in mind for the day: Meet. Ellie chshalogrl.

Well, that was highly enjoyable, as you’ve probably already heard. And you must’ve seen in the picture she (or they) showed you all. If not, I’ll show it again:



(It’s cropped just a bit. And DUDE! Emily looks like she’s on drugs.)

*ahem* So…after six completely enjoyable hours of chatting with Ellie about all things, including a lot of Alias stuff (which also involved a very unbelievable playing of Etta James’ song “At Last” over the loud speaker in Starbucks that kept Emily from continuing the story she’d been in the middle of telling, when they were all stopped abruptly by the familiar beginning strains of the song), our heroines were off again; this time, to the hotel they’d booked.

But as they were traveling at around 10 p.m. down the road close to their destination, they started noticing that the quality of the area was less than desirable. Doors were suddenly locked and eyes were on the lookout for any possible car-jackers or thieves. They could not wait to get behind the safety of their locked hotel room door. But when they noted a very tall prostitute with a very short skirt standing next to the driveway of their hotel with a sleezy-looking “John” trying to pick her up, they questioned staying in the hotel at all - especially because they couldn’t tell if she’d been male or female. Ewww…

As they pulled up in front of the main entrance, Louise hesitantly enquired, “I wonder if this is one of those places that you can rent by the hour…” It did look like that was a possibility. Still they tried to find a place to park, until they realized that their rental car was the nicest one out of all of the cars in the spaces in front of the building, and immediately, neither one of them wanted to get out of the car. Louise told Thelma, “You know, I don’t think they’ll charge us anything if we just don’t keep the reservation and go somewhere else.”

“Oh, really?” Thelma replied, thankful that Louise had brought up what she too was thinking. “Then let’s see if we can find something else.”

Thankful that they were in agreement on the subject, Louise slammed on the gas, tires squealing, and they booked it outta there.

Once again on the safer side of town, they inquired at one hotel for vacancies but there was no luck. So they moved on and found a much nicer hotel, and decided to take the room if they had a vacancy, no matter what the cost. It was $129 well spent, in their opinions. As soon as they got to their rooms, they let out the breaths they didn’t know they’d been holding, and tried to get the fear of the ordeal they’d just been through out of their minds.

However, Louise wasn’t quite through with the terror and senseless panic as she pointed out and mentioned that the mirrored closet door in the room looked a lot like the one used in the film “The Pelican Brief” - where the assassin was hiding inside the closet that was only opened a couple of inches - when she realized that their closet was opened by only a couple of inches. She jumped back and screamed at the same time she flung it open, freaking out her friend and partner in crime at the same time.

As soon as they calmed down again, they discovered that it was too late to order room service, and they had yet to eat dinner. They remembered that there was a Taco Bell right next door, so they decided to tough up and walk there to get some food. Louise was confident that should they need it on the walk there or back, Thelma could use her TKD experience and go all “Sydney Bristow” on anybody’s ass. Hmph. Nobody messed with them. (But they still ate in safety of their hotel room.
)

The next day was an even better adventure with even more Alias references than they could count. Knowing they were planning on going to the late service at Emily’s brother’s church, they had plenty of time to kill for breakfast and…whatever. So they went looking for coffee, and because Ellie had mentioned that Jennifer Garner lived in Brentwood, they went through Brentwood to look for that “coffee”.

They found it in Pacific Palisades on Sunset Blvd:



Louise was certain that this might possibly be “JG’s” Starbucks because of the familiarity of this intersection from tabloid pics of Jen with her significant other(s) at different times, but they weren’t positive about that:



Down at the end of that road that way ---> was a farmer’s market, where many people were shopping, and because they knew that JG liked the farmer’s markets, they walked all the way through it, searching, and then sat in the perfect spot at a little table in between Starbucks and the market with their coffees, where they could see everyone going in and out of both places.

Alas, no Alias actors…although they did see a yellow lab…with non-famous owners.

So, they moved on again, and because Thelma was in need of sunglasses, they walked to the local store to check it out, and the name of the store sounded oddly familiar as well. They weren’t sure, but they thought that it might be another place that JG frequents, so they snapped this photo for the heck of it:



Well, after making it to church on time, and then having lunch with Emily’s brother, sis-in-law, two nephews, and another couple and their baby girl at a small barbeque restaurant, they were off again, seeking the Alias references and actors they so badly craved to see.

Then they suddenly remembered a famous line from their favorite show and took it as a clue: “You told me a couple of months ago that when you feel the need to disappear, you go to the observatory.”

So, they followed the clue and went to the observatory in Griffith Park:



…but it was closed, just as the man had said.

But they did find this nifty street sign that made them think of their favorite leading man:



(Awesome pic of Tracie - err, Thelma, don’t you think??)

And this very familiar carousel:



(Yes, Emily’s that short! JG was able to rest her chin on that gate!)

Leaving Griffith Park, they were determined to at least see the observatory and possibly snap a picture of it from far away, so they went around the entire mountain looking for it. Squealing when they finally saw it, they did a couple of Biscuits in the Bitch to get back to the top of the hill, and this is the best they could do, given the traffic situation:



Stumped yet again as to where the Alias actors could be, they recalled the rest of the lines he’d spoken that day, which were: “And then I remembered you said the pier calms you down.”



But they weren’t there either.

Both Thelma:


and Louise looked:


And so, after molesting the railing that they knew MV had once touched, and wishing to lick it without contracting some horrible disease or garnering the kind of attention they didn’t need, our heroines were off again, trying to recall the rest of the clues our dear MV had given them in one of the scenes they loved.

“And you weren't at the bluffs and the palisades, either,” they remembered he’d said, but they had traveled through the Palisades again that afternoon on the way to Malibu and the coast without any luck, and they weren’t sure where “the bluffs” he’d mentioned might be exactly. They did have dinner at this swanky seafood restaurant called Gladstone’s that had some sort of “bluff” looking area down below the deck. But it didn’t appeal to them to investigate it further with the coldness of the evening air making them miserable. Besides, Emily’s brother had boasted that “a lot” of famous people visited that restaurant “all the time”, so they wanted to stand by the entrance and watch them all trickle in and get tons of autographs.
Yeah. They didn’t see even one.

At the end of the evening, they were perplexed that they’d had no luck seeing anyone famous, tired from all of the driving they’d already done, and stuffed from having dinner and a dessert that was Thelma’s dream after five weeks with no chocolate. Dessert was the most gigantic brownie they ever seen, topped with four scoops of ice cream (two vanilla and two coffee), nuts, chocolate sauce, chocolate chips, whipped cream, and topped with a cherry, and between the two of them, they couldn’t even eat a quarter of it. Sheesh - some chocoholics they were.

After rolling themselves out of the restaurant with Thelma’s fat dolphin (bread wrapped in aluminum foil to look like a dolphin), they went back to Emily’s brother’s house to take him and his wife up on their offer of hospitality and spend the night there. On the way there, they took the scenic route up the coast a bit, and then through Malibu Canyon, where they were laughing so hard over…what was it, again??
Something funny enough to wonder if they were going to drive off one of the cliffs, which is where the idea for “Thelma and Louise” came from. Oh yes, we remember. Louise was yelling “Cliff!” to which Thelma would yell back “Norm!” Had them in stitches!! …You had to be there.

Once arriving at the house, it was late, so they tiptoed around the apartment to get ready for bed and soon went to sleep to prepare for the next day’s adventure.

Monday morning dawned clear and bright and warm, which was a first for our heroines’ visit. Knowing that they only had a few hours left before they had to return The Bitch and catch their flights home, they wanted to fill up the rest of their trip with as many more references they could find, and heighten their chances of possibly meeting their favorite actors.

Brainstorming to figure out the best plan of action, they knew there were a few more places they could check, including one location mentioned in the last of that famous conversation they’d remembered the day before. So, after mapping out their plans, they were off.

Traveling on the highway once again, Thelma remembered to snap this photo of the buildings they so often would see in the aerial shots of their favorite show:



And being the huge Weiss fan that Thelma is, she snapped this photo of a street called “Gregory Way”, which they both claimed was close enough of a reference to document:



…then they found what they were looking for: The Disney Lot!!!

Pulling up to the guard station, Thelma snapped this pic:



…while Louise asked about possible tours…??

They thought at first that the guard was the good-natured, joking type, when he dryly said that the lot had been “taken over by Corporate America” and there were no tours anymore, but it turned out that he just had that kind of understated seriousness. After chatting with the unhelpful man for a couple more minutes, they were forced to do another U-turn (biscuit) and leave.

Cursing and mumbling about the Monkeys running ABC while sitting at the next stoplight, they looked up and lo and behold, there was their cage!! So they snapped a pic of that too:



Sadly, Thelma and Louise were running out of time, so they knew they had to get to that one last place before heading home. And when they found it, it was more surreal than anything, even being on the pier.

The Train Station:



Without having seen the last ep of Season One recently, they still managed to find the exact seat that MV had sat in to take that pic. (We don’t care if it’s fuzzy - WE WERE THERE!!!) And then, imagine their shock and surprise to find out that JG and MV had BEEN there just a few weeks earlier to film the scene in 4x13 - “Tuesday”!! Aaahhhh!!! They’d only missed them by a few weeks!!
Oy!!

*ahem* So, after stopping in the gift shop/newspaper stand to buy postcards (and a neck pillow for Emily’s looooong flight home), and stopping beside one of the restaurant’s tables to read the menu, they walked out (literally right over the same spot JG and MV danced!!!


) to see if they could make it to Hollywood and Beverly Hills before having to head to the airport.

After traveling through all the major, annoying, traffic issues they’ve got going on in that city, Thelma and Louise got close enough to see the “Hollywood” sign for a split second (not long enough to take a pic though -
grrrr…) before they had to turn and go the other direction toward LAX, promising that they would start in Beverly Hills on their trip next year.

Disappointed that it was almost over, they were quietly reflecting on their few, short days in the glamorous city, when they had one more sighting worth photographing:



Until next year…

THE END

Now…how many Alias references did you find in that story?? Every little thing counts!!

We hope you enjoyed that as much as we did.

Love you guys!!
~Em *hugs*

I feel :
easily amused
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