LA Vacation !!!

FINALLY it's here!!!  Yes, folks; that's right: a McNeff blog update!  Why has it taken me so long?  The real reason is that Josh hasn't allowed me to post any pics of our basement goings-ons until people came and saw it in person - and those goings-ons have pretty much been ALL we've been doing for the past few months.  (Yes, I now have permission to show that off as well, but that'll be a different post).

Anyway...

Josh has a life-long dream of becoming a famous country singer.  He's been wanting to try out for American Idol or the Voice forever now, and they just haven't made it to Salt Lake yet.  So, when Josh heard that The Voice Tryouts were going to LA, he pretty much begged me to let him go try.  If nothing else, at least he could say he tried.  I tend to spoil my husband, because I just love him so darn much, so I said, "Yes."  

So March 30, 2012 we packed up our car, took every last penny we had, and drove to LA!  (My parents watched Quinn for us while we were gone, since we were going to be extremely ghetto cheap and do things like sleep in our car to save money).

But since I've never really been ANYWHERE, we took a detour so I could see some of the sites:

Like the Statue of Liberty! (the little one, from Vegas)

And the Eiffel Tower!  (also from Vegas).

 Okay, so our detour was along the Las Vegas strip, and I wanted to go and blow like 5 whole dollars on the slots just to say I have, but we didn't.  Maybe some day... ;)

More of the cool sites I've always heard about, but never saw in person:

The Bellagio!!  I'm sorta obsessed with "Ocean's 11"....

 NOT a flying saucer, but a fashion show.  Cool, eh?

(DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU'RE SITTING THROUGH THAT ANNOYING COUPLE'S VACATION SLIDES? (kids, a slide is an old-school powerpoint, using a projector that would show the photo on a big screen. Weird, I know.)  IF SO, GRAB SOME POPCORN AND ENJOY THE REST, AND DEAL WITH IT!)

And then we got to Los Angeles!  We booked into our hotel for a one-night stay.  We obviously spent as little as possible on it, as evidenced by the leaking shower, towel racks falling out of the wall, and missing alarm clock and hot tub, but oh well.  After checking in, we changed into our swimsuits (almost getting walked in on by the cleaning lady who should not have been there at that time of day in the first place) and headed to Santa Monica Pier and Beaches.

I'm holding the Pier in the palm of my hand :)

Aww!!

SOFT sand under our toes!

This was basically Josh's first trip to a Pacific beach, that he can remember anyway, and he loved every moment of it!  Normally, he's a little frightened of large amounts of water, but he quickly fell in love with the soft sand, the warm water, and the surf.

Diving in with my clothes still on! (okay, not really, that was a lie)

Josh was so excited to run into the water.

Woo hoo!

What a sexy man.

A video we took of us walking along the beach so Quinn could see what it was like:

Somebody (not us) had way too much time on their hands! It looked incredible!

After playing in the water and finding sea shells for Quinn.

The view of the beach from Santa Monica Pier

We totally picked the right time to do everything this day.  First, we got up early and gave us plenty of time to leisurely drive to California, allowing us to not feel rushed or anything.  Then we get to the beach as the tide was coming in, allowing us to  find huge sea shells for Quinn (AND SEE A BABY TURTLE COMING OUT OF THE SAND!!).  Then we got onto the actual Pier as the sun was setting, and left before the storm rolled in.  It was amazing!

View of the Santa Monica Pier at night:

 How we spent a lot of our time: Josh driving, me goofing around and navigating.  Apparently Josh loved driving in LA traffic (go figure).

The next day after we checked out of our hotel, we went to the ORIGINAL Farmer's Market.  To get there from where we parked, we went through an outside mall (kinda like Gateway, but not that big, and much nicer).

It was drizzling (but not enough to even get my hair wet), and it made the brickwork on the road look so cool!

Josh says the Farmer's Market reminded him of El Salvador, though this one was way nicer.  There were people EVERYWHERE, and all sorts of shops set up like a maze - we almost got lost in there.

Lots of cool toy cars - we wished we could have afforded to bring one home for Quinn (and secretly Josh)

My man and his cars :)

Josh loves Spiderman, especially Venom, so I made him pose with his friend.  He couldn't keep from busting up too long as you can see:

Where we had lunch.

GETTING BORED YET?  I SAID DEAL WITH IT, AND I MEANT IT! 

Read the sign: 

Contemplating trying a calzone for the first time ever. 

It was yummy, but HUGE!

Then we went to see the all-so-famous Hollywood Sign.

The view on the way up: 

Hollywood!!!

Yeah, buddy!

Then we wandered the Hollywood Walk of Fame (Did I mention we were on a non-existent budget, and were looking for every free thing to do that we could?  Yeah, we did.  We "wandered," not "visited," because visiting means actually going into the things around here.  We didn't have that kinda cash - or credit   :P   but it was fun!

Captain Jack Sparrow was among the strange characters we met there.

(fun fact: when Quinn saw this picture, and we asked him who it was, he told us it was Jesus.  At least I know my son's heart is in the right place!)

Roy Rogers & Trigger 

Humphrey Bogart

Robert Downey Jr (one of my heart throbs, who happens to have the same size of feet as Josh)

Judy Garland - who has amazingly small feet!

Adam Sandler - who has the same size of hands as my hubby.

*sigh* Cary Grant

Josh has the same size of hands as the Governator!

Sean Connery - who went barefoot!

I heart Sean Connery...

Johnny Depp

No, he's not checking Lucy out... just her food...

Kissy kissy Shrek! (at the Wax Museum - outside)

Michael Jackson just about scared me to death! NOT wax - at least not in this instance.

The guy who started it all! 

 And just a personal fave

There was a sale, and I needed a new hat anyway...

At the Ripley's Believe it or Not! Museum - in the lobby :)

A carving out of a PHONE BOOK! Incredible!

Bumblebee!  What are you doing here?

And you thought Josh was tall....

Murals EVERYWHERE in LA.

Josh goofing up my picture...

  

And again....

Our last stop before ending the night was the Observatory.  It was quite the hike to get to it, but it was pretty sweet.

  

Goober...

Us at the top! Finally!

This is what Josh calls "his view of me" and why he thinks I'm to darn good looking:

inside the observatory, they had this pendulum that swung from the ceiling to keep time - kinda cool.

"The sun starts here..."

We were exhausted, so instead of going to Chinatown for dinner, we just grabbed some Burger King, found a neighborhood road not far from the LA Convention Center, parked, and fell asleep.  We got up at 5:00 am, drove to the center, and then stood in line for 2 hours before they let Josh in to audition (though he stood in line for another couple hours in there too).  It was really cold, Josh didn't get a chance to really warm up, but he did his best.  We don't really know for sure if he got on or not, but he doesn't think so.

Meanwhile, since they wouldn't allow "guests" inside the building during the auditions, I had to go to the car in the parking garage and wait for Josh for a couple hours.  Unfortunately, Josh still had the car keys, so I was stuck waiting for him outside the car.  I had a camping chair and blanket from standing outside in line forever, so I just set those up again, put my feet up on the car, and tried to snooze while I waited....

The last photo before I conked out: crossing my fingers in hopes he'd do well!

And that was our trip!  YES, YOU'RE DONE NOW. YOU HAPPY?  We had a blast, and even if Josh doesn't make it, it was really memorable, and totally worth it.  Next time, hopefully we'll have more money though :)