WEBmikey: Star-studded vacation

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Star-studded vacation
4.24.2006 8:44 PM \| Link	Last weekend I had a truly fantastic mini-vacation in Los Angeles with my pal Dae! We started things off right with the usual trip to Disneyland, where the park was full of Spring Break madness. It was probably the most crowded I've seen, but we worked the Fastpass system and kept the right attitude, so we ended up having an awesome time and still riding 18 attractions! I had my first frozen banana, which was delicious, and finally got to ride the Jungle Cruise in total night-time darkness, which is a very cool experience. The next day we did some more Disney-geek activities. First, we ate at the Tam O'Shanter Inn, a Scottish-themed restaurant that's been around since 1922, because Walt Disney and his animators used to eat there often. The atmosphere and food was great, and there were some original Disney sketches on the wall, including some artwork by John Hench. They gave us a free dessert since we were first-timers, too! After lunch we made the ultimate Disney geek pilgrimage to Forest Lawn to see Walt's grave. The grounds were beautiful, and it was neat to see Walt's "hidden garden", plus lots of other celebrities (like George Burns and Nat King Cole) in Freedom Mausoleum. After that, we took the amazing Warner Bros. VIP Studio Tour, which is really fun, since you get to walk around the actual backlot, rather than sit on a tram all day. We stumbled on some actual filming going on, too! The plan for the night was "drinks and Pink's", so we hit the Lava Lounge, a really cool small club where we saw a couple great bands, then had chili dogs at the famous Pink's, which had a 45-minute wait at 1:00 AM (all part of the experience)! The last day (after sleeping in), we had awesome In-N-Out burgers, then drove to Pasadena to tour the Gamble House, which was an incredible example of Arts & Crafts architecture. We walked around in Pasadena a little, had a beer, then went home to change for our Hollywood dinner! On the way, we stopped in Secret Stash, a pretty famous comic book shop owned by Kevin Smith, and then it was on to dinner at Spago, Wolfgang Puck's first and most famous restaurant! About five minutes after waiting in the bar, Larry King and his wife walked right past us, and then we spotted Keanu Reeves, too! We asked our waitress about the Chef's Taster Menu, but they were too busy to offer it. But since we asked, they decided to give us three mini-appetizers for free (all incredible)! I had a great piece of salmon and nice wine, Dae had some fantastic duck, and we both had awesome desserts, too (I had my first chocolate souffle, which was indescribably good). The whole trip was really fun - I always like visiting LA, but this was an especially cool visit! To add to my star spottings, Quentin Tarantino was on my plane back to Austin, too (apparently shooting something here). Can you believe it? View photos: Disneyland View photos: Warner Bros. tour View photos: More Los Angeles Labels: disney, photos, trips


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