Day 6; A WICKED good day

We woke early again to try and fit in as much of Los Angeles as we could into one day. Laura’s friend Stephanie was an awesome tour-guide/driver and took us all around the city. It was really nice not being lost for once since Stephanie not only knows the city but has GPS in her hybrid.

First stop was the Whole Foods in Westwood, where Sabrina used to live. Like seriously, she practically lived in that store, since it was 3 blocks or so from her apartment. We dragged Stephanie around on an impromptu grocery store tour, and she was a good sport, even though I’m sure we bored her to tears. Breakfast from WF was hard boiled eggs (yes, again) kombucha (though Sabrina tried the mango flavor for the first time and disliked it so much she only drank a few sips). Laura tried a new brand which goji berry flavor, which was good, but not “gingerberry good”. We also had larabars and soy yogurt amongst us.

We then took a driving tour of Sabrina’s old neighborhood (the picture above is of the apartment where Sabrina & Marc lived in LA. Then we drove through UCLA which was a little trippy for Sabrina to be back, but Laura and Stephanie agreed it is beautiful.

Back on the road we were going to try and get tickets for Wicked which is playing at the Pantages theater which is near the Hollywood the walk of fame. We realized by the time we were almost there that we were too late for the lottery (more later on this) and decided to go straight to Malibu and come back to try for the 6:30 show.

Off we drove to Malibu. Sabrina and Stephanie thought it was pretty hilarious that our trip planning program said it would take 20 minutes from UCLA to Malibu, since no where in LA takes 20 minutes—it actually took us more like 45 minutes to get there. We had a meandering drive through the hills, accidentally on purpose as we took an experimental turn and got stuck going up a hill for something like 5 miles. We saw many crazy masochistic bikers riding up the hill, and crazy large houses. We finally found our way back down to the ocean and put our toes in the sand (see pictures—one of Laura and Stephanie and one of the two of us). Laura and Stephanie insisted on going down to the beach by climbing down a steep slope barefoot and got very dirty. Sabrina walked around to the stairs and actually beat them to the beach. Figures.

After our Malibu adventures we drove back to the Pantages to wait to try for Wicked tickets. We were over an hour early, and wandered around and came across and little vegan restaurant where we had lunch. There was much more fake meat than anyone should ever have there, but we did manage to get some excellent (pseudo-meat free) salads there and made it back to the theater in perfect time.

So the lottery works something this: 2.5 hours before show time you stand in line to put your name in the lottery—there were probably about 75 people in line. Each of the three of us put our names in. They have 26 first row tickets available for drawing at the bargain rate of $25. Then you wait half an hour until they draw names, and so we sat in some conveniently placed plastic chairs to wait. We all gathered around and listened to the very obnoxious, fake, overly-enthusiastic woman doing the drawing around 4:30. She pulled names out of the container and wanted everyone to applaud each winner, which got old really fast. The fourth name called was… Sabrina's. Sabrina was pretty damn excited to actually “win” something, since she rarely does. The winner of the drawing can get up to two tickets. Since neither Laura or Stephanie won, Stephanie left us tourists to see the show and went to do some errands while we watched—very graciously coming back to pick us up after it was over.

Laura and Sabrina had almost two hours to kill until the show started, so we ate gluten-free cookies we bought at Whole Foods that morning, drank iced tea, and soaked up some sun while we waited (not such a bad deal).

The show was absolutely, un-freakin’ believable. Laura, being a native New Yorker has been incredibly spoiled in that almost every show she’s ever seen has been from the front row since in New York they have these lotteries all the time. (Laura would like to clarify that in New York it’s called rush, but Sabrina doesn’t really think that’s relevant here. ) Anyway, Sabrina has never seen a show from the front row before and was pretty much giddy with excitement, and nearly started crying when it started from sheer happiness and joy (yes, we are criers, deal). Sabrina has the Wicked soundtrack and wasn’t sure if this production would meet the standard of the voices on the original cast recording, but it really did. The actors were really good, everything was fabulous (except for the ensemble member Laura spotted at the end who was expressionless and chewing gum—oops). It was definitely worth the time and effort and we loved every single moment. (Except for waiting in the ridiculous bathroom line, the likes of which neither of us has ever seen in any theater ever.)

Stephanie picked us up accompanied by her friend who has lived in LA for almost 10 years and who used to be a talent agent. He gave us a very colorful tour of Sunset blvd pointing out where celebrities go to party, where rock stars go to trash hotel rooms, and where to pick up hookers—all the stuff you’d never know without an insider. In appreciation, we gave him one of our “Solvang Danish Days Festival” buttons, and another one that said “I won the wicked lottery” for the collection he has on the inside ceiling of his car. He was pretty stoked about the Solvang button in particular.

Even though we had a really good time in LA, we were both really glad to leave. The negative energy that emanates from LA was draining and Sabrina in particular felt really stressed and on edge just being there. The only time she felt relaxed was during Wicked. This is why she moved away from there in the first place. Laura is quite sure she will never, ever live in Los Angeles.

We, being somewhat crazy, got in the car after the show and are driving from LA to San Diego—it is now past midnight and we are just north of San Diego near Carlsbad. Hopefully we will get to bed before 2am and plan to sleep in, go to the beach, and drink margaritas tomorrow at Sabrina’s all time favorite restaurant called Casa Guadalajara in Old Town San Diego. We are looking forward to a chill day.