So, driving out from Vegas, making good time... we headed straight for the land of glitz and glam, the land of facades and film: Hollywood. Taking the guys to Hollywood and Highland I showed them where the movies premier at the Mann-Grauman Chinese Theater, the Kodak theater, and the Walk of Fame. The most interesting part (since all of us love good movies) were the hand prints and foot prints of famous actors and actresses through the years right in front of the Grauman. We walked down Hollywood Boulevard and took in the sights (of course, we saw the sign). We also noticed that a lot of street vendors were selling Michael Jackson paraphernalia. In that town, you would have thought he had just been canonized. We checked out a cool record/DVD shop famous out west called Amoeba Records; that too had colorful people and more than one tribute to the King of Pop. When we had been satiated on grime and overall chicanery on which Hollywood thrives, we turned south and headed to my house. Not much had changed, and I had a lot of people to catch up with.
The next day, Keaton and I went and explored historic Pasadena, one of the oldest cities in the Los Angeles area. That night, we went Swing Dancing (something we hadn't done since Dallas) and had a blast. The next day I showed the guys Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach. Our stay in Huntington afforded us ample time to walk on the pier and take in the sights and sounds of "Surf City, USA." Because of traffic, we didn't have as much time at Laguna Beach. After driving through the canyon, we sprinted out of the first parking space we found (after throwing a quarter in), sprinted down the hill, removed enough clothing to swim and swam for about five minutes. We then dried off primarily by running back to our cars. We had made it into three oceans in less than a month.
That night we had to return promptly for the party my parents had arranged to "host the Hillsdale boys." We had invited pretty much everyone my family knew who might be interested in either my singing or Hillsdale. A great deal of them showed up! I got to see Lowell again, twice in the same year! That hadn't happened since we'd gone to high school together. We sang a lot that night from all of our repertoire-- sacred, barbershop, and secular (pop). It went over pretty well and we represented the school well for my friends and family. Many old friends stayed late and we caught up for a long time; who knows when I'll see some of them again.
The next morning (the 4th of July), we got up early to book it up the coast on the Fourth. Well, we didn't exactly book it. We meandered. And the drive itself was so beautiful it is worth a blog-posting all its own. It's too bad we still didn't have the camera. :(
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