Hello, LA!

If I had a bucket list (which I don't), seeing a taping of Oprah would be on it. I have tried, and tried, and tried to get tickets to see her. I always request tickets to EVERY show. I always get an email back telling me, "no." A few weeks ago I requested tickets to Oprah's Ultimate After Oscar Party in LA. I was told, "no." Two days later I received an email that said that they had opened up another block of tickets, and I was in! Yahoo, I was going to
On Sunday, 2/27, mom and I flew into LAX (after I set off the metal detector at DIA and I had to have the pat down. Sheesh. It's worse that I thought!). We took a shuttle to our hotel in Hollywood, but we couldn't check in yet. We decided to walk the short distance to the Hollywood and Hyland complex where the Kodak Theater is. We got there, but couldn't get too close because the Oscars were that night. Right there. Where we were standing. So cool!

We decided to wait around to watch the arrivals. It was only 12:30 and the arrivals began at 3:00 but we decided to hang around anyway. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity, right?

It was kind of a mess (thanks to the LAPD) and we lost our prime viewing location because they made us leave and reenter the area after being wanded. There were also a zillion people there. Guess we're not as original as we thought!

We couldn't really see much - just the tops of everybody's head, pretty dresses, and a sea of limos.
Some of the stars (like Kevin Spacey) rolled down their windows and waved at us!
That evening we grabbed a quick dinner and then went back to the hotel to watch the Oscars in our beds drinking champagne and eating Butterfingers.

The next morning we got up at 4:45am and were at the Hollywood Bowl parking lot by 5:55am. We waited outside to check in and get our predetermined wrist band colors. We had blue which we eventually found out meant we were sitting in the rafters. That's ok, we were there. After waiting and waiting and waiting...we were bussed over to the Kodak Theater.

We got to our seats around 9:30am and the taping began at 10:00. We mostly saw the tops of everyone's heads, but we were there!
We saw Colin Firth, Anne Hathaway, Melissa Leo, and Katy Perry. It was awesome! There was a lot of standing and waiting, but what a cool experience! Mark it off my (non-existent) list!

After the taping we were starving, and we walked down to In-and-Out Burger. Love, love, love In-and-Out!I guess Mom does too!

We also did a little Hollywood sightseeing

That night we went to a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live.

This time we had great seats in the tiny theater and saw Bill Maher and Esperanza Spalding. It was fantastic!

On Tuesday, we finally got to sleep in and relax before heading back to DIA (without setting of the metal detector!) and seeing my boys.

Hooray for Hollywood!!