Life's Journey

I can’t believe how long it’s been since my last post… my how time flies when you are having fun! And fun doesn’t even begin to describe the adventure around the Ellen Show. When I put this on my bucket list I never imagined it would become so much more than just going to the show. Two of my dearest friends pulled together one of the best girl’s trips I’ve ever had!

We all flew into LA on Wednesday, January 30th. They had a much longer flight than I did, but we hadn’t seen each other in a long time so I think we all energized a little when we saw each other. We headed to the hotel to freshen up and drop our bags before hitting the town! Our hotel was a small boutique in West Hollywood called The Chamberlain – I highly recommend it. The rooms are big, we had a little balcony and the staff was super nice. Our first stop in LA was Villa Blanca for lunch and pink wine. Such a great start to the trip. For those of you that don’t know, this restaurant and Sur restaurant are both owned by the Vanderpumps (Lisa and Ken). They started their cult following on Beverly Hills Housewives and have since started a reality show around Sur. That said, we were on “the hunt” for the Vanderpumps. We had a great lunch and lots of yummy pink wine. As we were leaving we saw him, Ken was in the house. LOL Of course we stalked our prey from outside the building and pounced as soon as he came out. He was very nice and took a photo with us. Our first “star” sighting. We left Villa Blanca and headed to the Sky Bar for more wine – it’s not a girl’s trip without wine! It was a beautiful day and the view of the city was amazing. It was good catch up time! Then we headed back to the hotel to change for dinner. We went to a super hot-spot called “The Bazaar” for dinner. Um, not so hot. Granted we had a lot of wine throughout the day and maybe needed more than the tapas menu they offered. The atmosphere was really cool but they were crowded, the service was slow, and the food – eh… not worth the price.

The next day was ELLEN! My mom flew in to join us for the day. We met her at Warner Brothers Studios. Thanks to one of my angels out there we all got to go on a WB VIP Tour. It was a fun day. We saw a costume museum, show sets, and even got to sit on the couch at Central Perk from the Friends set. After the tour we wandered over to Don Cuco’s for lunch. Yummy! A couple margaritas later, we decided to walk over to the Ellen Show check-in. We were an hour and a half early for the 2 hour pre-show arrival time and there was a good size crowd already there. We checked in, got our number and sat on a bench to wait. It was a fun crowd, we made a few new friends. The time went by pretty quick just with all the chatter and excitement of the show. We were finally taken across the street, through security, and into the “riff-raff room”. This is the holding area with a huge Ellen Gift Shop (brilliant planning and marketing on their part btw). We all did a little shopping and then met the new friend that works at the show and got our tickets. Such a nice guy and I was so grateful that he was able to do this for me. He even offered to meet us after the show and take us backstage (little did I know that my mom had some magic up her sleeve as well to ensure that this would happen). Then we were led into the seats and told where to sit. The guests were Keifer Sutherland, Sophia Grace and Rosie, and the two Australian guys who won a trip from a contest. Honestly, not a super exciting show, but the energy in the room and just the fun of being there was awesome. We laughed, we danced, and we applauded. After the show we met up with the friends that work on the show and they took us backstage. We saw the inner workings of the show… pretty cool. I even batted my eyelashes a little and was able to sit in Ellen’s chair with my friends as the guests and my mom by my side. It was pretty darn cool. This was a fun one to check off the list! Thank you to everyone that had a part in making that happen for me!

After our day we decided to go to another celebrity hot-spot Cessino’s for dinner and had a great Italian meal. It was a long day and I was exhausted. Friday morning we had breakfast at the hotel before mom left for her flight home. I’m glad she came out for the day with us. My friends referred to Friday as a “free day” LOL just because I had a color-coded itinerary doesn’t mean I don’t know how to have a “free day”…. Ok, yeah, let’s be honest, that’s exactly what that means. LOL It was a fun day. We had lunch at The Ivy and ran into Lisa Vanderpump and Lance Bass. Our second day of celebrity spotting, we were doing well. We walked along Robertson Blvd and found a great little make-up shop, we had our make-up all done up - I was given eyebrows and eyelashes again for a night. Later, we met up with a group of dear friends at Sur Lounge. So fun! We met the entire crew right out of the reality show. I mean kinda crazy how we all turned into star struck 14 year olds over a wait staff at a lounge but… yup, it happened… and it was fun!

Saturday we decided to take it easy and take a bus tour of Hollywood. We picked the TMZ tour – I don’t recommend this one. It was loud and pretty obnoxious. We met another one of my bestest friends for dinner and a relaxing night catching up. I was pretty tired at this point, I think we all were, I’m not sure where I found the energy to get through the weekend, but I’m glad I had it! Sunday we all headed to the airport back to our families at home. Saying good-bye is exceptionally hard for me anymore. This trip had a few of them scattered throughout, none of which were easy. This was a great trip and I can’t thank my friends enough for everything they did for me.

Sending hugs & smiles
Sarah