Trip To LA to see American Idol

LOS ANGELES - A month ago, I found out about a contest to win a trip to see the American Idol Finale in Los Angeles. To enter, I had to write a story about why my mom deserved to win a trip to see the show.

I sent in my essay explaining how fabulous my Mom is.  Her name is Ruth Brown, she is  a 75-year-old widow who bowls, ballroom dances, has her own Facebook page and is training for her first triathlon in June.

I won!

We left Austin Saturday morning and arrived in Los Angeles around noon. Once we checked into the hotel, we found out that there was a party going on at the pool on the rooftop. Mom just had to go and see if there were any famous people there.It was a hip-hop party with artist that neither of us knew. That did not stop us from having a blast and joining the people out on the dance floor.

Sunday morning we took the Metro from downtown LA to Venice Beach. The ride took us about 90 minutes and was quite interesting. We met such a diverse cross-section of the people who live here. That made the bus ride fun.

When we got to the beach, we realized that we forgot to tell the busdriver we wanted to get off in Venice Beach. By the time we got her to stop, we were half way to the Santa Monica Pier. We walked back to Venice Beach along the famous bike path that you can see in movie after movie filmed in LA.  Along the way we saw the "outdoor" gym and volleyball courts on the beach. Nobody was swimming because the water was very cold. The only ones in the water were the die-hard surfers and they all had wetsuits on.

Venice Beach was holding its weekly "flea market". At least, that's what they call it. It seemed to be just a collection of stuff that we couldn't figure out if anyone ever bought any of it, WHY would they buy it? The small shops were nice, though.

We waved down a taxi and had the driver take us to the Santa Monica Pier. It was fun to see during its 100 anniversary.  I don't know if I would want to ride a ferris wheel that was 100 years old. 

From Santa Monica, we took another cab all the way to Hollywood and Highland to see the Chinese Theater and the "stars" walk of fame. Once there we participated in a mystery game with 10 other people in which we had to solve the kidnapping of a famous actress. It took us over two hours but we finally found her. She planned it all herself for the publicity. The actors who played all the parts were good. So good that we missed them a couple of times and walked right by them.

When we got back to the hotel, we were getting ready for another rooftop pool party and the floor started to shake. At first I thought it was from a very large truck driving by. After 10 seconds of the floor shaking, I asked my mother if it was an earthquake. We braced ourselves on the walls and, sure enough, they were definatley moving. The hangers in the closet were swinging back and forth too. Later I found out that the magnitude of the quake was 4.7 and its location was between downtown LA and Santa Monica. 

Monday Mom and I headed out to Disneyland for a day of pretending to be kids. Even though the Indiana Jones ride was closed because of damage from the earthquake, there were plenty of other rides open. Mom even rode on Splash Mountain with me. After Disneyland, we went to see one of the audition rounds for "America's Got Talant". Unfortunately, LA did not have any talent. The acts were so bad that one of the hosts, Sharon Osborne, got up and pretended to kill herself in front of the other two judges. We finally got to bed around 2 a.m.

This morning we slept in. Oh, how wonderful it was. We relaxed and did absolutely nothing until noon when we began to primp and get ready for the American Idol show. It was hot outside of the Nokia Center and there was hardly any shade at all. By the time we made it inside the theater, everyone looked pretty much wilted.

The show was amazing. I am still in awe of the whole thing and it was over six hours ago. Adam Lambert and Kris Allen gave such great performances. I can't wait to get home and see the taped show with my family. Mom and I are hoping that Adam wins. He is so much better live in person than Kris is.  Don't get us wrong. Kris is a great performer. It's just that Adam is a powerful artist who makes the person in the last row feel that he is performing just for them.

It's 12:30 a.m. and I have to get up in 5 hours to catch the flight back to Austin.  I'll be sleeping on the plane. See you all in a day!