To wrap up Sharon’s string of birthday surprises I booked tickets at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood to see Alton Brown’s live show Eat Your Science. As a surprising addition to the weekend she also managed to score tickets to a taping of Fool Us with Penn & Teller at The Rio in Las Vegas. It was a great weekend from start to finish, here’s how it went….
Like most vacation weekends this one started with a drive. We headed out to Los Angeles and arrived a little after lunch time. On the route to the hotel we passed close to Orochon Ramen and had to stop in for their Special #2 [as seen on Man Vs Food]. I love this particular dish but have only tried the challenge once and did not finish simply because it’s just too much food and it comes out still boiling from the stove. But as far as how spicy it is, that’s not a problem.
After one heck of a lunch we continued on over to the hotel to get checked in and settled before the show. Keep in mind at this point Sharon still didn’t know what I had planned for her tonight so I still had the element of surprise for the weekend.
Once we got inside we were impressed by all the pictures they had on the walls of movie and TV stars that had stayed at the hotel over the years. My personal favorite was Mel Brooks.
After check in we headed up to the room and were continually intrigued with the sheer volume of the pictures of, what seemed like every Hollywood A-lister ever that adorned the wall on every floor and even the stairwells. Not only did our room have similar framed jewels they even had an homage to 007 in the bathroom.
Not only was the 007 collage awesome on so many levels so was the Easy Rider one that was right outside our door in the hallway.
Since we had plenty of time at hand so far in the weekend we decided to go for a walk around Hollywood and see a few sights down around Hollywood & Vine streets. Our hotel was only about 2 blocks from Hollywood boulevard so the walk was quick. Along the way we saw so many stars on the sidewalk of people we knew and even more of people we didn’t. It’s always a treat to be able to reminisce about movies and TV shows that bring back good memories from childhood. Much to my surprise they had this honoring some Americans that truly made their mark on history.
That plaque right there was enough to make my whole weekend. Later on we stumbled across this little jewel. Some of our friends our age and older surely will know who this is, as well as the character and show he played on.
For those of you that may have never been to Hollywood & Vine, here’s a 360° of what it looks like during the day.
And of course no weekend getaway trip to Hollywood is complete without a picture of….
Moving on with the plans for the weekend it was time to head back and get ready to go to Alton Brown’s show Eat Your Science that Sharon still had no idea we were going to. After freshening up we headed back down to Hollywood Boulevard and to the Pantages Theater. This was our first time going to this venue and it was quite a treat to see how ornately it was decorated. The lobby was nothing short of impressive to say the least.
One curious oddity of the weekend was that there were 3-4 bars selling various alcoholic beverages at the venue but no alcohol was allowed in the theater itself. But nonalcoholic beverages seemed to not be a problem. Once inside we quickly found our seats and got settled in to watch the show. The theater was also equally ornate like the lobby was.
Once the show got started Alton Brown did more singing than I thought he would have. I never even knew he wrote songs or played a guitar.
What I thought was really cool is that he had the lights turned to the audience and took a picture from stage. For the record we’re on the right about half way back.
As the show progressed it eventually got to the part about asking for a volunteer from the audience. Sharon jumped up and was as excited as a 6 year old at a petting zoo. Luckily enough she got picked by Alton and was brought up on stage. So for the next 30 minutes they had her on stage assisting with the show. They brought out liquid nitrogen to play with and freeze the cocktail drink that was concocted with the 3 spinning dials you saw on stage. She landed on white tequila, Kailua, and pickle juice.
The idea was to “randomly” pick things to mix and then to improve the taste by freezing it using liquid nitrogen. While cooling it may have helped, with the concoction that she was dealt I don’t think that much of anything would have helped, although they did try adding sprinkles.
For all her time spent on stage Alton gave her a signed board scraper. I think we need to have it framed as we are both huge fans of Alton Brown, and love his show Good East, which he did mention he was going to bring back in the next year or so. We are both really looking forward to that.
After intermission the second part of his show was all about popcorn. Which he brought out his rocket popcorn maker and showered the front few rows of the audience with popcorn.
After the show we decided to walk around the Hollywood & Vine area to see what kind of night life there was. If you also wanted to know what it looks like at Hollywood & Vine around midnight here’s a 360° picture of us standing on the corner with the Apollo XI tile in the background, along with Sharon clutching her signed board scraper.
After wandering around for a little bit we stopped in a bar named Wood & Wine for a drink. After realizing it was a little too hipster for us Sharon decided we needed to get pizza over at a place called 800°. So we headed over there and had personal pizzas. There is a bar upstairs from the restaurant on the first floor so we headed up there to check it out. I do have to say that it was really nice, it was calm, rather quiet and more our speed for what we were feeling at that time. We had a couple of drinks up there, talked with the bartender and a few other people that were at the bar as well, then headed out back to the hotel as we had to be up early to head to Las Vegas in the morning.
The drive to Las Vegas the next day was just great. It was warm and sunny, and the definition of southern California top down weather. So we put the top down on the car and headed east across the desert to Las Vegas. After a quick stop at the store for snacks and a coffee for Sharon we hit the open road and were across the horizon in no time.
There’s just something that we just love about the desert and its beauty. The drive across the Mojave-Death Valley area of California is quite honestly one of our favorites. In the photos of our drive above you can not only see what looks like marine layer to the south in a couple of the pictures but the amazing solar array that sits in the desert between L.A. and Las Vegas. Before long we were in Las Vegas and surrounded by the casinos and flashy signs that line Las Vegas Blvd.
We stayed at a really great place that was off the strip in Las Vegas for our weekend getaway. We stayed at The Tahiti Resort and it was really nice. The pool was great, it even came complete with sand at the shallow end so you felt like you’re really on a beach. Luckily for us we had a few friends in Las Vegas that came over to cook out by the pool and hang out at the hot tub on the weekend we were there. So after a night of BBQ chicken and great company we packed up the next morning and headed over to The Rio for the taping of Penn & Teller Fool Us.
So we showed up a little early and are we glad we did!
Once inside it was really interesting to see how the filming of a TV show actually worked. There’s so much that goes on for them to piece together the production it was really interesting to see. They had the audience do sound for the production like, little laugh and then trail off to silence, big laugh then trail off to silence. Big applause and little applause tailing off to silence. Then they actually had to “act” for the show. Camera men would walk around shooing the audience while we were acting surprised, or laughing or applauding. It was a really interesting experience.
After the 4 magicians did their tricks and Penn & Teller reviewed them then commented the stage was set for them to wow the audience with their own trick. While this was being set up it’s really interesting to watch the amount of work that happens between acts. The stage gets swept between each act, we had no idea about that. But from our vantage point on the second row right behind the stars we really had a pretty good view of the whole production.
We’re not sure which episode that we’ll be featured in but I’m fairly sure we will be on camera at some point because we were right down front and in the middle. After the show everyone started heading out. The stars definitely didn’t have time in their schedules to do any meet and greet with the audience. We were hoping that they would have a little time for pictures but they didn’t. After a few retakes with guest magicians and a few audio retakes they were off stage and clearing the theater for whatever was on the schedule next.
On the way out of the Penn & Teller Theater we had to pause for a quick picture of the entrance while no one was in the way of the floor art.
Our mini-vacation weekend was coming to an end and it was time to get changed back in to our comfortable clothes and get on the road back home to San Diego. So we stopped for just a few more pictures in the parking lot at The Rio before changing and getting in the car to head home after our weekend.
All in all the weekend was a lot of fun and it was great to see good friends while we were in Las Vegas. Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to keep up with what we’re doing as we’re doing it. See you all on our next adventure!
