Another Miami Weekend

Just like last year, my company held its annual conference in Miami. This year it was at The Fontainbleau - a hotel/resort that held performances by Sinatra and Elvis, had been the set of famous scenes from Goldfinger and Scarface, and continued to be an exclusive, posh and overwhelmingly over the top hotel.  It was a nightmare to get into Miami after a fire at the airport.  My original flight got canceled and I had to get rerouted through Ft. Lauderdale.  I had planned a little beach time before the conference kicked off but the 7 hour delay squashed that.  The only bright side was that the delay allowed me to randomly meet Lou Ferrigno at LAX!

I was lucky enough to be nominated for an award this year which allowed me to bring a date. If you read this you know why that might be funny at this point in my life, so I was torn. Bring a friend or bring no one? I decided to take my friend Kristi since she came with me to a company event in 2009. She just had a birthday so I thought it would be a nice present to get her a ticket.

Most of the weekend was filled with networking, reuniting with colleagues from past projects and catching up on the latest and greatest technological developments with the company.  Some people value the classes the most, but I make no secret of the fact that I connect with the senior consultants and project leads.  I'm going to need another project whenever I roll off of this one and I'd like for them to know me.  It can't hurt!  We got to sneak off to the beach a few times, but I can't complain too much since there's another one right outside my Newport Beach pad.

Pic with Jeff and Linda from my current project team

Our Saturday night banquet and awards ceremony was 60's themed so I rented a tux with a white jacket and got some cheap black framed glasses.  I ended up winning the 'Young Gun' along with a few other younger people in the company.  I've been around for 3 years and am not exactly 'young,' but I'll take it.

The hotel had a convenient club and bar in the lobby.  The club cost $200-300 because of the Ultra Music Festival events - we didn't even try to get in.  The lobby bar was cool so we never left the property throughout the weekend.  There were celebrity sightings by seemingly everyone but me - McLovin from Superbad, Tommy Lee and Jaime Foxx were all at the hotel at some point.

OC Living

The past few weeks have been great - I'm surfing after work pretty much every day. I see dolphins about every other day when I'm out in the water. I'm not catching the big waves yet, but I am getting better. The water is cold enough that I had to buy neoprene boots to keep them warm, but I'm still enjoying it.

I have a friend from high school named Anna that moved to Orange County after we graduated. Every time I've come through LA over the past year I've tried to stop and have dinner with her and Eric (her once boyfriend, fiance and now husband). I got a text on Sunday afternoon from her asking me if I was interested in some Lakers tickets. I was just sitting around on the couch, so I was in.

I dropped everything and drove 15 minutes over to Anna's house. Eric and I left almost immediately and drove to Staples Center. One of Eric's friends had a vendor that had a connection to Lakers owner Jerry Buss' assistant.  Our tickets got us seats at a table in the restaurant on the mid-level baseline.  We had a waitress and didn't have to get up at all.  The Lakers were down for the whole game until Kobe pulled through in the clutch in the last minute for a 4 point win.

After the game our tickets also got us access to a bar underneath Staples Center.  When you see cameras following players through the concrete block lined passageways - that's where we were.  The guy that got us the tickets said that the bar was right in between the locker room and player exit, so if we stood outside we would see them all walk by.  He had also seen players and Khloe Kardashian (Lamar Odom's wife).  We decided to go inside and hang out as well as thank Buss' assistant for the tickets instead of standing around with cameras like groupies.  We did see Buss' ex-wife and an assistant coach, but that was it.

It was a very unplanned event, but lots of fun - especially because the tickets were free!

Frankfort Comes to the Beach

Meghan and I - Halloween 2002

As soon as I started telling people I was leaving Australia for California the the reservations started pouring in to visit. The first was from Meghan and her twin sister, Danielle. I had known the twins since middle school and had a major crush on Meghan through most of my early teens. We went to separate high schools and only saw each other every now and then. When I went away to UK and eventually Atlanta, we still kept in contact. There had been a point when we were in college where we met up for dinner and I thought something might be getting started, but it never ended up happening - I don't remember why. Every other time it seemed like she was dating someone or I was dating someone and the timing was never right. Regardless, I hadn't seen them since 2004, so it was going to be a fun reunion.

The got in on Thursday night and we had excitement first thing on Friday. The earthquake in Japan put us on a tsunami advisory that closed the beach and my streak of surfing before work ended only a few days after it started. The girls are into running so we ran down the boardwalk to find a bunch of people standing around, waiting for the waves to hit. They were only expecting 2-3 foot waves... to put it in perspective, when storms come in the waves get 4-6 feet and really big storms 6+. But they still closed the beach. I delayed going to work hoping to see SOMETHING, but you couldn't even tell.

Our first night in Newport was quiet. One of my roommates cooked us dinner and we stopped by The Blue Beet for a little while before turning in. The next few days were going to be busy.

Moses stays at the...

On Saturday morning I drove the girls into the heart of Hollywood to Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. Since the golden age of Hollywood stars have been immortalized by putting their hand and footprints into squares of the sidewalk out front. We walked around the Walk of Fame for a little while and then went into Madame Tussards Wax Museum. It cost $25 (unless you have a student ID) but was worth the price. There were all kinds of props you could use to pose with the figures and they didn't care if you touched them - just not the face.

After that the girls wanted to go to Robertson Boulevard for some star searching. Lots of paparazzi swarm the area's boutiques and cafes because so many stars go there. We also drove through parts of Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive just to say we did. Every time we saw a car with tinted windows or a woman with extremely large sunglasses the twins would whisper, "Is that someone?" "Who is that?" etc.

We got a star homes map from a street vendor and started circling houses we wanted to visit. I've heard that these maps were highly unreliable and even if the celebrity did live there, most had 10 ft. walls or ivy to prevent you from seeing anything. The best chance I guess would be to catch them as they're coming or going from the gated driveway. I liked driving up into the Hollywood Hills on Mulholland and getting a view of the city. There are a lot of scenic pullover spots to take pictures and admire the smog.

I took them for lunch to In-N-Out Burger, a southern California must, and then we went to Venice Beach. Venice is a cool spot because of the characters you see there. You have hippies, gypsies, street performers, beggars, weirdos, freaks, stoners and of course tourists. You've also got 'Muscle Beach' where there is outdoor workout equipment if you want to get pumped up. There are a bunch of basketball courts (where they filmed a lot of White Men Can't Jump). It's a mandatory item on the list of places to see in LA.

We caught the sunset over the water and then went to get cleaned up for the evening at our hotel for the night, the JW Marriott in the LA Live district. It had only been open a month or two and was right next to the Staples Center. It includes bars, restaurants, hotels, museums and event space to try to lure people into the city instead of the suburbs.

I made a friend, Lindsay, through Rameen a while back that went to UK and moved to Santa Monica after college. We had never met in person, but had spoken via Facebook several times. She gave me suggestions on places to live and things to do. Since we were up closer to her we met for dinner and drinks that night.

Sippin' on bubbly

Lindsay got our names on the list at the rooftop bar of the Standard Hotel (it's good to know someone with connections!). I found out later that it is partly owned by Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz. It had a great view of downtown LA. Lindsay said hi to the manager and he brought us a bottle of champagne on the house. How about that? Four Kentuckians sipping champagne on a rooftop bar in LA. Big thanks to Lindsay for setting that all up!

The next morning we checked out of the hotel still without a celebrity sighting.  I heard from the concierge that some active celebrities hike in Runyon Canyon Park right at the edge of Hollywood.  The weather was perfect so we decided to start our day there (parking was really tough, good luck if you want to go there).  I didn't know until we got there that most of the park was dogs off the leash friendly.  When I say park I don't mean flat grassland with shade and benches.  This was all hills, foothills, dirt paths and switchbacks.  As we hiked up the hills you would see a dog either running in front of or trailing behind their master.  The view was as good or better than Mulholland Drive.  We didn't see anyone famous but there were some decent views of the Hollywood sign.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in Santa Monica, shopping and walking around the 3rd Street Promenade that sat just a few blocks from the ocean. We finished at the Santa Monica Pier and watched a few more performers and artists. The girls left on Monday morning, and although they were unfulfilled on the celebrity sightings I still think they had a good time.  Meghan and I didn't rekindle any romance, but I did get her to promise that she would be my backup wife if we were both single at 35.  That's on the record.

I hadn't done any of these touristy things in LA since Matt and I were here for Spring Break 2003. It was good to get reacquainted with the city. So anyone else that wants to come to the west coast, I'm ready for you!