Our mission was three-fold:
- Find Bing Crosby and Moe Howard
- Make a donation to the Disney Corp.
- Bring back a W with RSL
Very pleased to say that all items on the list were accomplished without a problem! Plus, we had lots of extra-fun doing it all!
The day started out with Marianne and I heading out to the airport at the crack of dawn to get in a full day of sight-seeing. Circumstance made it so the other half of our party had to come later, but it all worked out all right. Anyway, the first stop on our trip should be the first stop on anybody's vacation: the Cemetery!
First was Hillside Memorial:
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| Final resting place of lead Stooge, Moe Howard... |
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| ...and legendary "talkie" star, Al Jolson. His tomb isn't audacious or anything. |
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| Maybe we got a little carried away. |
The funeral for the Disney song-writer, Richard Sherman, was taking place at Hillside that morning. Fairly certain we saw them bringing him into the mausoleum. Great!
Next, we drove down the street to Holy Cross cemetery to visit my very good pal and hero, Bing Crosby:
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| His headstone says "Beloved By All". They added an extra L, I guess. |
Done feeling dreary in the cemetery, but not quite done looking at the ground, we headed on into town to make a stop at the Capitol Records Tower where we found all four stars of the Beatles:
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| Marianne standing at the end of the four stars. |
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| Me with Sir Paul's month-old star. Yay! |
To use up the rest of the day, Marianne and I stopped at the Warner Bros. Studio for a tour. It was very fun and highly recommended. We went there with the hopes of finding Patrick Jane. Well, we didn't see Simon Baker anywhere on set, but every time we turned a corner, the tour guide said, "Oh, they're just setting up for The Mentalist..." Eep!
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| Shh! It's a set for The Mentalist! |
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| Ahhh! It's Red John! |
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| Christian Bale's Bat-mobile. |
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| Val Kilmer's Bat-mobile. |
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| The Weasley's Car |
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| The water-tower where the Animaniacs live. |
At the end of the day, we picked up the rest of our crew and got ready for a fun-filled day in Disneyland! Always tons of fun. Unfortunately, everyone else thinks so too.
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| Haunted Mansion... |
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| Mad Hatter's Tea Party... |
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| Everything I need to know about world cultures I learned from "it's a small world..." |
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| Team photo with Mickey... |
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| Total fun on the Carousel. |
The real intention for our trip came Saturday night at the MLS season-opener RSL v LA Galaxy. A re-match of the 2011 Western Conference Final. Boy were the defending champs in for a surprise...
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| RSL warming up. |
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| Nick Rimando being avalanched by streamers. |
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| The notorious David Beckham taking a corner kick. |
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| Our awesome Captain, Kyle Beckerman taking a corner kick. Our Becks is better. |
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| Javi Morales after celebrating his first goal since returning from injury. |
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| Celebration after Fabi Espindola's goal, sealing the win for RSL 3-1. |
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| Plus meeting old friends! (Yeah, my hair looks great, I know...haha) |
Basically it was a fantastic trip! The LA Galaxy fans went home crying, we got victory ice creams, practiced our silly walks a la Monty Python down Disneyland Main Street and even got to ride in the caboose of the train! Plus Mickey pancakes and Mint Juleps.
That's all for this trip! It was certainly a blast. Looking forward to a great RSL season and, who knows! Maybe another away game! We like those.
More later.
