Day One of my Hollywood Adventure
The thought of spending seven days in California was an absolute delight. My baby (Roma, for future reference) and I were so excited as we share a common love of all things celebrity. Part of it is normal fascination of the lifestyles of the rich and famous and the other part is more of our yet to be lived dreams, hers of being a rock start and mine, well writer/actor would do just fine. Our Saturday mornings begin with a mutual pouring over the pages of People Magazine, her sipping tea and me slamming down my strong as hell Starbucks coffee. We scan each page checking out new places to log in our travel celebrity stalker files for any upcoming trips. With LA being the next stop of the book tour, the celebrity capital of the world; we had been doing some major research.
When I booked our trip, I knew this would be a once in a lifetime type trip. I was going all out since it would be the first long stay in LA for the both of us. We flew out last year for a conference that I had but I was stuck in doors all day learning about hate crimes while Roma roamed the streets alone. So this time…we would have five whole days to play until I had to do some actual book tour work stuff!
As I blurred my vision going from page after page on hotels.com trying to find a hotel, my tired eyes landed on one that sounded vaguely familiar and looked incredible. I had read about in People Magazine multiple times as a hot trendy locale for celebrities. After doing some additional research I also discovered that it was a hot spot for the likes of Montgomery Cliff and Marilyn Monroe back in the day, in fact, it is rumored that she had an affair with one or both Kennedy’s there. If this place was good enough for Marilyn to shag a Kennedy or two than it would be perfect for us! If you hadn’t guessed from my prior post…the hotel is Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in downtown Hollywood.
We arrived in Los Angeles without incident, which if you have read any of my past vacation blogs, is a feat in and of itself. We usually have long delays, missed flights and lost baggage in our travels. We landed a hotel shuttle and were on our way. In the shuttle were two adorable youngsters from Australia, an beautiful gay boy (his gayness was immediately established not only by his squealed “WeHo” response to my question as to which place he was looking forward to seeing LA and his immediate expressed affinity to Mariah Carey and a pretty younger girl who oddly enough shared the same affinity for Mariah Carey. They were a treat to ride with and listen too.
It was the first time in the states for both of them and we all began chatting about all things American. They both were thrilled to be in the states for the first time and so pleased at how cheap it was since our dollar is next to nothing now compared to theirs. Oh, how proud to be an American I was in that moment.
Turns out the boy, in the shuttle with us tells us after about twenty minutes into our ride that his cousin is/was Heath Ledger. He said originally he was to fly into New York and stay with Heath as this trip had been planned for a while. He shared shyly of his grief and the state of the family after their tragic loss as we all listened quietly. Our hotel was first and I as excited as I was to reach our destination, I was saddened to leave them both. We wished them well and like a good self promoting whore I gave them both post cards about my book!
We got to our room, which was much smaller than it looked on the internet…damn internet photos always make everything look so big and pretty. I remember once booking a room in New York online and in the photo it looked great and then when I arrived I literally could reach both hands and be touching both sides of the room it was that narrow and small.
We decided to venture downstairs and get some grub. To my vegetarian joy and delight they had Boca burgers on the menu…not those nasty rice patty things they call a Veggie burger around here, but a real Boca burger-I was in heaven with avocado!
More to come…