WICKED

So excited to have her own fancy bed!!
We ate almost that whoe pizza!!
Just before going into the show...Can you see the excitement on her face!!
Our breakfast at a little coffee shop. We felt so cosmopolitan!!

This is Judy Garland's spot in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre...Everywhere we looked there was something that had to do with Wizard of Oz. On the way up, we had it on our brains, and we saw Emerald Avenue, and at one point she even thought Glendale Avenue was Glenda Avenue.

This is the scary wax museum...before she freaked out!
We were testing my new camera and its timer feature.

Sprinkles bakery!!
Waiting for our cupcakes to get packed up, we played with the color swap feature on my camera to make her look like a witch!! SCARY!!!
We literally ran into the LA temple by accident.

A few months ago, I was listening to the radio on a Saturday, while running errands. Their big promotional give away every hour, were tickets to see the musical WICKED in LA. My neice, had asked me earlier if we could go see it, so I instantly thought of her, but I was busy running errands, and I didn't want to make the day longer by waiting in the car to hear the next give away. I went about my day, in and out of my car. I turned it on, and they said, "call now for 2 tickets to WICKED and a hotel stay", so I called!! Busy the first time, and the second, so I thought I would try one more time. Then it was ringing....YIKES it was ringing...quick, what do I do, what do I say, I don't want to be on the radio, I just want the tickets. A guy picked up the phone and said:

Hi, Star" I said hello back to him, then it was silent.

"Are you still giving away tickets to Wicked"

"We sure are!!"

"Are you looking for a particular caller"

"You are caller number 9!"

"Are you looking for caller 9?" I was so unsure of what was going on.

"Well, pretty much, I can pick who ever I want, whoever sounds cute...so it looks like you won two tickets to Wicked and one night stay at the Sheraton Downtown LA."

I was shocked!! I have NEVER won anything this exciting!! After running errands, I was on my way to the beach to hang with my sister's and their families. I told my sister what I won, and then I was able to tell my neice. She was stoked!! The only problem, there was almost 3 months to wait before we went, that meant that she had to be good for 3 months...be nice to her sisters, clean her room, be nice to Mom & Dad...and about 1,000 other things. I think in the end, she was getting ready for this bribery to end.

Fast forward 3 months to the trip:

I went to work early that day, so I could leave at noon. I wanted to beat the traffic, and get up there before the LA freeways got to hairy. When I got there, my sister showed me her 3 year old's "luggage". She was watching her older sister pack her bag for the night, and thought it was so exciting that she wanted to come with us. She went to her room and found a basket and stuffed as many outfits as she could in her basket. She was so proud of herself!! It melted my heart!!

We were on the road by 1:15 and we listened and sang the soundtrack the whole way up. I wanted to make sure she understood what the play was about, so periodically I stopped it and gave her the "play by play". One of the things that makes me sad about kids these days, is they don't know the classics. She has only seen The Wizard of Oz a couple of times, and didn't know it as well as I did...granted, I am about 3 times older than she is, but that was one of the few movies I could watch when I was little. I had to remind her to sing her heart out now, because she couldn't sing along during the performance. She knew she couldn't but she thought she might slip up, so she sang her little heart out the entire way up there...complete with hand motions an little acting parts!!

She was my little navigator. I had printed out the directions, and when we were nearing the area, I had her read off the directions. It went something like this:

"What is after the 101?"

"Veer to the left"

"Then what?"

"Veer to the left"

"Got that, then what?"

"Veer to the left!"

"Yeah, I got that what is next?"

She was laughing so hard, and was near to tears!! She gets the no-breathers when she starts laughing too much, which is contagious, then I was laughing so hard. Luckily we were going about 2 mph, and we didn't crash....still so funny when I think about it. Especially because the directions were right!!

We got into LA about 3:30 and checked into our hotel. She was so excited. She told me she hasn't ever stayed in a fancy hotel before. The people at the reception desk asked us what brought us to LA. When I said why, they freaked out and made a big deal. We loved that!! I was pooped so when we got to the room, I took a quick nap, while she checked out every nook and cranny of our room. We then got up and went exploring near our hotel for a place to eat. We settled on CPK, and shared a pizza. Then checked out some stores in the mall next to the hotel. I also taught her all about germs. We were heading up the escalator, and she grabs onto the rail. Instantly, my mind turned to all of the 20/20-Dateline specials about the millions of different germs that are on escalator handles and bathroom door handles. I was so glad to teach her such helpful information!!!

We hurried back to the hotel to change and get gussied up. She told me she was excited to wear her black shoes. When she walks on hard floor, it sounds like she is wearing high heals. I just laughed to myself. I remember thinking the same thing when I was young. We were heading to the parking garage, and got into the elevator with another lady. She had asked us where we were going all dressed up. We told her and she gushed and was so excited for us. I told her where I got the tickets and she gushed even more. That got us even more excited than before. The nice lady then said that she was dressed so lovely and had such an innocence that was so cute! I had to agree.

The traffic was pretty typical for rush hour, and it took us nearly 45 minutes to make it the 10 miles we had to go. She was getting so scared that we wouldn't make it, but we had just enough time to park, go to the restroom, take a picture, and get to our seats. The seats were awesome!! We were in the orchestra section about 20 rows back, not too far, but not too close!! We could see everything!! At intermission, she understood everything that was happening. I was loving every minute. I had seen the play a couple years ago when I visited my oldest sister in Chicago. The two of us got last minute seats, in the balcony, with a slightly obstructed view. Neither of us had seen it before and didn't know anything about the play. We liked it but didn't fall in love with it. This time, I knew more about it, and I got so much more out of it. It really is a sweet story. They have a lot of references to The Wizard of Oz, but a totally different story than the movie. Half way through the second half, she wispered to me "is the Nessa the Wicked witch of the East?" and I knew she understood the story line, and what was going on!!

After it was over, we headed back to the hotel, it was nearly midnight, and we were pooped. We crashed and I gave her strict instructions to SLEEP IN!! I woke up at 8:30 and she was still passed out. We both got up and threw our clothes on and ran down to a coffee shop for bagels and frozen milk drinks. TASTY!! We hurried up and got ready for the day and packed up and checked out. We headed back to the theater so we could check out Grauman's Chinese Theatre. I have never been there before, but since we were there, I thought we would check it out. We saw all of the stars hand and foot prints. Most of which I didn't know, almost all of which she didn't know.

I also got a little packet of touristy things to do, which included tickets to Madame Tusaud's Wax Museum. I had never been, and I would NEVER pay $15 to see a bunch of wax models of celebrities, but if it is free, WHY NOT!! We got about 10 steps in and she BOLTED out the door. She was so freaked out!!! She was convinced that it was a haunted house, and they were people dressed like them, and they were going to jump out and scare her. There was no talking her off the ledge, till I told her we could follow the family after us in, they had a stroller and if there were people hiding, they wouldn't scare a family with a little baby. She held onto my hand so tight, and made it through, but would not even consider passing the family in front of us. I have to agree with her, it is pretty freaky looking. They kind of look like dead bodies. I want to know who thought this was a great money making idea?!? A little creepy!!

When we were finished we went and had burgers at Johnny Rockets. It is a 50's styled diner. As soon as we walked in, she asked if we could sit at the counter, and said she had ALWAYS wanted to sit at the counter. I agreed, and we had a great time!!

We then headed to Beverly Hills to hit one of my favorite stores H&M. I fell in love with it years ago while visiting New York. It is euro styled clothes at Old Navy prices...just my style, so I couldn't pass up a chance to stop there while I was up there. It took forever to get there but I was able to get a dress and a shirt. She loved picking out different things for me.

Lastly, on our way home, we hit my favorite little cupcake shop...SPRINKLES!! I built that thing up so much, and I think it was everything she thought it would be. She ate part of hers on the way home and loved it. We brought back a half dozen for her family. Red Velvet for mom, dark chocolate for dad, pink and chocolate for her little sisters. We got back into San Diego at about 5:30 so our day was filled to the end.

I had such a blast, and I loved being able to share it with her. I love plays and musicals, and I am glad that she is beginning to love them too!! I can't wait for the next one!!