Chapter 174
Battle of the Bands

Previous Post | Next Post
Table of Contents

November 16-17, 2013

I start to lose track, but I think the last time I described what Tracy’s brother Steve was up to, he had just moved from L.A. to St. Louis for work. Well, that move only lasted a few months before his job transferred him back to California—this time to the desert city of Palmdale, which is about two hours away from Orange County. Now, the best way for us to meet up was to have us each drive to a central halfway point, and L.A. was our best option. We decided to get together in Santa Monica for lunch, and we met outside the parking garage near the Third Street Promenade. From there, we walked to Cha-Cha Chicken, where we’d already gone on one other occasion.

Our food was delicious, and I’d highly recommend this place to anyone traveling to the Santa Monica area. After we were done eating, it was a quick walk down to the beach.

We started walking toward the Santa Monica Pier.

Once we got there, we headed into the actual amusement park because I had never ventured in.

And even though we thought it might be lame, Tracy and I decided to ride the roller coaster atop the pier just so we could say we’d done it.

I handed the camera off to Steve (who was content staying on the ground), so he was able to get some great action shots as Tracy and I got ready for our ride.

We were somehow able to snag the front row very easily, and soon we were off.

For such a tame looking roller coaster, this ride actually packs a punch, and we found that all the little humps were actually sort of thrilling. We were glad we’d done it, and we’d had a lot of fun. At the end of the ride, I tried to take my usual picture of our on-ride photo like at Disneyland, but apparently the folks working at Santa Monica Pier aren’t as keen on that idea. The guy tried to block my shot, but he missed anyway.

We wandered the pier a little more and saw where it was under construction in a few areas. It’s reassuring to know that it’s not just wood beams keeping the whole thing from collapsing into the water.

We ventured out to the far end of the pier and enjoyed some lovely views.

Next, we headed up to street level and continued walking.

Heading over to the Promenade, I always thoroughly enjoy these spitting dinosaurs.

There were also these marionettes singing rock music, which was… interesting, to say the least!

We headed home after our little excursion, but we actually made our way back up to L.A. on Sunday as well. Tracy and I had bought tickets for a production of The Black Suits—a musical by up-and-coming New York composer Joe Iconis, who I’d gotten to work with in college. The show was having its West Coast premiere at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. It was directed by one of my former professors, and one of my former classmates was in the cast.

It was really fun seeing the big marquis and posters for the show up all around this very professional theatre. Our friend Will is the one on the far left in this picture.

The show itself was a lot of fun. We knew several of the songs already, but we’d never heard them in context of the plot. The musical revolves around a group of teens in a Long Island garage band, who are trying to come to grips with their futures, and it’s full of some spectacular tunes. The cast was great as well—Will especially—and it starred Annie Golden (who you might recognize as Norma in Orange is the New Black) in one of the few “adult” roles.

After the show, we hung around the stage door waiting for Will and decided to go grab a drink with him near the theatre between his matinee and evening shows. We had him pose with his poster as we walked to a restaurant nearby.

It was fun to hear all the behind-the-scenes dirt about the show, though it sounded like a really fun experience overall. It was one of our first forays back into the world of musical theatre since we’d left NYC.

Our weekend may have been Disneyland-free, but it was still full of unique opportunities in SoCal, and we were glad to have mixed things up a bit. Unfortunately, the only problem with action-packed weekends is that they go by way too fast, and it was back to the grind again on Monday.

Previous Post | Next Post
Table of Contents