San Francisco and Jack Bauer in action...

If you go to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.
Al those to go to San Francisco, gentle people with flowers in their hair….

Welcome to San Fran! Home of cable cars, ridiculously steep hills, the Golden Gate bridge, clam chowder, ridiculously steep hills, sourdough bread, Rice-a-Roni, and, of course, ridiculously steep hills. I’ve seen pictures of the city before, obviously, but I am still continuously amazed by how steep the roads are! Ashley and I went for a run the other night, just up the hill from our hotel. It was painful!

So far SF is a lot of fun. We’re staying in a quaint hotel near Union Square. I love it for its character and old-fashioned, European feel. Ashley dislikes it because we are staying in a tiny little room that has a distinct musty smell to it. We’re both crammed into a little room with two twin beds. It’s hilarious. Luckily we’re only staying until Monday and then it’s off to Santa Barbara.

We’re saving the touristy stuff for the weekend. The other night, we took the cable cars to Fisherman’s Wharf. Last night we met with my friends from college – it was really nice to catch up with them. We’ll be meeting them again on Sunday for a group trip to wine country. Definitely looking forward to that!

During the last part of our trip to LA, we had one final celeb sighting. We headed to the Santa Monica pier for a visit to Bubba Gumps. Once again, luck was on our side – They were in the process of shooting a scene from 24. That’s right, everyone’s favorite TV action drama was right across the street from where we sat and ate. When we left about an hour later, we decided to check it out a little closer. We joined a crowd of people hanging around, watching the crew and Keifer Sutherland prep for a scene in the parking lot. Once again, I didn’t get the chance for any pictures because I had planned on just getting a bite to eat, not running across one of the most popular TV shows on television right now. After about 15 minutes, they shot the scene, with Keifer hiding behind a car and shooting blanks at the bad guys while they shot back at him. It was awesome to see in person. Now I just need to watch that show as well just to see that scene when it pops up!

Visit to Las Vegas...

The day began as a normal day - Up at 7:30AM, breakfast at the Days Inn continental breakfast, then off to Cal State University Northridge for an info session. We had arranged a table on campus where we could meet with students to introduce them to i-to-i. Unfortunately, when we arranged the table, no one bothered to mention to us that school was not in session at the time…. Slight detail, right??

We arrived on time to an eerily deserted campus. As a newbie to any campus, it can be confusing navigating the area. We headed off in the general direction of where our table was located, lugging our giant black bag with our fold-out display along with us. This bag has been though a lot since November and it is getting a bit worse for wear. It’s a rolling bag, but it tends to drag on the ground a bit as it rolls. We managed to repair the wear and tear with some duct tape in Boston, but it still makes a lot of noise as we pull it along. It may not be an attractive bag, but it is very functional.

Just to give everyone a good visual of me and Ashley as we wandered around campus, we were wearing our matching, cornea-searing orange fleeces with jeans, and lugging the bag. As we walked, I suddenly became aware of the fact that everyone around us was standing completely still. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but I knew it was odd. I paused with the bag, unsure of what to do, but realized that we were wandering onto the set of something – my first thought was that it was a school production or a photo shoot for the school. We happened to pause next to one of the people on the walk and she hissed, “Keep moving, just keep moving,” as soon as we stopped. So we continued, the bag dragging and scraping behind us. Someone on the set ahead of us yelled action and soon we were in the middle of a rapidly moving sidewalk of people, all of them dressed soberly in gray or brown or black business suits. As we moved along slowly, trying to decide where to go, one of the production assistants rushed closer, gesturing for us to move off to the side.

By this time, we had the attention of pretty much everyone around us. The coordinated motion of the set had come to a stop. We still had no idea what was going on. Judging by the reactions of everyone else around us, no one else had any idea why we were there either. The assistant who had motioned for us to move out of the scene seemed very amused by our cluelessness. “Are you part of the scene?” he asked. “No, they’re world volunteers!” someone else offered, reading the back of our fleeces.

Since we weren’t part of the scene, no one seemed to know quite what to do with us. So we continued behind the cameras. They started rolling for the scene again, so I stopped (since I felt bad for all of the noise from the “rolling” bag while they were trying to film). As we stopped, I finally had the chance to really observe as they were filming. Then I saw Josh Duhamel. For those of you unfamiliar with that name, let me just say that I have watched him since he was on All My Children when I was in college, so this was cause for excitement for me. Now he stars on the show Las Vegas. And he is still just as good looking, perhaps even better looking in person.

Turns out that we somehow managed to wander onto a temporary set of Las Vegas, temporarily stop production of a scene, and do it all without even realizing what was going on. Classic.

I tried to get a picture with Josh, but he was on the phone every time they took a break from the shoot (perhaps talking to his girlfriend Fergie from the Black-Eyed Peas?) I’m not about to be so rude as to interrupt someone’s phone call just for a picture. Plus I have to admit that I was a little shaky about talking to him… It’s really enough that we had the chance to watch them film. Now I just need to watch all of the new episodes of Las Vegas to see if we show up as fuzzy orange people in the background.


This is the set. Not the best picture, but it's all I have!

A quick update!

Greetings from sunny (although slightly chilly) California!! Today was a lovely sunny day that started with a trip out to Malibu to visit Pepperdine University. It’s a very picturesque campus perched on the top of the hills overlooking the ocean. Ashley nominated it as the prettiest campus we’ve seen so far. I nominate it as the most likely to slide into the ocean in the next major earthquake. Kidding! It’s gorgeous, with views of the ocean and LA, although it does have some pretty serious hills.

Los Angeles has been good to me thus far – at least as far as celebrity sightings go. I’ve been to the LA area many many times before and I have seen one famous person so far. That is, until this trip!

Monday night after the Golden Globes, we met one of Ashley’s friends and hit the town. We headed to Saddle Ranch on Sunset Boulevard. And the Ranch just happens to be right across from Sunset Towers Hotel - Which is where a major post-Golden Globes bash was raging. How convenient for me! We joined the hordes of paparazzi and kept our eyes glued to each limo that pulled up. Jamie Foxx, Jack Black, Diddy, John Stamos, American Fererra (with Golden Globe in hand), and then Helen (who did not have either of her two Globes in hand) all emerged from the limos and waltzed into the party. Oddly enough, the only person barred from entering was Diddy. Best part was that Helen Mirren was escorted into the party, right past him as he waited in line. It was an eventful night, only the beginning of our trip to LA.

We’ve had many more adventures in LA, so there is more to follow very soon!