Callie's trip to Cali!

Okay so for those of you who don't know, I took some of my Fine Arts students on a reward trip to California last week. And oh my gosh it was a BLAST!!! We had such a good time. We stayed in the Sheraton in down town L.A. The first night we were there, we just walked around down town (because it had taken us ALL DAY LONG to drive there), we saw the Staples Center and a few other random things. Oh! and at 1am some crazy people in the room right next to us came back to their room DRUNK and started yelling obscene things at each other! I won't repeat the crazy argument, but after about 30 minutes I called the front desk who sent Security to investigate. The people didn't answer the door until the guy had knocked about five times. It was nuts! The next morning we went to the beach. I AM IN LOVE WITH THE BEACH! It was so cold so I didn't get in but a few of my students had never been to the ocean so they did because they "wanted the full experience"... they didn't last long.

Later that day we went to Hollywood Blvd. and saw the walk of fame, the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum, the Guinness World Record Museum (totally laaaame), and the Wax Museum.
While we were walking to the Wax Museum we saw a huge crowd of people outside this little dance studio. Apparently Katie Holmes was about to come out. So we waited around for a little while hoping to catch a glipse. While we were waiting I took picture of the Paparatzi. One of them said, pointing at me, "What is she doing?". I am never quick witted but in this instance I was a little surprised and rather proud by my response. I said, "What? You don't like it when people you don't know take YOUR picture? Huh..." They did not like that response. Two of them actually took my picture and they all started talking about me.........so we left quickly. Look for me in some rediculous tabloid where the headline might read, "Crazy Paparatzi Stalker in Hollywood!"

Anyway, the museums were pretty cool, except for the Guinness one (as stated above). The only thing cool about it was this life size Mario and this cool Fat Person thing you could pose in.

And here are a few of my favorites from the Wax Museum... Hook, Me and some peeps posing by Charlie's Angels, Jack Sparrow, Ben Gates from National Treasure, and Forest Gump.

After the museums we ate at Mel's Diner (which I guess is from some movie and is super famous) and had Pink Berry (which is from The Hills and I guess and is also famous). Then that night we went to see Mama Mia! So fun...kind of dirty...but so fun! Whenever I see musicals, it makes me miss the stage (Sigh). The next day we went to Universal Studios, which was BOMB! Oh my it was so fun! And I rode my first roller coaster! Okay so it was a mini roller coaster, but it still counts! Outside the Mummy ride, these people were dressed as egyptians and wearing stilts walking around being creepy. So we took a picure with one of them. They have some pretty cool things there. I liked the tour of the park showing where they film certain things and how they do certain special effects (this is a truck that "exploded" while we were in a "crumbling subway tunnel").

While we were on the tour they made us be really quiet because they were filming Desperate Houswives in one of the buildings we were driving by. This picture to the right is me and two of my students while we were on the tour bus. Some of my favorites of the day were; the Simpsons ride, the Jurassic park ride, the Mummy ride, the tour, Shrek 4D and wetting my pants in the haunted house (it's a long story...if you want to hear it you'll have to call me). The whole day was a BLAST!



The next day we drove home...but as it is with EVERY trip, something has to go wrong. Our van broke down (heavy SIGH). So we got stuck in nowhere land for like two and a half hours. Other than that the trip was a success and I had a wonderful time!