Being in California for the election was interesting. It seemed much more about Proposition 8 then about the presidency. The official results didn't come out until Wednesday morning, and many people were very upset. Wednesday night, we watched the rallies surrounding the L.A. LDS temple and were happy our plans had changed and we had gone to the temple that morning instead of that evening as we had originally planned.
Los Angeles LDS Temple
Our plans changed because we were able to get free tickets to the Tonight Show with Jay Leno for Wednesday and we had to be there at 3 p.m. We decided to go to the L.A. temple in the morning, then Olvera Street, then to the Jay Leno show, then to the Griffith Park Observatory. For those who have never heard of Olvera Street, it's basically a Mexican market in the middle of L.A. It's where L.A. originated, and the oldest house in Los Angeles is on Olvera Street. We enjoyed browsing the shops and eating some real Mexican food.
Since it was three days after the Day of the Dead, the crosses and masks and decorations were all still up. It was really cool.
This is the oldest house in L.A. It was built around 1818.
We barely made it to the Jay Leno show because we couldn't find parking. We were two of about fifty people who actually had tickets to the show, but they were only valid if we arrived before 3 p.m. We got there just in time, then sat around for about 30 minutes before they started seating us. You have to go through a metal detector, then give your ticket to a girl at a podium. She told us to go upstairs, so we headed upstairs and waited in line to be seated. We'd been there for about a minute when the girl comes up the stairs, tells us that she thinks we're supposed to be downstairs and to come down, then runs back downstairs. So, we go back downstairs and she points us down the hall. When we get to a little hallway, the girl standing there asks if we're on the guest list. Umm, no, don't think so. We tell her the girl at the podium told us to come down the hall and just then, a man comes down the hall and says "Oh, there you are," looking right at us. So we follow him and he leads us to seats in the front row, right in front of where the band at the end of the show plays. Being in the front row, you also get to go up to shake Jay's hand at the beginning of the show. You can see Greg very well and my face if you watch the full video here: http://www.nbc.com/The_Tonight_Show_with_Jay_Leno/video/episodes/?vid=813181#vid=813181 If the link doesn't work, go to nbc.com, The Tonight Show, Full Episodes, then the November 5th episode. Greg is wearing a gray and brown striped shirt. I was too lazy to post a picture of it. It's pretty funny watching the taping because John Melendez is much funnier than Jay and the executive producer (I think) is writing questions for Jay to ask the guests the whole time and holding them up for him to see. Seeing Samuel L. Jackson was pretty cool, though.
The Griffith Park Observatory was also fun. We were able to look through a huge telescope at the moon and Greg was fascinated by the tiny motor that keep the telescope in line with the moon. It was less than 1 horsepower. All the other instruments on the telescope had to be manually tuned and positioned, so it was cool to see.
Greg looking through the huge telescope.
Thursday, we drove back to San Diego and flew home. Greg's brother Jeff and his wife, Cori, had dropped off a car for us (thanks guys!!!!) and we bought Jeff a Shamu hat as a thank-you. Yes, that's right, a hat shaped like Shamu. It's hilarious. Greg went to get the car while I picked up our luggage, then we raced home and Greg had to get ready for our HOA General Meeting. I feel like we haven't stopped since then, but it's okay.
On the drive down to San Diego, it was 75 degrees and I took this picture of the coast:
We came home and it looked like this:
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