Saturday June 27th, 2015Shabbat morning I davened at a relatively new shul called Pico Shul, it was a nice Chabbad-style minyan, with a very nice friendly Rabbi, and they have a sit-down kiddush/lunch after minyan. For Mincha/Seuda Shlishi/Maariv I went to Young Israel of Century City, which wasn’t exciting, there didn’t seem to be any younger people, it was mostly people in their 50s and up.
Sunday June 28th, 2015Sunday was my final day in LA and the final day of my vacation
I started by going to Coffee Bean to pick up breakfast (especially important because I didn’t really have dinner Saturday night. The I was off to the
Warner Bros. Studio Tour. It is a bit pricey, but I thought it was worth it. If I liked Pretty Little Liars, I might have enjoyed the tour a little more, since we got to go onto the soundstage where much of it is filmed. I thought it was cool. They currently have a huge Batman exhibit, which was awesome, as well as a Harry Potter exhibit, which I couldn’t have cared less about. We also got to see the soundstage for The Big Bang Theory, but you’re not allowed to take pictures of the soundstages. Many of the buildings we saw were in movies/tv shows I’ve seen and enjoyed but since they change so much to fit the most recent filming need, I didn’t take pics of them.
Batman Masks- WB Stuido Tour
Batsuit - Batman Exhibit - WB Studio Tour
Camouflage Tumbler - Batcave - WB Studio Tour
Batpod - Batcave - WB Studio Tour
Friends Soundstage - WB Studio TourAfter the tour I was off to
Jeff's Gourmet Kosher Sausage for lunch. I got the Jeff’s Beef Burger, and it was good. It hit the spot.
Jeff’s Beef BurgerAfter my quick lunch, I was off to LA Live to the
The Grammy Museum. It was ok. They had some stuff about the history of the Grammys, they also had an exhibit on 2Pac which was interesting. There is also an interactive part where you pick a genre of music and it plays a sample, and shows yous connected genres and offers samples of those genres. The bottom floor was an exhibit about Taylor Swift which I had literally no interest in.
I had then planned on doing a tour of what is now called
TCL Chinese Theatre formerly known as Grauman's Chinese Theater, but since there they were having the premiere of Terminator Genisys (I saw Schwarzenegger), the place was a mob and I couldn’t get around easily, and I had a Hollywood bus tour scheduled for 5pm. Had I known that the bus tour wouldn’t be so exciting and that I’d be the only one, (yes I was the only guest on a double decker tour bus) I would have skipped it and made my way to the theater tour, but I didn’t and I did the bus tour instead.
I had gotten it for $12 with a LivingSocial deal, and I’m not sure it was worth that. Pretty much all the tour guide was say hi to his friends who ran other tours and point out the best places to eat (which he knew weren’t relevant because he guessed that I was Jewish) and what used to be old restaurants and he complained about the fact that they keep tearing down the buildings of old Hollywood, and they don’t even recognize it with signs. Wasting the $12 wasn’t the bad part, it was the 1:45 that I wasted. But, you live and you learn.
My last stop before returning my Silvercar was
Mexikosher. I got a Carne Asada Burrito. It was good, but I didn’t think it was the amazing food experience that others had said it was. It was good, but I wasn’t blown away. Maybe my expectations were too high.
Carne Asada Burrito - MexikosherAfter Mexikosher it was off to Silvercar, at which the return was effortless. I actually got the email about the $25 from Dan’s referral link before I got the receipt from Silvercar. They drove me to the airport and I went to Priority Access check-in, as I was flying Business/First (I’m still not sure if it’s considered business or first, in which case I will still be able to claim that I’ve never flown business, but the boarding pass says first).
I received my first TSA Pre-Check which was exciting, except that I was told I didn’t have to take off my watch or belt, and my belt ended up setting off the metal detector. Oh well. After I finally made it through security, (it didn’t really take too long, only 3 times through the metal detector) I headed for the United Club to chill out until my flight. I used one my club passes from the UMPE which was going to expire in 2 days anyway.
As I mentioned before, I had never flown a premium cabin before this trip, so I didn’t really know what to expect for my Business/First seat. But I can safely say that I expected more. The only advantage it had over an economy seat was that it was slightly wider, and had extra legroom. Neither of which really made much of a difference to me. I assume that international first/business classes are much better, but I don’t see myself splurging for a domestic first/business on UA anytime soon. Although when I booked there weren’t any saver economy seats either so I would have paid the same price for economy so I might as well take the little bit of extra room. The other advantage was the priority baggage, which made my bag the third to come out.
I enjoyed my trip. I hope you enjoyed the TR!
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