A Layover

Posted by Serina Hardiman

After a couple days adjusting to the Japan time and trying to make sense of public transportation I'm getting the chance to recap the beginnings of our trip. When we booked our tickets to Narita we worked in a layover in Los Angeles to visit a couple of friends and where we could meet up with our travel companions, Effen, Dabney, Felicia, and Todd.

Tina just moved to L.A. from Atlanta and was eager to show us the sights so off we went to Santa Monica for lunch. We stopped in a Mexican joint called Holy Guacamole where we proceeded to voraciously devour a burrito the size of our heads! We also grabbed a coffee at Espresso Cielo where they have a science lab type coffee beaker and coil (kicking myself for not taking a picture), stopped in at Rudy's barber shop to buzz Chris's head and later trim my hair (their receptionist is also a stand up comedian - everyone here has more than one "job"), then proceeded past the freakishly large hobo clown ballerina to get to Venice Beach.

Not much has changed since I had been there almost 17 years ago save for the "green physicians" stations and a pretty rad skate park but it was all new to Chris. It still has some great people watching, street performers galore, artists peddling their wares, and t-shirt shops with cheeky slogans lining the boardwalk.

We walked around, grabbed a beer at a place called Larry's (who has an affinity for hats and cigars) and headed over to meet our friend Alex and his girlfriend, Katie, for what else? A sushi dinner before flying off to Japan! Guess we wanted a fresh comparison between the California variety and the original.

At this point I'd like to say I've only had two celebrity sightings in my life where it wasn't arranged by some movie preview or stage performance and that was Sean Astin in Hollywood AGES ago and George Clinton (the P Funk All-Star variety) at the ATL airport. I have since doubled that count in the mere 28 hours we were in L.A. Keep in mind I wasn't going to be one of "those" fans asking for photos but I have witnesses and they are willing to testify on my behalf.

The first sighting came while we were waiting to be seated at the sushi restaurant in Studio City. Chris actually spotted her as I was distracted by a lady wearing fashion camo (I don't know).  He pointed out the "sassy waitress from Cheers who throws drinks on people" and I got way too excited for my own good to see Rhea Perlman (aka Carla) sitting two folks down waiting to be seated.

They totally let me take these pictures. (Not really.)

The next sighting was at LAX while we were going through the international security line and I saw Stephen Merchant (British actor) working his way through the line. My travel companions kept laughing at me because I think he's fantastic and literally turned into an excited ball of silly. He had run off to his terminal but while we were waiting on our plane I was preoccupied with charging electronics (or maybe fashion camo again) when Dabney signaled to show me Stephen tying his shoe at the end of our row of seats. Unreal!

So what's a trip to LA LA Land without a few brushes with fame? Overall it was a great start to the trip and was equally great to spend it with friends we haven't seen in a while.

Next up: The Flyover.