Out Like A Lamb

For breakfast, we got to see Lamb Chop! One of the strange events that Adam was excited for us to attend while we were in LA was a special appearance from the puppet Lamb Chop and Shari Lewis' daughter. It was just as weird as you might expect...

Adam is a member of a really unusual group: the Los Angeles Breakfast Club. It's a weekly breakfast get together where they have special guests come and chat with them for the morning. They get all kinds of different guests, from historians to minor celebrities. It's a pretty goofy group who has a bunch of funny nonsense traditions and songs that they all do together for some reason.

Adam, Aaron, Ledger and I sat and enjoyed the breakfast as we watched, baffled by the weird songs, motions, and recited passages of nonsense that the club members seem to have memorized. We were very confused as Adam laughed along with us as this unique scene unfolded. Finally, after all the traditions were acted out, Mallory Lewis, daughter of the famous puppeteer Shari Lewis, shared a talk and performance with us. It was odd, self aggrandizing, and interesting. Not entirely sure what the point was of the whole thing, but it was really fun!

After she was done, everyone mingled and chatted. Ledger wandered around and talked with a bunch of different random people, as is his way. As he was on the other side of the room rubbing elbows with other members, Adam was sharing with Aaron and I that Ledger was, unbeknownst to him, chatting with some legends and luminaries of the animation world! Ledge was showing off his drawings to people who had created famous cartoon shows and movies! I'm sure they were very impressed!

(more pics)

Post Universal Bar

After our long day at Universal Studios, we stopped by a cool bar restaurant to fill our bellies before we went home. The place was pretty cool, it was like an open air bar and had some good food! I got a burger and Ledger went fancy and got lobster mac & cheese. He wasn't so sure about the lobster part and kinda picked around the chunks. Don't worry, I picked them out for him (and ate them).

Adam and Aaron were pleased with the beer selections and we had a good time recapping the day and talking about our favorite parts. My favorite was the Waterworld Stunt Show, Aaron and Adam loved the backlot tour. Ledger's favorite was the minion ride and Simpsons land.

We shut the place down (they closed at 10pm, so it wasn't too hard...) and finally made our way home. What a fun day!
(more pics) 

Universal Studios

Did you know that Disneyland can sell out? We sure didn't. We had high hopes of going to Disneyland but when we went to buy tickets two days in advance, we found out that they were sold out! Dang! So instead we went to Universal Studios. No one was too disappointed, but it was different than we had planned. Adam was able to get all his work done the day before, so he was pumped to join us for the day!

We got there at the start of the day and had a lot of fun going to all the different lands and going on the backlot tour.

They have huge areas dedicated to Harry Potter, The Simpsons, Minions, and Mario. All of them were pretty cool, but you'll never guess which one was Ledger's favorite: The Simpsons! It's hilarious to me because I don't think he's ever actually seen a single episode of the show! I think the cartoon style of everything in that land just appealed to him. We walked through a bunch of different shops while we were there and the one thing he actually decided to buy was a Simpsons plush- of Marge! Whatever you want, buddy!

We got to go on some fun rides and even see some famous people while we were there. A great time was had by all!

(more pics: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

The Grove

Adam was still busy working, so we decided to kill some more time and walked down the street a bit to The Grove. Aaron and I had been here last time we visited all those years ago. Last time we were in LA we went to a taping of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, which is right next to The Grove.

It's basically just a fancy outdoor mall with a outdoor market in front of it. We got some ice cream at the market and walked around, checking everything out. Last time we were here we saw someone famous, but we weren't as lucky this time. We popped into a couple stores, but mostly just enjoyed the good weather and good vibes.

(more pics)

Oscar Museum

Bucket List day continues! Now, it's my turn... Aaron got to see his beloved car museum, now I get to see the Academy Museum! Home of the Oscars!!! This was the one thing I told Adam I wanted to do while we were in LA, and now we are here!

After we finished at the car museum, we only had to walk across the street and we were at the Oscar museum! As you might expect, I was pretty giddy about it. We walked around the building and found the entrance. We walked into the main floor and there were tons of awesome Oscar statues around and a viewing room where they were showing old clips from classic movies. We wandered in there and found a cozy round couch to chill for a few minutes. Ledger was pretty exhausted, so he kind of camped out in that dark room while Aaron and I checked out the museum shop. There were some pretty cool things in there with Oscar stuff on them. I ended up getting a neon light in the shape of an Oscar statue- perfect for my movie room back home!

It was pretty cool to be in the place that they always reference during the Oscars each year. I was a happy boy!

(more pics)

Car Museum

It was Bucket List day. Aaron's obsession with cars made going to the LA car museum a must. There was really only one thing that he demanded of the trip: that we go to that museum! Adam needed a day to do some work, so we took the opportunity to go, just Aaron, Ledger, and I.

We Ubered down to the museum and got our ticket. Before we went to see the exhibits, we made our way to the cafe restaurant that they had there. The food was pretty good and the view was great. We sat out on the veranda, enjoying that balmy California weather!

Now that our bellies were full, it was time to see some awesome cars! There were a ton of really cool historical cars, some wild prototypes, impressive one-of-a-kind beauties, but the real reason Aaron wanted to go to this museum was because they had the actual screen used KITT from Knight Rider! We wandered around checking out different cars, but when we finally happened upon it, Aaron got really quiet... He was in awe! I took a bunch of pictures of him with it, and then I let him just quietly take it all in. I continued to wander around a bit, giving him some alone time with KITT. After about a half hour I checked back in with him. He still wasn't ready to move on. No problem, Ledger found a kids area to keep himself busy, and I just let Aaron soak it all in... It was like a religious experience for him and I didn't want to come between him and his commune with the sacred.

Eventually he came back to our world and we checked out the rest of the museum, but for a brief time there, Aaron achieved nirvana.

(more pics)

Game Time

After a long day of seeing the sights, we spent the evening hanging out at Adam's. Cousin Aaron grilled over at the neighbors and brought over some delicious burgers for all of us to enjoy. We gathered around the table and laughed and ate together. When the food was gone, Adam pulled out a few games to play, much to Ledger's delight! Knowing that Ledge loves to draw, Adam showed us a couple drawing games to play together. We had a blast! Finally, the thing that became the highlight of the whole trip for Ledger, we played a drawing competition game on the Playstation where everyone draws on their phones and we compete of the TV. Ledge loved it so much that he tried to get us to play it every night for the rest of our trip (usually he was successful!) The day was filled with a bunch of fun LA things, but just sitting down, playing and laughing together was the best part!