dan, Mad TV, and California vacationing

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
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A friend of mine has VIP tickets to see the final taping of the season of Mad TV. My good friend scout1222 will be accompanying us. :wink:

Since we’re both on the East Coast and don’t get out to the Left Coast, we’re making this a vacation. So we’ll be in Coddyfornya from March 17 through March 21,

The taping (and lunch) take place on Friday, March 19. But we don’t as yet have stuff planned for the rest of the time we’ll be out there.

Here’s our brief itinerary:

March 17 (Wed)

Arrive LA 11 am, check in hotel by 3 pm. Nothing else planned for the day.

March 18 (Thu)

Nothing planned.

March 19 (Fri)

Lunch/Taping beginning around 3 pm. Nothing else planned for the day.

March 20 (Sat)

Nothing planned.

March 21 (Sun)

Check out by 11 am, but flight doesn’t leave until 10:30 pm. Nothing planned.
As you can see, we got a lot of nothing planned.

We would like to go to Disneyland for a day, though; we’re just not sure which day, yet.

We also want to go to A Beach. Somewhere. Doesn’t matter where. Just a California beach.

We’ll also undoubtedly do a tour of stars’ homes, or see the Chinese Theater, or tour a studio, or any number of touristy Hollywood things.

I ask you, though, ye who live Out There… what else should we do to occupy what little time we have out your way?

Our hotel is on Franklin Avenue, and I believe it’s not too far from the studio. So we’re looking for restaurants in that general area and fun things to do in the city itself. (That is, we don’t want to drive far for food but will drive a bit for Fun Stuff.)

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This is the final season of MadTV???

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Oh, I think I read the OP wrong. :o

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Yes, I think saying “we got VIP tickets to see the taping of the season finale of MAD TV” would’ve been less confusing. :smiley:

5

When I checked Franklin Ave. on the map I discover it is in the Santa Monica Mountains just north of Sunset Blvd.

If that’s the Franklin you mention a good bet for a beach would be Santa Monica. The Santa Monica Pier is a pretty good place to spend a little time. If you take Sunset Blvd. west you go past UCLA. The Getty Museum isn’t all that far north of Sunset Blvd. in Sepulveda Canyon just off the 405 Freeway. I don’t know about stars’ homes tours but Sunset takes you through Beverly Hills and Bel Air and Brentwood, all pretty ritzy. The street is a little curvy but it takes you right down to the beach at Santa Monica northwest of the pier. Malibu is west of there on California 1 maybe 10 miles. Malibu never looked like much to me but you have to have the big bucks to afford it so maybe there’s more to it that I think.

From where I located Franklin on the map, go east on Sunset to Vine and then drop down to Hollywood Blvd. and you can take your picture at the corner of Hollywood and Vine, just up from the Pantages Theater, and see the Walk of Fame. That area was pretty seedy the last time I was there but I understand there has been a drive to remove the pimps, working girls and druggies in the past year or two.

Universal Studio is north of there to the 101 (Hollywood) Freeway, just through Cahuenga Pass (Hollywood Bowl).

That’s my contribution. Have a good time.

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If you want to to to Disneyland, you’ll probably be best off to do it on Thursday. Through an unprofessional survey done by going to Disneyland at various times for many years, I find that the park is the most crowded on the weekend, followed by Friday because you get a lot of people who think they’re being clever by not going on the weekend. Of course, if this gets out then Thursday will be the most crowded because people will avoid going on Friday… Oh well.

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Hey! I did say it was the final taping of the season. :stuck_out_tongue:

David, that’s probably the right Franklin Avenue. The hotel is the Best Western Hollywood Hills Hotel. Thanks for mentioning the Santa Monica Pier! I think we’ll definitely go there. Thanks for the help.

BraheSilver, thanks for the headsup. If we do go, we’ll do it on Thursday. I’m not sure how crowded the park gets mid-March as opposed to other times of the year, though; some schools probably have spring break, right? (Or will the following week.)

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If you do go out to Santa Monica Pier, you’ll find plenty of restaurants/cafes/bars at the 3rd Street Promenade. Funny enough, that’s located on 3rd Street. :slight_smile:

And. AND!! It’s awfully close to Ye Olde King’s Head , which has been the site of a coupla DopeFests. If you like fish and chips, this is a good place to get it. (the biggest damned fish and chips I’ve ever seen, though I’m not a fish eater and thus not an expert)

As for beaches, Venice wouldn’t be that far from Santa Monica, so you could check out Venice Beach, which is quite the spectacle. Rollerskating swamis and Muscle Beach and stuff like that.

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Someone else had the same idea over in IMHO.

More Ideas

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Well, dang! Who knew that going to California wasn’t a novel idea? :wink:

I’ll wander over there, too. I probably should have IMHOd this, but it was an announcement, too. Kind of.

Thanks for the info about the pier, scout!

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Ye Olde King’s Head and Santa Monica Beach are about 2 miles north of Venice Beach. It’s a nice walk that you can do in about half an hour or so. I can never remember the name of the rollerskating, Hendrix-playing swami.

Regarding the fisn’n’chips at the King’s Head, it’s the best I’ve eaten. The batter is really, really crunchy – just made for soaking up malt vinegar and salt! – and the fish is firm and flaky. My opinion, of course; but I haven’t had better. As a side-note, Ye Olde King’s Head frequently shows up in commercials.

Other ideas in the thread Scout1222 linked.

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Well the Franklin Avenue I found is not the Franklin Avenue of your hotel. Yours is in downtown Hollywood below the HOLLYWOOD sign at the foot of Cahuenga Pass. I think of Hollywood as part of the City of Los Angeles, which it is, but isn’t included under the search “Los Angeles” in Yahoo! Maps, or the US Post Office either. You have to enter “Hollywood” to get the right info.

So my driving instructions are out the window.

However, you’re only a few blocks from the corner of Hollywood and Vine and not too far from the Chinese Theater that you mentioned in the OP. You can probably walk to it, in the daytime at least.

As for driving to Santa Monica, Sunset Blvd. would be a chore from your hotel I think. Get a freeway map of the city and figure it out. There doesn’t appear to be any really straight shot on the freeways from where you are to Santa Monica. All of them are sort of round-about although at the right time of day prabably aren’t bad.