The concert was Thursday night but we spent all day Friday and Saturday in Los Angeles before flying back on the red eye Saturday night.
So we went BACK to the BT21 store, but not far from the store, we spotted THIS! QUEEN! LEGEND! (As of the writing of this post, the remarkable Betty White has passed away and this picture has even more meaning to me now!)
Of course, when we finally got to the BT21 store, even though we were there an hour and a half before the store opening, there was still a long line.
Even though we were not nearly as far back as we were the day before, we were still not that close. At least we were entertained by the electronic signs across the street, wishing V a happy birthday (although that was slightly weird because Jin's birthday was next before Taehyungs!)
At last, we were next in line to get into the BT21 store!
They told us to take pictures first, so Natalie took a picture with TaTa, one of her favorites (Taehyung's character!)
RJ, Chimmy, TaTa, Cooky and Mang with Koya and my boy Shooky in the back.
One of the coolest things about the BT21 store is that they have hand print molds of all of the BTS members. Natalie's favorite of course, is Taehyung (V) so she was excited to do this! He even drew a little TaTa in the bottom left corner!
Now, admittedly, I have pretty big hands for a girl. But Jimin's pinky fingers are tiny!
Eeek, at least Jungkook's hands are bigger than mine, ha!
And Suga's too - but his pinky and thumb are pretty close to mine!
J-Hope has a BIG old thumb!
When we got into the store, there was very little merch left to purchase. We managed to get a few things (including a SUPER cute Shooky neck pillow that I used to fly home on that red eye!)
Namjoon's handprint was near the front door, so on the way out, I stopped to take this. Now HE has big hands!
As we left the BT21 store, we called an Uber to take us back to the hotel to save us some time. As we waited for the Uber, some guy was either being arrested or overdosing. As Natalie said, "That's so LA of you!" That was her favorite quote of the trip!
Our next stop was Koreatown to check out the Choice Music store - in which we waited in yet ANOTHER long line. This one moved fairly quickly though and Natalie scored some good album purchases.
Natalie grabbed some Korean food in the food court before we left to go get ready for the second surprise of the trip...
Tickets to see... no, not the Capitol Records building with a big Christmas tree on it, but...
ALEXANDER HAMILTON! We managed to score tickets to Hamilton at the Pantages Theater, which was literally on the same block as our hotel!
Appropriately, one of the biggest stars in theater, Idina Menzel's star is right outside of the theater!
And of course, so is Lin Manuel Miranda's star! So exciting!
The Pantages Theater is so beautiful. I love the detail in the ceiling just outside of the theater doors.
Hamilton in Los Angeles, starring Natalie Bailey!
Holy cow, this theater is so architecturally cool! Gimme art deco ALL day.
EEEK! We were giddy with excitement!
We knew that the biggest problem we were going to have was trying NOT to sing all of the songs outloud. I lip synched EVERY word though.
And I know you're not supposed to take pictures but Rory O'Malley as King George was so spectacular. Not only that - but I had posted on Facebook that we were here seeing the show, and my cousin Jordan's husband Andy commented that Rory is married to his brother Gerold! I'm like, "WHAT???" So we finish the show, which was obviously amazing - and after it's over, I see Andy has sent me a little video that Rory filmed backstage during the show, saying hi to us and thanking us for coming! And I was freaking OUT because Rory officially declared that we are cousins ha ha!
But... but... it was just SO good!
I'm not even gonna lie - as much as I love Lin Manuel, I think that Jamael Westman was an even BETTER Alexander Hamilton! Even from where we were, his facial expressions and timing were right on point the entire show. And (sorry Lin) he's a better singer!
On Saturday before we were scheduled to fly home, Natalie wanted to go to a cup sleeve event at Dragon Boba for Jin's birthday so we went back to Koreatown. And waited in yet ANOTHER line. This one seemed to last forever. But we met some super nice people in line around us! The girls right in front of us were there from Michigan!
But this cup sleeve event was totally worth it. Dragon Boba is tricked out with tons of BTS stuff (and Blackpink!) I like that Jin is front and center here! But you know Jungkook is saying "what's up girl" to me from the back!
If you're in LA, you cannot miss this place - they had mochi DONUTS. Yes, you read that right! I didn't see BT21 macarons for sale but aren't they cute!?
Nat with her boys (and baby TaTa!)
Dragon Boba had pictures of Jin all over the place - including these recent ones from this week!
Well there isn't any debating here. We chose RM's mango boba which was OUTSTANDING!
They had another set up over by where they were giving out the cup sleeves. Namjoon all looking like a kindergartener on his first day of school here.
Nat said, "Take my picture with Taehyung!"
So of course, I had to take a picture of me with Jungkook - he has his arm around me, of course.
Now it's my turn!
Happy birthday Jinnie!
They even had Blackpink and BTS banners hanging from the ceiling. Mad props to the marketing department here.
We went outside to drink our boba and have our mochi donuts (also known as Pon de Ring)! Natalie and I got the same ones ha ha - a mochi donut covered in Fruity Pebbles! It sounds gross, but it was fabulous!
Our flight didn't leave until 11 pm, so of course, we had to hit up a few HISTORIC spots in Los Angeles - including Nakatomi Plaza from Die Hard, which is just west of Beverly Hills!
What? It looks just like the movie! I did the slow drive around the driveway here just like Sgt. Powell did in the movie when he was inspecting the area!
This was super funny because we had JUST watched the movie at home! Because you KNOW it's a Christmas movie!
It's funny - nowadays with CGI, they change the way places look but Nakatomi Plaza (called Fox Plaza in real life) looks largely the same as it did in 1988. I look a little older though.
Favorite Christmas movie! (Ok, it wins second prize to the Griswold's!) Keep an eye out for falling bodies!
Our next stop wasn't far from Nakatomi Plaza - it was the Golden Girls house in Brentwood!
Natalie and I have started binge watching (well, only on Tuesdays!) the Golden Girls and she laughs hysterically at it! It's so cool that a group of women of an advanced age (ahem) are still so funny over 30 years later. This house is only where the exterior scenes were shot because obviously the inside scenes were shot in the studio (in front of a live studio audience!)
Our last stop before the airport on our whirlwind tour of LA was the Santa Monica pier!
Natalie and I just decided we wanted to try to catch the sunset and ride the roller coaster and other rides before we flew back to the east coast.
The end of Route 66 is right here at the Santa Monica pier! It starts in Chicago and runs through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and of course - California.
The beach in Santa Monica is huge and really pretty - here we are looking north toward Pacific Palisades and Malibu.
The next time we would see the sun would be over Boston in the morning.
I'm like, "Natalie, let me take a picture of you under the Pacific Park sign!" and this guy jumped right into her picture! Bet he didn't know he would be in a picture on a blog!
Ok, maybe now one with just you in it, Nat.
Let's ride the Ferris wheel first!
This is the view of the park from the Ferris wheel. So colorful!
This is the view of my kid on the Ferris wheel. So pretty!
Ah, we would have seen the sunset if it weren't for those pesky clouds on the horizon!
This is the view looking south from the Ferris wheel, toward Venice Beach.
I am not a fan of heights and generally feel like I'm going to pass out when I'm on Ferris wheels ha ha. Natalie thought this picture was hysterical so I included it, but the fear is real, folks.
My little cutie on the Ferris wheel. No cares, no worries... just enjoying the salt air from the Pacific ocean.
Another view looking north from the Ferris wheel. This is, in fact, the world's ONLY solar powered Ferris wheel - so... say it with me... Superlative, check!
Ok, this might have been our favorite ride - the Sea Dragon!
We laughed and screamed (through our masks!) on the old wooden ship!
Although not lit up for them tonight, they turned the Pacific Wheel purple for BTS earlier in the week!
It really is a pretty and colorful Ferris wheel!
Next, we got in line to ride the West Coaster, the (as the website says) "only West Coast, oceanfront, steel roller coaster located on a Pier over the Pacific Coastline." Superlative? I'm gonna allow it. I love the old style lamps along the pier that you see when waiting in line.
The West Coaster is compact, obviously and only gets to a height of 55 feet and a speed of 35 mph but the fact that you're riding a roller coaster on a pier is really cool!
"MOMMY! PUT YOUR PHONE AWAY!" Although you have to pay $10 per person to ride- they at least give you two laps around!
"I want to ride this next!" Ok, why not!? It's not quite like Oktoberfest or Volksfest, but it garnered some good squeals out of us!
You want some Dippin Dots? Of course. They are (after all) the ice cream of the future!
Good night, Santa Monica - we have to go catch a flight!
Gas prices in LA are NO JOKE. $5.09 a gallon, GULP.
Welcome back to LAX. Do we have to leave? Natalie and I were super sad.
I took this picture because there was a flight to Seoul and we thought one (or some) of the boys would be on that flight. It turns out Jin, Jimin and Jungkook WERE on a flight back to Seoul - but this was Asiana Airlines and they were in another terminal flying back on Korean Air. So close. They were in the airport though!
I had to take this picture of Natalie with my new Shooky pillow! I told Todd all about it in a text and he responded with, "What? A Snooki pillow?" So now of course, Shooky is called Snooki. Meanwhile, Natalie and I got some dinner before our flight left for Boston. I also surprised Natalie by letting her know that I had upgraded us to Economy Plus (big spender ha!) I just wanted to stretch my legs out so I could maybe sleep a bit. I couldn't believe how much that little bit of extra leg room made the entire trip SO much more comfortable.
We saw the sunset over the Pacific and we saw it rise over the Atlantic.
Thanks to Shooky (Snooki) and the extra leg room, I WAS able to get a bit of sleep on the way back. We took the long way 'round to land at Logan but we got a really great morning view of Boston on the way in.
Such a cool view, but it's back to the cold and snow.
We had a great time in LA, but Boston is our home. (Even if Natalie and I both agree that it's our second home to Germany!)
The TaTas (yeah, I went there!) had a safe flight back, all buckled in for landing. Strangely, I was very melancholy writing this blog post, remembering what a fun trip we had! Did we really just see BTS? And did we really fly across the country in a pandemic to do that? Weren't we just riding a roller coaster on the Pacific ocean a few hours ago?
(Good news - no Covid cases were picked up in the making of these blog posts!)
Until next time, Los Angeles! I still hate you!
