thirty mile zone

so as if i weren't a big enough dork as it is, guess what i did last weekend?  well, this:

oh, yes.  although...are you really surprised?  really?  i didn't think so.  actually, lilcee and i (plus the teen, because i love to rope that kid into all sorts of shenanigans) had bought groupons for this thing ages ago, and just hadn't gotten around to actually booking the thing.  and then she noticed that the expiration date was looming near - which is always the best way to get me to do something in a timely manner.  so after we compared schedules, we finally picked a day for our hollywood tour.

when the hub found out where we were going, he shocked me by asking if he and the bean could come too.  jigga-whaaa?  um, yes!  i loved that he was willing to join us on one of our crazy adventures.  and since we were booking an early morning (9:30) tour, i was able to score a sweet discounted rate for their tickets.

our meeting place was at the historic (read: faded and in desperate need of some sprucing up) chinese theater on the famous hollywood walk of fame.

while he and the girls shuffled off to check out the cement blocks of celebrity hand and footprints, i stood in line to get us checked in.

this dude was in his own world, busy jamming to the songs that played over the loudspeaker.

the bean channeled her inner diva, posing for all she was worth.

a few of our favorites:

time to board the bus!

this dude was our tour guide.

the tour itself was...meh.  we were treated to lots and lots of clips from the show, some fun facts and stories (some we already knew, some...well, no.  we pretty much knew 'em all), and a drive-by of all sorts of things we already knew well.  like the viper room, where river phoenix took his last breath:

the building that houses the super exclusive rooftop soho club.

the real 90210.

one of britney's favorite restaurants - and where the hub took me to dinner for my birthday when i was extremely pregnant and big as a house.

yet another spot we've actually frequented - the ivy.

the bean was even less impressed than the rest of us.

although she perked up when she won this tee.  i think the teen and i are going to fight over it.

when we got to the grove, everyone else was oohing and aahing over the american girl place, where celeb tots like suri cruise and the pitt-jolie brood have been spotted.

but not me and lilcee.  oh, no.  we were busy drooling over the just-opened topshop, home of all sorts of fabulous affordable celeb-endorsed clothing.

doesn't this building just scream "hollywood"?  actually, it kind of does - there's a red light on the roof that sends out "hollywood" in morse code.

at the end of our tour, lilcee and i got the teen to take this.  i didn't realize until just now how very unflattering my bulky coat is.  i look about four hundred pounds in it.

speaking of weighing a ton, this is where we ended up grabbing something to eat:

the hub opted for this:

while i added these to my bacon-chili-dog burrito order.

seeing this made me think of my good friend kelley, the biggest lionel richie fan i know:

dude.  duuuuuuuude.

and even after all of that, it was still just barely noon.  we love to squeeze as much into our weekends as possible, don'tcha know.