I know I’m a little late for this update, but sometimes I have a hard time buckling down and just getting stuff written. If you read Janey’s blog you already know about the trip we took last friday, but I’m gonna tell it anyway.

Lets start with a little back-story (I’ll try and keep it short)… Quite some time ago Janey and I planned a little trip down to Chinatown in LA. We got some directions from Janey’s roommate that turned out to be terrible, and we were lost in LA. We decided to ditch the chinatown idea and ended up driving just a little further to see the cool movie mecca that is Hollywood Blvd. When we got there hunger struck and tempers ran high, so we just bagged the whole deal and drove home. Ever since that day I’ve wanted to go back and really see what’s around (I’m pretty sure that Janey always felt the same).

Now some things you need to know for the rest of the story:

• Janey loves Disney’s “Lady and the Tramp”
• I majorly messed up her birthday this year so I really needed to redeem myself with Valentines Day

Many ideas crossed my mind while trying to figure out what I was going to do for Valentines day. I consulted several people for feedback on my ideas and each one seemed to be a winner, but none of them quite felt right to me. So I kept looking and I ran across what I thought would be the perfect activity for us. I’ll try and spare you the nitty gritty details of my discovery. I’ll just say that in late January I found this:

What could be better! Her favorite Disney movie in all it’s re-mastered big screen glory, in one of the most wonderful theaters in the country! I contemplated it for a few days and just couldn’t think of anything that was going to top it (also taking into account my post-christmas, post-travel, pre-wealthy budget). So I called and found one of her days off and got the tickets! Granted, it actually was a few days before the REAL Valentines day… but I’m hoping that won’t be an issue.

So since we were already getting out of Anaheim I thought it would be cool to just make a whole day-date sort of thing out of it. So we added a stop in Long Beach to the itinerary. A stop to Roscoe’s Chick & Waffles. Don’t ask too many questions about this one… it’s just something Janey has wanted to do for a long time, and this day was all hers.

So after a few hurdles in the morning, we finally got on the road!

Our stop for chicken and waffles was great. It’s a good restaurant with a funny menu. Everything tasted great, and I’m sure we’ll go back sometime. Now ON TO LOS ANGELES!

The air was hazy, and the traffic was bad, but we finally arrived on Hollywood Blvd. and the world famous Walk of Fame. There was so much to see that I’m not event sure where to start. Our show tickets weren’t until 7:15 PM and we arrived at a little after 2:00 PM. We had plenty of time to wander and just hang out.

We saw so much cool stuff. Here… I’ll just link to pictures of some of the highlights:

• Drove right by the Pantages
• The place where Tom Cruise hangs out (nut job!)
• A guy totally getting busted in the sidewalk next to us
• Goofy’s drunk fat cousin
• Bette Davis!
• Julie Andrews!

and finally

• El Capitan Theater

To see the whole lot of photos from this trip (click here)

So as dusk settled over Los Angeles, the neon shined bright and our showtime creeped ever closer. We decided that before the movie we needed to stop in the Disney Soda Fountain & Studio store. It had been recommended to me by several folks. It was really fantastic and I could really tell that I was on Disney property from the second I walked through the door. We were greeted by a smiling fellow in a chef’s costume. We wandered for a few minutes through the store portion of the place, then sat down for some wonderful treats. I got a huge banana split and Janey got a coke float. It was really really good, and the place was just really nice.

Now it was finally time to head for the theater (not difficult at all since it’s right next door). So exited the soda fountain crossing over the Walk of Fame stars of Donald Duck and Disneyland. And in just a hop, skip and jump we were very first in the VIP line with tickets in hand. We weren’t waiting too long when in one choreographed movement two costumed ushers opened the large front glass doors. An older gentleman walked up to Janey and I with a very kind welcome and dropped the ropes in front of us so we could enter the theater.

Once we got into the lobby another very nice person directed us to the VIP counter for our free soda and popcorn. It all happened so fast that we hardly had to think. It was in the door, got the treats, and we were into our seats inside of one minute. Every face we saw was smiling. Every person who spoke to us was kind and very welcoming, and this was on the last show of the day! I’m sure they were all on the end of their shifts and excited to get home, but we felt like we were the first guests of the day. The El Capitan cast really does Disney proud. We had nothing but wonderful things to say about every person we encountered.

OK so lets talk for a second about the theater! This place really is a palace. It lives up to every bit of marketing hype I heard. Its big and beautifully restored to a condition that looks brand new. The colors are vibrant and the fabrics are plush. And as icing on the cake, the background music that you hear as you enter the theater is coming from an organist on stage playing a fantastic restored Wurlizer organ that must have just under a million keys.

This sort of preshow entertainment is just simply a lost art but it makes all the difference in the world. It puts everyone in a good mood. I really could go on for pages about the preshow alone… but lets get moving along.

When showtime rolled around, the organ on stage floated gracefully into a trap door as the theater manager took a mic just off the stage right apron. He extended a big thank you to the organist and welcomed the audience to the theater. Again, this is such a simple thing that makes all the difference in an entertainment experience. He made a very simple but effective announcement about keeping phones and such quiet and then kicked off the show.

The lights went down, and the trailers began. After 3 trailers for other disney movies that will be at the El Cap later this month the main drape closed on the stage. I was a little confused at this point since I’m so used to going from trailers right into the movie. The drape had only been down a fraction of a second when it started on it’s way back up. As it raised we could see that it was revealing something new, it wasn’t a full sized movie screen, but a smaller 4:3 aspect ratio screen that was probably only 10′ across and bordered by a beveled trim. Very small by todays movie screen standards and clearly not made for a feature film. The proscenium lighting dropped and the screen came to life with an all to familiar title screen for “A Walt Disney Mickey Mouse Cartoon… Puppy Love”. In honor of valentines day they were playing one of the cutest vintage Disney shorts featuring Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, and FiFi.

There really is nothing that compares to seeing these original Disney shorts in the theater as they were intended. Simply wonderful.

As the short came to a close the drape flew up to reveal Mickey and Minnie live on stage dancing to a wonderful orchestral waltz. It was a cute little moment that I enjoyed quite a bit.

And finally when Mickey and Minnie were finished another curtain opened up to reveal a full movie screen and Lady and the Tramp began in it’s fully restored, digital projected splendor.

What a great day this was… Memories made to last a lifetime.