Los Angeles Here I come for the 3rd Time!

In my whole life, I dreamt about going to Los Angeles and Hollywood, California. It was my first time in October 2012, and I must say I did choke up and was so teary. I Saw the Hollywood sign and I just lost it. I just couldn’t believe what I was looking at. Since I was a child looking at movies, television, ads in the paper, travel ads, magazines, entertainment stuff, and all I saw was LA, Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills and of course; the Hollywood sign. I knew where the celebrity central and the biggest entertainment capital of the world is.

As I was approaching the Hollywood sign above the Griffith Observatory, I cried up a storm. I was an emotional wreck. All my dreams of going to Los Angeles came true. I couldn’t believe I was close to all the stars, seeing the Hollywood Walk of Fame with all the artists, entertainers, then ending up right outside Jimmy Kimmel’s show studio set. Then seeing Capitol Records, and all these entertainment broadcasting corporation buildings. Then I saw the Iconic 405 Freeway everyone was talking about. They say that it was such terrible traffic and you are so right. So many lanes and still lots of traffic. Even the carpool lane didn’t make any difference.

In my mind, I was thinking of all the award shows, the red carpet, and I was keeping my eyes peeled and had my eyes everywhere with the hopes that I would meet a celebrity. That was highly unlikely, but It could happen and it has happened.

Anyway, my 2nd trip to Los Angeles was in May 2015, where we went through Santa Monica Beach where we hung out for a bit, then driving through Beverly hills. Seeing these huge houses where majority of them are covered in high bushes and trees, and a lot of the celebrities live there. You would see the home cleaners park their cars outside on the road, and them coming out with buckets, mops and other cleaning products, then you would see super expensive cars. This time, I did see Actor Hugh Jackman drive a black Porsche. It was definitely him. I can tell for sure. Then I looked online and it was true. We also traveled to Fresno, San Francisco, Drove on the Pacific Coast Highway, went to Newport Coast, Newport Beach.

My 3rd Los Angeles trip will be in about 3-4 months from now. I am excited to spend about 10-11 days there. I am definitely going to other parts of LA such as Pasadena, Glendale, Malibu, La Crescenta, and so many other places. I have a lot of time now to plan and I am going to be so organized. Gotta love LA. I cannot believe in just 3-4 years, I will have gone 3 times. I did not go all my life. I am really excited to be amongst the stars again.

I can’t wait to indulge into In-N-Out burger, and also the Famous Oscars Pizza Guy Edgars Pizza. Big Mamas and Papas, and amongst other great restaurants I have heard about.  I hope to see Ellen Degeneres, go to Warner Bros, CBS Studios, NBC Universal and more.

I just want to Meet Bradley Cooper, Jason Statham, Chris Hemsworth, and Channing Tatum. 🙂 Hopefully, will bump into them at LAX Airport or down a street walking or something. Now that would be awesome. I can hardly wait!

Our Ultimate 1308 Miles of California Getaway

A couple of weeks ago on May 21st, 2015 after a long wait and anticipation, Our ultimate California getaway had arrived when I went with my Family. We were so impatient and anxious to get to Toronto Pearson’s YYZ Airport to take our Air Canada Flight AC 789 to Los Angeles Airport LAX at 8am when it took off. As we submitted my boarding pass to the Air Canada attendant and as we made our way to the Aircraft and grabbed our seats, we were absolutely excited for the 5 and a half hour flight, which to us did not feel long at all, as we are used to flights. We arrived at 10:10am LA Time, so we had the full day ahead.

As soon as the aircraft attendants announced that we will be landing momentarily to LAX and as we saw the Los Angeles Buildings in Downtown while landing, the hills, valleys, and the beauty of LA, we began to get more excited then ever and then I said to myself, it is about to get real now. So much is waiting for me to discover, my family to see, my cousins wedding to attend to, Facebook Friends whom I met for the first time, and covering so much ground in so little time. 10-11 days went by like a dream.

It was an incredible time when we went through towns and cities, and firstly after getting our rental car, we made our way to Newport Coast, where we stood the night, taking the 405 Freeway, where then we began driving north to Fresno where my cousin got married, and reunited, and united with family and friends, then after Fresno, we made our way to San Francisco passing through San Jose, Oakland, and many other towns. After San Francisco, we ventured out to Highway 1 Freeway 101 which is the Pacific Coast Highway. It took over 8-9 hours to drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles. We made a stop in Santa Barbara for a night, Then we stood in Northridge Area, visited Santa Monica Pier and Beach after that we went back to Newport Coast where we ended our trip with more family time. On May 30th we returned our rental car, then at 10:20pm we departed Los Angeles LAX airport to arrive back to Toronto on May 31st, at 6am in the morning our time.

In Beverly Hills, we were on our way to Santa Monica, where I saw Actor Hugh Jackman driving a black Porsche when he was getting out and stopped on one of the streets in Beverly Hills close to Carmelita Ave with the tall Palm Trees around the homes. All the cars were either Range Rovers, Porsche, Mercedes, Ferrari, BMW, Maserati, Teslas and so many more crazily expensive cars around there, and then there were cleaners and maids coming out of some of the stars homes as I was driving and watching the streets. It was quite awesome to see a celebrity in LA… What is a trip to Los Angeles without seeing a celebrity?

With all that you hear from Movies, TV, Entertainment websites and all the hype of Los Angeles with the home of Celebrities, Music Performers, Directors, Producers and a huge Population that works in the entertainment industry somehow are scattered all over Los Angeles area’s. LA is just so huge that you need at least a month to comfortably go all around. 2 weeks is not enough. There is just too much to see, too much to do. If I lived in Los Angeles, I would definitely be in the entertainment industry.

Now Los Angeles is not just about Film, Entertainment and everything. There is far more to it than just film making, awards, studios, mansions, Malibu beach houses, movie sets, the glitz, glamour, vanity, fashion and everything is not just everything about it. There is so much more to do. If you have never been, you should make a trip there whenever convenient for you.

Now, they say that the Highway 401 here is jam packed and so much traffic. You haven’t seen and heard nothing yet. We took doses of the 405, 110, traffic and that is extremely brutal. I do not know how residents of California, LA area can handle that day in and day out. It takes patience, skill and guts to go through that almost everyday. Highway 401 traffic in Toronto is nothing compared to what they go through on the 405 and 110. I would go crazy with that everyday. People of LA are brave.

I love Los Angeles so much. I am excited to make a return next year. I have been back for a couple of days now and I miss it so much already, especially my family and my friends there. Next time I will be there longer to see my other Facebook friends that I didn’t have time to see. Cheers to LA!

There is so much more that I have to say about my trip, but this was just the bit of it.
Now to take off my bucket list:

– I saw the Painted Ladies and the Full House TV Show house, and Alamo Square in San Francisco,
– I saw the Fisherman’s Wharf, also the skyline of San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge.
– I saw the Santa Monica Pier
– I Drove on the Pacific Coast Highway
– I went close to the Hollywood Sign
– I saw Beverly Hills and glimpse of Celebrity Homes
– I saw a celebrity in LA – Hugh Jackman in his Black Porsche.

The Armenian Youth Getaway in Kingston, Ontario Was A Great Success – June 1-3, 2012

On Friday June 1st, 2012, around 63 or more people From Montreal and Toronto embarked on buses to North of Kingston, at Camp Iawah, in Godfrey Ontario to reunite with friends, to make new friends, to share, to also learn about Armenian Religion and to learn about our faith and community a lot more. Since this year is the 500th anniversary of the printing of Armenian Books and literature, this time we dedicated it all to that. We discussed the importance of Armenian Language, to speak and write Armenian, and why it is important to keep our culture, and heritage alive. On Friday night June 1st, we had arrived at Camp Iawah, and we began with an Orientation, then we all go our room numbers where we are going to sleep, but what sleep? We had little or no sleep at all, all weekend. Who goes to a Youth Getaway and sleeps right? It’s just for a weekend. Then afterwards we all met up in the conference room and we played an ice breaker game called get to know others bingo. So we had to go around the room and find someone similar to what month were born, what type of music we like, where each of us were born, and when it was all done, someone had to call bingo. It was a fun start to the weekend. After that we did our night prayer then we had free time.

On Saturday June 2nd, 2012, we woke up, had our morning prayer, then breakfast. After breakfast we had a few discussions, followed by lunch, after lunch we did a lot of sporting and outdoor activities such as canoeing, soccer, rock climbing, basketball, and among other games. After all that we had dinner and after dinner we had a strong debate on the importance of reading and writing Armenian and it was a heated one to two hours of it, but we sure did learn a lot from it, and how important it is to learn a new language so on and so forth. After that we had some time to spend outdoors again around a bonfire we made and we danced, sang, and just enjoyed each others company with cookies and hot chocolate. After we went back toward the building we were staying in and we had a karaoke night, it was such a great time. After everyone did their own thing and people were awake all hours of the night. including myself. I got like 4 hours sleep all weekend. Now, I am paying for that.

In conclusion, the whole weekend was an incredible experience for me again. This was my 3rd time attending the Youth Weekend getaway and it was nice to see my friends from Montreal. My Montreal circle keeps getting bigger and bigger and Its so awesome to see. Thanks to all the Organizers of this beautiful and great trip we had. It is not an easy task to plan and to organize events. I appreciate all those who worked so hard to make sure that we all are taken care of, we all had a great time and we made memories to last a lifetime. I mean that is what it’s all about right? Making friends, making memories, sharing our lives with others, and just going with the flow in life. All the best and I cannot wait until the next Getaway. It needs to come back fast because I miss everyone already. I am hoping I make a trip to Montreal soon to see my friends and hang out with everyone. All the best to the Armenian Religious Education Council (AREC) and thank you again for a beautiful weekend which I will never forget. God bless everyone.

 

Excited To Be Visiting Montreal, Quebec Again

I am so excited, that I cannot hide it. I know that is a song, but My excitement to be going to Montreal later on this month is really something I cannot keep to myself. I am excited to be seeing my friends and just getting there, traveling on my favourite highway after so many months, its going to be a great getaway, short, but sweet. I am really excited to be reliving my moments on my favourite highway and especially visiting my friends, and making more memories as I go.

Today, that is what I would like to share with you all. I will still be posting on the days I go… 🙂

 

YAY TO MONTREAL!