Music and wine under the stars

The Faith Hill concert at the Hollywood Bowl was AMAZING. At first lots of arguing with my cousin. She was adamant we park over on Vine over by The Avalon and Capitol Records. That was more than a mile from the Hollywood Bowl. I was planning on parking at Hollywood/Highland and my cousin never gave a reason to not. Then she plopped me $10 and she said PARK HERE, NOW, so I did. Found out her reason was traffic in the evening because everyone is cruising Hollywood or Highland. We avoided it and got to walk through Hollywood on the way back from the concert and explore, and I realized that as we were leaving.

The venue was amazing. I had heard you picnic at the Bowl, so that we did. I bought a bottle of wine earlier in the day with the help of my cousin, then we went to Marie Callendars on the way for a blueberry cream pie and Stater Brothers for chocolate chip cookies. My cousin and I went in blind buying wine since none of us are huge wine connossieurs, probably wasn't the best wine, but it was one heck of a time. OMG. Everyone was picnicking. Everyone had a bottle of wine or water, cookies, sandwiches, chicken, whatever. Everyone was so laid back and talkative. We were around an older couple that just sat watching the concert, 2 recent high school grads and the guy was taking the girl to see Faith for her birthday, he was saying how he didn't like country and wanted to know the Angels score. I passed my phone to him several times so he could check. There was a mother and daughter who were very cool also and fun to chat with. I so want to go back for another concert- who can beat alcohol, the outdoors, music, and good friends?

Didn't know that the conductor of the LA Philharmonic Orchestra helps write the music for many of Faith's songs (like from Pearl Harbor and others). The first half was the Philharmonic and the 2nd half was Faith singing. I was hoping to hear "When the Lights Go Down," and "It Matters to Me," "Sunshine and Sumertime," maybe "Stealing Kisses," her newer stuff. It was mainly her older stuff- "This Kiss," which was a fun one, "Mississippi Girl," "Piece of My Heart," "If My Heart Had Wings," "Wild One," "Breathe," "Cry," "The Secret of Life," "Let Me Let Go," and "Paris." She also sang "Bridge over Troubled Water." Glad I got to go. "Wild One" was probably my favorite performance of hers. The biggest letdown was probably that she played only an hour or so, but she was awesome. Really enjoyed it.

I heard lots of people say they were tweeting at the concert, so I had to check out the twitter search this morning to see what people said. Most said she was great, and I agree.

Afterward we trekked from the bowl down to Hollywood Blvd. Of course we had to stop by Michael Jackson's star on the Walk of Fame. Still tons of people. Still tons of MJ impersonators. We stopped in a bar where there was no line for a beer before heading out.

We made good timing home. It took 1 hour and 13 minutes to get from Hollywood to my house and that was with traffic on the 101S from Normandie down to the split off with the 10.





Oh, and the Hollywood sign in the background (although a little obstructed, is a nice touch)