Zip Lining at Olympic Park, UT

This afternoon I went to the Olympic Park where they have “extreme zip lining” from the top of the mountain.  It made the top 10 list of zip lines in the world.  It is the world’s steepest zipline according to the website and believe me the first few seconds is straight down and you can feel the speed.  There were literally only 6-8 people there so they let us go as many times as we wanted.  I ended up going down it six times! I won’t lie the first time I went down I was scared, that first 10 seconds is intense. By the 4th time down I got used to it so I started to video it each time. The above videos is my favorite.

Hollywood Homes Tour

Here is an edited version of the Hollywood homes tour from last weekend. It took me a while to edit down the tour from two hours to 32 minutes, but I’ll save you $40 and an hour and a half.  It was a total blast and I loved it!  Here is a list of what we saw and what is included in the video in order: Hollywood Blvd, Sunset Blvd., Screen Actor’s Guild, Caryn’s Limited, (one of Elvis Presley’s favorite places to eat), The Comedy Store (owned by Pauly Shore), the Original House of Blues, Mel’s Drive in (featured in American Graffiti and the opening scene of Entourage), The Viper Room, The Whiskey a Go Go (famous music venue and was inducted into the Music Hall of Fame), The Roxy, The Rainbow Bar and Grill (Joe Dimaggio and Marlyn Monroe had their first date), Key Club (featured in Night at the Roxbury, Home Featured in Father of the Bride, the home featured in Halloween, Bob Barker’s home, the Beverly Hills sign, The Magic Castle, The Sierra Tower where Sideny Poitier and Cher live and where Elton John owns the Penthouse, the gates from The Bodyguard movie, Batman films, Bruce Wayne’s house, The Big Lebowski, Greystone Manner (public park), The Osbourne’s Home (now Christina Agulera livers there), Tom Cruise and Katie Homes house, Frank Sinatra’s home, Beverly Hills, Dr. Phil’s home, George Marciano (Guess), Sunny and Cher, Agnes Moorhead (Bewitched) home, Madonna’s home, George Cloony’s home, Lucile Ball’s home, Jimmy Stewart’s home, Hoppi Hills, Elvis Presley’s Home before Graceland, Michael Jackson’s home he was renting for $300,000 a month and died in, Playboy Mansion, Spelling Mansion (most expensive home in the US a 55,000 sq ft mansion, hundreds of rooms), Bel Air, Nancy Regan’s home, Alfred Hitchcock’s home, Jonas Brothers home, J-Lo and Marc Anthony’s home, Diane Keaton’s home, Billy Bob Thorton’s home, Lana Turner’s home, and last but not least Rodeo Drive.

Hollywood

Sunday was Laura’s wedding so we decided to head down early and have some well deserved fun.  The drive down from the Bay Area on Friday was long and we ran into Friday LA traffic but it wasn’t too bad.  Friday night we ate at Javier’s Cantina & Grill at The Spectrum in Irvine, CA which was probably the nicest Mexican restaurant I’ve ever been to.  After dinner we saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in IMAX 3D which I would recommend but just know it isn’t Pixar quality but was still fun.

On Saturday we went to Hollywood to play tourist which was a ton of fun!  Since it was going to be really hot we decided we would hike up to the Hollywood sign in the morning.  The drive up to the sign turned out to be half the battle because you wind up through multi-million dollar homes via one lane streets and it feels like you are going straight up the hill.  I finally opted to park and it turned out to be a block or two from the top of where the street ends which was great.

After the pavement ends the road turns into a gated dirt road but we found out you can get past the gates warning you that hiking to the Hollywood sign is illegal (I think that is what it said) because there were some guys who showed us another entrance to get up to the sign.  Turns out the hike is a few miles and most of it was a switchback straight up the hill and it was pretty hot out so the water we bought after filling up for gas came in very handy (my co-hiker was a trooper).  The trail splits so you can decide to go to the observatory or the Hollywood sign and we obviously opted to go up to the sign.  The awesome thing about the hike is it takes you behind the sign itself so as you can see we not only were able to get some nice shots from behind the sign but also above it.  After the hike we went to downtown Hollywood and I’ll fill you in on those details in my next post.

My Ultimate Bachelor Pad Found on AirBnB.com

ultimateBachelorPad

I have found my dream bachelor pad!  I just heard about AirBnB.com where you can rent out places instead of staying in a hotel for cheap.  As long as you don’t mind staying at a stranger’s house (which I would) you could save big money.  I love, love, love this place and would totally buy it if I could…

“Looking for something more interesting than a standard hotel room? Try the guest room in our 4600 sqft converted Mission warehouse/loft.

Our space used to be an auto trim shop, it is now a live/work setup for a young web development company. Its a unique space and offers conveniences such as:
✾ a swinging couch
✾ a 12 foot tiki bar (free tiki drink upon arrival)
✾ an air-hockey table
✾ movie theater with 11 ft screen and stadium seating
✾ TB of media to enjoy in theater
✾ giant hammock nets on the second floor
✾ an electric piano
✾ roof access with a view of the skyline
✾ washer and dryer
✾ guest bikes with locks, lights and maps
✾ really awesome wifi
✾ free tech-support from resident geeks
✾ plenty of workspace, access to printer & scanner
✾ library of city planning books

The neighborhood:
Two blocks from 16th & Mission BART, we’re near dozens of fantastic restaurants, Mission nightlife and arts scene. Its easy to get around the city from here too, with downtown/Union Square, the ferry building and the airport (SFO or OAK) just an easy BART ride away. Several of us are professionally trained city planners, we can point you in the direction of just about anything you want from events to the best food to the best Art Deco movie theaters. You can also just relax in our huge, quirky space with couches, nets, fast wifi, TB of media and friendly people.

The Room:
The guest room has a queen sized bed. For an additional $35 we can accomodate a third person on a futon/couch either in the room or in a smaller adjacent room. Message us for details, we can often rearrange things to accommodate you.

About us:
Currently in our warehouse we have a bike mechanic, a computer science PhD student, a professional bassoonist, an Australian lobster salesman, a foreign exchange professional, a web developer, a start-up web and city planning company, a city planner and a semiconductor broker.”

Update – The link is no longer working.  If you can comment on any other cool spaces, let me know!

http://airbnb.com/airbeds/show/4300

Mall of America Facts

mall_america-sign

  • Cost to build – $650 million
  • Economic impact – Mall of America contributes more than $1.8 billion in economic impact activity annually to the state of Minnesota
  • Gross leasable space – 2.5 million square feet
  • Gross building area – 4.2 million square feet
  • Number of stores – More than 520
  • Sit-down restaurants – 20
  • Fast food restaurants – 30
  • Specialty food stores – 36
  • Movie screens – 14
  • Employees – 11,000 year-round, 13,000 during summers and holidays
  • Parking spaces – 12,550 on-site
  • Walking distance around one level – .57 miles
  • Total store front footage – 4.3 miles
  • Key attractions include Nickelodeon Universe®, Underwater Adventures® Aquarium, LEGO® Imagination Center, Dinosaur Walk Museum, A.C.E.S. Flight Simulation, NASCAR Silicon Motor Speedway, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Nordstrom and Sears.

Did you know?

  • 258 Statues of Liberty could lie inside the Mall
  • If Mount Rushmore was divided into individual monuments, a president could reside in each of the Mall’s four courts
  • Mall of America is big enough to hold 32 Boeing 747s
  • Seven Yankee Stadiums can fit inside Mall of America
  • If a shopper spent 10 minutes browsing at every store, it would take them more than 86 hours to complete their visit to Mall of America
  • There is no sales tax on clothing in Minnesota

Source: http://www.mallofamerica.com/about_moa_facts.aspx