HOLLYWOOD!!!
First thing is first.....Happy Birthday to our fearless leader, Matt Harkey!!
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| The birthday boy!! |
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| Group hug for Matt |
This morning we woke up at 6:30 to wish our director Matt Harkey a happy birthday. We got in the bus and vans and were allowed to choose from an assortment of banana nut, chocolate chip, and blueberry muffins along with apple and grape juice.
Our Sleeper of the day is............Lauren Whitaker!! Who needs a sleeping bag when you have your hands and a pillow.
When we arrived at the Hollywood Bowl, the people with their assigned research presented.
Grant Swicegood (Charlotte, NC) presented Anaheim, California, which was a city that used to grow grapes to make wine until all the crops died off.
Kate Inabinet (Franklin, NC) and Shelby Auvil (Stanley, NC) presented Disneyland and found that people have spread their loved ones ashes inside the Haunted Mansion attraction and that Walt Disney’s brain was frozen and preserved.
Luke Edwards (Gastonia, NC) introduced us to the Hollywood Bowl and told us about its construction in 1922.
Allison Roney (Gastonia, NC) told us all about Hollywood and the Hollywood Sign that was built in 1923.
Nolan Beaty (Belmont, NC) presented Grauman’s Chinese Theater and informed us that it, in fact, was not made in China.
Drew Hughlett (Gastonia, NC) told us about the home of the first cupcake ATM, Beverly Hills.
Avery Biber (Wilmington, NC) introduced us to the four main movie studios of Hollywood: Universal, Sony, EMI, and Warner.
Mack Slaughter (Mooresville, NC) shared with us about UCLA and their status of wining more championships than any other school.
Once the research was completed, it was time for tryouts. Now these were not ordinary tryouts, this was a tryout for the best celebrity screamers for our upcoming Hollywood prank. We needed two people who could absolutely scream so loud and convincing, that tourists would believe there was a celebrity nearby.
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| Ryan Phillips was the only guy willing to tryout for the position of crazed screaming fan. He had the crazy part down |
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| Sophie Andrews freaks out as she participates in the screaming contest |
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| Olivia Comer gets her boyband face on trying to convince the judges she is a big Ty Brown fan |
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| McKenna Caudill is almost brought to tears in her performance |
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| Kayleen Smith even surprised Ty with how loud her shrilling scream was |
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| Carly Brown got a dead sprint going as she runs towards our chosen celebrity. |
In the end, it was Carly Brown and Kayleen Miller who's screams were the most shrilling and convincing.
After the research, we had a short drive over to Hollywood to see the stars. On the bus, Nolan Beaty got in the L.A. spirit by singing the whole Fresh Prince of Bel Air song.
At the Chinese Theater we compared our hands to the stars. While strolling around we had a surprise visit from our counselor “celebrity” Ty Brown. He was quickly mobbed after our screamers, Carly Brown and Kayleen Smith, captured everyone’s attention. Many gullible bystanders joined in screaming, “OH MY GOSH! It’s Ty Brown!!!” These tourists captured photos of the shy celebrity and even got shirts, bags, papers, and body parts signed by our very own Ty Brown.
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| Avery Clark ain't nothing but a hound dog |
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| At the Chinese theatre waiting to see if we can catch a glimpse of a famous star |
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| Independence Day was premiering |
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| WE SAW THE FAMOUS TY BROWN!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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| Our acting was convincing enough to get some tourists excited to get Ty's autograph |
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| Many of the bystanders made their way through the crowds of crazed fans to get their picture with Grey's Anatomy's "hottest doctor" |
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| Signing autographs of both acting participants, and confused tourists |
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| STUD! |
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| Some of the tourists even got Ty to sign their arms, legs, bellies, and even a butt |
Thank to the distraction of that random celebrity, we were able to move around freely amongst the foot and handprints of the real stars and get some good pictures. Thank goodness for Ty Brown's "random" appearance.
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| Will Smith, fresh prince of Belair |
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| Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump |
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| Jack Nicholson, the shining |
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| Harrison Ford....EVERYTHING |
Next we drove to the beautiful campus of UCLA. For lunch we had a nice picnic under some shady trees. Our cook’s prepared turkey and cheese subs with grapes and popcorn with water to drink. After lunch we had a little time to walk around and visit the bookstore.
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| Kayla Capps, Nolan Beatty, and Landon Wright showing off some muscle at UCLA |
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| Once the computers were spotted, it was a bull rush to facetime friends and family |
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| Jake Studebaker considering going to school at UCLA |
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| Go Bruins! |
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| Group Photo |
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| Dab on 'em |
We left around 2:30 to drive to our campsite at Cachuma Lake. The vans caught up on sleep and checked out the awesome views of the coast on our way to the campsite. We got a taste of the beautiful views that we will see tomorrow on Highway 1.
