Wheel! Of! Fortune!

I may have mentioned, once or twice, that there's a boatload of amazingly cool things to do in L.A. Every single weekend, Matt and I lament all the fun stuff we're missing out on when we make a decision about which museum, garden, concert, or outdoorsy thing to check out. It goes something like this ...

Me: "Oh, The Huntington is having a gardening open house!"
Matt: "But we wanted to go see the Tim Burton exhibit at the LACMA."
Me: "And there's a cool farmer's market in Santa Monica."
Matt: "We also talked about heading down to Urth Cafe to stock up on organic coffee ..."
Me: "Waaaah!"

So when our nephew Craig, the nineteen-year old cutie from Dallas decided to visit, we knew there would be no shortage of ways to keep him entertained. But after about 30 seconds of chatting with him about his sightseeing requests, Matt and I realized that we are 1) old, and 2) boring.

Game show tapings?  Hollywood?  Muscle beach?  Rrrruh?

Being the super cool aunt that I am, though, I scored free tickets to a taping of Wheel of Fortune (not as exciting as The Price is Right, to be sure, but Vanna's dresses are awfully pretty [my observation, not Craig's]). Off we trotted to Culver City on this fine November day. And here are my observations, in addition to the prettiness of Vanna's teal green, hot pink, and black lace dresses -- which have to be changed out after each 30-minute segment:

1. Weird people go to mid-day game show tapings. Mostly women with thick makeup and too much gold jewelry.

2. Weird people work at mid-day game show tapings. Mostly men with comb overs and too much gold jewelry.

3. The set is tiny. I mean, tiny! How do they make it look so big on television? I bet that darn wheel isn't five feet across.

4. Unlike the size of the set, Vanna White and Pat Sajak have very large heads. I mean that literally, not figuratively. (I cannot speak to the figurative largeness of their heads, but since Vanna sat down after every single round of "Big money, c'mon big money!" I suspect it's large-ish.)

5. I'm better at solving puzzles in person than when I watch the show on television. Unfortunately, that did not get me either a bobble-head or a dollar.

The tapings we watched will air on December 19, 20, and 21. And yes, we will watch them and say, "Oh, yes, I remember that hot pink dress. And my goodness, Vanna looks much thinner in person."

Tomorrow? Hollywood. Sunday? Muscle beach. After all, I am a super cool aunt. But I confess, I made Craig sprint through The Huntington so we could hit the desert garden and bonsai court at twilight. And he would confess, he liked them both.