Annual Trip off the Farm

Brother only gets about one trip off the farm a year (ok, that's not entirely true...just ask Derek!) But this is the 2nd year in a row that he's been able to visit me - last year Florida, this year California. And we conveniently time these trips around NASCAR events. However, I wanted to give him the real 'southern California experience' in the short 3 days that he had here, so I got tickets to the Jay Leno Show. Of course, we're not allowed to have cameras inside the studio, so let me paint a brief picture of that event. After waiting in lines for about 2 hours and being somewhere in the middle of the pack, we were escorted to our seats front and center! We're completely baffled at how that happened, but Andrew was prominantly seen multiple times on the taping. Previous to the commencement of the taping, he also had the distinct honor of shaking his booty in front of the entire audience to get a free t-shirt. I averted my eyes.
Then the races - plural. Thanks to a friend, we had pit passes for the Nationwide race. While standing on the side waiting for the pre-race festivities to begin, I looked to my right and saw a very recognizable face standing there. I nudged Andrew and said, "Shake and Bake to my right!" John C Reilly, the co-star of Talladega Nights, was standing next to us. Andrew asked for a picture with him, and here it is:

The race was good, but my guy didn't win. The Sprint Cup race wasn't as exciting after having a backstage pass the day before, but it was nice to experience it with our aunt and uncle who had never been to a race before. Also, thank you California for banning smoking at all public venues!! It was so great to not go home with a headache from second hand smoke!
Other activities packed into the 3 days - tour of Hollywood, survey of fire damage from the Station Fire, driving tour of Pasadena, a few games of Ladder golf, and saw the Hangover at the $3 theatre.