I've held off for a while from telling my story of my MJ trip for numerous reasons,but now I'm finally telling my story!
Pictures I took from the first three days: https://www.facebook.com/dannymac12...68141535369.1073741829.100003665591452&type=3
The trip began preparations June 2nd. My mom and I booked a hotel in Little Armenia just two miles from Hollywood. The trip was my high school graduation trip,which my graduation was on June 10th. I decided this trip was way more important to me than a graduation party,so that's what we did. We left my house in Vegas June 24th for our first destination: Neverland. My mom and I left at 7am in the morning and it took us until 2:00pm to get there. Granted this was the first time headed up that way because we're usually only in two areas of California that we know at the back of our hand. Arriving at Neverland,we met some very nice and gracious fans. I always feel like I look completely insane talking to MJ fans,but I guess that's just me. I'm a complete stranger in their eyes,so it's understandable. We stayed for a half-hour at Neverland,admiring the scenery and talking with fans. We met one couple from the UK who took a helicopter ride over Neverland and they told us that it was exactly the way Michael had it,obviously without the rides. We were also told that an unknown man actually still lives in the house on the property. After we left,we explored Los Olivos for a bit. I had some delicious ice cream in a cone and we walked around the town. Since it's pretty much wine country and I'm under 21,it was incredibly boring because there's all these wine tasting places. We left at 3:00pm and made the journey back to Hollywood to get to our hotel. With the insane Southern California traffic,we didn't get to our hotel until 7:00pm! It was seriously crazy,but we managed. We have driven for twelve straight hours so my mom and I immediately crashed.
Then the next day was the 25th so we had two decisions: go to Forest Lawn or stay in Hollywood. We decided the second option because we knew how insanely psycho it was going to be. We went to Hollywood and walked on Hollywood Boulevard. The first place we popped into was "StarWorld",a music/movie memorabilia shop. I take serious advantage of these places because there are none in Vegas or in the state of Nevada. My mom talked to the owner while I picked out things to do. It turns out that Michael used to be a frequent customer of his and said he was always nice but there was one incident where that wasn't the case. He said that Prince Michael was looking at comic books and accidentally dropped one. Michael was not happy and he demanded a security guard to pick it up and put it back. Other than that one incident,he said Michael was extremely nice and popped in without a disguise. After I made my purchases and left,we continued our trek of Hollywood. My last Hollywood trip I took was exactly two months before Michael died with my dad. My mom and I took a tour of Hollywood and we got to see many celebrity houses,including the Holmby Hills house Michael passed in and the gates featured on TMZ. The tour was two hours and was extremely enjoyable. Afterward,we went looking for Michael's star outside Grauman's and we found it. Of course,since it was the five year anniversary,it was insanely crowded with news crews everywhere. Our family friend from Rancho Santa Margerita also came down and visited us in Hollywood. I had to walk away from the star at one point because it was so overwhelming the amount of people around it. I eventually found Michael's foot and handprints outside Grauman's from 1989,as well as his kids' footprints. There's a lot more about our Hollywood journey,but it's a bit irrelevant because it doesn't really pertain to Michael after this point,so I'm skipping over to June 26th.
June 26th was the day we visited Forest Lawn. Once we pulled in there,we realized it was ginormous! At one point we got lost,but it was a good mistake because we ended up seeing all the thousands of red roses from the "One Rose For Michael Jackson" people,which was amazing. Finally we found Holly Terrace. It was honestly a bittersweet moment because it's the moment of realization of how close you are to Michael,yet he isn't here anymore. I tried so hard not to cry,but it was challenging.
I managed to get through it. I also wanted to leave something outside,but I had not thought to make something,so I didn't do it. My mom saw a little boy with a note and a granola bar walking up to the Holly Terrace door and put it behind a picture of young Michael. It broke my heart so much. We stayed for about twenty minutes,then we got in the car and made our way to downtown L.A. We went to the Grammy museum and Staples Center/Nokia Theater,where they were preparing the BET Awards because it was going to be that weekend. After about two hours,we finally left and went back to our hotel.
That's all the Michael-related stories from the trip. I have many more memories of the trip,but I'd rather not share because they're not Michael-related,but our trip was a week long and loads of fun. I had an absolute blast.
Pictures I took from the first three days: https://www.facebook.com/dannymac12...68141535369.1073741829.100003665591452&type=3
The trip began preparations June 2nd. My mom and I booked a hotel in Little Armenia just two miles from Hollywood. The trip was my high school graduation trip,which my graduation was on June 10th. I decided this trip was way more important to me than a graduation party,so that's what we did. We left my house in Vegas June 24th for our first destination: Neverland. My mom and I left at 7am in the morning and it took us until 2:00pm to get there. Granted this was the first time headed up that way because we're usually only in two areas of California that we know at the back of our hand. Arriving at Neverland,we met some very nice and gracious fans. I always feel like I look completely insane talking to MJ fans,but I guess that's just me. I'm a complete stranger in their eyes,so it's understandable. We stayed for a half-hour at Neverland,admiring the scenery and talking with fans. We met one couple from the UK who took a helicopter ride over Neverland and they told us that it was exactly the way Michael had it,obviously without the rides. We were also told that an unknown man actually still lives in the house on the property. After we left,we explored Los Olivos for a bit. I had some delicious ice cream in a cone and we walked around the town. Since it's pretty much wine country and I'm under 21,it was incredibly boring because there's all these wine tasting places. We left at 3:00pm and made the journey back to Hollywood to get to our hotel. With the insane Southern California traffic,we didn't get to our hotel until 7:00pm! It was seriously crazy,but we managed. We have driven for twelve straight hours so my mom and I immediately crashed.
Then the next day was the 25th so we had two decisions: go to Forest Lawn or stay in Hollywood. We decided the second option because we knew how insanely psycho it was going to be. We went to Hollywood and walked on Hollywood Boulevard. The first place we popped into was "StarWorld",a music/movie memorabilia shop. I take serious advantage of these places because there are none in Vegas or in the state of Nevada. My mom talked to the owner while I picked out things to do. It turns out that Michael used to be a frequent customer of his and said he was always nice but there was one incident where that wasn't the case. He said that Prince Michael was looking at comic books and accidentally dropped one. Michael was not happy and he demanded a security guard to pick it up and put it back. Other than that one incident,he said Michael was extremely nice and popped in without a disguise. After I made my purchases and left,we continued our trek of Hollywood. My last Hollywood trip I took was exactly two months before Michael died with my dad. My mom and I took a tour of Hollywood and we got to see many celebrity houses,including the Holmby Hills house Michael passed in and the gates featured on TMZ. The tour was two hours and was extremely enjoyable. Afterward,we went looking for Michael's star outside Grauman's and we found it. Of course,since it was the five year anniversary,it was insanely crowded with news crews everywhere. Our family friend from Rancho Santa Margerita also came down and visited us in Hollywood. I had to walk away from the star at one point because it was so overwhelming the amount of people around it. I eventually found Michael's foot and handprints outside Grauman's from 1989,as well as his kids' footprints. There's a lot more about our Hollywood journey,but it's a bit irrelevant because it doesn't really pertain to Michael after this point,so I'm skipping over to June 26th.
June 26th was the day we visited Forest Lawn. Once we pulled in there,we realized it was ginormous! At one point we got lost,but it was a good mistake because we ended up seeing all the thousands of red roses from the "One Rose For Michael Jackson" people,which was amazing. Finally we found Holly Terrace. It was honestly a bittersweet moment because it's the moment of realization of how close you are to Michael,yet he isn't here anymore. I tried so hard not to cry,but it was challenging.
I managed to get through it. I also wanted to leave something outside,but I had not thought to make something,so I didn't do it. My mom saw a little boy with a note and a granola bar walking up to the Holly Terrace door and put it behind a picture of young Michael. It broke my heart so much. We stayed for about twenty minutes,then we got in the car and made our way to downtown L.A. We went to the Grammy museum and Staples Center/Nokia Theater,where they were preparing the BET Awards because it was going to be that weekend. After about two hours,we finally left and went back to our hotel.
That's all the Michael-related stories from the trip. I have many more memories of the trip,but I'd rather not share because they're not Michael-related,but our trip was a week long and loads of fun. I had an absolute blast.
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