Our Trip To The Ellen DeGeneres Show
Los Angeles
Tuesday, January 16, 2018 started out as a normal day until my cell phone rang and the caller ID said Burbank, CA. The only person that I know in Burbank, CA is Ellen.
Guess what? It it was a producer from The Ellen show!! I was on Cloud 9.
Our life is forever changed not only because Ellen mentioned our name on national tv (we will talk about that later) but because we were a part of Ellen’s 60th Birthday #onemillionactsofgood two-day taping. Just imagine that we are SCREAMING right here.
Now the past two weeks have been a whirlwind. We are forever grateful to each and every person that played a part in our journey to get there especially since this was our first time traveling to Los Angeles. BUT let’s talk about this Los Angeles traffic first…WHY just why. There are so many people that live in Los Angeles it is a NIGHTMARE traveling at ANY time of the day. I am talking like Freddie Kruger, Jason, Get Out type of nightmare.
When we arrived at LAX early Tuesday morning and went to pick up our rental car at Enterprise. Of course we are in LA so this is no typical Enterprise. We are walking past BMW’s, Mercedes, and other luxury vehicles that we could have rented, but me being the person that I am told John, “You know I did not rent any of those vehicles so let’s keep it moving.” Once we arrived at the end of the luxury car lot on the Enterprise lot we were facing two sets of SUVs, the basic and the upgraded. I of course had rented the basic because I am frugal like that. Our rental car agent then told us we could pick our car from the upgraded SUVs. John was over the moon. I am telling you all favor is not fair, but God sure put some favor over us.
After we picked up our rental car we went to get something to eat. At this point it is almost 12pm on the East Coast and we left at house at 4am Eastern time. To say we were getting hangry was an understatement. Our first stop was a restaurant that someone told us about, but when we got there they were closed. Even though the restaurant was closed, the door wasn’t! John scared the mess out of the poor lady that was in there by herself. Our next stop was the Coffee Co. in Inglewood. The food was AMAZING. I had the New Orleans Fried Swai with eggs…DELICIOUS. John had the best veggie omelet he has ever had in his life (he says).
Now that our tummies are full we decide to head to Glendale to check into our hotel...four hours early. When we get there I am told that the only room that they have right now is with two double beds even though she had us down for a king.
Ok lady, I have been traveling at this point for what felt like two days.
We don’t care what you have. We can sleep together when we get back home.
I told her two beds is perfect and John agreed.
After we rested we went out to see the sights.
First Stop: Rodeo Drive and Beverly Hills (all I can is there are some VERY wealthy people in this world).
Second Stop: Frida’s for some delicious Mexican Food and a cocktail (for me).
Third Stop: Cruising down the Pacific Coast Highway to the Santa Monica Pier to take in the beauty of God’s amazing work.
Fourth Stop: Our trip would not be complete without a stop by a Los Angeles Goodwill. We love thrifting. I purchased some FABULOUS red pumps.
Overall we had a great day and made lots of memories!!!
The Ellen Show
Thursday Morning we got up early. Well early for LA normal for us. We "Yelped" and found a breakfast spot that we wanted to try. We decided we would try if we would could be there by 9am it was only 3 miles away and the Ellen Studios were only 9 miles from the restaurant so we would have plenty of time to get to the studios. We left on time but then that nightmare came back…LA TRAFFIC!!! We got off on the quickest exit we could find, because we could not be late for Ellen.
Once we arrived at the Warner Brothers Studios we received our Ellen parking pass. Now John is grinning from ear to ear. I think it had finally hit him how big this was.
We walked to grab some breakfast however on the way back it started drizzling, not good for a girl with natural hair. Panic set in, I was calm for a minute but then I took off running (well, jogging). I could not be on the Ellen show looking like a Chia Pet.
When we did make it back to the seating area we found a seat in the crowd of people. We befriended a lady named Sicola, who was there because she is doing great things with youth in Long Beach.
While waiting we met some other pretty amazing people doing some pretty AMAZING things. Just to name a few:
- A group of college kids biking across the United States to raise awareness for clean water in Africa.
- A teacher who donated her kidney to one of her student's moms.
- A guy who has an animal sanctuary for rescued farm animals.
- A lady who prints t-shirts in Nashville, with all of her proceeds going toward helping the underserved children in the Nashville.
Like I said... AMAZING!!
After waiting for a while we were ready to receive our “guaranteed tickets”. Let’s just say they were not just guaranteed tickets. They were “VIP” tickets. I was wondering who the VIP section was for and it was for us and some other people.
Won’t He do it!!!
Now let me tell you how God works.
At first, we weren't even sure if we were going to be able to attend (When we received the invitation to attend Ellen, we had less than a week to get it together. With the support of some dear friends they helped make it happen). Now we are sitting in the VIP section, on the same row as Ellen’s mom, for the taping. By the time most of you all read this you will have already seen the BEST part for John and I (If not, go back and watch Friday’s show).
Out of the 300 AMAZING people that were there, Ellen formally recognized four people in the audience:
John and I for our Hurricane Harvey project (that could not be done without the help of our We Are The Hughes community).
- Our new friend that donated her kidney
- Dan from the Animal Sanctuary.
Let me just say when the cameras were directed at us, I was in shock. After all, this was the end of the second show and we had already received the other best part which was our blessing from Ellen and Cheerios for our ACT OF GOOD!!
Now the guest list, OMG…Michelle Obama, Chance The Rapper, Kevin Hart, Jamie Fox, Jennifer Anniston, Kimmel, just to name a few. This trip was definitely one for the history books and one we will NEVER forget.
We did not start out on this journey of doing good to receive anything in return but we are living proof that when you do good and spread love good things come back to you exceedingly and abundantly above all that you could ever dream or hope for. God is good!!
John and Kenya Hughes