In the City of Angels

Well, technically we were in Santa Monica.

We (the 52 Miss America 2007 contestants) lived on the 7th floor of the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. Yes, it's as incredible as it looks. I roomed with Kristen Eddings, Miss Washington, who is wonderfully genuine, has a great sense of humor, and loves coffee as much as I do. The majority of our time was spent within our production groups. Emily (New Hampshire), Janie (Colorado), Blaire (Tennessee), Lizzie (North Carolina), Katherine (Idaho), Pili (Hawai'i), Melanie (Ohio) and I comprised Team Aqua.

The Miss America staff, in conjunction with PB&J productions and CMT, kept us remarkably busy with a variety of events, including a dinner party in Hollywood at the historic Roosevelt Hotel.

Our production crew was fabulous. They filmed over 1,000 hours of footage, and I'm positive it will boil down into a great 2-hour show ("Pageant School" - to be aired in January on CMT, MTV, and VH1). We also met executives and producers from CMT, who filmed our "Up Close & Personal" interviews. These will be available on cmt.com in December, and then you'll be able to meet all my new friends!

The Aqua Girls - in our hoodies by Ed Hardy

My fabulous roomie - Miss Washington, Kristen Eddings

Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood - I thought these were Dick Van Dyke's handprints, but they actually belonged to W.S. Van Dyke. Oops.

Doris Roberts was one of our celebrity guests at the Sunday night dinner party

Many thanks to the Miss America Organization, PB&J, and CMT for a great week! And to my new Miss America sisters - thank you for being friendly, genuine, and FUN - I can hardly wait to see you all again in January!

Look out, Las Vegas :)