Road Trip
The girls LOVE a road trip so there was oodles of singing, laughing, goofing, and picture taking in the car on the way to California. A lot of the laughing was at my expense on account of my sudden stupidness. All of that was well deserved.
For some reason, Megan has always been fascinated by the windmills that you pass in the desert between Indio and Palm Springs. Lisa also found them pretty entertaining.
California, Day One
Our first California day was pretty much for me. I always wanted to take a studio tour and so that's just what we did. We went on the Warner Bros. VIP Studio tour and had maybe the most fun I've ever had on this continent.
For all of my fellow Pretty Little Liars fans, I got a good look at Spencer's house, Aria's house, the high school and City Hall.
Turns out a lot of the sets in PLL are recycled pieces of Gilmore Girls' Stars Hollow. Luke's is now the Rosewood Grill (or whatever they call it). And Spencer totally lives in Rory and Lorelai's old house.
The town square no longer has the gazebo up, but I did stand it it with my eyes closed and picture the gazebo there. Because that's just the kind of huge dork I am. Oh, and Miss Patty's is still there and still just Miss Patty's. They have not re-appropriated that yet. Thank God.
Around the corner from Stars Hollow was Chicago and the El Station that everyone in the history of E.R. found themselves arriving at or departing from.
And down the street the New York subway...
Central Park...
The Big City...
China Town...
And suburbia.
From the back lot we headed over to the front lot where we got to go onto The Big Bang Theory's sound stage. That was a particular highlight for Megan and I. We saw the out of order elevator (the greatest inanimate object on television today, I think), the roof set from the final episode of the third season, the lobby set, and the take-out menus on Leonard and Sheldon's fridge, but pretty much everything else was all covered in plastic so as not to get dusty during the hiatus. The girls and I did manage to surreptitiously walk "into" the boys' apartment when our guide wasn't looking though. We're so bad-ass!
We weren't aloud to bring cameras into the sound stage with us so no pictures of any of this awesomeness. Or the awesomeness of the "museum" where we got to see clothes and props from many of our favorite shows and movies. You weren't supposed to touch but I'm a rebel so I managed to "brush up against" clothes worn by Simon Baker in The Mentalist, Zachary Levi on Chuck, Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight and both Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles on Supernatural. I pretty much brushed up against anything that anyone hot ever purportedly had on their body. Don't judge me.
From there we headed to the garage where we looked at cars which totally all work - seriously, someone could actually drive that Batmobile to the store for some ice cream! I was mostly excited about the Nerd Herd car because, you know, Chuck!
Oh, that's also where we took a ridiculous green screen picture that was then superimposed with a background from Harry Potter. I don't watch (or read) Harry Potter so this one seemed extra silly to me.
Finally, we visited the Prop Department where they have a room that they have dedicated to keeping the set of Central Perk (Friends) preserved for posterity. Turns out that Friends is Lisa's all-time favorite television show so when we walked into that room she about fainted with joy.
Our tour guide was a total doll and he was particularly fond of the girls and I since we were the only ones in our group who appeared to be excited by the things we were seeing. Also I was the only one who could answer all of his trivia questions because I'm apparently the only person on that tour who watches obscene amounts of television. Whatever - paid off for us because he let us get a little more up-close and personal with the Central Perk set than he was technically supposed to, but I'm not going to post those pictures (he specifically asked me not to) or tell you his name because I wouldn't want him to get in trouble for being awesome. Instead, I'll just show you Lisa's second best moment in that room...
As our tour was ending and we were on our way back to the WB Gift Shop both girls told me that it was one of the best days of their lives. We all got souvenirs and then Lisa gave Bugs a big hug and we went in search of lunch.
Oh, we also went in search of a Star Map so that we'd be prepared for our star stalking in Malibu and Beverly Hills the rest of the week.
Map purchased and bellies full, we did a bit of shopping at Universal City Walk and then went back to Santa Clarita to rest up and regale the family with our tales of the day.
2 comments:
So fun! I don't watch PLL but the fact that it was the old GG set I would have LOVE because I do still watch that - almost daily - yes it's a sickness... :)
Bren, I seriously almost hyper-ventilated every time our guide pointed out something from GG!
When he told me he was a bit-player in an ep (the one where Rory misses Lor's graduation to go hang out with Jess in NY), I seriously asked him for his autograph. No wonder he loved me!
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