This update will be photo heavy
and prose light.
You can thank me later...
Is this late enough?
I took a bunch of photos on the tour...
And now don't remember what half
of what I shot actually was!
Lots of shots of building fronts
that, at the time, meant something.
But now?
Yeah I know how that goes!
"Remember in Friends when
Ross ran down the street?
That was there!"
No. Cause I never watched Friends.
Our tour was punctuated with gun shots.
I assumed this was merely a typical
Los Angeles occurrence,
Not in that part of town, but I can show you on a map where it would be common!
While I no longer remember what buildings
are which, I think some of you may
recognize this one:
Nope.
How many of these shows have you seen?
I know I've seen at least half a dozen.
I don't think I've even seen half a dozen of these movies! I heard of many of the classics, but never saw them. I guess I'm more of an MGM and Paramount studios watcher.
We then went inside and were told
that no photography was allowed.
Ruby and I watch a show called Lucifer.
And I visited that set.
Fran watches that show too.
What was really interesting was the balcony.
Whenever they need a Los Angeles city background
they just pull a massive curtain across
that has the city printed on it.
Huh. The fun facts you learn when you visit a studio.
After that set, we went to the props building.
I'm not sure we went to the props building on my tour.
Inside were several of the cars from
the Batman films.
But, alas, not the original from the TV series.
We did see the Batman cars on our tour.
Next stop, we visited an area with
props from Harry Potter,
This is odd because the Harry Potter stuff was sort of in the middle of our tour. We went through all the city and residential scenes, then they dropped us at the HP exhibit. After that we got back on a tram with different tourists and saw the cars, a soundstage, and got to take pictures on a Friends set. Since I never watched the show it wasn't a big deal to me. Sounds like we need to go back again.
Fantastic Beasts
and a few costumes
from Wonder Woman and Batman.
Yeah, they didn't have these when I was there, mainly because the movies weren't made yet!
The stuff nightmares are made of.
And that was about it for the tour.
We were dumped off at the requisite
gift shop to hopefully spend
tons of cash.
Yes I remember that part, but we didn't spend much money. Mainly because they didn't have any merch for any shows I was into.
Like these figurines from Corpse Bride.
Who's that one on the middle right?
I wonder how many of you
will understand that reference?
After the tour I got back to the car
and headed out to...
I suppose that's a reasonable second part of your day, only an hour or so with no traffic.
Well, I'd driven here so...
Let's brave the crowds, shall we?
Actually that doesn't look very crowded at all.
So I ordered a clam chowder instead.
And it was good!
Plus... the table next to me ordered the guac.
So I was able to watch it being prepared
without having to order/eat it.
Sounds better than my first experience at the Santa Monica Pier!
Your waitress took this photo? No?
I also ordered another dish that I'd heard of
but never tried.
Fish tacos.
Get out!
I'd never quite been able to wrap my head
around that.
Tacos? With fish?
And.... not bad.
If course, we'll put anything between a tortilla and call it a taco. Were they grilled or battered and fried? I'll only do the latter. We have a great little place near our house where you can get them for $1.49 each. Two tacos and a big bag of fries is less than $5. Its great as a late night snack or even lunch.
And... for the first time ever,
I almost walked away without a poker chip
Ingrates.
To date, I have 78 poker chips.
None of them repeats.
Not bad at all!
Yep. But only after another pointed it out.