On the night of my birthday, Robbie told me what we were doing that weekend. Friday morning, we would be driving to L.A., stopping at Griffith Observatory, taking a tour of the Warner Brothers Studio lot, and spending the rest of the weekend at an oceanfront resort! I was VERY excited!
We woke up on Friday and could hardly wait to leave! We hopped in the car around 945a, and made the trek into the big city. We knew that whatever time of day it was, there was always going to be traffic, especially on a Friday, so we just went with the flow. Traffic didn't start getting bad until right in the middle of downtown, and we viewed that as a win because we were almost at our destination. Griffith Observatory was our first stop of the day, and we made it there in just under 2 hours. Both Robbie and I had wanted to visit Griffith Observatory since before we moved to CA. When we lived in Vegas and would make weekend trips to the L.A. area, we always tried to make it a point to get there, but there was always something hindering us. And even living in CA now, it was a long drive JUST to see Griffith Observatory. Now we had a reason to go because we were making a weekend of it!
Griffith Observatory is in the hills of West Hollywood, and it overlooks the city of L.A. and the whole valley beneath! I knew this going in, but what I didn't know is that we could see the Hollywood sign from there as well! I had only seen the Hollywood sign a few times in my life, and this was the closest I had ever gotten to it! As we were walking up to the Observatory, I literally looked to my right (thanks Miley Cyrus) and there it was! Pretty awesome!
The Observatory itself didn't cost anything to get in, which was cool. It was pretty much a huge building that on-lookers could just walk around at their own will . We got there right when it opened, at noon, so the crowds were really thin, which we liked. The sights were simply amazing! I'm glad the morning fog had lifted so we could see out. Downtown L.A. looked super cool from up there . We spent a good 45 minutes there. Griffith Observatory was definitely worth the wait!
Believe it or not, we weren't shooting an ad for sunglasses!
After Griffith Observatory, we headed a few miles up the road to get to the Warner Brothers Studio lot for our 2:30p tour. I was really psyched about this! About a month ago, I dropped a hint to Robbie because I saw a commercial offering big discounts to Southern California residents. I'm glad he picked up on that! We had a little time to kill, so we decided to eat lunch. Conveniently, on the corner of the WB Lot, there was a really good restaurant. Perfect! We literally parked our car for the restaurant, and it was close enough where we didn't have to move it again before our tour.
For those that don't know, the WB Studio Lot is made up of city blocks-worth of sound stages, archives, and museums where past and current TV shows and movies were/are filmed. I just couldn't believe we were there! The biggest draw for me was that I knew a replica of Central Perk was there! I love TV and movies, so this was right in my wheelhouse!
The tour started in an office-like building. We had to go through and get our tickets, and then we were seated in a lobby until our tour began. The lobby was adorned with pictures of some of the best movies and TV shows since WB Studios came into existence in 1918. It was really neat to see. Eventually all the 2:30p tours started. We all were directed into an auditorium where we watched a short movie on what were going to expect on the tour. Then we met our tour guides and broke off into 5 little mini-tours. Each mini-tour group consisted of about 8-10 people and had their own golf cart that the tour guides drove, and as they were driving, they would point out cool facts about the Lot.
Picture of an aerial view of the entire WB Lot.
There were several stops along the tour, and the first stop was an area probably most notably used for shooting scenes from Jurassic Park, and also used for a facade of one of the girls' houses on Pretty Little Liars. This area was initially made for a Cuban movie. It was a lush area with multiple trees, and it really did look like we were in a forest. When we were walking through that area, it was MUCH smaller than what TV portrays. In this area was a cabin-like structure that they use for various scenes in TV and movies, the Pretty Little Liars house facade, and a lagoon that they can fill with water whenever they have a scene that needs to depict a lake. The lagoon is kind of curvy, so it gives off the impression to the viewer that the "lake" is much bigger than what it actually is. As we kept walking in this area, that's when we came up on the place where a part of Jurassic Park was filmed. Jurassic Park was supposed to be shot solely in Hawaii, but during shooting, there was a natural disaster, and the state kicked them out due to safety concerns. J.P. still had a little bit of shooting left, so they chose the WB lot because of this specific area that looks like the jungle. The specific scene in the movie was where the big dino print tremors and the jeep is being chased through the the jungle by a t-rex. The actual spot for that scene was very small, so what they did was shoot the scene over and over again. The jeep was just going around in circles, and they pieced it together in editing to make it look like the jeep was traveling down a much longer path! Jurassic Park wasn't even a WB Studios movie, but the WB Lot was the only one in L.A. with a lush surrounding. Our tour guide said that they are open to letting other studios come in a shoot because "if they've got the dime, we've got the time!" Our last stop in this area was near another lodge-type building, and a bush-wagon. The bush-wagon is literally a wall of bushes used in shows/scenes if they want to hide something in the background. On the WB Lot, they have a lot of production offices all over, so if they are shooting a scene at a specific location and an office is in the background, they just wheel up the bush-wagon, put it in front of the office building, and voila!, a nice flowery, grassy backdrop! So deceiving, yet so clever!
Pretty Little Liars house
A Bush-Wagon
After we all hopped back on the tour cart, we headed through a "town" called the Warner Village. Now, I put the word 'town' in quotations because the WB Lot has several streets depicting several genres, such as New York Street, and Midwest Street. So, if a movie was set in New York, they would stick around New York Street to do most of their shooting. The Warner Village is a newer kind of street that depicts a typical New England neighborhood. The street used to be where western genre movies were set, but being westerns aren't made much anymore, they changed it up in 2004. The street was lined with big colonial houses, but, they weren't actual houses. When the studio asked for the Warner Village to be built, they wanted a New England style feel, but the producers wanted office space as well. So, they got the best of both worlds. The inside of each Warner Village house apparently looks much like an office building with cubicles and all! It really is amazing how they use their limited space on this Lot!
After the Warner Village, we came up to an area on the Lot that looked very 'New York', but very broad, like a blank canvas. The only reason I thought it may have been New York was because of the apartment building sets. It was a blank canvas in the sense that the set designers could 'dress up' the set and make it look like anything they wanted, with stop lights, bustling sidewalks, cafes, etc. This was also the spot where a scene of FRIENDS was shot. It was the scene in Season 8 where Joey had his big World War II movie premier and he brought Chandler, and Chandler falls asleep. The facade of that movie theater still stands today, and it used in several different TV show and movies. I recognized it right away! And, right across the street from this theater facade was the entrance to a New York Subway Station, which of course led to nowhere. But you would never know! Our guide also pointed out a small patch of grass on a corner. That's where they shot the scene in FRIENDS where Phoebe runs weird and Rachel joins her and ends up running right into a horse! It's supposed to depict Central Park in NYC, but it was so crazy how small that plot of land was!
Joey's movie premier location
"Central Park" where Phoebe and Rachel run.
After this stop, we were then dropped off outside the WB Archives building. In here is a 2-story revolving display of the hot new movies currently being put out. The first floor was the entire Marvel collection, with Wonder Woman being the main attraction. The second story of the building was all things Harry Potter. The archives building pretty much displayed costumes worn by the actors and actresses from these movies. There were a few sets as well, such as Jacob's apartment from Harry Potter. It may not be the popular opinion, but Robbie and I don't really care for the Marvel movies, or Harry Potter (although I've never seen or read any of the H.P. movies/books). But, we did appreciate the displays of costumes of each movie! They were all so beautiful!
After the WB Archives building, we went down a street where one of the shows Robbie and I watch holds a lot of its scenes. That show is Shameless! Shameless takes place in Chicago, but the bulk of their shooting is in L.A. The cast goes to Chicago to shoot a few scenes before each season, but most of the set is built on the WB Lot. Facades such as Patsy's Pies and the Laundromat that Fiona owns is right there, as well as a facade of the L Train! So cool! Unfortunately Patsy's Pies and the Laundromat were dressed for different shows or movies, but I could definitely recognize the images in my head! That was a cool thing to see!
The L Train, a la Chicago
"Patsy's Pie's" in Shameless
Fiona's laundromat in Shameless
The tour guides then took us down a few streets next to the several sound stages that the WB Lot holds. Sound stages are where most TV shows and movies are shot. For example, it would cost way too much to shoot a whole series in someone's actual house, so they just show the outside of an actual house, but build the interior of the house on a sound stage. Our tour guide let us into an actual sound stage where a current TV show is being shot. The show is called 'The Fosters', and it airs on Freeform (formerly ABC Family). It was pretty cool being on an actual set! Of course, they didn't allow us to take any pictures, so I'll do my best describing it. First thing I noticed was the small size of the sound stage. How they got a full cast, crew AND an audience in that space is pure magic! The tour guides then told us that the front of the house this family lives in is replicated after an actual house in Long Beach, CA! So, if we found the house in Long Beach, it would look exactly like the one on the set! Cool! Then we were guided inside the house, and it looked just like a house that we all live in. The living room flowed right into the kitchen, which flowed right into the backyard. And the set dressers thought of everything. It really did look like the house was just lived in! It was so neat! The next thing I noticed was how dark it was on set. Obviously no scenes were being shot when we were there, but the lighting directors really do a great job, I would imagine, to make it look like a certain time of day, both inside and outside of the house. When we went into the kitchen I noted how small the space was. Hollywood sure does a great job at hiding the fact that potentially 20 people are in a room no bigger than your kitchen! When we walked into their backyard, barely anything made noise (grass, woodchips, etc). They do this by design so that noise isn't picked up when scenes are being shot. It's someone's job to come in during editing and add sound, so when you hear extra curricular noise in TV shows and moves, that sound is most likely added! I don't watch The Fosters currently, but I might have to start after this cool behind-the-scenes tour of their sound stage! One last thing to add about all the Lot's Sound Stages is that by each stage door is a red light with a sign that said if the red light was on, a show/movie was in progress. I really badly wanted to see a stage with a red light on, but sadly I didn't.
After the cool tour of the sound stage, our guide took us to The Mill. The Mill is where all the sets are built, and it looked like a giant Home Depot, probably just as big. The Mill even had its own building; a carpenter's dream!
This piece of wood is designated for The Big Bang Theory
After driving through The Mill, our tour came to the props department. Much like The Mill, the props dept. has its own building as well. Inside was like one big antique store, filled with everything to adorn a house from top to bottom, as well as the streets and sidewalks surrounding it. No wonder why The Foster's set looked so well lived in! When a set needs a prop, someone just comes in and puts a tag on it stating the day they need it, and what movie/show it's for. Kinda old school of a system, but it seems to work for them!
After the props dept., we headed over to another building which happened to house all the Batmobile's ever created for every Batman movie throughout the years! It was a very cool thing to see the progression of the vehicles. All the vehicles actually worked at one point, and they were all immaculate! Some of the doors were open so we got to peek inside! It was a cool experience!
Then it was time for our tour to end, so the guide took us back to the gift shop/WB museum. I was a little confused at this point because we hadn't seen the FRIENDS Central Perk replica set yet. I was worried that maybe we had signed up for the wrong tour. Our guide quickly put my worry to ease and said that the coffee house was right inside! Oh man, I was excited! First, we walked through a small museum, holding a life cycle of how a show/movie is created. There were storyboards on the wall, several copies of scripts, idea boards for character development, and of course pictures of those ideas coming to fruition.
At the end of the hallway where the museum was, we turned the corner, and there it was, the replica Central Perk set! I had to remind myself to pick my jaw up off the floor. I have been a FRIENDS fan since around its 4th season on air (1996-ish). I even got Robbie to become a superfan after we got together (although he did watch episodes from time to time when they originally aired). We have all the DVD and Blu-Ray discs, and FRIENDS is in our nightly TV show rotation, along with other greats like How I Met Your Mother, Parks and Recreation, and The Office. But, FRIENDS was the catalyst for the rest of the shows! I can't tell you how many cycles of FRIENDS we have gone through from start to finish, but I've probably heard the theme song at least 5,000 times, no joke! And now we were here, as close as we'll ever get to the real thing! With the exception of the couch (which is probably in a locked vault), it looked EXACTLY like the original set of Central Perk, right down to the bar stools! It was so cool being there, and the nostalgia just came flooding back for us. We even got to sit on the couch and pretend to drink from their huge coffee mugs!
While in Central Perk, I envisioned Rachel introducing Phoebe to sing Smelly Cat on the stage to the right, I envisioned Ross trying to hit Joey but instead he missed and hit a pole just behind the couch, and I envisioned Gunther pouring endless cups of espresso with his hair as golden as the sun! That experience alone was well worth the tour! In the same room as Central Perk was a plaque with the creation of FRIENDS, all their autographs, and the original script. Next to it was a giant canvas of 'The Last One', the final episode of the series. It was so cool that the WB acknowledged the worldwide success of that show and created a long-standing mini-shrine to it! It was the BEST way to end our time at the WB Studios! And it was one of the best ideas Robbie put into motion! Going away from this tour gives us a new appreciation of how shows and movies are made. Since our time at the WB Lot while watching TV, we will always question how they created certain scenes! It gives us a whole different perspective now that we've gone behind the scenes!
When the WB tour ended, it was pushing 5pm, and we still had to drive to our resort for the weekend. Our resort was in a city called Rancho Palos Verdes, which is on the southwestern side of L.A. That meant driving through L.A. on a Friday, during rush hour. Not fun. But, we knew what we were getting ourselves into, so we just sat back and again, went with the flow. I was driving while Robbie navigated us through the streets of L.A. We were on streets like Hollywood, Melrose, Sunset, Vine. It was pretty cool! Eventually we got out of the mess of traffic, and were finally approaching our resort. Even though it was dark, I could sense we were getting closer as the roads began to wind and the ocean was just to our right! We pulled into the resort, Terranea, at about 730p. If you want a calculation, it took us a little over 2 hours to go just 40 miles!
Robbie reserved a full oceanfront room, and it was glorious. Even though it was dark, as soon as we opened the balcony doors, we could hear the waves crashing. There was nothing between us and the water! From our room, we could see a little further down the coastline, and the views of the houses on the hills were stunning with their lights glowing. It was well worth the trip that night. We went to a restaurant and got some appetizers to cap off our night and a super fun day!. It was going to be nothing but relaxation the next 2 days!
On Saturday morning I was up just in time to see the sunrise, and it was beautiful! Where our room was situated, we were able to see the sunrise, and the sunset! Then both of us got up and went to a breakfast buffet at a restaurant overlooking the ocean, called Catalina Kitchen. They had the best omelette's, and they made their own donuts! It was a delicious way to start the day!
After breakfast, we made it back to our room in time for the Badgers Football game. They were playing at 9a PST, so we didn't feel like we were going to be missing much of our day outdoors. The Badgers were playing Michigan, and they ended up keeping their undefeated streak alive, winning 24-10! Sweet!
When the Badgers game was over, we headed straight for the pool! This particular weekend was on the warmer side, about 80 degrees, so the weather was perfect for poolside fun! We started with the hot tub first, had poolside drink service, and enjoyed our own company! We met another family from Denver who were staying at the resort through Thanksgiving. They were fun to talk to as they were Ohio State fans, which made for a friendly jab or two.
Then we decided to hop in the pool, which was heated to a perfect temp. Usually it takes me forever to get used to he cold water of pools, but I just walked right into this one! There were some floaties and balls in the pool, so we splashed around a bit, and played catch with the football. I pretended that I was Brett Hundley, and as you can imagine just like Hundley, my passes were nowhere near the target. (I miss Rodgers)! The resort actually had 3 pools, but only 2 were open. One was an adults-only pool, but no one was in it and we felt like if we started playing, we would disturb the poolside sunbathers, so we were at the all-ages pool. One cool thing about this pool is that it had a water slide! Of course I had to go down it, and I felt like a kid again! We had a really fun afternoon by the pool!
When we were on dry land again, we went to explore the resort. Just down a a path was a really cool cove that we hung out at a bit. It was really quiet and relaxing, and it was a great place for photo-ops, too!
Saturday evening we had made dinner reservations for just after sunset. Robbie and I dressed to the nine's and set out to watch the sunset. Apparently everyone at the resort had the same idea, but we got there early enough for a front row seat! The sunset was absolutely stunning, and the post-sunset sky took my breath away. As we were walking away from it and to our restaurant, I kept looking back at the sky every 5 feet! It was just so beautiful!
We made dinner reservations at the same place we had breakfast at, and we were able to eat out on the patio again, thanks to heating lamps! We had the full 3 courses! When we saw they had an appetizer called Fire-Roasted Cheese, we naturally had to order it. I am after all, from Wisconsin! And it was delicious, along with our entrees and desserts. Being it was my birthday, I had a complimentary dessert, a creme brulee cheesecake. It was a slice of cheesecake with a creme brulee crust. How had no one thought of this before?! It was to die for! Robbie ordered for dessert Heaven in a Box. In it was warm cookies with strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla gelato, and it lived up to it's name. I just had to test it out myself! :) I couldn't have thought of a better way to spend that evening!
We spent a good chunk of time on our balcony after dinner just taking in the beauty around us. It was such a great way to forget about everything else in our world. We just shut off our brains and really embraced where we were.
Sunday morning we sadly had to leave. Much like the evening before, we spent time on the balcony before we had to head home. We were contemplating going to the breakfast buffet again or ordering room service, but eventually we decided on just checking out and getting something small for the road. It was sad to see our time at Terranea end, but we both felt so rejuvenated and refreshed after we left! As we were headed home, we drove along the coast for about 5 miles before we had to make the turn inland, and that drive was just beautiful. I had never driven somewhere so lovely before!
Catalina Island in the distance
My birthday weekend could not have been any better, and I love that Robbie always surprises me and we always have so much fun!! I loved every minute of it, and I cannot wait to see what year 34 has in store!
