California Love
So, as some of you may know, last week I went to California for the first time for my vacation. Anyway, I took a lot of pics during my trip, and I thought I'd give one of those recap entries I see a lot of people do after they go somewhere cool, so here goes that...
Day 1: California, Here I Come
Monday was mostly spent just getting there, and getting used to the strange differences of being in a new place for the first time. I got up early that morning, and had my dad drop me off at the airport about an hour before my flight so I could be sure to get through security and everything without a problem. It was a five and a half hour flight from Houston to LA, with stops in El Paso and Phoenix, but luckily I had my copy of the "Unofficial Guide to Disneyland" to keep me busy. That book is a lifesaver, but more on that later. Anyway, the plane lands in LA and I make my way out to the shuttle that's supposed to take me to my car rental location of choice. My shuttle driver was possibly insane, as she swerved in and out of traffic with her horn blazing like a madwoman, giving me my first real taste of how dangerous and crazy driving in LA can be. I went with a place called Midway Car Rental, which I had never heard of before, but they were much cheaper than the more well known brands, and they had several great reviews online claiming that they were still trustworthy dispite the low price. Turns out they actually are pretty damn reliable. I only ordered something from the economy class, which is of course the cheapest ones they have, but for some reason they upgraded me to a convertible Mustang for no extra charge.
After I got my car, I drove from LA down to my hotel in Anaheim. I wanted to be within walking distance from Disneyland, but I didn't want to spend a ton of money on one of the more expensive hotels in the area, so I went with the Motel 6 on Disney Way. It was within walking distance like I wanted, and it was cheap, but perhaps too cheap. No clock, no closet, no fridge, no microwave, no coffeemaker, a TV remote that didn't work, and at least one roach in the room that I had to kill with a phone book. I don't think I'll ever be staying there again. On the plus side, I wasn't planning on spending a lot of time in my room anyway. It was about three in the afternoon at this point, far too late to get any real fun at any of the theme parks, so I made my way to Downtown Disney instead. Downtown Disney, for those who don't know, is kind of like an outdoor mall on the Disney property, with shops and restraunts and stuff like that. I got my first real taste of Disney as I made my way down the street and could see the Twighlight Zone Tower of Terror loom over Disney Way like an ominous beacon.
I spent most of the rest of the day shopping at Downtown Disney, picking up supplies for the rest of the week, and getting my souvineer shopping out of the way so i could enjoy the parks without stopping at the shops or carrying a bunch of bags around all day. It also helps that the stores themselves are just plain fun to look at.
Where else can you see a full size Lego giraffe?
Anyway, around the time is started getting dark I decided to head back to my room to get ready for the next day, when the real fun would begin.
Day 2: The Universal Experience
Tuesday morning I hopped in the car and fought my way through LA traffic to get to Universal Studios Hollywood.
I had arrived about an hour before the park opened, so I decided to check out the Universal Citywalk, which is kind of like Universal's equivelant to Downtown Disney.
Then, when we were finally allowed into the park, we were greeted by the living statue. Only one of the figures here is a real person in a costume, see if you can guess which one.
I knew that the first thing I wanted to do was make my way straight to The Simpsons Ride at the other end of the lot, passing by Jaws and Doc Brown's Fried Chicken restraunt along the way. Apparently the Doc must have hit some hard times after Universal shut down the Back to the Future ride.
The Simpsons Ride had a lot to live up to in my eyes. It replaced the famous Back to the Future ride, which was my favorite ride when I went to Universal Studios Florida all the way back in 1996, and BttF just happens to be one of my favorite movies of all time. So yeah, if The Simpsons wasn't top notch, I would have been supremely pissed off. fortunately, it's actually a pretty great ride on it's own, though it is basically just BttF with a Simpsons theme.
After the ride, I still had some time to kill until the rest of the rides opened in the lower lot section of the park, so I did some more sightseeing around the upper lot. Taking pictures of things like... some of the cars from the Fast and Furious movies...
Or how about the actual Bluesmobile from The Blues Brothers? They even used it in the Blues Brothers stage show that was performed later on in the day.
I also visited the Terminator 2: 3D show, where you can see a terminator who apparently doesn't realize that he could easily escape from his glass display window.
Also, they have Iron Man in their gift shop... for some reason.
There's also the Universal House of Horrors, which is a lot of fun. It's basically one of those big haunted mazes that pop up every year around Halloween, but this one is open all year long and features characters from Universal horror movies.
Or if you're hungry, there's a Flintstones Bar-B-Q. And no, they don't serve those giant ribs like on the show... I checked.
Eventually, I made my way to the lower lot.
Stopping along the way to see the actual space capsule from the film, Apollo 13.
My first stop on the lower lot? The frighteningly awesome Revenge of the Mummy. An indoor roller coaster that about gave me a heart attack. Of course, that didn't stop me from riding it twice.
After that was a quick stop at Jurassic Park.
But hey, as long as I don't get on the ride, I'm safe, right? I mean, it's not like the dinosaurs can get out here where we are... oh, crap.
It's alright, I don't think he saw us. just back away slowly... turn around... and quickly head the other... huh, clever girl.
Quick, let's hide in the NBC/Universal Experience! Where we can see such items as... James Brown's costume from The Blues Brothers.
Props and costumes from Scott Pilgrim vs The World, including Scott's bass guitar.
An Outstanding Comedy Series emmy won by the show, 30 Rock.
Lily Munster's cape from The Munsters
Various props and costumes from the show Heroes.
A sleestak from Land of the Lost.
Griff Tannen's Pit Bull hoverboard from Back to the Future 2.
And even an actual Oscar won by the Paul Newman, Robert Redford classic, The Sting.
After all this excitement, it was time for me to take the studio tour. What kind of stuff do you see on tour of the Universal Studios backlot? Well, how about the Courthouse Square that was used for Hill Valley in the Back to the Future series? Unfortunately, it looks a little different since they're filming The Ghost Whisperer now, but that didn't stop me from taking pics of the famous clocktower... which currently doesn't have a clock on it.
We also got to see more famous movie vehicles, like the Deathmobile from Animal House.
The Mule from Serenity.
Biff Tannen's car from the Back to the Future movies.
And of course, Doc Brown's famous time machine.
We also stopped by the Bates Motel, where we saw Norman Bates helping a young woman check out. He even carried her "bag" to her car. You know what? I take back every bad thing I said about my hotel room.
We then made our way through the plane crash set from War of the Worlds. And I thought my flight was rough.
All things considered, Univesal Studios Hollywood is a lot of fun, and I'm really glad i went. Now, to rank the rides and attractions.
1. Revenge of the Mummy - Awesome roller coaster, and completely terrifying.
2. The Simpsons Ride - Great ride, lots of fun.
3. The Studio Tour - Fun, and even a little educational.
4. Jurassic Park: The Ride - Great atmosphere, but the animatronics are in serious need of refurbishment. You can see gaps in the fake skin all over the place.
5. Universal's House of Horrors - If you like haunted maze attractions, this is a lot of fun. Extremely well done.
6. Shrek 4D - I hate Shrek, but the special effects in this are actually kind of cool. It's actually a better 3D show than the T2: 3D show.
7. Terminator 2: 3D - Not bad, but it's definitely showing it's age after all these years.
8. The Blues Brothers - Good show, with some really good singing.
9. The Special Effects Stage - Kind of boring. Might be worth seeing once, but I doubt I'd ever sit through it again.
10. NBC/Universal Experience - Some cool stuff, but probably not a must see attraction for most people.
Waterworld - Skipped it, have no opinion.
Animal Actors - Skipped it, have no opinion.
Day 3: I'm Going To Disneyland!
On Wednesday I got up early and walked down to Disneyland.
Now unfortunately, i was trying to save space on memory stick, so I didn't get nearly as many pics of Disneyland as some of the other places I went. But, you can find millions of pictures of Disneyland all over the internet, so I don't think it was too big of a loss. However, I did manage to get a picture of the Partners statue in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle.
The Haunted Mansion. Which, luckily for us, didn't include Eddie Murphy.
Mickey's house in Toontown.
The Columbia, which was used to excellent effect in the Fantasmic! show at the end of the night.
And this blurry shot of an X-Wing that someone carelessly tried to park in the middle of the Star Tours gift shop.
Oh, and remember that copy of the Unofficial Guide to Disneyland that I mentioned earlier? That book is a lifesaver. I went during one of the busiest days of the year, and thanks to that guide I was still able to ride 20 rides, catch the parade, the fireworks, and both of the late night shows, and still had time to revisit some of my favorite rides from earlier in the day. I'm never going to a Disney park without a copy of that book ever again.
Now, Disneyland has way too many rides and attractions for me to list every single one of them, so I'll just do a best and worst list.
Best: Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, Star Tours, and The Haunted Mansion.
Worst: It's a Small World. I fucking hate that ride.
Day 4: Hollywood Swinging
I started off Thursday by heading across LA to Burbank for the tour of the Warner Brothers Studio.
While the Universal tour is a big gimmicky tourist attraction that crams you into a tram with a hundred other people, the Warner tour is a much more intimate affair. We were divided into groups of eight and given a comprehensive two hour tour of the studio. The tour included all the big backlot stuff you would expect from a studio tour, but also allowed us to get out on foot and explore the sets of shows like Friends, Chuck, and The Big Bang Theory. There's something really strange about standing in the middle of Chuck's appartment complex after seeing it on TV for all these years. Unfortunately, for security reasons, we weren't allowed to take cameras onto any of the sets. However, we were allowed to take pictures of the car showroom where I saw the General Lee from Dukes of Hazzard.
Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino from the film of the same name. And behind it is the Rolls Royce from The Hangover.
And the Batmobile from Tim Burton's Batman films.
We also got to go to the Warner Brothers Museum where they display several of the props and costumes from their shows and films. In there I got to see the Batman suit from the Dark Knight, Heath Ledger's Joker suit from the same film, several props and costumes from Inception, and even some of the Wild Things from Where The Wild Things Are. Unfortunately, again, we weren't allowed to take pictures. Which is a real shame considering how awesome some of that stuff is in person. Anyway, the Warner Bros. tour is great, and I highly recommend it if you're ever in the area.
After that, I headed down to Hollywood Boulevard.
I stopped by the legendary Graumen's Chinese Theater.
And walked down the boulevard, passing several well known landmarks, such as The Kodak Theater, where they host the Oscars.
Musso and Frank, the oldest restraunt in Los Angeles.
The Capitol Records building.
The Egyptian Theater.
The El Capitan
And eventually I made it all the way to the corner of Hollywood and Vine.
After that, I walked back to Madame Tussauds famous wax museum. I had been in a wax museum before, but this was much more impressive. Not only are the figures much more lifelike, but you're actually allowed to touch them and pose next to them. I think I actually made a mistake by using my flash, as many of these look much more real in person, but you be the judge. Here's Conan O'Brien.
Snoop Dogg
Will Smith
Jimmy Stewart
Alfred Hitchcock
Clint Eastwood
Pierce Brosnan
Jim Carrey
Jane Lynch from Glee
Captain Jack Sparrow
Steven Speilberg
Robin Williams
Martin Scorsese
The Terminator
The Rock
Daniel Craig
Jackie Chan
Robert Downey Jr.
Morgan Freeman
Denzel Washington
And Jack Nicholson
After that, i headed down La Brea avenue to get a few pics of the Jim Henson Company studio. They don't let people in without an invitation of some sort, so I couldn't actually go in or anything. I did see a few people leaving as I was there, but no one I recognized.
This used to be Charlie Chaplin's studio, which is why Kermit's dressed like Charlie, and Chaplin himself is standing in the doorway.
Then I went to the Hollywood Museum. Unfortunately, they don't allow flash photography, so a lot of stuff I wanted pics of didn't come out very well. But here's Pee Wee Herman's bike from Pee Wee's Big Adventure.
One of Pee Wee's suits.
A Superman suit worn by Christopher Reeve.
And a very relaxed looking Darth Vader and C-3PO.
Finally finished with Hollywood, I decided to tour some of the other movie related sights LA has to offer. Here's Fox Plaza in Century City, perhaps better known as Nakatomi Plaza from Die Hard.
Here's The Biltmore Hotel in LA, where all of the hotel scenes from the first Ghostbusters were filmed. I think this is even the same entrance they came in through in the movie, but it's hard to tell after almost thirty years.
And down the street from the Biltmore is Fire Station No. 23, which you might recognize from The Mask, or Big Trouble in Little China, but it was also used for all of the interior scenes of the Ghostbusters firehouse in the two Ghostbusters movies. The outside of the Ghostbusters HQ was a seperate house back in New York.
I wanted to get pictures of the mall and high school from Back to the Future, but by this point it was getting late, and that famous LA traffic was only getting worse, so I gave up and went back to the hotel for the night.
Day 5: Escape From L.A.
Friday was relatively uneventful, I returned my rental car, hopped a ride to LAX, and flew home. Not much else to report. But anyway, I did have a great trip. And while I could care less for LA and it's horrible traffic problems, i absolutely adore southern California. I'm already looking forward to the next time I see it again.