“That’s just a weird thing to be happy about”: A Backstage Magic ABD TR! UPDATED 11/24 X3 & COMPLETE

[buzzrelly]

This is where I discovered an Ann from history who was struck by a meteorite. Bless you, Ann from the past, for continuing to give our name such meaning.

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Poor Ann!

But seriously, what is that? A huge bruise? A gash? A palm leaf? It's hard to tell from the pic...

My favorite non-Ann-centered exhibit was a setup of the periodic table of elements that had actual bits of the elements in the little cases. The chemistry nerd in me got way too excited and I definitely gave some dagger eyes toward a little boy who kept trying to shove his way into my photo op.

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Nice pic Good thing you didn't let that small child ruin it for you

The other thing that happened was that some random dude told me I reminded him of Paramore.

I looked it up…I can see it.

Both were absolutely delightful.

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That looks so good…I love how the cheese is dripping off the plate so that you needed another plate

Along the way a Jack Sparrow impersonator looked at me and said in his best Johnny Depp voice, “Surely a mermaid!” Which burst my already burst heart yet a little more.

You really stand out in a crowd, I guess!

Up next: our ABD officially begins!

 

[dolewhipdreams]

She said that she and her husband often hike in the area, and that we could hike up to the sign from here. The second close up was a short way up the trail, but it was beginning to get late and we probably wouldn't make it up to the sign and back before dark. So that will have to wait for another trip.

Wow those are great spots!! I knew you could hike to get closer but didn't realize there was a park.

I spend my time trying to avoid talking to people as much as possible.

SAME

Def on my list to do when we get to California next year.

It's such a good tour. I've done it twice and both have been amazing!

But seriously, what is that? A huge bruise? A gash? A palm leaf? It's hard to tell from the pic...

I think it's a bruise?? I'm pretty sure the meteorite actually hit her.

I love how the cheese is dripping off the plate so that you needed another plate

They know what's up.

You really stand out in a crowd, I guess!

Pink hair will do that, I guess??

 

[missangelalexis]

It's always tough choosing between sleep and food!!

No...lipstick....that is tragic! Thank goodness for Sephora- love the color you picked out

The WB tour sounded fun!!

Great pics at Griffith Observatory!

Sounds like a fun night and an entertaining dinner!

 

[Eeyore daily]

Following along late but still! I'm excited to hear all the adventure. Your WB tour made me laugh since I thought "hey is that Stars Hollow?!" really cool though!

 

[dolewhipdreams]

Thank goodness for Sephora- love the color you picked out

It's one of my new faves! I ~had~ to get a few different colors to go with all my outfits. Neon pink doesn't go with everything!

The WB tour sounded fun!!

Great pics at Griffith Observatory!

Sounds like a fun night and an entertaining dinner!

It was really a great first day!

Following along late but still! I'm excited to hear all the adventure. Your WB tour made me laugh since I thought "hey is that Stars Hollow?!" really cool though!

Thanks for joining! It's definitely weird to be on those sets where some amazing shows and movies were filmed. Knowing I walked where all the Friends cast walked...surreal.

 

[Terra Nova guy]

Hi there! Well, I completely missed that you had started a new TR. I know, shame on me. I got pretty busy with work over the summer, so hadn't been checking for new reports like I used to. But anyway, I'm here now and really looking forward to hearing about your ABD experience. I would love to get to Disneyland one day, and doing ABD would be a great bonus.

 

[dolewhipdreams]

Hi there! Well, I completely missed that you had started a new TR. I know, shame on me. I got pretty busy with work over the summer, so hadn't been checking for new reports like I used to. But anyway, I'm here now and really looking forward to hearing about your ABD experience. I would love to get to Disneyland one day, and doing ABD would be a great bonus.

It's never to late to hop aboard my party boat! (Don't know why I said that). Anyway, thanks for joining in and I hope your Disneyland wish comes true!

 

[Cloe Colton]

Dang I was all set on being okay not doing the WB tour but I think I need to!! How long did the tour take?

Sounds like a super fun day!

 

[dolewhipdreams]

Dang I was all set on being okay not doing the WB tour but I think I need to!! How long did the tour take?

Sounds like a super fun day!

It's about 3 hours. The very last bit is all on your own time so if you are really interested in the script-to-screen part then you can take longer or you can just breeze through it and leave.

It was super fun but remember that it's an active studio lot so the sets they take you to might be totally different. The first time I did the tour a couple years ago they were filming the Gilmore Girls reboot so I didn't see the Stars Hollow area at all. I also didn't see the Ellen stage, just a random sitcom sound stage. The only things you're guaranteed to see are the permanent non-active exhibits like the Archives, the Friends set, etc.

 

[Cloe Colton]

It's about 3 hours. The very last bit is all on your own time so if you are really interested in the script-to-screen part then you can take longer or you can just breeze through it and leave.

It was super fun but remember that it's an active studio lot so the sets they take you to might be totally different. The first time I did the tour a couple years ago they were filming the Gilmore Girls reboot so I didn't see the Stars Hollow area at all. I also didn't see the Ellen stage, just a random sitcom sound stage. The only things you're guaranteed to see are the permanent non-active exhibits like the Archives, the Friends set, etc.

I think I'm okay with that! The one I really want to see is Friends and Big Band Theory. Gilmore Girls would be cool too but I think I'm okay with whatever I see!

 

[NJlauren]

These lyfts seem a bit better drive wise no crazy chats! But I can not stand that drives can cancel on you after 20 minutes and you don’t get a credit but if I cancel on then $5 charge! Umm what?!?!?

I obviously have some I unresolved issues with ride share apps!

Looks like a pretty good day at the observatory! It’s on my list but I haven’t been yet!

I love a low key restaurant that you just kinda look up or find on a whim! And looks like you got a good story out of the entertainment!

So happy you had a great day!

 

[dolewhipdreams]

But I can not stand that drives can cancel on you after 20 minutes and you don’t get a credit but if I cancel on then $5 charge! Umm what?!?!?

Exactly! Not only did we uselessly wait for that one for 20 minutes, then we had to wait another 15 for the next available driver. Boo.

Looks like a pretty good day at the observatory! It’s on my list but I haven’t been yet!

I highly recommend it, but it gets crowded really easily so try to go at an off time (evening on a Saturday in the summer is not suggested hahaha)

I love a low key restaurant that you just kinda look up or find on a whim! And looks like you got a good story out of the entertainment!

I was a little worried since the immediate Hollywood/Walk of Fame area has a reputation for being really touristy but the food was great, it wasn't expensive or crowded, and we got some great stories out of it.

 

[dolewhipdreams]

Come for the fossils, stay for the photos

We purposefully took our time getting ready on the morning of our ABD check in. This adventure has a reputation for being light on time to sleep so we thought we would get as much as we could while we had the chance.

Since our pre-night was booked on our own we had to check out and check back in. So we said goodbye to our incredible view and once again left our bags with bell services. We got a note under our door the night before saying that our ABD guides would be in one of the main areas of the hotel all day to meet the adventurers.

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Our guides for the week were Shannon and Trevor and we knew from the start that they were amazing individuals and that we were in for one heck of a week. We made some small talk and I mentioned my Invisalign to make sure that they knew that I needed a few minutes of a warning before leaving our group meals so that I could pop out to brush my teeth. We also talked about magic and mentioned we were visiting the Magic Castle for our anniversary later in the trip. After a brief but awesome chat we parted ways, destined to meet again for dinner.

Our afternoon was free before we had to come back to the hotel for our welcome dinner and we decided to go to the La Brea Tar Pits (fun fact- La Brea means the tar so this translates to the the tar tar pits). We got there via – SURPRISE – a Lyft. Our driver this time had absolutely horrible language. I’m not fundamentally opposed to foul language but I think there’s a time and place for it and while driving someone around in a professional capacity is not one of them.

We started off just walking around the outdoor part of the tar pits, which are free and open to the public. The pretty much consist of one big lake pit and lots of little tar pits, some of which look really dried up.

IMG_1978 by


[The lake pit smelled absolutely awful, but it was cool to see the tar bubbling up]​

They also have an active dig site going and it was really cool to look in and see what kind of fossils they had recovered or were in the process of recovering. Lots of giant sloths and saber tooth cats.

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Speaking of giant sloths…

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We didn’t feel like paying to go inside to the museum so we took a stroll around the mezzanine on top and then head next door to LACMA.

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On our way to LACMA we came across a cool art installation that encouraged people to take and post photos. I hardly ever need encouragement to do that so since they were practically begging us, we (read: I) knew we had to stop in.

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It was really pretty but sooo hot because the plastic blocked all air flow.

We moved on to the outdoor sculptures at LACMA (LA County Museum of Art) and stopped for some photos, of course.

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We had heard from someone that LACMA was free so we went in and started looking around, but eventually got kicked out because ACTUALLY it’s not free and they don’t like it when vagabonds like ourselves come in and try to appreciate art without paying the appropriate fee.

After our prompt removal from the museum, I was hungry so we walked down Fairfax to the original LA Farmer’s Market, which is pretty much just little food joints. We started off with a loop to see what was available and it was a really hard choice because so much looked of it looked amazing.

We settled on a buffet-style Brazilian grill called Pampas for lunch. You go through the line and get what you want then pay by the pound. The line was super long so Jon posted up there while I zipped around to take photos.

[Look how cute and overpriced this little potted carrot cake is!]​

During my photo adventure I stumbled upon the world’s biggest watermelon. Seriously it was huge.

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Jon texted me to let me know that he was close to the front so I went to meet him. The food was delicious and we had this great guava juice to drink.

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After eating we stopped to get some sweets and smoothies to go and I took a few more photos.

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We wanted to walk around while drinking our smoothies and eventually ended up next door at the Grove, which is a really nice outdoor shopping center. It was mostly chain stores and designer boutiques but there were a couple things that were really interesting.

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One was a Charlotte Tilbury store. I didn’t recognize the name but it looked like a really pretty makeup boutique so I stopped in and realized that the reason I had never heard of it was because it was wayyy out of my price range. It’s one of those expensive places where it costs so much they don’t even display the price.

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We also saw a Halo Top Scoopery, which was just a kiosk selling Halo Top by the scoop (you never would have figured it out by the name, I know). I was interested to see what they were charging and it was astonishing. It was like $6 for two scoops when you can go buy the EXACT SAME ice cream in a pint for $4 in the store. I know that can be said about a lot of ice cream shops but usually I can justify the extra cost because it’s ice cream that’s not the same as it is in the stores. But this one was 100% the exact same.

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At that point our ABD guides texted us to say our room was ready. I was hoping for some pool time before dinner so we got Lyfted back to the Loews. Since apparently it was my mission to scrutinize every one of our drivers, I took notes that tell me that our driver this time was a comedian. He was nice and a good driver. He mentioned that he had been studying acting and comedy for like 10 years at different schools and was finally out in LA to put it into practice. All the best to the guy!

This seems like a good stopping spot so you’ll have to wait until next time to see how our welcome dinner went.

 

[jrmint427]

I'm excited to read about your ABD in detail! I don't know much about these but have been eyeing several itineraries and looking forward to reading all about it.

Don’t hate me but I’m not a major Gilmore Girls fan.

I'll try not to hold this against you! I am a big GG fan and recognized that gazebo immediately :-D I would love to do that tour some day!

 

[dolewhipdreams]

I'm excited to read about your ABD in detail! I don't know much about these but have been eyeing several itineraries and looking forward to reading all about it.

I hope my TR helps!

I'll try not to hold this against you! I am a big GG fan and recognized that gazebo immediately :-D I would love to do that tour some day!

If you're a Gilmore Girls fan then I definitely recommend it

 

[Cloe Colton]

Love all the pictures! For the art installations could you see those without paying or was admission required for those too?

 

[dolewhipdreams]

Love all the pictures! For the art installations could you see those without paying or was admission required for those too?

Anything outside was free. The art installation with the colored plastic cellophane looking stuff was temporary so I'm not sure if it is still there!

 

[Cloe Colton]

Anything outside was free. The art installation with the colored plastic cellophane looking stuff was temporary so I'm not sure if it is still there!

Thanks!! I was thinking of heading over there either before or after dinner but since it would be quick i wasn't really willing to pay but free works!

 

[dolewhipdreams]

Thanks!! I was thinking of heading over there either before or after dinner but since it would be quick i wasn't really willing to pay but free works!

Just checked the website on the temporary space and it's open until 11/24! It's open 11a-7p on weekdays and until 9p on Fridays.

 

[Eeyore daily]

I loved the La Brea Tar Pits when we went. I still find it amusing what the name actually means.