It's a California Adventure! (with added Las Vegas) Day 9

[Lizzybear]

Pre-trip
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8

25th September 2008

Up at a slightly more civilised hour today (well, 7am!) and decided on Mel's Drive-in for breakfast as we hadn't managed to visit the 'American Grafitti one' in San Francisco. It was easy walking distance from our hotel and I had the french toast with fried egg and sausage and Steve had the cheese omelette with hash browns. Bill was $27 and the food was good, though the waiter seemed a little under the influence shall we say..!

Took a few more Grauman's Chinese Theater pics...

Once finished, we set of for the Metro station at Hollywood & Highland (despite having the car we decided on this mode of transport for Universal as it was cheaper -$5 versus $12- and we missed the morning rush hour traffic, a no brainer really!) We were just outside the station when Steve realised he didn't have his wallet on him. We went back to the restaurant and then the hotel but no sign of it anywhere and it hadn't been handed in. We can only guess it was either pickpocketed or fell out of his pocket (he never normally keeps it in there either which is the annoying thing!) He quickly cancelled his cards with no issues and thankfully there was only a small amount of cash in there as we'd divided our money up for each day, I think he was more disappointed about losing the actual wallet (you know how it is when you find one you really like?!) We decided to carry on with our plan for the day and headed to Universal. The metro station is a very short walk to the park shuttle and we were soon in the park and queuing for the studio tour. We soon realised it was going to be a scorcher of the day, it's amazing how different the temperature is in southern California compared to San Francisco further north.

Since USH is on more than one level you get around via escalators which afford some great views

The tour was fantastic, miles better than it's Orlando equivalent which is largely because USH is still a working studio.

Steve got bored in the queue! Hey if you ever wanted to see what my arm tattoos look like close up (I know a few have asked in the past) then here you go

My Willy Wonka glasses, as Steve calls them

I honestly can't remember where this was taken, may have been Hollywood Boulevard. Since it fits into today's theme it can go here!

They had these for every year going back to the studio's creation.

Look who it is!!

Sets including the Back To The Future courthouse

Oh no a flood!

Oh no a collapsing bridge!

Film students from New York using the 'western' sets

This lagoon was in Creature From The Black Lagoon

Oh no another flood!

Amityville (Jaws)

 

[Lizzybear]

The Grinch set

Wysteria Lane.. The houses have been used in many other TV shows, movies, music videos etc. Basically whenever an idyllic street is needed.

Eek! It was Halloween Horror Nights not long after our visit so they had most of the 'decorations' up already

Bluesmobile!

From War Of The Worlds

The people in the background were on the VIP tour, little too rich for our blood i'm afraid!

Universal City is a bonafide city so these are actual road names/signs!

Blue screen, obviously

After the tour we went on the Simpsons Ride which I must admit was pretty good (i'm still bitter about Back To The Future's demise so for me nothing will ever *really* replace it)

We miss you Doc!

There is no Jaws ride at USH but luckily they have the shark photo op, it's becoming something of a tradition for us!

Next up was the Waterworld show. I have it on authority from Steve that the movie was terrible! I haven't actually seen it but the show was really cool, be warned though the soak zone does exactly what it says on the tin!

 

[Lizzybear]

After the show we headed to the lower lot, grabbing a pretzel with cheese to share on the way.

Sound stages

We watched the Special Effects show first which was great, I especially liked the Horror Make-up segment which was as good if not better than it's Orlando counterpart. Next was Backdraft which was basically just pyrotechnics and honestly not very memorable, then Revenge of the Mummy (cool!) and The Universal experience which is an exhibition of props and costumes. Me and Steve love this sort of thing but I can see how it could be boring for some people.

The various Halloween Horror Nights props around the park made for some great pics...

After watching the Blues Brothers show we decided to call it a day as we had done all we wanted and the heat was starting to grate on us, especially since Steve wasn't in the greatest of moods today anyway.

It seemed like a good pose at the time!

I bought some Shrek pyjama pants and 2 Hello Kitty tees (one of which I later returned) from Hot Topic in Citywalk then got the Metro back to Hollywood & Highland. We had a shower and rest in the hotel room before heading out at 6 for dinner at 25 Degrees. This is a really cool create your own burger place, and definitely not as tacky as this concept may imply! (not that I mind tacky of course) I had a sirloin burger with midnight moon cheese, which was a bit like gouda, and avocado. Steve had a veggie burger with a fried egg, mozarella and barbeque sauce. The burgers come with salad bits on the side so you can have what you want (everything for me, nothing for Steve) We also shared some -you guessed it- sweet potato fries! The meal was great, definitely among the best burgers we've ever had. I think i've mentioned this before but I really like that when you ask for water in restaurants in the US you actually get a nice cold glass of it from the tap and not some overpriced bottle of mineral water! I think Cheesecake Factory was the only place that did that. After dinner we were going to see Wicked and decided to walk to the Pantages Theater which in hindsight was a bad decision as it was going dark and there were quite a few unsavoury types about as we got further away from the Hollywood & Highland area. We ended up walking really fast and wishing we'd got the metro. To be honest this was the only time in the whole holiday that we felt unsafe and I think this was partly because we were on edge because of what had happened that morning. I definitely wouldn't say Hollywood is unsafe or that anyone shouldn't stay or walk around there, just be extra aware in the evenings and stick to the busy parts. We were soon at the theatre and the 'will call' line was short so we had soon picked up our tickets which I had ordered from Goldstar. The seats were excellent for the price and we both really enjoyed the show, which coming from Steve especially is high praise indeed as he usually just humours me when it comes to the theatre! I can definitely see why people go to see it repeatedly. When the show ended we went to a little convenience store to pick up some sweets and breakfast snacks then continued to the Hollywood & Vine Metro station.

I love the ceiling here

We found the metro great for this route, it was such a short distance that driving would have been pointless and a total pain since parking is scarce and expensive. The Metro is frequent and seemed safe to us with plenty of other tourists using it. We were soon back at the hotel and chilled a bit, with me trying to force myself to stay up later in the hopes of getting up a little later the next day.

 

[mark&sue]

Such a shame that steve lost his wallet as it seems to have put a dampner on the day, although your photos are fab. we went to LA US in 1999 but your photos make it look a lot better than I remember.

Your burgers sound so yummy


susan

 

[wickesy]

We loved Universal when we were there earlier this year.

From the look of it I reckon the photo of the Hollywood sign was taken from the Hollywood and Highland Shopping Center.

 

[Verity Chambers]

Thanks for all the photos! You packed so much into your day. x

 

[Minniespal]

Another great day with lovely photos.

 

[jjk]

shame about the wallet,more amazing photos

 

[florida sun]

What a sahme about the wallet, great day, I so have to go here

 

[natalielongstaff]

once again fab pictures

 

[cap'njack.]

USH looks amazing, makes the Studio Tram Tour at my beloved Disneyland Paris look like someone's private collection!!

 

[SusanEllen]

Another lovely job of reporting, Lizzy, and--other than the lost wallet--another fun-packed day. Thank goodness Steve could report his missing cards, etc quickly so that you could get on with your plans. Bless his heart for soldiering on. My goodness, by the time you stepped out of the theater following Wicked and started the walk back to the hotel you must have been feeling the miles!