A Floating Holiday

Monday December 6, 2010

Brian got his Christmas Holiday (floating holiday) on the 6th and I had to get the day off too so we could hang out together!  It was a Monday which meant a 3 day weekend!  Love those!  We decided to do something fun that neither of us had done before.

First we drove to Burbank for some breakfast at Porto's Bakery!  Brian had sampled their stuff before and said it was yummy so I was excited!

Here I am in front of the display case.  Lots of delicious options!  Yay!

I ended up choosing a strawberry and cream cheese danish and Brian had a mango empanada and cheese roll, which is totally the best thing ever.  I really regret not getting one of my own. 

We then traveled a short distance and stopped here!  Yep, we went to the Warner Brother's Studio in Burbank, CA.

We went on the VIP Studio Tour!  Brian had been to the studio before because he moved to LA for an internship with Warner Brothers.  Brian is really interested in the film industry.

There were about 8 or so other people in our tour and we had a guide who drove us around in a "limo" golf cart (he he he).  The first stop was this little city street/corner.  This has been used for several different TV shows and movies.  The just change a few things here and there to fit the location of the script. These are all facades by the way. Step inside and there's just a wall and the wood and nails holding it up.

This building below was used in the movie version of Rent.  Here's where all the dancers hung out at night and sang (and least I think that's what the guy said...I haven't actually seen the movie).

Now, this was one of my favorite things.  We drove through this "city" which was called Stars Hallow in the show "Gilmore Girls!"  I loved that show and I was so excited to see the cute Connecticut small town in Southern California!

If any of you know the show, I'll point out the places... yeah I'm a dork.  :)

This is Miss Patty's dance studio and also home of the town council meetings.

This is Luke's Diner getting changed into some other sort of place.

I believe the red building was Andrew's bookstore.

Here's the middle of the town; it's just missing the Gazebo!

Here's the church where Dean got married and Sookie's kids were Christened.

This is Sookie's house and on the other side is Lorelai's.  Crazy, right?  They made one building into 2 homes.

I found the Gazebo back by Lorelai's house.

I thought it was so cool to see all of that.  Now the "town" is being used to film the ABC Family show "Pretty Little Liars".

We then drove around and saw all of the different stages where so many shows have been filmed.

Stage 24 is special because it's the Friend's stage and Friend's was one of the longest running shows with WB.

There's even a plaque.

Stage 15 was also popular!

We did get to go into a studio to see the set of Two and a Half Men but we weren't allowed to take pictures.  It was interesting to see how it's set up.  It would be fun to go to a taping one day!

Here's some pictures of the inside of a sound stage.  These are used for building sets and filming.  For example, we were told that the casino from Ocean's 13 was built in one of these because it was way cheaper to make a casino than shoot at the real casino (the studio would have had to pay the casino whatever revenue was lost during the live filming). 

The movie Perfect Storm with George Clooney (he must really like WB...ER, Friends, Ocean's 11-13, etc) was filmed in a sound stage that has a lowered floor to fill with water for the water scenes with boats and such.

This is a memorial to employees who served in the War and I believe it was WW2.

Look!  Ellen Degeneres' parking spot!  Too bad she wasn't wandering around.  I was bummed that no one famous was out wandering around for me to stare at.

Stage 11 is the ER stage!

Brian got this great shot of the logo on the biggest sound stage in North America.

We then were taken into a car museum  to see cars that have been used in the different movies.  

This is from Austin Powers!  Yeah Baby!

The Mystery Machine

Of course BB had to get some pictures with the Batmobiles!  Yes, plural...

And I got a picture with the Weasly's car from the 2nd Harry Potter movie.  Even Harry's there too!

We then were told that we were getting a free picture from the tour and we just had to stand in front of a green screen.  The scene behind us is from Harry Potter.  It's the Room of Requirement where in the 5th movie the DA gathers to learn how to fight against evil.  Yeah, I'm a HP nerd.  Love it!

Don't BB and I look cute wielding our wands? 

Brian's is a little hard to see, he didn't hold it at a good angle.  :(

Next stop was a building full of props.  In this building WB created a replica set of their hit shows.  Can you tell where we are?

The menu sign should help if you still don't know...

Okay, how about the window?

Yep, it's Central Perk from Friends!  We couldn't walk through the room, but it was fun to be in there.

In the same building we also got to see a lot of props used in different productions!  So cool!

This dresser is being saved for some movie about Abraham Lincoln and vampires.  Crazy!

This is the light fixture's room.  Crazy chandeliers in here!

This chandelier is a Tiffany and worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Sadly our final stop would not allow photography, but it was super cool.  We got to see another museum this time with different costumes and props from more famous movies.  The 2nd floor was even entirely Harry Potter clothes and things!  We loved it!  It was such an awesome tour and we got to see so much!

Here's Brian saying bye to good ol' Bugs Bunny!

We had a fun time at the studio.  The rest of the day we just hung out at home and relaxed.  Yay for random floating holidays!