Saturday, November 4, 2017

LA WEEKEND ADVENTURE!!!

OMG OMG OMG!!!
Our family Christmas, Birthday, Flag Day, present this year was..

HAMILTON tickets!!!

THANKS MOM for the Experience of a Lifetime!!!
First, we drove up to moms in West LA. We all got dressed up and looked so nice. (we never get dressed up)..so you KNOW this was special!!

We Ubered to the Pantages! We couldn't take any photos inside the theatre. :( but we had a GREAT TIME!!!!



This is THE BEST show I've ever seen!!! Congratulations to Lin-Manuel Miranda. Thank you for being so talented!! 
We went out to a fancy dinner after the show, which was DELICIOUS!! Delphine....YUMMO!!
Pat and I drove home afterward, stuffed to the gills!!! 
BUT....

The next morning, we started another adventure..WARNER BROS. STUDIO TOUR...

We grabbed Sean and Nolan and set off for Burbank!! This is a brand new experience. Didn't even know Warner Bros. had a tour until Nolan saw it on Facebook...
So it's really exciting! We find the little parking lot, not a large parking structure, but a little outside parking lot. Got our tickets and waited for our tour to start. 



ANI-MAIN-IACS....woohoo!!! The first part, you watch a little video, hosted by Ellen, then you get your personal tour guide and go out to the Limo Golf Cart!!! Hop and go onto the WORKING studio!!

Ok...Truth is....we just wanted to sit on the FRIENDS Couch at Central Perk...That's it. The entire day would be worth it, just for that. BUT, let us not forget that Harry Potter is Warner Bros, DC Comics is Warner Bros, Big Bang Theory, and so much more!! What we found was, the entire tour was AWESOME!! And a great Family Adventure!!!

As we drove into the studio we were met with giant Warehouse looking buildings, sound stages actually. All different heights. We learned why one is the tallest. The story is, Marion Davies, (William Randolph Hearst Girlfriend), wanted to make the Musicals to end all musicals, (i.e.: she totally did not!) anyway, she wanted the sound stage roof to be raised so she could get the camera shots she wanted. So, she asked Jack Warner, he said, no, too expensive. She cried to her BF so he said, Jack, if I pay for it will you raise the roof, Jack said, ok fine. So the roof was raised. But it was made taller from the bottom up. The roof had to be taken off in order to raise the building. Then the roof was laid on top by putting ice blocks under it and as the ice melted the roof lowered onto the building and they attached it. To this day, that sound stage is the tallest on the lot. It's the lot that One Eyed Willie sailed his ship out of in Goonies!! YES GOONIES!!!

On the tour you get to stop and get out and walk around the open areas. We did stop and go onto the Big Bang Theory set but we weren't able to take pictures. But it was cool!

We saw a lot of Pretty Little Liars references. Which is a joke between Nolan and I. We started watching it and the girls were in High School. Then 6 years later, they're still in High School. But we were soooo invested in this show, that we actually finished the last season. HA HA HA!! So when we saw all of the sets, we were like, ugh!

This is where Chandler ran to "run" into Cathy and where Rachel and Ross were looking for Marcel.
I know it was in other stuff, but that's all I heard...HA HA!


This is used for New York streets in several movies and shows. And for San Francisco in The Last Samurai.

Our cool stop was a 2 story building with DC Comics on the first floor and HARRY POTTER on the second. They had a Superman Comic book worth a million dollars or more. WOW!
It was mostly Wonder Woman though. All the costumes from the movie and motorcycle.

We took most of our picture upstairs AND did the Sorting Hat!!!! We were all from a different House.



The Sorting Hat was so fun!









After a we were all finished we hopped back on the tram and went to our next destination.

THE PROP ROOM
So awesome!!
As we all know, JR wasn't dead!!

 One Eyed Willie.....
So fun to see what phones we've had in our lifetime. Nolan and Sean didn't even remember any of them before their cells....HA HA!
 Trophies and Instruments...
 Giraffe Legs that are just funny...

 Captain Nemo...
 This was on a desk...nice little tribute..
Then we walked over to another building that had this in it....Totally cool!!
 FROM ALL THE BATMAN MOVIES!!!







 This statue was really really awesome!! All vehicles were used in the movies...
Back on the tram to our final destination!! What we've been waiting for!!!

But first they have a Special Effect room you get to go through before the Friends experience...UGH!! We have to be patient!!

The boys got play in front a green screen...




Sean was in Batman and Nolan was flying a broom stick in Harry Potter.

Then Nolan and I got to hold an ACTUAL ACADEMY AWARD!!! It's Heavy!!


Yes Yes Yes!!!! F R I E N D S....FINALLY!!!!!




You can actually buy Coffee here. It's a working shop!!!!!

The Pilot Episode!!!

Then the HUGE picture of the Last One Final Bow.....

If you can't tell...we were totally GIDDY!!!!
Then we were there...the Holy Grail of FRIENDS!!

We sat on the Couch!!!!!! OMG!!!! This was soooooooo worth it!!!! I want to do it again!!! We even held the Coffee Cups!!!! 

WHEW!!! We had to catch our breathe....

We went through the gift shop at the end and grabbed our usual Magnet, key chain, shot glass and bottle opener...Nolan got a towel that said, "you're my lobster"...
If you read our shirts, We speak Fluent FRIENDS Quotes....That's a friends quote...

We had a great adventure and it was so nice to spend it as a family. Both Hamilton and Warner Bros. tour.

Until next time everyone!!

Enjoy the Ride!!!
Pat & Sondee