Saturday, November 10th: Jacqui and I continued our drive towards Santa Barbara, sometime being along the coast but mostly inland, in farm country. It was again very scenic, with the mountains, the fields, the winding roads. We got into Santa Barbara late afternoon, found a laundromat to do laundry, then went out for dinner. That was our day!
Sunday, November 11th: We're off to LA!! Our original plan was to drive all the way along the coast, but we had to detour at one point because of a forest fire. Our hotel was in Santa Monica, with the beach just across the street. Location was great, and so was the beach. We were very impressed by the width of the beach; it must have been at least 300 to 500 meters of sand between the road and the water. We went down to the Pier, had some seafood (which we've had almost everyday!) for snacks, then went out for a very nice dinner.
Monday, November 12th: We booked a "LA City and Celebrity Homes" tour for the day. It was quite enjoyable; we drove through various neighbourhoods of LA (Beverly Hills, Sunset Strip, Hollywood Walk of Fame, TLC Chinese Theatre) and had lunch at the Farmer's Market. After our return to our hotel, we walked along to beach to Venice Beach and had dinner there. I must admit that Venice Beach is a lot more sketchy than Santa Monica.
Tuesday, November 13th: For today, we had booked a tour of the Warner Brothers Studio. It was amazing! It is so neat to see how they make those movies and TV shows. We saw the backlots and the soundstages, the DC exhibit (Superman, Batman, ..), the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts exhibit, the Batmobiles (very cool!), the props department and finally spent time in their interactive department, where we had our picture taken on the set of Friends, had a toast when Jacqui was the size of Gandalf and I was the size of a Hobbit, and rode Harry Potter's Nimbus 2000 broomstick, with a wand in hand! The whole thing was pretty cool!
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| Along the beach in Santa Barbara |
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| On our way to Los Angeles - there is smoke in the air - forest fires nearby |
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| We can see the smoke coming off the top of the mountain |
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| Along the beach in Santa Monica |
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| Waiting for a snack at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. The waiter/waitress will stop to help you. |
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| With this sign, they will leave you alone! |
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| At the Pier, in Santa Monica |
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| Our view from our dinner table. |
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| View of Hollywood |
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| NBC Universal |
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| The Farmer's market |
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| Close to sunset, at Santa Monica Beach |
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| At Venice Beach |
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| At Warner Brothers Studios |
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| Building where Dexter used to do his killings |
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| Stairs used in Big Bang Theory |
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| The wind isn't blowing out; it is painted that way |
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| Costumes used for the Harry Potter movies |
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| One of the many Batmobiles |
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| This must be Hollywood!! |
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| Costumes worn in the movie Crazy Rich Asians |
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| Costumes worn in Casablanca |
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| Costumes worn in My Fair Lady |
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| Hobbit size and Gandalf size! |
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| I did have the bigger mug!!! |
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| And the oscar goes to .... Jacqui |
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| Harry, you've got mail! |
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| A friend of Jack Sparrow? |
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| Looney Tunes |
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| Some of the studios |
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| On the Friends set |
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| Back at the beach in Santa Monica |
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| View of the beach from the Pier |
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| We've been at both ends of this road - starts in Chicago! |
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| Another sunset over the Pacific! |
