Our only full day in Hollywood was fun filled. We made the decision before we started our trip, that rather than spend half our day fighting traffic to see the touristy sights, that we would just buy tickets to the Universal Studios Hollywood and let Jon have some fun in an amusement park. Once we told him about that, he spent a whole day online watching videos on the Universal Studios website. He was excited to see the place and to meet a Minion! That was honestly all he cared about!
Our hotel, luckily, had a shuttle service to and from the park, making it a lot easier to get there and back as well as save the parking fees. We left out early and grabbed breakfast at the park. We got there just as the park opened, and the lines then were nothing. After eating our breakfast, Jon made a b-line to the Despicable Me section and in 20 minutes we were in the 4-D theater to be turned into Minions! Jon loved it.
The next place we went was on the studio tour. That was cool. We got to see the sound stages where CSI, Bones, Parenthood and a ton of other shows were filmed. We also got to see lots of prop areas where movies had been filmed. The coolest was the clock tower, which no longer has the clock, from Back to the Future.
They also had the typical cinematic thrills, like the King Kong vs the dinosaurs, which was a 360 degree screen that surrounded the entire train. Then the Earthquake that was also used in an episode of Bones. Mom had seen that one. We got up close and personal with JAWS and Norman Bates. That was really the only "ride" I had any interest in going on, and it was a good thing as the ques for the lines gt progressively longer and longer as the day went on. Jon decided that he really only wanted to ride the Minion ride again, but on the way we stopped off to watch a show about Special Effects. That was really entertaining and really taught us a lot about the movies and shows we watch. The camera tricks really are something!
We also found the Delorean from Back to the Future!
Jon took granny on to ride the Minion ride while Tony and I checked out the rest of the park. We met up with them once the ride was over about 70 minutes later. When they came off the ride, there was a Minion for Jon to hug! By now it was almost 3 and getting pretty crowded and hot. So Jon decided he was done and with a Minion in each arm (from the gift shop) we were on our way back to the hotel.
We decided after dinner that we would go out and fight the traffic to find a vantage point that we would be able to see the Hollywood sign. You would think something like that would be easy to do, but really there are only a couple of places that you can stop and take a photo of it, most of the time it is partially obstructed. We didn't want to go out to Hollywood and Vine, so we decided to take a drive up to Griffith Park to the observatory and see if we could get a photo or two. Well, I guess there was something going on at the observatory, because most of the parking was blocked off and there were people all dressed up walking towards it. We made one pass with no luck finding a parking place, and almost gave up. We finally decided to turn around and go back, let me and Jon out of the car, while Tony and Mom circled slowly, we snapped our photos and then jumped back in the car when they came back around.
That was enough of that. We made the decision that we just needed to head back to the hotel, see what the movie at the pool was and then just chill there before bed. The movie was Goonies, and even though we had all seen it, it was much more relaxing at the pool than in that traffic!
I can now say, however, that we have driven on THE 101. Not impressed. Traffic is not fun!
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