A California Christmas: WB Studios, Disney Soda Fountain, Legoland, & More (COMPLETE)

[Fairy_Tale_Bride]

Paramount Studios




I was very excited about our next morning because we were going to Paramount Studios! It is most well-known and famous studio, in my opinion. So many of my favorite television shows have been filmed here and it was going to be a great moment to step foot behind those famous gates.

I am a huge fan of Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz, so I was thrilled when we were shown Lucy's office, which overlook Lucy Park. Lucy actually had the park put there for her children, so they had a place to play. The coolest part is that it was designed like their actual yard at home.

One of my favorite TV shows is "Happy Days" and I couldn't believe that I spotted Jefferson High School, where Richie, Potsie, and Fonzie spent most of their time the first season. It's actually just office building and a daycare center now, but I recognized it! "Brady Bunch" episodes were filmed here too!

Here's the "lucky" stage at Paramount Studios! This is where "The Lucy Show," "Cheers," & "Frasier" were filmed.

It was so much fun to be able to walk around the working studio and see all of the sets. It's just amazing to find out how many movies, TV shows, and even commercials have been shot here. We walked past a Taco Bell commercial that they were in the middle of filming.

We had a wonderful morning at the studio and we made our exit through the famous and lucky bronze gate. We made sure to touch the gate for good-luck!

At the exit, we spotted a very famous bench. It was one of the benches used in "Forrest Gump!" There were three benches used in the film and I have seen two of them. The other bench I saw was in Savannah, GA. Of course, we had to have a seat on the bench.

More soon!

 

[jnjusoioa]

Hi Lindsey, glad to see you back, sure hope we see you around here on a more regular basis, hope your schedule sure slows down for you.

Your day at Paramount Studios sounds like it was great fun, so neat getting to see all those really cool places and things were things have been filmed over the years.

Can't wait to hear more of your trippie.

 

[Fairy_Tale_Bride]

What a special night and how fun to get to meet the cast of Scrubs. Zach Braff is adorable!

Oh, yes he is!
I have just a *little* crush!

Sorry to hear about the GF........I can't wait to read about that one!!!

What a FUN addition to your Cali trip!!! That's great that you got to meet and mingle with the cast of Scrubs!!! What's really neat is that you got to bring your camera in with you..........I attended a taping of "According to Jim" a few years ago and they didn't allow ANY cameras. People were throwing their good cameras into the bushes before heading into the taping.... It's wonderful that you were able to "capture" your memories!!!

Sadly, we couldn't really take picture during the question and answer inside. They never said we couldn't, but it was a small event. I know that wouldn't have gone well, so I took a few without my flash. They came out blurry, but I am camera crazy, so it's hard to keep me under control!

I am so jealous of your experience with the cast of Scrubs. We own all of the dvds- my dh and I watch Scrubs every night before bed. I'm still that the last season will be coming to an end.

Thanks for sharing Lindsey!

Yay...another Scrubs fan!
I have all the DVD sets too! I just love the show and cast!
I'm sad it's coming to an end, but glad to hear they will be airing more episodes starting in April...finally!
I think we will have to buy the DVD to see the final episodes!

Lindsey... sorry about your mini weekend... I know you were so looking forwards to it!!!

Do me a favor and post a link to your trippie on the GF thread also... I know the girls over there would like to hear what you went through... some have had things happen there recently also...

Thanks! It was pretty disappointing and very upsetting for DH. I didn't witness what all went on, but he was angry. It's not like him to be that way and he was just furious. It was not the way to begin our weekend!

I will be sure to post it for you over there or you are more than welcome to share it. I had such high expectations for the GF too. Sadly, I shared my story with others and they said they had horrible experiences too!

Also, obsesses Disney fans, who feel Disney can do no wrong, but they just hate the GF because of the bad treatment. It is pretty shocking to me to experience it and hear others felt the same way.

I always jump in late. lol. It sounds like you had a great time in CA. Your Disneyland trip sounds amazing and so does the rest of it!

I do have one question for ya...how cold is cold?!?!?

Not as cold as Wisconsin and much colder than Florida.

 

[Fairy_Tale_Bride]

Lindsey,
so sorry to hear about the GF. i am very interested to hear what happened. i did see you food pictures, on the show us your food link, and they looked pretty yummy!!
anyway i am glad that you had a great time at the Scrubs farewell!!!

~sue

Well, I did get sick after our dinner. Something didn't settle well with me at all. A lot just didn't go well that weekend for us at all! It'll be an interesting mini trippie to write.

Hey Lindsey! I decided to follow you over to this trip report as well. During my family's tour of California back in the mid-nineties, we did make a stop in LA, but it wasn't very long. We only got to see a little of the Walk of Fame, the Chinese Theater (although we didn't go in), and Universal CityWalk, before heading on to a couple of nights in Anaheim and then heading north from there. I would love to go back and see all the neat things you saw! Also, I would highly suggest you definitely go back and see the rest of California someday. San Francisco was a huge highlight of the trip for me. It's a spectacular town!

So sorry your Valentine's weekend didn't go as planned. I will be interested to read the story when you get to it, as I have never stayed at Grand Floridian. DH and I were celebrating V-day at the same time as you and your DH. We stayed at Gaylord Palms last weekend, had dinner at California Grill Saturday night during a spectacular sunset, then went to Epcot for Illuminations, and then we went to Animal Kingdom Sunday morning.

That's so neat that you were celebrating V-Day that weekend too! We were at MK on Sunday morning. DH & I visited Gaylord Palms when ICE was there and it is an amazing resort! We really want to go back and eat at the restaurants. They looked fantastic!

Hi Lindsey, glad to see you back, sure hope we see you around here on a more regular basis, hope your schedule sure slows down for you.

Your day at Paramount Studios sounds like it was great fun, so neat getting to see all those really cool places and things were things have been filmed over the years.

Can't wait to hear more of your trippie.

I'm glad to be back! I think things are finally getting back to normal around here. Time for more DIS!

 

[Fairy_Tale_Bride]

An Afternoon in Hollywood




Our next stop was at NBC Studios! Our original plan was to go see "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," which was a dream come true for me! I just love Jay and I even had the tickets in my hand. Sadly, the Writer's Strike put a stop to all of that. I was finally here and there was so taping! I will be going back because I must see Jay before he retires.

We were not even allowed to see the studio because it was locked-up, but we were able to go on the set of "Access Hollywood." They had just finished filming the show, so it everything was still in full swing. That was pretty neat to see. Then, we went into the employee parking lot and saw where Jay parks his famous cars every day when he's not on strike! We also saw Shaun Robinson getting into her car after she was done with filming her segment on "Access Hollywood.

Shaun Robinson

After our visit to NBC Studios, we took a ride through the Hollywood Hills and it was so fun to see all of the old Hollywood homes. They were so neat and had a lot of history to them. Of course, we also had to get as close to the Hollywood sign as we possibly could! I'm sure the poor people, who live there are sick of everyone parking in front of their driveway for the perfect photo spot.

We were getting hungry, so we decided to have lunch at a very famous and popular Los Angles spot, Pink's Hotdogs! On our way, we drove through the Sunset Strip and spotted The Viper Room. This is where River Phoenix sadly died in 1993 and it was partly owned by Johnny Depp until 2004.

We arrived at Pink's and there was already a long line down the sidewalk. I couldn't believe it when we lucked-out and got a parking spot right up front!

I have heard so many wonderful things about Pink's Hotdogs on the Food Network and the Travel Channel, which I watch religiously, so I had to check this place out. Plus, it's a celebrity hotspot and they had many different celebrity themed hotdogs to choose from.

We were able to find a table inside the very cramped restaurant that was covered in autographs from all of the celebrities, who have eaten there. Of course, there was no way for us to have a healthy lunch at this joint, but they did have a vegan hotdog. I was thrilled I could actually order a hotdog off the menu and it was delicious!

Lord of the "RINGS" Dog & The Patt Morrison Baja Veggie Dog

More Soon!

 

[PirateKitty]

Lindsey! Wow, I feel so out of the loop. I've been gone for months and have missed all your fantastic trippies. I must take the day to catch up! You look gorgeous with your new hair color...I think the last time I read your trippie it was really dark & you were on your cruise. Love the blonde! (blondes unite )

I love the pics inside Central Perk. I am obsessed with Friends! Your DH does look like Ross! And that is too cool you got to visit all the sets of those great shows. It stinks you didn't get to see Jay Leno. Last time I was in California, which was AGES ago, Johnny Carson was the host!! I was too young back then to get tickets, but thats how long its been.

Anyhoo, love seeing all your pics and looking forward to more trippie! Ok, time to catch up on your others. LOL

 

[tinkerbell87512]

What a cool trip to Cali! I never knew you could actually see all those working sets. I always had thought they were off limits because they are working sets.

I'm so bummed the strike screwed up your plans to see Jay Leno. I love him too! At least you got to see his parking spot ...oh and like you said now that the strike is over that means another trip to Cali!

Hope you have a great weekend!!

 

[Disneygrl36]

Great pictures of the Hollywood sign.........I am loving this report since we will be seeing some of the same things on our trip in December.

Wow those hot dogs look good.........but wow I wonder how many Weight Watchers points your hubby's Lord of the Rings dog had in it???????

Can't wait for more.

 

[Fairy_Tale_Bride]

Lindsey! Wow, I feel so out of the loop. I've been gone for months and have missed all your fantastic trippies. I must take the day to catch up! You look gorgeous with your new hair color...I think the last time I read your trippie it was really dark & you were on your cruise. Love the blonde! (blondes unite )

I love the pics inside Central Perk. I am obsessed with Friends! Your DH does look like Ross! And that is too cool you got to visit all the sets of those great shows. It stinks you didn't get to see Jay Leno. Last time I was in California, which was AGES ago, Johnny Carson was the host!! I was too young back then to get tickets, but thats how long its been.

Anyhoo, love seeing all your pics and looking forward to more trippie! Ok, time to catch up on your others. LOL

I am so glad you are back! Yes, you will need weeks to catch-up!
Oh, and yes, I went back to my *regular* hair color. It's been blonde since I was in middle school and it was a big mistake to try going dark. It just didn't work for me, so I'm glad to be back to my old self. Luckily, the mistake didn't last for too long!

We got to see Johnny Carson's old set, it's actually the Access Hollywood set now, so we were there. It's pretty tiny! It's hard to believe that Jay Leno is retiring now! When I say that and tell everyone I must go see him, they say they feel so old because they remember when Johnny Carson left.

What a cool trip to Cali! I never knew you could actually see all those working sets. I always had thought they were off limits because they are working sets.

I'm so bummed the strike screwed up your plans to see Jay Leno. I love him too! At least you got to see his parking spot ...oh and like you said now that the strike is over that means another trip to Cali!

Hope you have a great weekend!!

It was so neat and we actually went on the set of "Dirt," which is that show on FX with Courtney Cox. It was neat to see all the props and rooms. Yeah, now I have another trip I must plan to Cali soon that wasn't in my original plan. That's more travel and vacations than I expected, but it must be done! I do want to go back to be able to go to Universal Studios and have more time to sight-see too!

Great pictures of the Hollywood sign.........I am loving this report since we will be seeing some of the same things on our trip in December.

Wow those hot dogs look good.........but wow I wonder how many Weight Watchers points your hubby's Lord of the Rings dog had in it???????

Can't wait for more.

I took plenty! Luckily, I didn't post every single one here!

Well, my veggie dog had guacamole on it...that makes it extra healthy, right? Oh, and those nachos were all mine! DH loved that he didn't have to actually eat the onion rings as a side dish.

 

[Fairy_Tale_Bride]

Welcome to Legoland!





I have gone a little out of order with my Trippie, so bare with me. It still all makes sense. I just got a little ahead of myself.

We spent our Saturday taking a California road trip to Legoland! Yes, this is somewhere I have always wanted to go! I don't think DH really understood why, but we hopped in the car to make the almost two-hour drive to Carlsbad, CA, home of Legoland!

It was a lovely drive too because we got to actually drive down the coast of California, so we were able to see the ocean. It was my first view of the Pacific Ocean and it was so fun to see the surfers hitting the waves.

It was a small town on the coast, but I started spotting Lego people, so I knew we were near Legoland! We made our drive down the small winding road and we were there!

It was quite surreal to actually be there, but we were ready for a fun-filled day! The park opened at 9:00 am and we arrived at 10:00 am and we have a lot to do in a short amount of time. Legoland was very neat and I absolutely loved it! Yes, everything was made of Legos! The coolest thing had to be the Lego Christmas tree!

Legoland is definitely a theme park for children, but you know that didn't stop DH & I. There are many cute rides and I was just in awe of all of the buildings & sculptures that were made of Legos.

It was a pretty busy and crowded day at the park, which meant we would have a rushed day. The park closed at 5:00 pm, so we did our best to see and do everything! We quickly found out that the waiting time for all of the rides were just ridiculously long. It took forever to actually load and unload the people on and off the rides. Literally, you would be the third person in line and that still meant you had a 15-minute wait.

Scroll down for more!

 

[Fairy_Tale_Bride]

Legoland California





Our favorite part of Legoland was Miniland USA, where we were able to visit all of the country in Lego style!

Mount Rushmore

New York City

Washington, D.C.

Las Vegas

Hollywood

San Francisco

More Soon!

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

What a great trip report. You did so much while you were out here! I live in Los Angeles, and haven't been to half of those studios. Now I want to go.

Thanks for sharing. I'm looking forward to reading more, and also reading your DL trip report.

 

[nts4wdw]

Thanks so much for posting the pictures of LegoLand! the children so want to go there, but convincing them to fly is a whole 'nother matter!! I really appreciate the time you took to do this. Thanks!

 

[postalcop]

OMG!! Legoland is awsome!!! miniland USA looks so cool. i'd love to visit Legoland but don't know if i would do the 2 hour drive, so i will live all of these fun trips through your trip reports.
well so far it sounds like you had a great time in CA.
can't wait for more!!

~Sue

 

[jnjusoioa]

Hey Lindsey, your afternoon in Hollywood looked fun, sorry you missed the Jay Leno show, but now you'll just have to go back!!! Pink's looks very cool and both hot dogs look yummy!!! Hope they were as yummy as they looked.

Legoland is totally amazing, I just never realized all the detail that went into that, crazy but very cool, and who knew they had rides too.

Awesome and can't wait to hear more.

 

[KimAshton]

wow who wants to put all of those legos together. Love this TR. I am heading to LA/San diego in 3 weeks from today and this give me some ideas of stuff to do.

 

[Disneygrl36]

Wow Legoland is amazing. I expecially love the San Francisco scenes. How cute.

Is there more????????

 

[Fairy_Tale_Bride]

Legos, Legos, Legos




There was still a lot more to see and do in Legoland! I think my favorite themed area was Castle Hill, which was all medieval times themed. I really like "The Dragon" ride, where you get on board a Lego dragon and make your way through the castle.

There was also a special North Pole area that was set-up and decorated for the holidays to explore on the "Enchanted Walk."

My favorite thing at Castle Hill was Granny's Apple Fries, what a tasty creation! It is a signature treat invented at Legoland. It's Granny Smith apples with cinnamon sugar, other secret ingredients, and served with vanilla cream dipping sauce. They were so good!

Our next visit was to the Pirate Shores, where they had our favorite ride, "Splash Battle." It was so much fun and DH just loved it! There were many neat rides and things to do in this area. It was just too bad that it was too cold to enjoy most of the water activities.

It was getting late in the afternoon and the sun was slowly disappearing, so we rushed over to Fun Town because DH wanted to go to "Skipper School," where you could drive your own Lego boat.

We finished our Lego fun-filled day in Fun Town over at the "Fun Town Fire Academy," where we got to drive our own fire engine and put out a fire. It was a lot of fun!

We couldn't believe that the day was already over and it was time to leave Legoland. The park closed at 5:00 pm and it was already pretty dark by that time. We did some quick browsing in the Lego stores near the exit and it was time to say good-bye to Legoland. There is even a Lego family getting in there car in the Legoland parking lot. We got in our car and we had a long drive ahead of us. There was a lot of traffic on the way back into Los Angles, so it took us over three hours to get back to our hotel and we hadn't had dinner yet! We spent the rest of the night at our hotel and ordered some fantastic room service.





More Soon!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Legoland looks like so much fun, I am putting it on my list of places to look into for my CA trip.

 

[tinkerbell87512]

Lego land looks like a neat place to visit. I never knew they even had such a place.