We started off at Warner Brothers Studios. The tour wasn't terribly expensive (although now I want to go back and take the super fancy tour!) and was really, really, worth the cost if you like behind the scenes stuff. It's amazing how many different things have been made with just a few streets of backlot sets! We saw two tiny pieces of lawn and bushes that have been Central Park and whole forests on TV. Chuck was prepping to film, so we didn't get to go in their soundstage (Bummer!) but we did get to visit the Two and a Half Men set as well as the set of a new show that will be on this fall, Mike & Molly. We also visited "Stars Hollow" where they filmed Gilmore Girls and now they film Pretty Little Liars. The NYC street has been in Friends, Annie, Rent, Spiderman (that famous upside-down kiss), and a bunch of other things. We saw Muphy Brown's house (did you know she lived next door to Josh Lyman from West Wing and he lived next to Dr. Ross on ER?) and the ambulance bay and El tracks from ER. Oh, and the spot where the Daily Planet was on Lois & Clark. :)
One of the buildings we went to was full of vehicles like the Mystery Machine, most recent Batmobile and BatTank thing (that the motorcycle came out of), and the flying car from Harry Potter.
After lunch and cooling off inside for awhile, we headed over to NBC studios to watch a Leno taping. Boy was it HOT. Jay said it hit 105 today. Ellen Page was the main guest, and then the guys from Pawn Star came on for awhile. It was fun to watch and see behind the scenes as it was taped but the episode itself was a dud. They couldn't show the audience on TV during the interviews I'm sure, because we were all looking at each other thinking, "Is she really talking about composting with pee on late night TV?"
Our original plans for the post-Leno time were to head to Long Beach to see if it really looks like Miami in person, because they do a good job with it on CSI Miami and Dexter. However, we were so hot and gross that logic won out and we headed across town to Anaheim so we'd be ready to get up early for Disneyland tomorrow. (And spotted General Hospital on the way!) We ate at a really good restaurant in Downtown Disney and pre-bought our tickets for tomorrow.
Oh, and our hotel. Wow. We wanted to be super close to Disney, but we didn't want to spend a lot of cash because we knew we'd be in the room for less than 12 hours. We also did not want to pay for hotel parking and most of the hotels in Anaheim charge for parking or charge a "resort fee" even if it's something as low key as a Best Western or whatever. We used Hotwire for many of our hotels on this trip due to some really good coupons in the Entertainment Book and it's been ok overall. (I was able to narrow most of them down due to BetterBidding.com) This hotel, the Eden Roc Inn & Suites is definitely a level below what we're used to. About a week ago, I got an email from Hotwire saying it'd been downgraded to a 1 star instead of a 2 star. I'd agree wholeheartedly. It's not dirty really, it's just OLD. And the towels aren't much better than hand towels. BUT ... they are letting us leave our car here tomorrow because they're not 100% booked tomorrow and have the space. That's saving us a lot of money rather than paying Disney to park! AND, it's right across the street - less than 10 minutes to the main gate. WOOHOO!
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