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| Recognize this? The set of "Friends" |
We arrived in LA early and Luca Baudoino, the Customer
Services Director, fulfilled his promise to me to help us (the six who were going
with us in a minivan to tour Warner Bros.) get off the ship in a timely manner.
We got six “you’re a really special person so you can go to the head of the
line” tickets. We didn’t have to go to the lounges and wait to have our group
called; we didn’t have to stand in an interminable line waiting to get our
passports stamped; we just went straight to the Vista Lounge where all the CBP
agents were waiting. We were FIRST in line at 0645! (Well, first except for the
Captain’s wife.) How cool is that?
Still couldn’t get off the ship, however. For some
unfathomable reason, we had to wait until 0745 to get off. But no worries, off
we got and called Enterprise at 0800 to get picked up at Berth 92, our home for
the day. We waited. And we waited. We called. And we called. Each time, “He’ll
be there any second now.” Finally, at 0825 the Enterprise van showed up. We
only had until 1630, so every minute counted.
A few words on our vaunted Homeland Security. As I said, we
had to go and meet with CBP and have our passports looked at before we could
get off the ship. In fact, every single passenger had to meet with CBP whether
they were getting off or not. But when it was time to get off, nobody checked
whether or not you had actually gone there. We just walked off the ship. We
could, as far as I could tell, have just come down from our cabin, gotten in
line to disembark, and left. Oh well.
Finally we were off on our adventure, driving the LA
freeways at semi-rush hour. We got our suitcases off to Kathy’s at UPS for only
$125. Worth every penny! Then, finally, we got to Warner Bros.
We thought we were really early, arriving at just after 1000
for a 1045 tour. We had a few extra minutes which Steve, Donna, Chris, and Phil
utilized by getting some very good looking sweet rolls from the, what else?,
Starbucks that was in the gift shop.
I really had no idea how many TV and movies that I like are
made by Warner Bros! The Big Bang Theory, The Mentalist, Casablanca, ER,
Singing in the Rain, Harry’s Law (sadly, cancelled), and too many more to
mention. So that made the tour even better. I am especially going to watch the
Mentalist more closely since we got to see the set where it is being made. But
we couldn’t take any photos there. Nor at the Museum. The Guards there were
everywhere and we overheard a few messages between them about the visitors and
how one or another was getting too close to the exhibits. In the Museum we got
to see how Elizabeth Taylor got fatter as she got older—her dresses got bigger.
Nevertheless, I haven’t worn anything that small since I was eight!
S
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| Believe it or not, this is Central Park for the cast of Friends |
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| Props for rent at Warner Bros |
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| The medical examiner's van in the Mentalist |
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| This prop (no longer for rent!) is one of four Baccarat crystal lamps, worth an extimated $4 million |
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| L-R, Steve, Chris, Donna, Phil, Pam, Randy in front of a bronze guess who? |
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| A set at Warner Bros back lot. |
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| Another set |
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| Where Friends was shot for eight of its nine years. |
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| Yet another set. |
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| Randy and Batman |
Since we had gone at least two hours since eating we decided
to go to that famous SoCal eatery, Bob’s Big Boy. Here is where the Aussies
really learned what it’s like to eat in an American fast food restaurant. They
were staggered by the size of the portions! A hamburger too big to fit in your
mouth. Coke in a glass that is ten inches tall. A “dinner salad” that the
waitress said was small was in a very large bowl that I think Steve thought
would feed four people. Nevertheless, they did a good job of polishing off most
of the meal. Except for Chris and Phil who, having travelled in the US
extensively, only ordered one vegetarian sandwich to share. Everyone else
(including Randy and me) ordered hamburgers (medium-rare, of course!) which
were double burgers with a mound of fries. Yum!
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| Pam, Phil, Chris, Steve, and Donna |
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| Flat Stanley at Bob's Big Boy |
No visit is complete without seeing and photographing the
Hollywood sign. We had to do that from the middle of the street, much to the
consternation of Donna, especially, who doesn’t believe that the California
drivers will stop just because she is in the middle of the road!
A wonderful if quick visit to LA only marred by the traffic
on the way back to the ship and our, to quote Randy, “stupid” GPS which sent us
on surface streets to Steve and Donna’s hotel. Steve and Donna are abandoning
us for the four days we’ll be at sea by flying to Hawaii with some of our other
friends, Wendy and Bob. We were dropping them at their hotel at LAX which was
more or less on our way back to San Pedro and the ship. Driving about 15 miles
at 1500 on streets with traffic lights sort of stressed out Randy (we HAD to be
on the ship by 1630 or it would sail without us) and therefore by osmosis, moi.
But we made it with 20 minutes to spare! And then spent the
balance of the day on our deck with Chris and Phil doing our best to put a
large dent in our gin and their Scotch and wine. We did a pretty good job of
it, too!
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| Looking at the books that Chris has prepared of their various trips with their boat |
Oh, yes, I almost forgot: Big Brother. Apparently while most
of the passengers were gone, several cabins were searched by LAPD and left in a rather
disorganized state. Needless to say, the passengers involved were a bit unhappy
to come back to find their rooms a mess. Someone did point out that we DO have laws and the police can't search without a warrant. Don’t have the whole story yet. Stay
tuned.
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| Good night! |
