Day 27 - Acton, California KOA

We got up at 6:00 AM and left the campground at 7 AM. We drove to The Warner Brothers studios & Back Lot Tour, in Burbank, California. However, since we did not know how the traffic would be we left two hours early. After getting to where we thought we had to go to get the tour, DH had me Google a place for breakfast and I came up with Bea Bea's. We arrived at the place and it was pretty busy. We were seated with plenty of time however 15 minutes went by before the waitress came and took our order. We had already ordered and gotten our beverage orders a Chai latte for DH, Tea for MIL and I had a caramel latte. DH and MIL told the waitress that we would need to leave in the exactly 30 minutes, so if she couldn't get our order done in 15 minutes we would be leaving without it. She said she was sure she could get it done by then. We all had omelettes. Mine was artichoke hearts, Portabella mushroom, tomatoes and Borsin cheese. MIL had a Greek one consisting of spinach, tomato, onion, olives and Feta cheese. DH had something too but, I have no idea what? Well the end result was we received our meals in the nick of time, and consumed them with enough time to get back for the tour. We drove down into the parking garage to only find out from the guard that we were in the wrong people place and had to get around to the back of the bus building. We had to pay $10 for parking in an outdoor lot which MIL said was a disgrace. We eventually found where we needed to go, which was through a metal detector and guards searched our bags. Once through we were given a white card with a black C on it. We watched a short film and when on our tour. I chose this particular tour because it was not a walking tour  and so nice MIL is such a big fan of The Big Bang Theory. Tickets were e $60 each and we all were suitably impressed by the tour. We saw The Big Bang Theory stages where Sheldon & Leonard's apartment, the brain Ken elevator and Penny's apartment. All the other scenes such as The University cafeteria, Howard's Room and Leonard's bedroom were all what they called Swing sets which they would bring in on the right or left of the set rooms. All of the furniture was covered due to cats roaming through the buildings, that were brought in to keep the rats away in the 1940's. All the cats are descendants of the original cats and all get their shots when due. We also saw numerous facades, the jungle scene from Jurassic Park, whole facade towns, a totally facade neighborhood and on the back side of the houses in the neighborhood, were totally different house fronts. We saw lots of sound stages, green screens, movie prop warehouse, driveable Batman vehicles, light posts that were moveable, trees and plants in containers to be planted the in a certain way or not, then at the end there was a museum type set up with smaller well known props, story boards, characters such as the alien in Mars Attacks, Superman clothing including his cape, drawings or cells of Scooby Do, Shaggy and Thelma. Trivia such as Porky Pig was the first character created, the Daffy Duck, then Bugs Bunny. Daffy Duck was supposed to be the mascot of Warner Brothers but when Bugs Bunny was created, the executives liked him better. So Bugs Bunny became the mascot for their cartoon division. If I had known ahead of time we could have gotten free tickets to see The Big Bang Theory be filmed. I would highly recommend this tour to everyone.

After we left Warner Brothers Studios, DH had me Google where the best area was to see the Hollywood sign. We drove through this ritzy neighborhood where homes were going for 6 million  and up, and they weren't even that impressive in my opinion. Our house in this area probably would be worth 10 million easily, probably more as we have a half acre of land. Land is so valuable here that all of the houses are a right next to me each other. We went to the Greek Observatory high on one of the mountains to get a good view of the sign.

Then we decided to go to the La Brea Tar Pits which are pits of tar heated to a point that they are liquid tar. Outside the park where the pits were, DH was hungry so I was still stuffed from breakfast. We went to this restaurant called Johnny's Pizza. I originally was going to just order a tiramisu dessert. When it came time to order I ended up getting the same order as MIL which was minestrone soup with garlic toast. DH ordered an Italian quesadilla. All the food was delicious.

Afterward we went to the La Brea Tar Pits. We didn't go in because it is was a walking tour and it was already hot out, plus it was $13 each for tickets. I Googled it and looked at images that people had posted online of it. In the movie Volcano, the La Brea Tar Pits are actually boiling. Funny thing is the parking lot was $13 to park (MIL stated it was a disgrace) and there were two areas that were fenced and caged off where the tar was seeping up. The strange thing, there wasn't the strong tar odor in the area.

From there we decided to go back to the campground and on the way go to Dunkin' Donuts to get bagels. We drove past a Panera's which we should have gone to instead as the bagels I bought were the last 6 and I think they could be used as lead weights. I normally love their bagels and the ones I bought for the trip were
from our local Dunkin' Donuts. From there we went food shopping but I forgot to get trash bags and coffee.

On the way back, to Soledad Canyon Road, the road was blocked by a police officer. We pulled up and asked if there was another way to get to the campground on the road. He let us through. He was blocking it to keep the Looky Lou's away from the fire. So as we drove down the road, we could see a brush fire below. Numerous fire engines and personnel were in the area working on putting it out. It was several miles from the campground but it was both exciting and scary.
We then drove toward the campground and DH drove up a road that had hiking trails in a National Forest, but the whole area was closed due to extreme fire hazard. The whole area looked like a moonscape with the occasional charred tree. Since we have been here the campground has been planting new trees around the perimeter. They should probably take down the charred trees to keep them from burning again plus it would act as a natural fire break.

Then we came back and talked to our neighbors. DH talked to them longer then me. I came in to work on my blog but ended up crashing. Woke up at 10 pm to take my medications only to remember that I needed to fill my daily dispenser. Then worked on blog.