Day 17

First stop this morning was downtown Hollywood for the Paramount Studios Tour. Our tour guide Justin showed us some really cool stuff. And because it was a Saturday, we got to go in to lots of places that are normally out of bounds during the working week.

In the reception we saw the actual best picture Oscars for films like The Godfather and Forrest Gump. We went on the real working TV sets for shows Dr Phil and Instant Mom. We also saw lots of filming locations on the site, like the New York set where the Friends episode “The One With The Baby On The Bus” was shot and the Cake Baby shop from Bridesmaids, which as it turns out, was the same shop used in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. We also saw locations from Rizzoli & Isles, which is a show that Laura likes.

Feeling how heavy a real Oscar statue is with a weight replica.

THE bench from Forrest Gump

The facades on the right are used for New York buildings (the 'Marble Rye' episode of Seinfeld was something I recognised them from. Also from Laura's fave show 'Rizzoli & Isles'

Seeing behind the scenes at a real life studio was just fab. Next we drove up to Griffith Park and walked up to the observatory. The view from there was great, but as we already have a very similar view from our apartment we were a bit like “meh! Seen it already”. We got tickets to the planetarium and watched a fantastic show which talked about our place in the universe and brought a tear to my eye. It was so good. The projection and seating were superb. Having already seen a similar show at Leicester’s Space Centre, I can safely say that the Griffith Observatory one was far superior. Sorry Leicester.

Waiting for the show to start in the super comfy reclining seats. 

On the roof we queued up and had a look through the telescope and saw Venus (that was cool!) before walking back to car. We were starving by now so went downtown to Umami burger.

The burger at Umami was easily, without a doubt, the BEST BURGER I’ve ever eaten. And the sweet potato fries were amazing too. They had a cinnamon sweet salt sprinkle on them. Mmmmm! The burger was so good in fact that we’ve cleared a spot in our schedule to make sure we can squeeze another one in before we have to leave LA.

After Umami we went back to the apartment and got ready for the Tchaikovsky spectacular at the Hollywood Bowl. We put jeans on and took jumpers as we knew it would be quite cool later.

We parked in a stacked lot at the bowl (No early exit! the sign warned) and went to collect our tickets. On the way to the box office we passed lots of people eating picnics and drinking wine outside the bowl. The whole area was buzzing with a kind of relaxed, sophisticated excitement.

We browsed the gift shop and bought a few bits and bobs, because obviously everyone needs a miniature violin fridge magnet!

With a drink each in hand we made our way to our seats. We were about half way back and slightly to the side – a fab view. The bench seats were surprisingly comfortable.

After we sat down the couple beside us started chatting to us and then the couple behind joined in. They were so friendly and the half hour before the show started just flew by as we talked about America, our trip and where we’d been. The guy next to us, Jack, offered us some of his Merlot (he had a bottle) and I found it difficult to refuse. He then offered us something called a lacy cookie – which was also difficult to refuse!

The couple behind us, Val & Dan, were the most chatty and as we talked we shared our experience of San Francisco (they too had queued for Mama’s breakfast!) and the chilly weather. Val was originally from New York, Dan is a native Californian and they were really friendly. We do seem to have great luck at finding friendly locals.

The lights dimmed, the maestro came out and the orchestra started. The opening piece was from Swan Lake and it was magnificent. Some of the following music was knew to both of us, but still very enjoyable.

After the interval (when we chatted more to our neighbours) the evening concluded with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, complete with colour guard, brass band, drum corps and fireworks in synch to the music. It was brilliant and over far too quickly.

Happy and with smiles on our faces we slowly filed out (along with the other 17,000 people) and went back to the car. I grabbed a hot dog on the way that I decided would be either delicious or would kill me (it was the former as I’m still alive) as it was being cooked in a shopping trolley.