LA: Day 4

Click to view Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3

We woke early and headed to the Warner Brothers studio for our 830 tour. We watched a brief film on WB history and headed out on a little extended golf cart to view the lot. Here are some of the pictures:

The alley where they shot the upside-down kiss for Spiderman

The actual Ford Anglia used in the filming of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

And these two shots are for my dad and Chelsea - Stars Hallow:

The Gazebo

And Luke's Diner :)

But HANDS DOWN the highlight of the trip was visiting the friends set. It had been reconstructed in a location separate from the actual stage, but it was still awesome.

The infamous couch. According to our guide, it has been recovered since its stint on the show, but it was filmed in both its current condition and location when Ellen interviewed Jennifer Aniston on her 50 show.

And we got to sit on the couch. Serious increase in heart rate and blood pressure.

We also saw stage 24, "The Friends Stage" which is now home to some show I'd never heard of.

It was amazing. We also visited the museum on the property which housed an entire floor dedicated to - you guessed it - HP. Unfortunately there were no cameras allowed (so sorry, Kristin) but we got to see lots of costumes and outfits and we even got to be sorted (though there was clearly no magic involved, as I got Slytherin). We checked out the gift shop and I got this super cool shirt for my friend Kristin to try to make up for the fact that she wasn't with me but would have had conniptions on several occasions, had she been:

We then headed back to In and Out Burger where I ordered my burger "animal style" (though when the lady explained that animal style meant pickles, grilled onions, and the burger cooked up in mustard, I decided to just go with the grilled onions).

Yum yum. I also got a t-shirt for my dad and a hat for my son.

Next on the agenda was whale watching in Newport Beach, an adorable little town nestled on a bay with cute little shops and restaurants, and even a ferry to take our car across the little channel. Oh yeah - and no parking. We drove around for half an hour looking for a place to park before finding a residential neighborhood with one spot open! We checked in at whale watching and waited on the deck, and almost immediately we saw a sea lion swimming almost directly underneath us! Pretty cool. We loaded the boat and headed out for our 2.5 hour whale watch excursion. We were prepared to see nothing and just enjoy the boat ride, but it turned out to be quite an eventful trip with sea lions, several whale sightings, and dolphins:

Sea lions sunning themselves on the bobber thing!

I thought I caught a lot more on this video than I actually did, but we were sailing through a pod of dolphins!  Very cool. We had intended to shop the shops on the strip, but most of them were closed by the time we got back around 700. We did find a cute little boutique where each of us - even me! - made purchases.  Then we ate a delicious meal at this restaurant:

We ordered calamari (amazing!)

And I got delicious cheese ravioli - a perfect close to the evening. We drove to Santa Anna, said our goodbyes to Anne, and checked into our hotel to get some sleep for our early flight back home.

I should mention that during our drive, we busted out some of the music we recorded nearly 15 years ago when we sang together.  It was fun, and a great reminder of the rich past of our friendships.  A HUGE thank you to Anne for hosting us and planning such an amazing trip! I had a blast with you girls!