Spring Break: Pasadena & Warner Bros Studio Tour

Wednesday morning we woke up in our Glendale hotel. With Pasadena sitting pretty just east of us, we decided to drive around and check out the city.

We drove by the beautiful and famous Gamble House (too early in the day for a tour - next time):
Also admired the fantastic architecture of the city. Cool downtown too. We had to see the iconic Rose Bowl as well:
And the beautiful if morbid Colorado Street Bridge (aka "Suicide Bridge", c. 1913):
After a quick lunch we scooted over to Burbank to take in a tour of the Warner Brothers studio.
Riding around in an electric cart (basically a stretch golf cart that seats fifteen plus the driver), we saw some of the various lots. This one was built about five years ago and, while looking like a typical American suburban neighborhood, each "house" actually holds offices.
Happy to see a cart with this, apparently they're working on a show based on a fantastic Twitter feed:
Most of the older homes, which don't feature interior offices, have two to three "fronts". Here's the backside of one such home.
This facade was the home of one of the characters in Gilmore Girls, a favorite show of Allie's. Rewind 30 years and it was the home of Boss Hogg from The Dukes of Hazzard. Apparently it was a screened-in porch at that time.

Just a few steps away from these 1940s-era homes is a small city, used as Stars Hollow in Gilmore Girls, as well as Hazzard, KY from The Dukes. It's quite obvious that no Gilmore Girls fan grew up watching the Dukes, just as no Dukes fan watched Gilmore Girls.
We drove through a bunch of the sound stages...
...stopped a few times to check out workers building new sets...
...a few "car stars"...
...and a green screen.
Naturally Celeste is saying hi to the monster from Where The Wild Things are while I'm snapping a pic. The studio lights reflect quite nicely off my grossly-misshapen and bald ass head.

Next up was the props department. There we found the "Central Perk" coffee shop set from Friends (blech) set up:
Allie liked that show as well, I'll go on record as calling it one of the worst shows of the 90s. The guide then walked us through a couple of sets from NBC's Chuck (a show I had no idea existed prior to the tour). All ready to go, just add actors and cameras. Pretty fascinating how they set up the apartment courtyard. Lights above replicate the sun or moon and can change position based on the time of day that they're trying to emulate.

A quick stop in the museum where we saw some apparently-famous costumes as well as a small set from The Corpse Bride all set up. Celeste really enjoyed that, sadly no photos were allowed.
All in all, yet another good day.

Spring Break: Travel Town Museum, Griffith Park L.A.

After spending a few hours exploring the Griffith Park's Old L.A. Zü, we drove a few minutes north to take in the Travel Town Museum.
Founded in 1952, Travel Town hosts a wide array of locomotives, passenger cars and other rolling stock. Most of the locomotives on display are steam-powered, with one dating back to 1864.
We were quite surprised to find the museum as a free admission area. A few cars and locomotives were open and available for us to climb in and on.

inside the A.T.&S.F. Snack Car #3355 (1928)

Santa Fe logo window detail in #3355

Lots of steam, sadly I lost track of which locomotives are photographed below.

artsy-fartsy black and white
tying the grrrl down to the tracks

I really liked the simple type font on this tender:
And I love the engineer skunk from a California Western locomotive:

I think I'm going to have to make a t-shirt with this logo, too cool!

After we had spent about 45 minutes checking the place out, an announcement on the PA alerted us to mosey on over to the station for a ride on the park's passenger railroad.
The fare was all of $2.50 per person for two trips around the park. So we crammed Celeste into one of the cars:
But she quickly discovered that there was adequate headroom to be found.
Bringing up the rear.
An afternoon well spent.

And now a public service announcement from the museum:

(click here for a definition)

Spring Break: At The Abandoned Zü

Ah, spring break. We wanted Celeste to see a bit more than just the neighborhood and the local Target/Trader Joe's/Stater Bros during her time off, so we made plans to go camping out at Joshua Tree National Park.

I rooted around in the attic, gathering the tent, sleeping bags, camp stove and all of our other gear with plans to head out to the desert for three days and two nights. Allie went so far as to buy all the food that we'd need for eating a bunch of meals outdoors. However, it was not to be. With high winds (35-40 MPH) and cold nights (temps in the upper 30s) predicted, we changed plans at the last minute. So I hucked all the camping gear back up in the attic and we re-packed our clothes to head up north to explore the LA area for a few days.

A few clicks on Hotwire.com and we had a nice room booked at the Glendale Hilton. But before we checked in, we hit L.A.'s Griffith Park to explore the old and abandoned Los Angeles Zoo.

Construction started in 1912 and the facility was located here until they moved to a larger, flatter and more accessible plot a couple of miles north. Read more from the sign below:
Now brace yourself for an onslaught of pix of a caged grrrl.
There were a few distinct sections of the zoo. Although I am not certain, I'm quite sure that this area with the fake rock (that Allie's dubbed Zoo Rock®) was built later - possibly in the 1930s. Now you can picnic where the animals once lived.
As well as peer up some of the staircases that lead to smaller enclosures.
Fortunately some enterprising young vandals removed some of the fencing, allowing us to better-explore the bowels of the old zoo. First we scrambled up the steep staircase, doing our best to avoid the glass from discarded beer bottles.
The fencing around the upper sections was also compromised, much better than trying to go back down the stairs.
Up top we found an old building, complete with even more cages to climb in.
I think Celeste is acting as if she's a bird here.
Nice view of Glendale and the surrounding mountains from this vantage.
I loves me some rusty hardware. Fine patina!
It's quite amazing how small the cages were. I hope (but don't believe) that only small animals were caged here.
This bank of cages seemed older than the others. Possibly the original part of the zoo?
Only a couple of these cages were not welded shut. Which is fine as most had running and/or standing water and algae in them. My grrrl would have ended up soaked.
We followed a small ravine up to a diminutive waterfall.
Then back down to the zoo for one more look around.
Overall I highly recommend the old zoo as a great place for a budding urban explorer to crawl around and get nice and dirty.