Wednesday, August 1, 2007- Universal Studios

We didn’t get to Universal Studios last summer because the weather was too hot and we were exhausted on that last day. Today, however, was gorgeous-- cloudy this morning, but sunny and breezy this afternoon. We went to Universal today primarily because it was part of the Southern California City Passes that we bought. I don’t know if we would have gone to it otherwise. We had a good time though-- all except Emma who was too small for most things and scared by what she was able to get on.

We started the day by taking the Universal Studios backlot tour. We got to see Magnum’s Ferrari, the Psycho house, Whoville (from the Grinch Who Stole Christmas), and the dramatic plane wreck from War of the Worlds. They were filming Ghost Whisperer and Desperate Housewives when we were there, so twice the guide had to instruct the tour to be silent as the tram snuck by. As a result of the filming, we didn’t see the town square made famous in Back to the Future except in a little peek. On the other hand, we did see a lot of sites from the Hardy Boys shows that Julie has been watching recently on DVD. The European set that they use to represent streets from many different countries had just been used recently by Heroes. Anna had been nervously anticipating the shark attack on the studio tour. I think she was a little disappointed in how fake it ended up looking, but Daddy had worked hard to build up her suspense of that moment for more than a year now. On the other hand, Emma certainly didn’t like the King Kong section, the earthquake in the San Francisco subway section, or the part where the bugs from the Mummy are supposed to be dropping on you. In all of those, the effects were loud and the lighting was dark.

From there, we went to Shrek 4-D, and it was certainly the attraction that had the most potential for enjoyment from Emma. It was funny, and I think we all liked it, especially when Donkey sneezed on us. Anna enjoyed the Splash Zone where she got pretty wet, while Emma ended up climbing on a small playground. It was this simple place that she probably enjoyed the most.

There are only a few rides at Universal, and those that are there tend to be big thrill rides. That means two things. First, the lines seem to be longer, since people are not spread out to see other things. Second, for our family, it meant that one of us went with Anna while the other waited with Emma. Anna and Daddy had great fun going on the Back to the Future ride, where Doc Brown’s Delorean shakes you around in a Star Tours kind of ride. Then Mom and Anna went on the Revenge of the Mummy ride and the Jurassic Park ride. In between we all went to a special effects demonstration (where effects from Heroes were featured, among others). Emma waited rather patiently each time and even napped a little bit, and Anna had a great deal of fun.

As the afternoon drew to a close, we went to the Universal Animal Actors Show, where they were heavily plugging the current movie, Evan Almighty. Both girls were laughing quite hard at the orangutans. As we worked our way out of the park, we started seeing more “characters.” Emma didn’t want to go to Dora, Spongebob or Scooby-Doo when we saw them earlier. Now, she also didn’t want to go to the Marvel Superheroes when Daddy and Anna were getting their pictures with them. They all commented on Daddy’s shirt that showed them. “Ah, poker night with the boys!” said Wolverine. Anna thinks Daddy wore that shirt on purpose, and he probably did. We also saw “Groucho” and “Marilyn” and the “Blues Brothers” show before we left. Since it’s Wednesday, Daddy was happy that he was able to find this week’s new comics in one of the shops at City Walk outside.

We were getting quite hungry by that point, and Daddy had planned a surprise place for dinner-- the oldest surviving Bob’s Big Boy. It’s in Burbank, near NBC, Universal and Warner Brothers. It’s from the 1950s and is a California historic site. There are pictures of many stars who have eaten there, including John Wayne and Errol Flynn. There were some people in the booth next to us who were going over some kind of a proposal for a cartoon series.

We ended the night by driving by the Disney Studios and the Warner Brothers lot before returning to Cathy and Bob’s in Seal Beach.

We were thinking of our parents a lot today. It’s Julie’s Dad’s birthday, and it was also the day that we were supposed to pick up Scott’s parents from the airport, before they had to change their plans.