Celebrating the Genius!

So I met John Williams! And had an all-round wonderful trip to Hollywood with my sister and some friends! Here are the highlights!

How do you meet John Williams? Go to the morning rehersals! It was a great pre-performance and a a beautiful day at the Hollywood Bowl.

There he is! With all of us and our autographed stuff! We met the great film score composer! (Stacy, me, Christa, Eric, John Williams, Brian, Matt, and Franklin, with Nick taking the picture, in case you were wondering...)

Us in front of the Hollywood Bowl (Nick's there on the right)

On Hollywood Blvd...

The Chinese Theatre

El Capitan Theatre

Kodak Theatre

Then we went to the Warner Bros. Studios and took their tour. We were not allowed to take pictures of probably the best part of the tour, which was a walk through their museum, which had a whole room dedicated to Harry Potter stuff! We got to see so many of the original costumes and props! But you'll have to take our word for it...

We could take pictures of...

The set of Central Perk from Friends! Thanks to my summer roommates, I could know and appreciate this awesome set! Thank you girls!

Prop rooms (Stuff from Pirates and Miss Congeniality)

A replica of Sam's Piano from Casablanca!!!

The ally-way set where Spider-man and Mary Jane do their famous kiss!! (it got me excited!)

The set of ER!

"Chicago's Finest" (gotta give Stacy the credit for naming this picture!)

Me caught doing a Masashi face...

We love the Looney Tunes (...really I do)

The Warner Bros. Tower! Where Yakko, Wakko, and Dot live!

This reminds me of something, which is going to lead me to a rant. The WB studio gift shop had a Starbucks in it. I was reminded of it because their chalkboard advertising their promotional drink had a really cute drawing of the Animaniacs with a Rasberry Mocha and big letters saying "Hellooooooo Rasberry Mooooocha!" and I really wanted to take a picture but everyone was waiting on me and I had to run :( which reminds me of the most annoying part of the whole trip. We seemed to be unable to find any Starbucks that were actually Starbucks...I couldn't use my Partner discount anywhere because everyone was really an employee of the WB or Universal or whatever, so it was cool for them but not for me...and they did NOT give legendary service. They refused to give Eric a Venti iced water, and gave him a tall (when Grande is standard if someone asks for water at my store and a Venti is no problem!) and they didn't shake my Iced Grande Unsweetened Shaken Iced Green Tea and I was very upset! And this is all to say that I'm officially a Barista Brat! Anyways...

Our attempt to get a picture of the Disney Animation Studio from the road

goofing off before the concert...

After the great performance, I met of with Jane and Joni on Hollywood Blvd! We went to this little 24-hour donut/Chinese food/breakfast sandwiches restaurant. It was great to see them! And I felt very honored that they drove out to see me, even when Joni was preparing to leave for Japan the next day!! (hope you're having an awesome time!)
::restaurant employee::(to Joni) Wow, you're buzzed tonight! (said because she was laughing so much. Of course that didn't help her stop acting so "buzzed"... )

Next day, we went to Universal Studios.

Brian's favorite movie is Jurassic Park.

"Maybe we'll park in 'Jurassic Park-ING'!?!"

Nope. We got Curious George :(

On the Studio Tour...

Vans from The Lost World

A set from King Kong. It's actually really small

Because of their movie Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, they had a lot of Japanese stuff lying around everywhere. This looks like an awful movie...but I got excited by the authentic jidouhanbaiki (vending machines). Too bad they didn't work.

Brian gets a close encounter with Jaws

Sets from Desperate Housewives! I've never watched this show, but the houses were beautiful!

The set of Whoville

Right behind it was the Bate's Motel
The final set we drove through was from War of the Worlds. They destroyed a real airplane. Very Impressive!
At the Special effects show, our party participated much. Here Eric rolls the crash box.
And Christa battles a huge cat!

In front of Shrek 4-D

Donkey talks! I guess that's the point. But I was impressed. Do they have an Eddie Murphy impersonator down there, or do they use those voice changer things that are in spy movies that I don't believe really exist yet?

Our final night we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner :)

And that was our trip. I have more thoughts but I'm tired and, more urgently, when I'm home in Gilbert Stacy and I have to share the computer and she's been waiting. Maybe I'll write more later. Anyways it was fun and I hope everyone enjoyed the pictures!