LA...Day 4

Saturday 2-21

Warner Brothers Studios VIP tour

The day started with a trip to the Warner Brother Studios for the VIP tour ($54/adult). The tour lasted around 2 hours and 15 minutes. We got to see sounds stages for Big Bang Theory, Ellen, and some Netflix show. The guide told us that the wait list to get tickets for Ellen is about 2 years and about a year and a half for the Big Bang Theory. There was tons of Batman stuff on display due to the 75th year anniversary. One of the buildings had a Harry Potter exhibit which showed artifacts from the films. There was a stool that you sat on and the staff put the “sorting hat” on your head and a recording would come on and tell you what house you belonged to – I got Hufflepuff.

Warner Brothers Studios VIP tour - Sorting Hat

There was some filming going on in one area, but the guide had no idea what it was for. We got to learn about some tricks of the trade.  There is a pretty large area that has buildings that replicated a neighborhood, school, businesses, etc. During our visit a lot of the buildings were set up for filming of Pretty Little Liars.

Warner Brothers Studios VIP tour - "Friends" 

Another really cool thing we got to see during our visit was the prop building. They had all sorts of really neat things. Also in that building was the “Friends” TV show set. The guide allowed everyone to sit on the “Friends” couch for a photo. Interesting fact – the “Friends” couch was replaced three times throughout the filming for the show.

During the tour the guide mentioned that when George Clooney was filming a lot, he had a favorite nearby restaurant that he often frequented. We checked it out and it was a really cool place! The place is called The SmokeHouse Restaurant. The place was established in 1946 and to this day it maintains a classic Hollywood feel. Clooney liked the place so much that he named his film production company Smoke House Pictures. Oh, the food was reasonably priced, had large portions and was very good. We were told we must try the cheesy garlic bread – we tried it and it was good – a bit different than what you would expect.

Long Beach

One of the people, we were staying with had to fly out-of-town for work so after dropping her off at the airport, we headed to Long Beach. We went to the Shoreline Aquatic Park which was nice – there was a lighthouse (lame), a large park area, and many restaurants in the marina area.  Heading back to where we were staying we drove by “Skidrow” – very interesting is pretty much all you can say – tents/boxes all over the place.


 Dinner was had at DuPar’s Restaurant. The menu had a nice selection of items. I tried the chicken pot pie and it was tasty. The desserts looked very temping, had they had carrot cake or red velvet cake I would have tried it!