032714 WOW, JUST WOW

We visited the Grand Canyon today.  As I walked to the Canyon wall, I was struck by how huge it is, how wide it is, by how deep it is, by how beautiful it is, and by how terrified I was.  I'm afraid of heights and the first placed we stopped was Yavapai Point.  This area has a geology museum plus some spectacular views of the Canyon.  It also has retaining walls maybe 2 feet tall and sometimes no retaining walls at all.  To say I was not comfortable, would be a gross understatement.

If we had gone to Mather Point first things may not have been as bad.  This observation area has the main ranger station and welcome center.  It also has retaining fences above waist high. While I didn't rush up to these, I was able to "creep" up to them.  In time, I got almost semi comfortable near the edges.

The canyon is immense, beautiful, and awe inspiring.  Everyone should visit them at some point.  The thing is, depending on the time of day and the amount of cloud cover, the Canyons will put on a different show each time.

I'm just going to add some pictures we took today.  And these are a small sampling of all the images we took.
 

Note the heavy jackets.  It was cold.  And tonight it's supposed to drop to the mid 20's.

The last five images were taken by Mary using the old Nikon D40 w/ 55 to 200 mm tele zoom.  The others were taken with my Nikon D5100 usually with the old 18 to 55 mm kit zoom lens. As you can tell, the time frame runs from the afternoon to sunset.  Unfortunately. a heavy cloud cover kept the sunset shots from being what I expected.

This is all for today.  Tomorrow we head for the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert at the eastern side of Arizona.  We'll be back in Virginia at some point. :)

Revised 4/20/14.  Corrections to grammar, & spelling. Slight narrative changes.

032714 Out of California ... via Route 66

On the 26th we left our LA home at Balboa RV Park in Van Nuys, California.  It took over an hour and a half  to clear Cajon Pass over the San Bernadino Mountains.  I was ready for that to happen.

Even had a foreign substance hit our windows, at least foreign to LA folks.  Water.

Once we got over the Cajon Pass, it was dry as a bone.  We cruised a short while on I-15 before getting on I-40.  I-40 starts in Barstow, CA.  Unfortunately, we weren't ready for the sign, but it had Wilmington, NC 2,5xx miles.  Wish we had that picture.  At Ludlow, we turned on to old Route 66.  Filled up with gas there.  Only cost $4.50 a gallon.  Believe it or not, that wasn't the most expensive gas we bought on this trip.  Gas at the only station in Death Valley was $5.50 a gallon.

We also had a terrific tail wind.  Winds up to 39 mph were pushing us and sometimes a lot of sand.

This is a photo of the roadway.  Every so often, Route 66 is painted on the road bed.  Another thing of interest.  The special book we have on Rt 66 warns of some rough pavement.  Well, not so much.  I've seen a lot rougher pavement on interstates.

This is what the countless people saw when they traveled RT 66 to California, trying to find the promised land.  At the time it was.  Now, not so much.
 

This is what I was happy to see at the end of yesterday. 

 

 

I loved my stay in Los Angeles.  I scratched a number of itches, but that place is no longer on my bucket list.

Revised 4/20/14.  Spelling & grammar corrections.

032514 Visiting a President.

Today found us at the Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.  It is a beautiful place, and President Reagan has a beautiful view.  This photo doesn't give the view justice.

Here is President Reagan's final resting place.

The Museum visit was a great experience. As one would expect, it began with his birth and ended with his funeral.  The entire exhibit was well done.

Among the very special exhibits is Air Force One.  That is neat  Visitors are able to walk through AF One.

A piece of the Berlin Wall is on exhibit outside.  This is only natural since in a speech in front of the Wall, he exclaimed, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."

It takes a good day to view the Library like it needs to be viewed.

Well, our sojourn in LA LA land has come to a close.  Tomorrow, we finally turn the nose of the truck eastward.  We probably have another 2 weeks or so on the road, before The Traveling Koala gets home.

From here on, it gets hit or miss when a new blog post gets posted.  Just depends on whether the place we're staying for the night has wifi or not.

Revised 4/20/14.  Cleaned up some narrative, plus corrected any noticed errors in grammar and spelling.

032414 The Traveling Koala visits Warner Bros.

Editor's Note #1.  I first published this on the 24th.  It was late when I did it, and disliked it so much, I soon pulled it and rewrote it.

Editor's Note #2.  Of all days to leave both of my cameras in the trailer, this was it.  Almost makes me sick.  So I have no pictures, other than a few we took with our phones.  I don't have the correct wire to down load them to the computer.   I've finally downloaded the phone pictures and have added them now.

We toured Warner Bros Studio today.   Had a most wonderful day, and  enjoyed it very much. 

Here is the building where the tours originate, plus a Starbucks Coffee and Warner Bros Gift Shop. 
Other WB offices are housed in this rather large building.  Sometimes the exterior is used for a scene in a show or movie.  Our tour guide provided us with an interesting tidbit.  Even though this building is on the opposite side of the street from the studios, filming here is considered "on location" and permits must be gotten from the city.

Folks going on one of the tours get their tickets here, or just check in if they purchased them on line.  A  short film is shown before we begin our tour.  I guess in order to get some space between us and some of the other tours, we got our picture taken holding an Oscar.

Our tour guide, Amanda, was superb. She knew her stuff.  Could rattle off different films and TV shows that were filmed, in what buildings or areas on the back lot, ranging from the early days up to the present.  We did the deluxe tour and only had 7 people, including us, in our group.  Some of the deluxe groups had 11 or 12.  We had a family of 3, an Indian couple from Great Britain, and us.

I was lucky because I used to watch the TV show "Chuck" all the time, and currently really like "The Mentalist".  Both shows were or are filmed at WB, and Amanda, our tour guide,  loved/loves both shows as well.  Because of this, she would point out different places on the back lot where scenes from both shows were filmed.  Almost seemed like a private tour for me.

In the jungle set, there is a building and a lagoon that have been used for numerous shows and movies.  For "Chuck" fans, the lagoon was used for the scene where Agent Sarah Walker walked up out of the water while in Thailand looking for Chuck.

This building in the Jungle Set can be used in all types of shows.  Depending on which side of the building is being filmed, it was the Thai bar where Sarah Walker was gathering information on where Chuck was being held.  It also served as a biker bar in a scene from the Mentalist.

On the back lot, most streets are lined with facades.  They are the outside of the buildings only.  They will be deep enough for an actor to disappear behind a door.

The interior shots would take place on a sound stage.

Some buildings are complete and both exterior and interior scenes can be filmed.

If you see an actor coming out of a court house or library in a show or film that was filmed on WB's back lot, this was it.  Patrick Jane, the lead character from "The Mentalist" was shown coming from this building after successfully defending himself from a murder charge.

Amanda told us that all buildings on the studio's lot can be used for double duty.  For instance, we saw some offices that are used by studio personnel.  From the outside, the buildings look like motel or apartment exteriors, and in fact the exteriors are used to represent either a motels or apartments, depending on what's needed.

Even the Fine Dining Commissary where we ate lunch can be used as an upscale restaurant.  For example, two different "Chuck" episodes were filmed at the Fine Dining Commissary, one interior scene, and one exterior scene.

Amanda also said other studios will rent areas on the WB back lot if it what they need for their film.  All of the studios do this.  WB will use other studios sets if the other studio has a back lot set that WB needs.  They will also rent props to each other.  She told us about a show that was filmed at another studio, but used a post production sound mixing team at WB.

Amanda took us to a post production studio where the re-recording artists mixed the sound effects from the Foley artists, music, etc into the final product.  She also took us to a currently working Foley studio.  When filming, only the actors voices are recorded.  The Foley artists will add all the sound effects, including an actor walking across the floor.  If it's a woman walking in high heels across a wooden floor, the Foley artists will record themselves doing it.  It's then added to the film, and ultimately sent to the guys who add all the sounds except the verbal part.

We got to see the studio where "The Ellen" show is taped along with the studio where "2 Broke Girls" is filmed.

We visited the large props department and the building where all the sets are built.

Because "Friends" was such a huge hit both in the US and over seas, WB moved one of the main sets, Central Perk, from that show's former sound stage to an unused building.  Now WB uses it to show visitors during it's studio tours. Here are a series of pictures from Central Perk, including Mary and I on the couch used during filming.  WB had several exact copies of the couch and they rotated them.

 

It was here we saw our only actor, Brenden Robinson, who has a recurring role on the show "Pretty Little Liars".  He was showing some friends of his around WB, and tagged along with us when we visited Central Perk. Here is a fuzzy picture of Brenden and Mary.

He and his friends also rode with us in our cart to the props department.  We saw no others actors even though "2 and 1/2 Men" was rehearsing, and "The Mentalist" was shooting.  Our tour guide drove us to different places in the hopes of getting a glimpse of some other actors.

Here are shots of a house that's been used several times on "The Mentalist".  It was being prepared for use in another "The Mentalist" episode.

We went to a museum on the studio grounds.  The first floor had items from movies and TV shows shot at WB studios, or made by WB.  The entire 2nd floor is devoted to Harry Potter exhibits.

This piano was used in the Humphrey Bogart film, "Casablanca".

These are three costumes worn by Clint Eastwood.  The first from "Gran Torino", the second from "Heart Break Ridge", and the third from "Dirty Harry".

Up on the 2nd floor (Harry Potter Room) we were Sorted into Gryffindor House.

Here is the robe worn by Harry Potter.

We also visited a building that housed several automobiles used in TV shows.  They include the Alpine Tiger driven by Maxwell Smart in the show "Get Smart", plus ...

 the car from "Dukes of Hazzard" and ...

a Nerd Herd car.

It was a very good day and I'm sick I have no pictures from my real cameras to illustrate this "tome". 

Revised 4/20/14.  Corrected grammar and spelling plus minor changes to the narrative.
Revised 4/30/14.  Added pictures shot with our smart phones.  Also changed or added narrative.

032414 Mulholland Drive & Pink's Day 3 & 4 in LA

On day 3 of our Los Angeles odyssey, we moved the headquarters of The Traveling Koala from Dockweiler Beach RV park (and all the LAX aircraft) to Balboa RV Park in Van Nuys, home of earthquakes.  Balboa RV park is only about 3 miles from the deadly Northridge earthquake of 1994.  It bills itself the largest RV park in LA.  It probably is, but after long term and seasonal sites are removed, only about 36 remain for people like me, transients.  Of course with land at a premium, it's usually more valuable to construct a building or three than a RV park.

However it is a nice little community, very clean and friendly.  It is tight though.  If you have a trailer, you drop it at the office, and it's placed in it's spot with a fork lift that has a trailer ball on it's forks.

When we arrived, the owner Steve told us about the scene from the TV show "NCIS:LA" that was filmed at his Park back on the 18th.  He said people from the show stopped by and asked if they could film a scene at his park which happened to include an exploding travel trailer.  "No problem", he told them because he just happened to have a trailer they could blow up.  He'd just bought it from a long time tenant who moved back to Phoenix.  He showed me a series of photos taken during the filming, including the exploding trailer.  He mentioned the cast and crew were great people, including LL Cool J.  If only I'd have been here on the 18th. 

That afternoon we decided to drive Mulholland Drive.  Driving Mulholland was on my to do list in LA.  Here is a picture of yours truly.

Mulholland follows the ridge line of the Santa Monica Mountains.  It separates the San Fernando Valley from LA and the LA basin.  This is a view of the San Fernando Valley.

This is a view of LA from Mulholland.

Here is Mary with NBC Universal over her shoulder.

A lot of people have houses off Mulholland, including Jay Leno.  We drove the opposite way from Leno's end.  He's further out.  This is an example of a dwelling up on the mountain.  This doesn't belong to a big star.

After leaving Mulholland, we drove over to Griffith Park.  It is one one of the largest urban parks in the US.  It includes Griffith Observatory.  Did we pick the WRONG day to do that.  Half of LA must have been at or going to the Observatory.  As usual in LA, parking was limited.  We did manage a drive by photo op of the Observatory and the Hollywood sign.

After this, we went down to Hollywood in search of Grauman's Chinese Theater and the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  Another bad idea.  I think all of the tourist in LA were here.  It was glacier slow driving down Hollywood Blvd.  We went north of Hollywood Blvd a block to find parking.  Quickly pulled into an on street parking meter spot.  Quickly decided to move on when Mary found a double hand full of spent 38 spl and 357 magnum shell casings.  We called an end to our 3rd day in LA.

Our 4th day in LA was more fruitful.  We started the day by doing a dry run to Warner Bros Studios.  We planned to go there the next day to take the Deluxe tour.  After this, we drove down to Pink's Hot Dogs.  We had the time to stand in line this day unlike the day we were visiting the La Brea Tar Pits. Funny thing about that long line to get into Pink's.  By the time we got inside Pink's, the line we had been in was still the same length as it was when we first got in line, no longer, but no shorter either.   Apparently, Pink's is a LA institution.  In 1939, it started on the exact spot it is today, using a portable cart.  In 1946, a permanent building was built where the cart had been.  The shop has lots of photos on the wall of celebrities who have eaten Pink's dogs.

For grins.

We did find Grauman's Chinese Theater today.  I was expecting something grander I guess.

For Mary's Mom, we found Tyrone Power's Star on the Walk of Fame.

Mary also bumped fists with Shrek.

After Pink's and the Chinese Theater, we drove over to Rodeo Drive.  What a street.  As I was driving up Rodeo, my left hip began to get warm.  Come to find out, my credit card was beginning to heat up just from passing the store fronts.

These people live in a different universe than me, at least financially.  Nice to see how the upper 10% live.  At the far end of Rodeo Drive, we find "regular" homes.  They would sell for multiple millions, but are are not huge mansions.  Plus the architecture is eclectic in style.

Rodeo runs into Beverly Hills.  Here is a shot of the Beverly Hills Hotel.

We looked hard for the Beverly Hillbillies, but couldn't find them. :)

Thus ended Day 4 in LA.


Revised 04/20/14.  Spelling and grammatical errors corrected. Plus narrative changed is some places.