To get to Bel Air from the desert, one must drive right by downtown LA, so we got some nice views of the city, including the Hollywood sign and the Staples Centre.
While Gary did some required work at home, Bill & the girls set out to the valley - The San Fernando Valley - do so some more shopping. Shoes, a Target and another visit to Trader Jacks were on our list. Trader Jacks really has some unique products including Napa wine for $1.99 affectionately called 2 Buck Chuck, since the vintner is Charles Shaw. We had one of his chardonnays the other night and it's not half bad.
We cooked some pork tenderloin on the indoor grill along with a 5 minute, from frozen, risotto from Trader Jacks that was excellent. Following that we tried to watch Nights in Rodanthe with Richard Gere & Diane Laine, but all fell asleep, so that was another day in California.
Friday morning, Dawn & I set off on our own, since Betty & Gary had responsibilities at the house that required their presence for the day. Our destination for the morning was Warner Brothers studios in Burbank. It was a relatively short drive and we managed to catch an earlier tour than we had booked.
The two hour tour started with a short movie highlighting Warner Brothers film history, which is substantial. Then we headed out to the city street scenes with facade buildings that have been used in many different movies with many different dressings. The one more recognizable facade was ER's hospital entrance.
Then we went to the house scenes where many houses like the Seavers' and Drew Carey's were found.
Next we headed into the sound stage area where movies from My Fair Lady and Casablanca to TV shows like the Mentalist and Cold Case are/were shot. In fact, both of the later mentioned TV shows were setting up for a shoot latter in the day. No stars were viewed, but we did see Ellen Degeneres' parking space and George Clooney's cottage. We also walked on to the sets of Friends (Central Perk) and The Mentalist. We couldn't always take photos, I guess to protect the stars.
By the time we finished the tour, we looked for a restaurant across fro WB studios called the Smoke House that has quite a long history in the area.
To go home we avoided the Freeway and instead, chose to drive through Griffith Park to see the Greek Theatre and The Griffith Observatory. The Observatory provided the best views of the Hollywood sign and if not for today's smog , great views of the city.
From there we drove along Mulholland Dr. back to north of Bel Air. Along the way, there are many spectacular homes and some pretty scary ones on stilts.
We did pretty well finding our way around the town today and got back to Linda Flora right on schedule for cocktails and artichoke hearts. The three vegetable highlights of this trip have definitely been the three A's - Avacados, Artichokes and Asparagus, all presently in season, so we've been eating lots of them.
Tonight was surf and turf with lobster tails and fillet - another shabby meal!
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