Warner Bros. studio

On Thursday we drove back into LA (or to Burbank actually) for a VIP tour of Warner Brothers. It was a lot of fun, we saw some really cool stuff.

This the back of Miss Hannigan's orphanage in Annie!!

Upside down kiss in Spiderman I? Right here!

Stars Hollow from the Gilmore Girls which also happens to be the same as River City from the Music Man!

The ER ambulance bay!

Famous cars - Mystery Machine, the Harry Potter flying car and the Batmobile!

In the Batman series, this is where Batman and Robin would run up these stairs to see Comissioner Gordon. They shot it once and used it like 78 times...

Central Perk from Friends!

Once we were done the tour, we drove up as close as we could to the Hollywood sign, then we headed back to Anaheim.

Got to get to bed now but I'll post the photos from Eric's wedding tomorrow. Night night!

Back to the trip

California Adventure was a lot of fun. It's as nice as Disneyland is but there were fewer screaming children...

We took a "class" with an animator and we learned how to draw Donald Duck's face! Stéphane's turned out better than mine...

Star Nerds

Does anything look strange to you in this photo? We got it at Disneyland... May the farce be with you!

It's a Girl!

Yes, we found out on Friday that our little bundle of joy is a girl! The technician said that she was 80% sure but, as Stéphane pointed out, any son of his would be CLEARLY a boy, no confusion (wink, wink). It has suddenly become much more real and exciting now. We were putting a lot of things off until after our holiday so now that we're back, we're raring to go. Our apartment looks like a bit of nightmare at the moment because we haven't really put our winter clothes away so they're all piled up along with some things from California that I have unpacked but not found a home for in my office plus our future garage sale pile is growing. It's all part of the plan to streamline and reorganize!

Yesterday we paid a visit to Home Depot to check out the air conditioner situation. We have been renting an air conditioner for the last two years mainly because they take care of installing it AND we don't really have room to store it during the winter. Stéphane convinced me that he felt ready to install one by himself and it would be way less expensive. We got a good one for only $89 on sale and my super handy husband installed it this morning. If you have never been to Montréal in the summer, you can't really understand how important it is to have an air conditioner. And if you know me even a little bit, you can imagine how important it is for ME to have an air conditioner in the bedroom. Especially now that I'm carrying another hot little person!

The other fun thing that happened at Home Depot is that I found a rug that works for our living room. Not only is it exactly the color of our couch, but I got it for $59! So funny that Matthew and Bari found a rug also this weekend! We must be having good carpet karma :)

Time to break for dinner. I'll post more vacation photos later tonight.

Disneyland!! (Days 4-6)

It's late and I'm feeling a little too hot (it's 31 degrees today here in Montréal) so I'm going to pretty much let these pictures speak for themselves! All I will say is that Stéphane's favorites were all in Tomorrowland (especially the Jedi Training Academy) and I actually choked up when we met Mickey Mouse. Hello hormones!

Day Three

Actually it was on Sunday night that we went out to the Viper Room (famous for being where River Phoenix overdosed - exactly where Stéphane is standing) and had a really good time. The live music was excellent. Then we went across the street to the Whiskey A-Go-Go only because it's where the Doors were discovered. Very cool. No pictures of that I don't think... Anyway, back to Monday. We checked out of our hotel but left our bags there and did some more sightseeing before lunching at the Urth Café on Melrose. I confess that I wanted to go there only because I read about it all the time as a place where stars are spotted but I have to say that the food was amazing. We had the best salad there. I wish I had taken a picture of it! We also stopped by the Alta Cienega motel and took some pictures because it was a well-known Jim Morrison hang-out.

Then we were off to Burbank to the Tonight Show! Had a GREAT time, amazing seats in the middle of the second row, on the special guest list, we were just feeling special all around!

Then, continuing on the theme of star treatment, we stumbled into a nearby Starbucks after the taping and got free drinks and treats because they were actually closed for a special event but they took pity on us! After all that excitement we picked up our bags at the hotel and hit the road for Anaheim.

More Universal Studios photos

Okay so you'll have to scroll down to my original post so you can see this in order but here are some more Universal Studios pictures... Okay so you'll have to scroll down to my original post so you can see this in order but here are some more Universal Studios pictures...

We're Back!

So I am finally posting pictures and writing about our holiday. We had a great time! We've been home since Monday night but unpacking, dishwasher issues, the season finale of Lost and general sleepiness have kept me from the computer. Stéphane is out finally seeing "Inland Empire" and I'm tired of trying to figure out what's wrong with the dishwasher so here we go...

Day 1: Arrive in LA around noon, get the car from Enterprise and I drive us to the hotel which was actually easy to find. The weather was clear and warm but not hot. Our hotel was a block off Sunset Strip in West Hollywood on a quiet street. We got an upgrade to a suite (love that!) that had a fireplace. Wahoo! We unpacked some stuff then headed to a place not far away that friends of ours AND the hotel front desk had recommended. It's called the Abbey and we reclined on canopied couches to eat which felt very exotic. The service was crappy but it was an overall cool experience.

After lunch we hopped in the car and headed toward Hollywood and Vine via Paramount Studios. Stéphane took the wheel this time and found the driving pretty easy. It's a LOT like Vancouver actually, just bigger. We headed up towards Hollywood Blvd and got our first glimpse of the Hollywood sign. Parking around Graumann's Theatre was a little tricky but we finally found a place and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging around, having the full tourist experience. We bought those hats at a souvenir shop and we love them.

Day 2: Universal Studios! This day was one of our favourites. It was a 10-minute drive from our hotel and we were there by about 9:30 to beat the crowds. We paid a little extra and got "Front of the Line" passes which we COMPLETELY enjoyed and would highly recommend. The studio tour was just as much as I had remembered as were the rides. We saw all the shows (and got behind-the-scenes access to some of them thanks to our passes) and I almost killed my husband by taking him on the Jurassic Park ride. It was all fun and games until the 84-foot drop at the end...