Busy Busy in LA

Wow, where has the time gone? We've been in Oxnard, a suburb of Los Angeles, since Monday. We've had a great time while we've been here, but quite honestly, we really couldn't handle living in LA on a long term basis. I'm not sure how these folks do it really. I thought Dallas traffic could be difficult...having driven to and from downtown Dallas for 30+ years I thought I was 'comfortable' in traffic--Not!!! But, let me back up a bit and fill you in on what we've been up to.

We got up early Tuesday morning and headed to Simi Valley to see the Reagan Library. Awesome!!! Without a doubt the best Presidential Library we've ever seen, hands down. It's very organized with multiple levels and things to see. The most amazing things were 1) Presidential plane used by Reagan; 2) His limousine, and motorcade of vehicles; 3) Reagan's burial site overlooking the unbelievable gorgeous mountains and 4) A miniature size identical model of the White House.

We were simply awestruck by the Presidential plane. It was a 707 and we were able to see everything from the actual cockpit seating, to the kitchenette, the Presidential Office, the First Lady's Office, Press Area, Key Staff member area, etc. They had some of Reagan's key trip detail laying out showing how the trips are detailed. It was just amazing.

I can't say enough about the miniature size White House. It is made to scale, exactly...one inch to one foot. It's been kept updated for 45 years by the same artisans. It's a literal working home. For example, identical chandeliers actually light up--the light bulbs are the size of a grain of rice! It's that detailed. You can look through the windows and see the private quarters and the tiny miniatures of the Obama's family portraits. It takes 1,000 hours to redo a single room when updated. It's constantly being updated. We were able to see the Blue Room; Red Room; Lincoln's Bedroom, etc. We were just amazed at the detail.

There were so many other things we enjoyed about this Library. An exact replica of the Oval Office when Reagan was in office was there as well. The views from the Library looking over Simi Valley leave you speechless. And of course, lastly we stopped by his gravesite, which overlooks the valley. It was just an all around wonderful day topped off by a stop at Jersey Mike's. It's a famous Deli we had seen on a Food Network show about top deli's around the country. Yum!! Mark had a Philly sandwich and said it was better than the original we had while in Philly last year. I had a ham/cheese with Mike's famous 'sauce' and loved it too.

Whew! We decided to "take off" yesterday and just chill with the dogs. But we were up very early today and headed off to Warner Brother's studio for a backlot tour of the studio. Oh my gosh...where to begin. This tour was the most highly recommended tour in Hollywood for several reasons--the tours are very small and detailed, only 8 at a time and you ride around the miles and miles of the studio in a large golf cart type vehicle.

We were first taken to the set of Two and A Half Men. We found out the shooting 'season' for television is from August thru April...so we just missed it. But we were given a behind the scene look at the set, how the live audience works and how the cameras are angled, etc. We were really surprised just how "small" the sets really are. They explained how the camera angles are designed to make the streets look larger. After a detailed tour of Two and A Half Men we moved on to the Props area. Wow!

There are literally acres and acres of buildings just to build the various sets and associated decoration. They took us through the saw mills; plaster mills; art department...you name it and we saw it. We were really impressed with the demonstration of "how someone is shot" and how they hook up the device to make it appear as real blood oozing down the shirt. They use miniature, tiny explosions that are attached to a plastic bag. When the miniature device is pressed it explodes, causing a hole in the clothing and with the bag above the explosion, it slowly oozes out. Just amazing.

We went on to the Hollywood backlots and saw countless sets that have been around for literally decades. Shows from Casablanca, to John Wayne moves, all of the Harry Potter movies, the Batman movies, and on and on. Then we were taken into the Warner Brothers museum...no cameras allowed and saw two floors of costumes and various movie props from Harry Potter, Batman, my goodness--so many movies from the last 50 years I can't begin to remember them all. Whew! What a tour! It was a very 'touristy' type thing to do and not something we would normally do--but well worth the time and money for sure.

Lastly, we were headed to a cemetery just a few miles down the road to check out the many famous actors who were buried there. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a Nightmare! It was apparently in downtown LA and we didn't realize it...not a good place to be during the week. I have never, ever seen traffic remotely that bad--even during huge traffic accidents over the years driving to/from downtown Dallas. There was no parking at the cemetary once we got there and it took us an hour just to get out of the downtown area. And the drive to get back to the Oxnard area was almost as bad. I cannot begin to describe the way people drive here. And there is NO need for blinkers in LA--they should just have the blinkers removed from ALL vehicles in LA because No One Ever Uses them!

I think we'd have been safer trying to scoot around the Daytona 500 during a race! Seriously. But, all in all--it was a terrific day. We've had a great time here in the LA area. Tomorrow we're driving up highway 1, which is right on the coast, up to Malibu and taking the dogs with us. We're hoping to get them out on the beach, they've never been on the beach and it'll be a hoot if we can.

We're tentatively leaving here Sunday morning for Yellowstone National Park. It's a 4 day drive, and now that I follow Mark in our Ford Escape, I'm not looking forward to that much driving, but I'm glad we went ahead and came back to California to see the Library and a little bit of Hollywood as well.

Our plans are to spend two weeks in Yellowstone. From there, we're not sure where we're headed as we're still undecided about the summer. So, stay tuned. Whew! Sorry for the long update--but we've been busy! I hope you had a wonderful day today...we sure did! Until later~