For details on each day of our trip, click Day 1, Day 2, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6
Monday was our last day in the LA area (with the exception of Disneyland later in the week). We began the day with a trip out to Santa Monica Pier.
There wasn't really a lot to do on the Pier besides the amusement rides. We opted out since we were debating going to Universal Studios later that day.
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| The Zoltar is from the movie Big with Tom Hanks & Fred Savage |
We made our way down to the beach and considered going for a swim. As soon as we touched our toes in the water, we changed our minds. Ha! The water was much colder than what we're used to. Still, we can say we've dipped our toes in the Pacific Ocean!
We really wanted to visit Venice Beach too, so we went back up on the Pier to rent bikes. Getting them down the steps back to the beach was probably the hardest thing I did while on vacation. Haha.
We wanted to ride all the way down to Muscle Beach, but we were reaching the one hour time limit on our bike rental. (We could have kept them longer, but we were being cheap.) I wasn't very impressed with what I saw of Venice. Don't get me wrong; the views along the bike ride are gorgeous. But the boardwalk wasn't as "happening" as I've always expected. Maybe it was because it was a Monday morning. We did find a super cool store with statues made from random metal pieces. Drew got Bobba Fett, and I got a Dalek. :)
After we returned our bikes, we still had some time to kill before we needed to leave for Morro Bay. So we decided to head to Universal Studios.
In my opinion, if you've been to Universal Studios in Orlando, skip the one in Hollywood. This one is divided into two sections, with all of the "good" rides being in the bottom section. To get to this bottom section, you have to ride a series of escalators. It was a super time suck, and as a result we didn't get to go on many rides. We tried Jurassic Park first since it was the only ride we didn't get to do in Orlando. It was fun, but know that when Universal says you'll get wet, they mean soaked.
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| This is us after the ride |
We also went on their studio tour. It was a waste of time. They tried to make it like a ride. You're on a tram with about 20 other people, and you're zooming through all the areas. We were taken by the clock tower from Back to the Future, but they were going so fast we barely caught a glimpse, much less had time to snap a photo.
We also drove through Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives and where the plane crash scene from War of the Worlds was filmed.
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| View from inside the tram |
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| A home from Desperate Housewives |
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| Another home from Desperate Housewives |
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| Plane crash scene War of the World |
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| Plane crash scene from War of the Worlds |
Another big part of the tour was driving into this 3D surround screen. King Kong fights a T-Rex and the tram moves to mimic the feeling of being in the middle of the fight. We also passed Bates Motel where we catch Norman Bates putting a body in a car and the seaside town of Amity from Jaws. I'm not sure if that's where Jaws was filmed or if it was just made to look like it. There was also some kind of water and fire effects as we drove by this.
We also drove into a subway tunnel which was rigged for a crash. The tram moved in response to simulate the movements. They also showed us an area which was rigged for a "flash flood."
I will give Universal props on one thing. As we approached an area, they would show clips from the movie or show that set was used in. It was cool to compare how the sets look in real life and on the screen.
Compared to the Warner Bros tour the day before, the Universal tour was sad and disappointing. It's a working studio, but I'm not sure how they get any work done with all the cheesy effects they added for the tour. Everything the tour guide said was horribly scripted and after a while it became annoying. For me, Universal Studios and their studio tour get two major thumbs down.
If you are looking for a couple of hours to burn though, Universal's City Walk looked like a blast. I really wish we would have skipped the park and spent our time there instead. It outranks Orlando's by a mile.
After we finished up at the park, we started our drive up the Coast. Since there was nothing between LA and Morro Bay we wanted to see, we thought it would be a good place to stay for the night. This would also cut some time off of our trip the next day.
Day 3 definitely seemed like a little bit of a let down compared to Day 2, but we still had fun and marked several things off our bucket list.
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