California Vacation on the Beach and Paramount

Here is the continuation of my vacation. The next day, we did what every family has to do on vacation... SHOPPING!!! :D The only thing that documented that escapade was our credit cards, so no photos of Third Street Promenade... I did meet a really sweet musician who was trying to get her break in LA. So I totally bought her cd for $5 and had her sign it. :p Gotta support the starving artists!

Anyways, after we did some shopping, we headed down to Santa Monica Pier. I LOVE it there. So many people to sit and watch, as well as eat amazing seafood. Mmmmm... I'm making my stomach growl just thinking about it. Since my grandparents couldn't really go into the sand with the wheelchair, we left them up on the pier to people watch, eat ice cream (even though it was pretty cold and my grandpa had 3 jackets on...), and enjoy the waves.

The second half of the blog is the beginning of the next day. We decided to take a tour of Paramount Studios since we didn't get tickets to Ellen. Sooo sad. But I did get to see several different places Castle was filmed. So that made me HAPPY!! :D

I guess that's enough of the description. on to the photos! (Since I know that's what you're here for!)

Aren't the guys such studs?

I think it's funny how my mom has to look up at Ryan!

The model... :D

She was the only one daring enough to get all the way in the ocean. 'Twas COLD!

SO STINKIN' CUTE!!!

Up next... Paramount Studios!!

If you look close, there are 2 stages missing.. 13, because it's unlucky, and 22, because someone apparently can't count.

If you watch Glee, The Coffee Bean/gift shop is where they film for the scenes in the Lima Bean!

The iconic gate of Paramount is suppose to give you good luck when you touch it. You bet your butt I rubbed my hand ALL OVER IT!!

So this room is pretty awesome. Our guide told us that every inch of Paramount can be used to film and this room is no exception. She told us that it was used for the Valentines/I Do episode of Glee, so being the person I am, I had to look it up on YouTube. I totally was standing in a room that the whole cast of Glee was in!! I put the video up for you to see! If you look in the background of the video, you can see the stairs!

This was the bench that Tom Hanks sat on in Forest Gump. Interesting fact: They designed it so he was alwasy sitting straight up because they had to do so many different takes that he would start to slouch. Couldn't have that now!

Ok. So this is probably my favorite image of the whole tour! I was standing where they filmed a scene for Castle!! EEEEE!!! I was kinda freaking out. Our guide said that even though majority of Castle was filmed across the street at another studio, they often come over and use these sets. So I was pretty happy to see this! :D :D :D