Los Angeles 6/03/09

Day two of Los Angeles, we had allocated today as Universal Studios/Universal City day. After a lazy morning, spent mainly in bed and slowly waking up, we made our way to the courtesy bus that took us up to Universal Studios. Getting our ticket (using some other people’s coupon that had been left on the counter lol). Once inside, we made a beeline to the studio back-lot tour, hosted by my good friend Whoopi Goldberg. We got to see a lot of the older sets that had been used over the past 80 or so years of Universal Studios. The one place that I took the biggest interest in was the Desperate Housewives set however, that was a closed set because all the housewives were in a shooting a new episode.

Finished with the tour early, we made our way around the top lot going on the new Simpson’s ride, watching the Waterworld show, get some lunch and take some photos with our friends Spongebob, Dora and Curious George. Once we had finished exploring the top lot (including going into the House of Horrors), we travelled down the Starway to the lower lot and it was there we went onto the Mummy Rollercoaster and watched some special effects shows such as Backdraft and the Special Effects Stages (the presenters there are HILLARIOUS!).

We had one more go on the Simpson’s ride before it was time for us to head out into Universal City to wander around the shops and get some kid things like candy, popcorn, souvenirs and also a jumper for Shauntelle as it was so cold out. I also got another book that is part of the self-hurt series, this time it is How To Have an Ill Behaved Dog (I already have How To Get Into Debt).

We decided on having dinner at Bucca di Beppo’s as we felt like good hearty Italian food and no one does it better chain-style in the US than Bucca. We got the Spaghetti Bolognese with meatballs, garlic bread and a salad that was mean to be shared between two, but the size of the meals were so huge that we weren’t able to finish it all and I’m sure we would have been able to have another dinner out of what was left over! That was pretty much it for the night (we finished off by getting some chocolate covered strawberries as well as strawberries and cream popcorn…YUM YUM!).