Universal Studios, Hollywood

[fa:p:a=6-16-universal-studios,id=562488893,j=l,s=s,l=i]The last day of our trip. We got up in plenty of time to make it to the park when it opened, we even got front row parking. Kerry and I have both been to Universal Studios, but its been about 5 years for both of us, so it was still a lot of fun. As is customary with most people, we did the Backlot Tour first. Its changed a bit since the last time I went. The “Broken Bridge” isn’t used anymore (which is ok, since it was lame anyway). And a few new things are added. They kept the airplane crash set from War of the Worlds, and its pretty amazing to see it, since it was such a strong scene in the movie (you can see it here, as the background to the website). The other thing they added was a Fast and the Furious special Effects demo, in which they demonstrate how to blow up two cars. While the pictures I took are cool, they don’t really do the demonstration any justice, so check out this video that somebody else took on their trip:

Kerry and I rode and watched just about everything at the park, but we didn’t waste much time because we wanted to try to make it back to the Springbok bar again and get that meal we had been craving. So we left Universal and drove back up 101 to Van Nuys and this time we were able to get a nice table and some food. Kerry had a Boerewors Sandwich (pronoced Bord-a-vors, its a traditional South African all-beef sausage), and I had Freestate Braai Pack (Braai meaning BBQ) which was boerewors, two lamb chops and a 5 ounce Filet Mignon. I really enjoyed it, especially seeing the excitement on Kerry’s face to be able to have food and drink from home again (did I mention she drank 3 Savanna Dry’s and a Castle Lager, all made in SA).

[fa:p:a=6-16-universal-studios,id=562502483,j=r,s=s,l=p]We made a drive after eating to go see some of Hollywood, but we out of cash, and even change to park and the sun was setting so all we really did was drive around on Hollywood Blvd, and Sunset Blvd and then we explored the tiny roads that go up the mountain that the Hollywood sign is on (trying to get a closer look at the sign). We didn’t make it there before the sun set, and there are no lights on the Hollywood sign, so I had to expose the picture heavily for it to come out so excuse the grain (Yes, I took that picture while it was dark out… isn’t Photoshop wonderfull)