Back to Hollywood...


For my big fortieth birthday we headed back up to Hollywood, this time to visit Universal Studios.


Of course Naomi is drawn to the fountain...


These are the statues by the entrance. Can you tell which one is a real person?


Same statue three hours later.  It was hard to tell, even standing right in front of him!


First stop "Krustyland"!!


Checking out the Quickie Mart.


We found "Moe's" but I don't think they were serving.


Time to get in line.


This was a great ride as we got to watch clips from "The Simpsons" while we waited!


Here are the girls waiting for the Water World special effects show to begin.


As I sat there I took pictures of the set.


While I took these fascinating pictures I leaned forward to explain to my daughters what the basic plot of this movie was.


I should have paid more attention to what I was doing, because after several minutes I realized I was explaining all this to a perfect stranger who was giving me the oddest looks.  The kids were seated further in front of me than I realized!


At least then the show finally got going.


It was actually very exciting with lots of explosions and seaplane landing and splashing the crowd.


The girls waiting outside the bathrooms for one of many pit stops.


On our way to the lower level we took a look at the view of Hollywood.


Here you can see the studio lots.


We stopped into the museum and found the original dolls from the Coraline movie.


This was a pretty creepy movie.  Even for me!


When they're on the balcony.  


The ghosts of the children.


Here are the acrobats.  What I love about stop motion animation is that these dolls and sets exist in the real world!


The entrance to Jurassic Park park beckoned.


The lurking dino...


Lovely smile.


Once we entered the boat they said our cameras would get wet, so these are all the photos of it.  It was a great ride and I think we could've gotten more shots-  only Chloe got wet (a dinosaur kept spitting on her).


As the afternoon wore on, the crowds got bigger and bigger.


The kids begged me to bring them on "The Mummy".  Unfortunately the wait was huge and led into a dark tomb of a hallway.


Then we boarded a roller coaster in the dark, that ran forward and then backwards.  I was glad it was over so fast, but Phoebe was mad she waited so long for a 40 second ride.


On our way out of the park Naomi hopped on this scale that adds about 60 pounds to your actual weight!   Not a bad way to celebrate my 40th run around the sun!

Comments

Mannoy said…
You sure have lots of fun here. Love the pictures.
Anonymous said…
I hear the scream of fun here..
Never been there; but those images are just so enticing...Definitely, gonna book my tickets soon..!
It was fun, and what's great is that as Southern California residents it's a buy a day get the year free! So we'll probably head back and see all the things we missed!
Oh how fun, I love all of your pictures. It looks like a great 40th Birthday.

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