{"id":2759,"date":"2008-04-04T20:17:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-05T03:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=2759"},"modified":"2008-04-04T20:17:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-05T03:17:00","slug":"playing-tourist-in-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=2759","title":{"rendered":"Playing Tourist in Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today we had some dear friends down from the Bay Area, so I did some work from home in the morning, and then burned a few vacation hours to go to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.universalstudioshollywood.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Universal Studios<\/a> with everyone. The park wasn\u2019t at all crowded, and it was quite fun. We did the obligatory <a href=\"http:\/\/www.universalstudioshollywood.com\/st_info.html\" target=\"_blank\">studio tour<\/a> (the tour guide, as usual, was quite good). We did the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.universalstudioshollywood.com\/attr_ww.html\" target=\"_blank\">Waterworld<\/a> show, which I always enjoy because the actors have such fun with it. We did <a href=\"http:\/\/www.universalstudioshollywood.com\/attr_jp.html\" target=\"_blank\">Jurassic Park<\/a> (my first time on it), and it was actually quite fun (more like Pirates but with a bigger drop at the end). Lastly, we did the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.universalstudioshollywood.com\/attr_backdraft.html\" target=\"_blank\">Backdraft<\/a> attraction, which was quite good but should be avoided if you are sensitive to kerosene.  Quite fun, and things like this make the annual pass worthwhile (plus <a href=\"http:\/\/www.versaillescuban.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Versailles<\/a> at Citywalk for lunch)<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll note that work is proceedings on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.universalstudioshollywood.com\/attr_simpsons.html\" target=\"_blank\">the Simpsons ride<\/a> (opens May 17); the <a href=\"http:\/\/news-id.blogspot.com\/2007\/11\/universal-studios-tours-nickelodeon.html\" target=\"_blank\">Nickelodeon wet zone<\/a> is now <a href=\"http:\/\/travel.latimes.com\/daily-deal-blog\/?p=1210\" target=\"_blank\">Curious George themed<\/a>, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/media.universalstudioshollywood.com\/attractions\/lucy_a_tribute\" target=\"_blank\">I-Love-Lucy walk-through in the lower park<\/a> appears to be gone (apparently it is being replaced with a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ioacentralboards.com\/index.php?showtopic=11055\" target=\"_blank\">Universal Museum<\/a>, opening in April).<\/p>\n<p>I still miss the days of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.image-archeology.com\/Universal_Studios_Universal_City_CA_1970_Stunt_Show.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">the old stunt show with the western actors<\/a>, but I guess kids these days don\u2019t understand from westerns. I still have fond memories of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestudiotour.com\/ush\/chronology.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">the old days of the studio tour<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestudiotour.com\/ush\/studiotour\/propplaza.html\" target=\"_blank\">the plaza with the giant pencils<\/a>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.image-archeology.com\/Universal_City_Studios_CA__002.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">McHales Navy set<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestudiotour.com\/ush\/attractions\/ma_and_pa_kettle_farm.html\" target=\"_blank\">Ma and Pa Kettle Farm<\/a>, and walking through the bungalows. I could swear that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.image-archeology.com\/Universal_Studios_CA_Farnkenstein_1977.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">Frank<\/a> was bigger then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today we had some dear friends down from the Bay Area, so I did some work from home in the morning, and then burned a few vacation hours to go to Universal Studios with everyone. The park wasn\u2019t at all crowded, and it was quite fun. We did the obligatory studio tour (the tour guide, <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=2759\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[260,157],"class_list":["post-2759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lj-xfer","tag-theme-parks","tag-tourist-in-los-angeles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}