We were now getting into our start-of-day routine. Coffee and cleanup in the room. Then breakfast at the self-serve hotel buffet, $30 a pop!  But pretty good.

Headed out to Paramount Studios for the tour, which was great.  Parked in the visitor’s lot (another parking charge), then across the street to a check-in and waiting area. The waiting area had lots of pictures and some costumes and props from various movies. There was a room off to the side that had more props and costumes, and a movie playing that looped every fifteen minutes or so.

Our tour guide came and introduced herself to her bunch (several tour guides, different bunches). She took us into the other room and started the tour, which included us getting to handle an actual Oscar and take pictures.

Oscars are heavy!

Then out to a big golf-cart-type vehicle and we got trotted around. Saw a lot of famous streets, the outside of a lot of soundstages (which had plaques that told us the famous stuff that had filmed there). And then the water tank (which is a parking lot when not used) that was used for the parting of the sea for The Ten Commandments and for water scenes for many other movies.

The best part is we got taken onto a sound stage to see a set for a TV show (that was between seasons, so nothing being filmed) and it turned out to be the new Matlock! (which is a show I regularly watch and enjoy) Specifically, the law firm set, which is huge and has different offices and a conference room and a ‘staircase to nowhere’ – looks like it goes up and down to the above and below floors, but there’s nothing actually there. They film scenes on it, but cleverly avoid showing the top or bottom of the staircase. So we got to see all of that and it was super interesting. We also saw the set for a late night game show called After Midnight. That was interesting in that when you see it on TV, the retro SF designs behind the players are really colorful, but when they’re not filming, they’re just these grey fence grids and quite dull.

The tour lasted a bit over two hours and ended up at the gift shop, of course, although we bought nothing. And she gently shoved us out the gate.

Not hungry for lunch yet, so we went straight to the Petersen Automotive Museum. Another parking garage, another charge, OK. (this was one of several museums that were all right next to each other, and hindsight says we should have stayed in that area, but live and learn) The museum was filled with gorgeous cars, mostly in great repair, although Dad was disappointed that, historically, their collection didn’t really go back to the beginning of cars. (Later, we went to the car museum in Reno, which did.)

One cool thing is that they had a huge exhibit on self-driving cars, specifically the ones that Waymo operate. That was interesting, and even more interesting when we got to San Francisco, where we saw them in action all over the place.

We did floors 3 and 2, then had a nice late lunch (salads) at the cafe. Then did Floor 1, which had an exhibit on ‘low riders’, which are really tricked-out and decorated to the point of absurdity. Not only did they have lots of cars, they also had ‘lowrider’ motorcycles, bicycles, kid’s wagons… it was a hoot. Also, some car-related artwork (sculptures and paintings) that was really great. In all, we had a great time: I really enjoyed it, but felt bad, because Dad was a font of info about the cars we were looking at and I just didn’t know enough to be able to respond or keep the conversation going with anything other than, ‘oh, that’s really interesting!’.

Now it’s mid-afternoon. We drove Rodeo Drive, not much of anything but shops and nice houses.  (Neither of us are into shopping, so there was no point in actually getting out and walking it.) It then took us an hour to drive the 11 miles back.  Pretty much most of the LA driving was perfectly doable, but this journey featured one left turn (a stop sign) where the lane we were trying to turn into was so backed up, we (and everyone else doing the same thing) had to sort of bulldoze our way into the existing traffic in the far lane.  That was the most “OMG LA the driving” thing we experienced on the trip.

Then back to the hotel to chill before dinner.

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Part 2 coming up! IT’S NOT GOOD.