A Day in L.A. and other sisterly outings

Well, I just dropped my sister off at the busstop to go to L.A.; she's taking an over-night flight back home to Wisconsin. When she arrived on Friday, Jason and I picked her up at LAX and we drove over to Hollywood to check out the "Walk of Fame" ... not nearly as glitzy as we all thought. It was cool to see the stars on the sidewalk and the "Hollywood" sign in the distance, but other than that, Hollywood Boulevard was kind of dumpy. Oh well, I was still glad to see it and the weather couldn't have been nicer! Next, we went to Burbank and the Warner Brother's Studio to watch the taping of an episode of "Joey." While waiting in line, we saw a park-like setting with fake snow -- very beautiful but randomly placed -- that we later learned was for the filming of a Gilmore Girls episode.

We got to see Matt LeBlanc and the other cast members, plus Lucy Lu who was guest starring in the episode (which will be airing this coming Thursday already) ... and the episode was (will be) very funny! Watching them film was a very unique experience, as they had to redo every scene a million times because of screw ups, jokes being rewritten on the spot, and different camera angles needed. And we the audience had to laugh at the same jokes over and over again. But what a fun time! We left after 4 1/2 hours of taping (they fed us and had some giveaways, etc. while the cast wasn't taping to entertain us throughout that long timeframe) ... but they had a couple scenes to go when we left, and there were still people waiting in line outside to get in after we left!!!

Anyway, it was a very cool experience, and one I would repeat with other visitors if the schedule worked out -- but I'd go to a different show; most of them only take 2-3 hours to tape. For some reason, "Joey" takes the longest. Other than that, Rachel and I walked to the church and went to Pismo Beach on Saturday; saw a bunch of surfers there -- pretty big waves, too. The climate here is definitely not helping put me in the "Christmas spirit", but I certainly can't complain! :) And then we rented "Stepford Wives" last night (it's weird ... definitely not the best). I'm glad she came, even for such a short time. She is pregnant, so it's cool to be able to see the progression of her pregnancy even when we're far apart. And we'll get to visit the midwest in just a few weeks too. Yay!