Day 2: Plenty of Love for the Loveless

Today was an awesome, relaxing, scattershot, and all-around fun day. We got up late and toured some more of the hotel, especially Delta. Despite my photos from the previous post, this was actually our first time seeing it in daylight.

John suggested that we drive out to Loveless Cade, which thrilled me to no end. I'd hoped to go there during our summer trip, but we ended up going to The Pharmacy instead (fair trade-off, to be sure). We hoped it wouldn't be too crowded, but no such luck. This was New Year's weekend, after all.

The Loveless was originally a motel (the original sign still says so). The motel rooms have all been converted into quaint little shops. Between those and the two gift shops, there's plenty to look around. I nearly bought a shirt, but didn't find one I liked. I did buy some bacon-flavored popcorn (interesting) and some buscuit mix and preserves to take home. Looking forward to making some biscuits of my own.

After an hour wait (which wasn't too bad), we finally got a table. Luckily, the service was quick and the food was good. Especially the biscuits, of course. They're smaller than typical Southern biscuits, but melt in your mouth. Good old southern cooking.

Our original plan was to go to the Parthenon, but since we were nearby, John wanted to take us to McKay, a used books games, movies and more warehouse. We'd been to a couple of Edward McKay's (to which John thinks this is loosely related), but those are tiny compared to this place. It was GINOURMOUS! We ended up spending too much time and money there (Madison was the big spender), so when we finally left, it was too late to go to the Parthenon.

We had dinner at Tin Angel, further proof that Nashville does actually have some fantastic restaurants. There's just none near Opryland. The food was excellent and the atmosphere perfect. I'd go back in a heartbeat. John says this is now his new favorite restaurant besides Bobby Flay's Bar Americain in New York City. Lucky him. It's a lot closer.

After dinner, John gave us a real treat. Something his new girlfriend, Katie, had shown him. We drove to the top of Love Park, near Vanderbilt, perhaps the highest point in Nashville. It has the most incredible view of downtown after dark. Just amazing! And the perfect way to end our evening out.

Afterwards, we drove downtown to see what was going on. As expected, it was busy and crowded. So, we dropped John off and headed back to hotel. Before we went in, we made sure to stop and see the large Natvity outside the hotel, which was up for it's very last night. Just beautiful, and the perfect way to end our evening out.

Happy New Year!

Day 1: New Year in Nashville

For the New Year holiday, we decided to head back to Nashville to spend it with John. Now that we've been there a few times (and John lives there), we're starting to get the feel of Nashville from the local perspective, which makes us appreciate it even more. Of course, because our previous trips there have been so short, we still have plenty of touristy things still to do.

We decided to stay at the Gaylord again. It was an easy choice, actually, since it wasn't as expensive as we thought it would be.

We stopped in Asheville along the way to finally see the Gingerbread Houses at the Grove Park Inn. It was almost the very last day. We usually get there earlier, but it just didn't work out. I was worried for a while that we might not make it at all. Some of them had already collapsed.

I was stunned at how many fewer entries this year. A good half as many as they usually have. I've toyed with the idea of entering myself a few times; this would have been a good year to do it. As usual, I saw lots of entries where I said, "I could do better then that." Then several where I said, "There's no way I could do that." Very impressive work. We were surprised though, that some of the more impressive ones we saw didn't even make it into the Top 10.

Got to Nashville at a reasonable hour and checked into Gaylord. Unfortunately, we were placed next to some very noisy neighbors, who were already getting a head start on celebrating. Luckily, though, the hotel was able to move us from Cascades to Magnolia. It was great finally getting to see more of the hotel in daylight, especially the Delta section, which is easily our favorite part (and the most Disney-like).

John joined us for dinner. Long waits at the two most popular, Jack Daniels and Findlay's Irish Pub. Ended up at STAX build your own burger (you don't actually build it; you give them a checklist and they build it for you). Burgers seem to be the theme this week: we have two others on the list, including a return trip to The Pharmacy, which we discovered at the end of our road trip this summer.

After dinner, we did the boat ride again, which was just as much fun. This was John's first trip to the Gaylord, and he also remarked at how much it was like being in Disney World. It's already become our go-to hotel in Nashville.

Day 3.4: Say Good-bye to Hollywood

After we finished our Mob tour, we decided to head back into Hollywood and see The Hobbit 2 at the Chinese (see previous post). John had the great suggestion of taking Mulholland Drive all the way back. I was all for that -- I love the Hollywood Bowl overlook, which has a great view of the Hollywood Sign as well as the city below. I've visited it just about every trip except the last one, thanks to me temporarily forgetting how to get up there and Madison not feeling well.

I'd never driven Mulholland all the way from Beverly Hills to Hollywood, so that excited me as well. The first thing we realized was that it was a long trek (nor did I really know how far we had to drive). The second thing we discovered is that there aren't very many overlooks on the Hollywood side. The third realization was that we might not make it before the sun went down.

Sure enough, we finally reached an overlook about ten minutes before sunset. Only it wasn't the Hollywood Bowl overlook. We parked anyway and climbed the stair-path anyway as people were leaving, since it closed at sunset. We grabbed a few photos and since it still wasn't completely dark, charged onward to the Hollywood Bowl overlook. We managed to get there right at closing time and, since there wasn't anyone there to close the gates (and the parking lot was full of people there to watch the sunset), we climbed to the top anyway.

The night time view of Hollywood is spectacular. Though because the Hollywood Sign isn't lit at night anymore (the original sign built in 1923 had hundreds of bulbs installed), we could barely glimpse it in the distance.

Even so, it was a perfect way to end our whirlwind trip to the City of Dreams.

Day 3.3: A Brief Mob Tour of Beverly Hills and Brentwood

Having done a lot of research on the Mob and Hollywood, I've been anxious to visit some of these locations myself. Since we had lunch in Beverly Hills, this was the perfect opportunity. Rather than cover them in the order we saw them, I'm going to go in chronological order according to L.A. crime history.

First up is Virginia Hill's house in Beverly Hills, which is kind of hard to see for the trees, but otherwise looks much like it did in 1947. Virginia Hill was the girlfriend of Mobster Bugsy Siegel. After getting in trouble with the Mob due to the excessive cost over-runs of The Flamingo in Vegas (not to mention the million or so dollars he and Hill had skimmed from the project), Siegel met his end here on June 20, 1947. He and bodyguard Alan Smiley had just come back from dinner and sat down on the couch. Nine shots from an assassin's rifle went through the window. Smiley had one bullet pass through his coat sleeve, but was otherwise unharmed after diving for the fireplace.

Following Bugsy's passing, all of his rackets went to his second-in-command, Mickey Cohen. Mickey was already running things in L.A. since Bugsy was spending all of his time in Vegas anyway. This didn't set well with fellow Mobster Jack Dragna, an Old World Sicilian who didn't like Jews in the Italian Mafia and had hoped to reclaim control with Bugsy gone.

Mickey lived in this small (but still expensive) house in Brentwood, not too far from Beverly Hills. Notice how it bears absolutely ZERO resemblance to the sprawling, mountaintop fortress depicted in Gangster Squad.

Following Bugsy's death, Dragna and his cohorts decided to take Mickey out on their own in what became known as The Battle of the Sunset Strip (Mickey's primary territory). Dragna and Co. made SIX attempts on Mickey's life, all of them unsuccessful. The first attempt was to plant a bomb, but the fuse didn't go off and Mickey discovered it the next morning. The second attempt was a shotgun ambush as he pulled into the driveway. Luckily for Mickey, the driveway is circular, so he managed to escape largely unharmed by ducking down, stepping on the gas, and driving blind for a couple of blocks. The third attempt was to plant another bomb under Mickey's bedroom (his wife, LaVonne, had her own room at the other end of the house). This one did go off, but the bomb was inadvertently placed under Mickey's closet safe, which shielded much of the blast. The wall was destroyed, along with much of Mickey's wardrobe, but again he was unharmed.

Eventually, in 1950, Mickey was sent away for tax evasion. His right-hand man was a young womanizer named Johnny Stompanato, who developed quite a reputation dating Hollywood actresses. Frank Sinatra was most interested in keeping Johnny away from Ava Gardner.

Following Mickey's incarceration, Johnny began dating Lana Turner. It was a tumultuous relationship, to say the least. Lana lived at this house in Beverly Hills with her daughter, Cheryl Crane. One night during yet another heated battle between Lana and Johnny, Cheryl ran to the kitchen and grabbed a knife to protect her mother. She ran upstairs and stabbed Johnny, killing him. She and Lana claimed it was accidental. Eventually, after much legal tumult, Cheryl was acquitted on the grounds that she was protecting her mother.

Day 3.2: Swimming Pools, Movie Stars

For some time, John has wanted to eat at a Thomas Keller restaurant. We tried to switch our Vegas reservations this summer instead of Mesa Grill, but that didn't work out. So, his one request for this trip was to eat at Bouchon Bistro in Beverly Hills. I was more than happy to make that happen.

I had to admit that I wasn't really familiar with Thomas Keller. But then John told me he's the chef/owner of The French Laundry in Yountville, CA. That I did know about. Especially its reputation.

Let me just say that this was the perfect eating experience. It was so good, it was the only meal we ate the entire day. We had accidentally parked a few blocks further away than we needed, which worked out just fine. The weather was perfect and made for a great stroll. 

The only hiccup was finding the actual restaurant -- they have a bar, bakery, and bistro all right there together. The bar and bakery were easy to find, but the restaurant is actually upstairs with no signage to point us in the right direction.

The only other challenge was deciding what to eat. John said that they were known for their fries, so that was a must. I had a salad that was shaped like a bouquet, which was as beautiful as it was delicious. John had the steak tartar. For our entrees, I had a pasta dish special and John had the Steak and Frites (despite having steak twice). For dessert I had little muffin-shaped brownies with ice cream and John had profiteroles, both of which were awesome.

Aside from the incredible food and absolutely superb service, we finally spotted someone kind-of famous. Right after we sat down, John noticed a gentleman with rather distinctive hair just a few tables away. It was film producer ( and Ron Howard's partner at Imagine Entertainment) Brian Grazer.

After our amazing lunch, we took a quick stroll through Beverly Hills, which I hadn't done in over a decade. We walked through Via Rodeo, which is like a little slice of Epcot.

Our last stop was Rodeo Collection, which I hadn't been to since my very first visit. Besides being a cool little shopping center tucked away behind the regular shops, Brian DePalma had filmed a memorable scene from Body Double there back in the early 80s, which was why I had hunted it down before.

Day 3.1: "Paramount is Paradise"

"Hi, good morning. Aren't we lucky?
Going to work with Cukor
Paramount is paradise
Movies from A to Zukor"
-- from Sunset Boulevard, the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Due to my lifelong love of movies, I abso-freakin-lutely LOVE to visit movie studios. To date, I have toured Warner Bros. (3 times), Paramount (twice now), Disney (twice now), Universal (twice, though it's really more of a theme park ride), Jim Henson Studios, Sony (formerly the MGM lot), and EUE Screen Gems (in Wilmington, NC, for those of you going "Huh?"). No trip to Hollywood is complete without a Studio tour (and secretly, I'd love to be a tour guide myself just once).

My favorite lot is Disney, for sentimental reasons. My favorite tour is Warner Bros., which I've done the most and has almost become a tradition. Each time I've done it, the Vistor's Center was in a different place. WB was also my very first tour, back in January of 1998, on my very first trip to Hollywood.

Another sentimental favorite, for both similar and opposite reasons, is the Paramount tour, which I also did in 1998. Ever since then, I'd planned to return, but the Universe (or so it seemed) conspired against me for various reasons. The biggest one of all was that Paramount stopped doing tours for several years following 9/11. Which was a real shame (though quite understandable), as it's a very historic lot and the only one of the majors actually in Hollywood.

This year, over fifteen years later, I finally made it back. And for the most part it was well worth the wait. For me it was a fun walk down memory lane, the excitement of seeing a studio again, and the surprise of seeing what was different. There were three major changes, two of which involved technology. The first was transportation -- the old tour was all-walking, but the new tour has multi-seat golf carts, like WB. Our guide also carried an iPad, on which she showed us various photos and video clips. She also had a walkie-talkie system where she had a microphone and we all wore earpieces. That certainly made it much easier to hear and was a great addition.

After checking in and meeting our guide, she took us over to the Studio Store where we could grab some coffee or buy a souvenir. We'd also have time to do the same afterwards. Another interesting change: usually my tour guides are aspiring actors, but ours aspires to a career in marketing. A nice reminder that not everyone in Hollywood is there to be famous.

Our first stop on the tour was the Paramount Theater and the famous Bronson Gate. Paramount has several arched gateways, with the Bronson Gate being the most well-known. It was featured in Sunset Blvd. (when Norma returned to the Studio) and shares a special link with Charles Bronson. Most people think that the gate was named after him, but it was the other way around. Young Charles Buchinsky used to hang out at the gate (which was also by the casting office) every day looking for work. When a producer finally offered him a job on the condition that he change his name, he felt "Bronson" had brought him luck, so he stuck with it.

Right by the gate is the Paramount theater, a big, state-of-the-art movie theater on the lot. Like the TARDIS from Doctor Who, it looks much, much bigger on the inside. They use it for special screenings, studio previews, editing, and more. They even use the lobby for filming. 

Like everything else at the studio (such as office buildings that look like motels), everything is designed to be used for shooting. The Paramount lobby can easily double as a hotel lobby, and our guide showed us a clip from Clear & Present Danger where they did just that.

Inside the theater us amazing. It's not nearly as fancy as the Chinese, but the rows are wide and the seats are huge andunbelievably comfortable. Our guide said that they were First Class airline seats. This is the ultimate place to see a movie (maybe one day).

Right outside the theater is the Forrest Gump bench (or one of them, actually -- there were a few -- one of which used to reside in Savannah). I also saw this fifteen years ago. The back is extra straight to help Tom Hanks sit up straight as Forrest. We were told that one day he came back to the lot dressed in costume, sat on the bench and handed out chocolates all day.

Side Note: Every time I go on a Studio tour, they always give the standard speech about how it's a "working studio" and how to behave should we see a celebrity. Then they offer a humorous story about how somebody famous chased down the golf cart or handed out chocolates all day. But in all the studio tours I have done , I've yet to see anyone famous. The closest I ever came was LOST Writer/Producer (now Bates Motel) Carleton Cuse at Disney, but he's it. I've also never seen the sets for shows I actually watch, but that's for later. Just my luck, I guess. On the flip side, I've seen plenty of famous people in NYC.

Okay, back to our regularly-scheduled programming. Next we hopped back in the cart and headed off for the soundstages. Another side note: While the carts are great in saving a lot of walking, it can be harder to take pictures as you're whizzing by. I missed L.L. Cool J's car from NCIS: LA for this reason. Though I did manage to snap their "secret entrance."

All of the soundstages (around 30 total, as I recall -- Paramount is a big lot) have plaques outside which list notable movies and TV shows which have filmed there. One interesting standout was Stage 25, which has only been used for TV, so the entire (and much larger) movie section is entirely blank. Especially of note is Stage 9, which is also known as the Star Trek stage, since most of the TV series and a couple of the feature films have shot there.

Next we drove through The Alley, so named because it looks just like a... back alley. Like the New York streets on the back lot, it's much easier and cheaper to shoot on the lot than to cart all their equipment downtown, deal with the noise, crowd control, and so on.

One of the main spots I remembered from my previous tour, and the highlight of the Paramount lot, is the water tank parking lot. It's basically a big sloping swimming pool that's about 4 feet on the deep end, behind which is a big wall painted with clouds that looks otherwise like a drive-in movie screen. This is where Moses parted the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments, Kirk and Spock saved the whales in Trek IV, and Truman escaped his TV set world in The Truman Show. It also provides, ironically enough, the best view of the iconic Paramount water tower.

The only odd thing is that it also doubles as a parking lot. On both of my visits, it was full of cars. John asked the obvious (and, according to our guide, most asked) question: what do they do with all the cars when it's full of water? They have valets that park the cars in the offsite lots (like where we parked) and anywhere else they can.

From there it was off to one of the most exciting parts of the tour: the New York Streets on the backlot. This area is full of facades, with each street designed to look like a different area of NYC: Greenwich Village, Soho, Brooklyn, the Upper East Side and Upper West Side (actually, opposite sides of the same building), and the Financial District. There was one lone street that looks like Chicago.

Other studios rent these streets all the time, which is very expensive, but much cheaper than location shooting. Most interesting is the fact that renters are allowed to do whatever they want to the buildings, including blowing them up, but on one condition: they have to put everything back the way they found it. That includes making it not look "too nice." For this reason, most crews don't blow up the buildings -- they just blow out the windows in a big fireball. Our guide showed us a clip from Knight and Day that did just that.

One of the coolest things was actually going inside a couple of the facades. Most of them are only a few feet deep. Some are deeper, and a couple have full-sized interiors for filming characters inside and outside at the same time. For the really narrow ones, sometimes they'll put a big photo of the interior set on the back wall to make it look deeper. That's what WB did for the exterior ER set for E/R.

One of the more interesting features in this area was the pair of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman doors in one of the brownstones. It's a pair of doors that look exactly alike, except that one is taller than the other. They shoot Tom walking out of the short door and Nicole walking out of the tall door, and they look the same height. Just another bit of movie sleight-of-hand.

About this time a scouting crew came up and told us that we couldn't photograph anything on the back lot and asked us to delete our photos of one particular direction. This is normal if an area has been dressed for a shoot (like the next street over, which was dressed for Glee -- if you look past the dumpster with the orange chute in the photo below you can just get a glimpse of it), but that wasn't the case here. Didn't make any sense, so I just pretended to delete my photos.

From there we actually walked through the Glee street set (once again, I always get to visit the sets for shows I don't actually watch). Apparently, the current season takes place in NYC. One building was a pizza parlour, which is only just a few feet deep and has a big photograph on the back wall of the interior set. Just enough room for the actors to walk in the door.

From there we drove over to the Financial District, which looks just like the Wall Street area of NYC. There are big square holes in the sidewalk where they can drop in entire trees, planters and all, to dress it up for whatever time of year they want. Right next to the planters was a subway entrance. The steps mostly lead to nowhere, with just enough room for a costume rack so that the extras can go down, do a quick change, and then come back up as someone else.

Then it was back over to the soundstages, where we actually got to go inside one. This was Stage 30, home of The Doctors, which is right next door to Dr. Phil on Stage 31. 

Both are produced by Dr. Phil's son, and having them side-by-side makes it easier for folks to go back and forth between the two. We got to sit in the audience area and look around while our guide explained what goes into making an episode of the show.

Our final major stop, which I also greatly remembered from my previous tour years ago, was the former Desilu Studios lot, which was owned by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. It used to sit adjacent to the Paramount lot, until Lucy sold it to the studio. As part of the deal, she made sure that they took Mission: Impossible and Star Trek. Not a bad deal for Paramount. Across from the Lucille Ball Building (Lucy's offices), were her and Desi's dressing rooms. They met on a movie called Too Many Girls, and later divorced for that exact reason. 

The grassy courtyard out front was build to look exactly like their back yard. Lucy got a lot of flack in the press for being a working mother, so she did photo shoots that made it look like she was at home playing with the kids. She also set up a day care on the lot for her employees, one of the first of its kind. After the divorce, she had Desi's door sealed up. The workers did such a good job, later construction workers had to cut another door to access the room.

As we made our way back to the Studio Store, we got a glimpse of the Hollywood Sign. Paramount is the only lot from which you can see it. 

We passed by the Studio Cafe (no luck on going in and looking around) and stopped at a kiosk which featured photos from several of their biggest hits and Best Picture winners.

Have to say, the Paramount tour was just as good as I remembered it. If not a little better. John enjoyed it, too, especially the mix of history and the behind-the-scenes look at real movie magic.

Day 2.6: Seeing Mr. Banks

After visiting the Studio a few years ago with Adventures by Disney, the first thing I began doing was plotting (a la Pinky and the Brain) how to go back. This is not an easy task; compounded by the fact that California is on the complete opposite side of the country. When I read about these special preview screenings, I knew this was the opportunity for which I'd been waiting. I justified the expense by making it an early, early milestone birthday present. So I got an awesome gift, and the joy of not turning fifty for another seven months.

Right after dinner, we rushed over to the Studio. We drove through the main gate, which was great (last time, our tour bus took us through the old gate, seen in the movie and trailers). I'd always wanted a photo of the main gate; I now have two, both from inside the lot.

A quick word about the Disney lot. It can be easily divided into two sections: the original lot that Walt built (which looks like a college campus), with names on the buildings, such as "Animation" and "Ink & Paint." Actual animation is no longer done in the old Animation building (which is just offices), so there are actually two Animation buildings now. The new section, which includes the Frank Wells building, Team Disney (aka the Michael Eisner building), and the new Animation building, used to be the back lot containing the outdoor sets (such as the Zorro TV show).

The guards directed straight to the underground parking garage of the Frank Wells building, which sits right at the main gate and houses the Disney Archives. I was stunned at just how big the underground garage is. You can't even tell it's there from the outside. After we parked, we took an elevator up to the ground floor where they ushered us straight to a conference room that had been set up as a welcome center. I looked for some familiar sights, such as the huge multiplane camera (a Disney invention) on display in the hall, but didn't see anything familiar.

I'd originally hoped to get over to the studio store before the movie, but they meant to keep us corralled until nearly show time, likely because it was a work day. Inside the welcome center, we checked in and were given rubber wristbands as our "studio pass," a voucher for a free DVD of Mary Poppins to pick up when we left, and a map of the studio for our self-guided tour after the film.

There was also a display with Mary and Bert's carousel horses from the film, posters of many Disney classics on the walls, a big Saving Mr. Banks backdrop where you could take your picture, an iPad station promoting the new (and free) Saving Mr. Banks iBook about the making of the film (which I couldn't wait to get home and download), and a concession that sold snacks and souvenirs. This is the one area where I felt they dropped the ball. I really wanted to get something, like a t-shirt, sweatshirt, or anything, that said Walt Disney Studios. I was prepared to spend money. Instead, they only had three items: a movie poster, a tote, and an umbrella (the latter two were from the Broadway production of Mary Poppins).

When it was time, they let us head through the lobby, where I immediately spotted the multi-plane camera and the Archives. We followed the crowd to the Theatre, which sits right across from the original Animation building. Mickey was outside posing for pictures.

The theatre itself is quite nice, though a little small compared to the one on the Paramount lot (see next post). They'd just had the premiere there a week earlier, so when it was showtime, we watched a quick video where all the stars were introduced, including Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews. It had taken place on the very stage upon which we were watching the video. Very meta.

Then rows of light along the ceiling flashed and the film began. I don't want to go into a full review here, but suffice it to say that I loved it and can't wait for the Blu-Ray (more on why in a minute). I could nitpick a few things (like a speeding golf cart ride to a building that sits across the street and Winnie the Pooh being out of place), but my quibbles were few.

When the lights came up, everyone applauded and then it was off to explore the very studio we'd just seen in the movie! Again, very meta.

For our first stop, we followed the crowd and went straight across the street to the old Animation building. Walt's offices were on the 3rd (top) floor. When I was here last, they only let us walk through the first floor, which is decorated with tons of artwork from Disney animated films and a big Steamboat Willie picture in the flooring. 

So I was stunned to discover that we were given free reign of all three floors! The second floor had more artwork on the walls, this time representing the history of the Walt Disney Company. This is where we saw the famous photos of the Kingswell Avenue storefront and the Hyperion Avenue studio.

On the top floor was the major attraction: they'd recreated Walt's offices and the conference room containing all the storyboards using the film sets. Outside this area was a nice display of Mary Poppins merchandise from the 60s.

I had hoped that someone from the movie might be on the lot each night (please Richard Sherman!) and actually got my wish, techically speaking. He was a tall, blond guy who looked and sounded like Owen Wilson. He was carrying an iPad with the iBook open, and offered insider various insights, such as the transformation of Tom Hanks' facial hair from Captain Phillips to Saving Mr. Banks. He got a lot of mileage by asking "Is there a FastPass for this line?" which we heard about three times.

At the end of the hall was the former location of Walt's actual offices, which (like every other room in the building) is now an office for a production company. The guard here was really nice, very enthusiastic, and clearly had a lot of respect for Walt. There was also a large TV showing a video of Director John Lee Hancock conducting a tour of the Studio, featuring interviews with Richard Sherman (and a visit to his former office with Hancock and the current occupant) and others. I'm sure it will be on the Blu-Ray. We got so engrossed in the video, we almost ran out of time for the tour.

With only fifteen minutes left, we rushed back downstairs and out to Stage A, the first soundstage built on the lot. Since Disney only made animated films at the time, it was (and still is) used strictly for scoring. In addition to all the sound boards and recording equipment, they displayed much of the Mary Poppins artwork used in the movie.

Trivia Note: In Saving Mr. Banks, P.L. Travers arrives at the studio and meets Don DaGradi and the Sherman Brothers in front of Stage A. They then hop in a golf cart and speed across the studio lot to meet Walt in his office in the Animation building, which is actually right across the street.

From there we rushed past the Disney limo to the Hyperion Bungalow, one of the buildings moved over from the former lot. I was really excited to get to go inside, which contained the set pieces for P.L. Travers' office used in the film.

With just over ten minutes left, we rushed over to Stage 2, aka the Julie Andrews stage, which is where Mary Poppins was filmed. I'd been in there last time, but this time they just had a photo-op set up with Mary and Bert.

Finally, we rushed over to Legends Plaza, which sits in front of the Team Disney building. This is where Disney honors all of its Legends with handprints mounted on the columns. At one end is a giant statue of the Disney Legends award. At the other is one of the three Partners statues (the other two are at Walt Disney World and Disneyland).

Our 10:30 deadline soon arrived, so it was back through the Frank Wells building where we picked up our DVDs before leaving. The only thing that could have made it better would have been to have more time. Now it's time to start plotting on how to go back.