{Universal Studios Hollywood}

Having been to Disneyland more times than I could even count, Jay and I decided to go to Universal Studios while in L.A. The last time I went to Universal Studios Hollywood was probably when I was like 8 or something...they still had the E.T. ride and Back to the Future. Those are gone, but I remembered some of the other parts.

The infamous sign


Jay and his twin


This was part of a set they use for all European cities

The Bates Motel, part of the Studio BackLot Tour, which was really fun. We got to see Wisteria Lane from "Desperate Housewives" (which I don't watch, but the ladies around us were pretty excited), along with some sets from "War of the Worlds," "The Grinch," and even the car from Magnum P.I. (Jay was stoked)

My favorite part of the BackLot Tour... JAWS! My biggest fear is sharks, but mechanical ones that are at least 3 feet away from me are OK.

Cool glasses...Shrek 4-D

Uh-oh...another Jaws casualty...

While we were waiting in line for the Special Effects show, they asked for volunteers. I volunteered, and I'm not sure why. So I got to go in and be their "actress" and get directions from this lady (above). I had to do all sorts of embarrassing things in front of an audience of about 100 people. The first one being the one below:

There was a video of a cat behind me in the window, and the other volunteer (a man from Australia) had to take this HUGE cat paw and stick it in from the side of the stage. I had to scream and kick it and fight it. All those kickboxing classes came in handy!


There was a green screen behind me and I got superimposed into a scene of The Nutty Professor: The Klumps. I had to pretend like I was eating chicken, play with my hair, and respond to lines in the movie. I couldn't watch the finished product because I was acting during it. Luckily Jay got to sit on the front row and take all these wonderful pictures of me :)

Universal Studios was fun, but I think we won't have to go back for15 MORE years...we did everything there was to do in about 5 hours. It's not much of a kid's place, and most people there were foreign. So lines were pretty short, and there were only a couple actual rides. The Mummy ride was pretty sweet, though. And Jurassic Park is always a hit.

Yeay!!!