We arrived in LA on Sunday evening, and planned our theme park strategy.  Monday morning we were braving the LA traffic to Universal Studios.  (Can I just say at this time that the Californian diamond lane has been our friend.) We had a fun day at at Universal Studios, although it was marred somewhat by the great lengths to which Universal went to graphically celebrate Halloween.  Many of the displays were quite over-the-top gruesome, we thought – especially for a place regularly frequented by children.

That aside, we totally enjoyed the famed studio tour. Here we are traversing main street Genovia. This set is actually used to depict whatever European country the studio requires (apparently!), just by changing the details and the language.

Front row seats to a subway disaster zone scene.  Way cool.

Another set which showed a rain effect in a Mexican village, and the flash flood that followed. I was impressed.

This is the Wisteria Lane set for Desperate Housewives. Rather lost on me, as I don’t watch DH.  Nevertheless, it looked just like a suburban street.

Still on the tour.  This is for Courtney 🙂 . (I still haven’t seen it yet!!)

Josh, Erin, Andy & Nate chose to sit in the soak zone for the WaterWorld stunt show.  Placing value on my beloved camera, John and I chose to sit out of harm’s way.  Nate was summoned from the crowd by one of the cast members to stand at the front and get saturated by having a pile of water dumped on him, much to his delight.  Thankfully, it was a hot day.

Nate wasn’t always keen on the rides that the older kids wanted to go on, so he and I detoured to Despicable Me’s Super Silly Fun Land, where I endured ‘Unicorns I Love Them’, evidently playing perpetual loop.

Woohoo! – the command module prop used in Apollo 13. Pretty cool sight for a fan-girl like me.

Universal Studios in Hollywood has two levels, connected by a series of super-steep escalators.

Those escalators are almost a thrill ride in themselves, if you’re not big on heights.

A large percentage of the rides at Universal were 3D effects rides, which is not altogether surprising.  Our favourite rides overall were the King Kong ride on the studio tour, Jurassic Park and Transformers, with Nate putting in a special mention for the Super Silly Fun Land water playground.

Fun day, but not the funnest ever, thanks to Halloween graphic-ness.  Meh.

Between Universal Studios and the carpark was the Las Vegas of shopping malls, which was fun to wander around in on the way back to the car.  We found a place that sold super-delicious cinnamon donuts, freshly made and piping hot.

And this.  Too funny.