California
First time: Summer, 2007Last time: December, 2015
As a kid I grew up watching movies that took place in California and always wanted to go there. I didn't make it to California until the summer of 2007. While visiting Las Vegas for a convention that summer my dad flew out to join me and when we realized neither of us had ever been to California, we hopped in my truck and drove west until he hit the border of California. We got off at the first exit, took a couple of pictures, and drove back to Vegas. It wasn't a very exciting time in California, but it was very memorable.
It wasn't until the summer of 2014 that we made it to California "proper" as a family. The four of us flew into LAX Memorial Day weekend and spent an entire week working our way up to San Francisco. During our trip we visited Hollywood, the Warner Bros. Studio, the Jelly Belly Museum, Sequoia National Park, the Computer History Museum, Alcatraz, Rancho Obi-Wan, and Disneyland.
In December of 2015 as part of another trip, the four of us flew to LAX and spent a day in and around Hollywood. We watched the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens at El Capitan Theater on December 17th, 2015, and visited the Paramount Movie Studio tour the following day before boarding a cruise ship.
El Capitan is located right next to Grauman's Chinese Theatre and is owned by Disney. Before the film began an organist played theme songs from classic sci-fi films and we were treated to a unique laser light show. It was incredible!
The Paramount Pictures studio tour was great as well. In the middle of the tour was a room full of movie props from films like Jackass, Transformers, and Team America -- stuff you would think would be in a museum but were literally sitting in a room where you could accidentally bump into them. The entire studio was decorated for Christmas and awesome to see.
Last edited: Summer, 2025