The Santini Family

Here are our pictures from our fabulous LA vacation.

Our first stop in LA was the farmer's market at The Grove. Not only was there fabulous weather, but this is where our start sightings began.

Tons of fresh fruit.

An old fashioned gas pump

There was actually a puppy bakery. No joke. And when we went in, there was someone actually buying pastries for her dog.

Next to the farmer's market, there is a fancy, dancy outdoors mall.

As we were walking around, we found a set being set up.

They told us that Mario Lopez would be doing a taping of Extra in about 20 minutes. We stuck around.

We were about to leave when one of the producers pulled JD and I up for a fake interview with Mario. JD was placed behind Mario to be a part of the crowd, but when it became clear that I would be the one being interviewed, he stepped out of the shot to take pictures.

Mario talking to me. He was talking to me about a movie that apparently is incredibly nasty. I just played along because I had no idea what he was talking about and because there was a big 'ol camera in my face. Just so you know, I
haven't watched it.

Between takes, Mario started teasing me about the movie. He said to me "Do you even know what I'm talking about?" I lied. I told him yeah. I don't like to lie and try to avoid it, but Mario Lopez was asking me a question and I forgot to be honest in
all my dealings. Maybe I should email him and apologize. I guess I wasn't so convincing. He starting teasing me again. I really liked him. He was nice and personable.

This was the only picture we were able to get to document Wheel of Fortune. They wouldn't let cameras in. The set was so much smaller than I thought!

My mother has made the observation that we take a lot of food pictures. In fact, she's made us an entire calendar of our food pictures. Here's more. JD planned our meals from the great coupons at buywithme.com. Great food, low prices.

This place was an adorable Mediterranean joint.

So cute.

The next day we took a tour of Paramount Studios.

This is from the set of the TV show "Community". I guess there is a paintball war in the season finale.

This is a picture of the New York City set at Paramount. A lot of different productions rent out these buildings for their movies.

This is a fake NYC subway. It goes down to a small room where actors can change costumes- like coats, hats, gloves, etc. and come back up looking like they are new people.

The NYC set was so real- they put up fake signs and paid people to chew gum, spit it out, and step on it.

That's not real brick. It's squishy.

A bakery where a scene was shot for The Godfather.

This building is apparently shown in a lot of movies.

From the show Laverne And Shirley

These are affectionately known as the Tom Cruise doors. These doors look exactly the same. The man enters/exits out of the small door so that he looks bigger in the door frame and the girl enters/exits through the large door, which makes her look smaller.

Quiet on the set!

All of the stars stay in these Star Waggons.

The entrance to the Dr. Phil show. So fun!

Lucille Ball had her office here. She had the lawn designed to look exactly like her home lawn so that photographers could take pictures of her here and it would look like she was home and with her family. She was accused of working too much and not spending time with her family.

The hand and shoe prints of Woody Harrelson and Ted Danson- they got drunk one night, lost a bet, and had to run around the set naked.

The Hollywood sign

This is a parking lot by day, and then for movies, filled with water to be an ocean or a lake. To the right, you can see the horizon backdrop.

This was the car we rented. The picture makes the red of this car look pale. The car was a total chick car. I thought it was so funny watching JD driving this thing around.