Pits and Stars

Surprisingly we started the day quite early and got out of the house by 9.30. We headed to The Grove, a popular shopping centre in Los Angeles. We had visited this place a few years ago and wanted to go again, as it has a very festive atmosphere, oh. and shops!

Santa's sleigh

Another mild day at 18 degrees, so no heavy coats, hats or gloves needed. The temperature is just right at the moment. The girls scored yet again, shouting themselves some makeup with Christmas money (thank you Grandparents!). Even Jason succumbed to shopping fever and bought a pair of jeans, I daresay that is his peak for this trip. That is, unless we find some propellers lying around!

We had lunch at the nearby Farmers Markets where you can find just about any food your heart desires. Luckily for us it wasn't crowded and it was a pleasure walking around.

 After visiting The Grove, we headed to the La Brea Tar Pits, just a short drive away. This attraction holds the richest source of fossils from the Ice Age in the world. Amongst the most prized possessions are a Saber tooth tiger's saber tooth (try saying that three times quickly!), and a tusk from a Mammoth. Pretty amazing. The tar pits are actually crude oil which has found it's way to the surface from underground via a broken seam in the earth. These "seeps" have made their way in various places on the site, hence the "gooey" sign below.

Fossils in the mud

             

 They continue to excavate to this day, continually finding more and more fossils. We were told that sometimes exposing the hidden treasures involves using a tooth pick!

The most exciting venture of the day was to join a studio audience!!!!! Jason had gotten tickets to a one of our favourite shows called  "Last Man Standing" (starring Tim Allen), and we were very keen to see the taping of the show. It's a thing in our family to watch the show together on a Sunday night as this is one of the few nights that we are usually all at home at the same time.

Even though we had tickets, there was no guarantees that we would actually get in as it's first in, first served. We were actually early, so early in fact they wouldn't let us in the car park. It was a bit of a process to get a park, go through security, go to the check in, get to the sound stage, get a seat etc. Then we had to sit through the "warm up guy" routine who had to get us "warmed up" to laugh. We really enjoyed it even though we didn't see all of the scenes all the time. Most scenes were filmed at least twice so to get 20-25 minutes of actual footage, filming took 2 hours. They even gave us a free slice of pizza for sustenance.

We were not allowed to take in cameras or phones, so I have no proof that we did this, you'll just have to believe me!

The cast of  Last Man Standing