California/Las Vegas Trip - Day 6 (Run, Jinky's, WB VIP Tour, Italian Food, Wilacre Park Run, The Amateurs movie)

Today started at 7am to Rob's roommate leaving for work. Since I had slept for a solid 6.5 hours, I figured I'd stay up and get my run done. I did a big loop around the neighborhood area and covered about 4.2 miles. Blech. It wasn't fun with loads of traffic, lots of road crossings and LA morning drivers. After a quick shower, I headed back to Jinky's for some coffee and breakfast.

After Jinky's, Rob took me over to the WB lot and I took the WB VIP Tour for $45. It was about 2h 15m and saw some sights such as the "ER" hospital exterior (and a small peek at the interior in a separate sound stage at the other end of the lot), NYC set, western set, props, the "Friends" set and "Central Perk" set-up. It was neat to see all the stuff for it, but it's not nearly as cool as seeing it happen live (a la "Scrubs" yesterday).

The entrance to the tour lobby (WB paraphernalia and pre-tour theaters with Starbucks):

In front of the exterior set of the "ER" hospital:

Room filled with cars from various movies:

In a room with the full "Central Perk" set from "Friends":

Rob picked me back up at WB and we headed to Mongolia Blvd to eat some Italian food at Pinocchio's Restaurant in Burbank. It is a select your food, get it on a tray, pay and then eat joint. I got baked penne and a meatball. It was pretty good. The price was certainly right (~$10). The small serving of gelato rounded it all out just right.

After dinner, we came back, had a change of clothes and then (eventually) headed to Wilacre Park in Fryman Canyon. By the time we got there, the sun had gone down and the park was officially closed. The rebel runner in me didn't care and started my way up the hill. And up it was. That was the steepest thing I've ever ran up for exercise and the bumps didn't help. Over two miles later, I ended up in a cul-de-sac of a neighborhood with a 1 mile walk ahead of me (which I managed to turn into 1.5 by getting lost). Apparently I missed the point of the trail which was a beautiful view of the valley since I was too busy running and looking for a marked vantage point. (There was none.) Oh well.

A terrible shot from the trail at night. Blah.

Post-run waiting for the rest of the group:

We came back to the apartment and watched a movie (screening copy) called "The Amateurs" which had a DP whom is one of Rob's friends. It's due on DVD soon. It's 11:45p -- time for bed.