[Bootie]

OK, my last One & a Half Women tour for a bit since I have family coming to town next week...

We almost had the tram to ourselves this morning - just the 2 of us - but a young guy from England showed up at the last minute. Rats. He was pretty low key though, and only knew ER & Friends, so he was happy to go along with us to GG land. And the tour guide was very accomodating. Heh.

Filming inside Luke's today, so all of Midwest St/SH was off limits - but since there were only 3 of us, our tour guide was hell bent on getting us in...plus she'd been told by TPTB it was ok. The security guards had other ideas....lol. She tried to sneak us in over by the fence behind the park, but the cameras were shooting out of Luke's in that direction so the guard ran us off. We decided to go look at a few other things and go back later to try again.

We got to go on the Dragonfly Inn soundstage - such a pretty, pretty set. There were 'hot set' signs around, but she took us in anyway - they were actually setting up in the kitchen, but we got to see everything else. Very cool. I also asked if we could take a peek inside Lorelai's house, and she said we could stand in the doorway, but not go inside. The sofa is back in it's usual spot and they were still dressing the rest of the living room - and you can make of this what you will:

There's a beautiful pink kimono on the wall going up the stairs, and asian/chinese theme decorations going in - dragons on the mantle, and a box full of chinese-looking knick knacks, more dragons etc. Emily & Richard went to Asia on their summer vacation? Rory & Lorelai went? Lorelai moved out and is renting it to Lane, or an asian family? She's just redecorating? Very curious.

After that we headed back to SH, but they were still filming - the guard was very nice though and told us we could go stand over at the end of the street between Luke's and the park. While he was talking to us, Scott Patterson rode by on his bike, not 2 feet from where I was standing. Coulda knocked me over with a feather! He was wearing the trademark BLUE baseball hat, and a red flannel. I needed oxygen. lol

And ha! I wasn't so far off with Kirk's eatery being a hot dog stand in the park! Unfortunately we couldn't take our cameras because they were filming, so no pics, but it was all set up, and you'll have to use your imagination.....

In the park there are 2 stone pillars that frame the horse statue in the back - Kirk's eatery is set up in front of that. It's a tall trestle table with a solid red tablecloth, and a red chequered one on top of that. It has wood stools in front of it - not the ones from the diner - but light wood, with round seats. There were napkin holders on the table - and on another table behind there was food, and I think a coffee machine...it was hard to see. But get this - behind the table were 2 tall metal posts with a sign strung between them - a big handmade yellow cup, just like Luke's sign, with "Kirk's" painted on it. And on one of the stone pillars there was a "no cell phones" sign, just like Luke has in the diner.

That was it - they were filming in the DFI this afternoon, and too bad we couldn't stay to take another tour - I would've loved a pic of Kirk's. lol. Maybe some other intrepid CIP went later and snagged one.

One other thing about Lorelai's house, all the mantle pictures were stacked on a table just inside the door, but there's no telling if they were on their way in or out. It was all Lorelai's furniture - the couch, blue chair, table, telephone table. I don't remember what pictures were on the walls - darn it. One glaring omission...Luke's leather chair wasn't there. Sniff.

I checked with copperboom to see if she remembered anything else about Lorelai's house, and she did see 2 of the "haunted kids" pictures still on the walls - one by the front door, and the other by the telephone table. She said the dollhouse is still there too, under the stairs. It helps to have 2 pairs of eyes.