Day One. Okay, this might actually work!

So today was heartening.

We drove first to the Warner Lot. It was only about 6 miles from our hotel, yet it took us about 20 minutes. But! We got there, and the sun was breaking over the studios. And then we saw this.

The Warner Lot, covered by our -- OUR!!! -- characters.

It was like we were home. Except that we were the only people walking. Seriously, it was like all these people whizzing past, pointing at us and saying "Look at those wacky New Yorkers! They WALK places!"

We programmed our brand new GPS for Studio City and set off. We tootled around a bit and found The Good Neighbor Restaurant, the only diner-type place for miles. We had a lovely chat with the server, ate some good eggs and took off to Carpenter School for a quick visit.

Holy Cats.

Don't get fooled by the front part.

We entered the main building. All was well. Then we walked to the end of the building and went -- OUTSIDE!

All of the classrooms are in small freestanding buildings, but they aren't connected by halls, they are connected by the outdoors! Gardens, outside gym classes, even the cloakrooms were outside. I didn't take pictures of kids for obvious reasons, but let me tell you, the place was lousy with kids having a great time. Plus! FOURSQUARE!

We drove around for a bit and lo and behold found the Schindler Laurelwood apartments, that I've read about on Curbed LA.

The Laurelwood Apartments

Lovely, but who knows what will be ready when we are ready to sign in June?

We drove around a bit with the help of a map and advice from the lovely moms and staff at Carpenter (I had a lovely fifteen-minute chat with them, while Evan stayed supportively silent). Lo and behold we found not one but TWO comic book shops within blocks of each other! We visited DJ's Universal Comics on Ventura Ave, after seeing a patron emerge with a Batman 1-6th Scale and another DC Direct statue in his bag, flashing us a geeky grin. What a great shop! Comics, filed well, new comics laid out on the counter, and lots and lots of product. Seriously, the place could have been the DC Direct Toy Fair booth. We had a lovely chat with the owner, who, as I suspected, was local, and gave us great advice for rentals within the neighborhood.

More in the next post!