Wax and Alley
By Tara Zandra | January 31, 2013
This year Tabitha decided she didn’t want a birthday party. I can’t say I was sad about it because I still have Dee’s party and frankly, Tabitha has a lot of friends- it’s hard to fit them all into my house. We offered her a day out with two friends and that was an idea she really liked. One perk of homeschooling is we could go on a Thursday 
Chris had the day off and I had a new car which could easily fit 3 teenagers in the 2 back rows so we dropped Daisy off, picked up the other girls and headed to Hollywood!
Our first stop was Madame Tousand’s Wax Museum. To back up just a bit, when I was a kid we regularly visited the Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park (that’s next door to Knott’s Berry Farm and nearish to Disneyland, for those not familiar with CA geography). Movieland had entire rooms dedicated to one scene from a movie with wax figures in place of the actors. You either took pics of just the scenes or stood in front of the rope while Mom took your picture. It closed in October 2005, but we were fortunate to go the last weekend it was open.
Anyway, Madame Tousand’s- nothing like that. They tell you when you walk in that you can touch all the figures, except faces and hair, and then you walk into a room that has dozens of wax figures with very little in the way of scenery. At first I really thought this was going to be a let down, but those three girls had the time of their lives. They were silly and goofy and posing with the figures and I immediately stopped thinking this wasn’t a good idea. They loved it- every bit of it. Once you’re past the main room, there is some small scale scenery and they even provided props. We ended up spending a couple hours there.
Next we walked around the corner to have lunch at the Hollywood and Highland center and that took us righ past Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Tabitha remembered there was a Harry Potter stone so we went to find it for pictures.
She was thrilled, let me tell you
We stopped at California Pizza Kitchen for lunch; we were happy to see it wasn’t crowded because we wanted separate a separate table from the girls. Don’t get me wrong, I love all three of them and they are lovely girls- but two 14 year olds and a 15 year old together can wear you down after awhile. It gets harder and harder to block them out. We figured we needed the respite before getting back into a car with them. They, of course, were very happy to have their own table as well.
Lunch was good then we took the obligatory picture of the three of them with the Hollywood sign in the background and then back in the car. Now we were on to Whimsic Alley!
It’s just a store, but it is dedicated to Harry Potter. Now, we all know I could not care less about Harry Potter, but the themeing and details of this store are amazing and that in itself was enough to keep me occupied. The enthusiasm of two of the girls was fun to watch (the third isn’t into HP, but she loves her friends so gamely enjoyed herself), and well, shopping is always going to be my favorite activity. Tabitha had a ton of money to spend and then saw they also sell Doctor Who stuff so she was beside herself with excitement.
We were there long enough that I had to leave and go find a Diet Coke. In the end Tabitha bought a wand, a Doctor Who t-shirt, a really nice quill and ink set, Doctor Who and Harry Potter buttons, a chocolate frog, and more that I cannot remember. She loved it and immediately started talking about her next visit.
All in all she had a great day out and I’m glad we were able to do it for her.
Topics: Life, Teriffic T |
February 24th, 2013 at 9:39 am
What an exciting way to turn 14! You are very lucky to have such wonderfully interesting places to visit in Ca!!