The 13 Going On 30 Bar

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Those of you who read my blog regularly know that the restaurant where Jennifer Garner hit on the 13-year-old boy in fave movie 13 Going On 30  has long been a thorn in my side.  For whatever reason, it seems that no matter how hard I tried or how badly I wanted to stalk it, I just couldn’t seem to track the place down!  I came fairly close last year, when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, managed to find what was used as the exterior of the restaurant on a cobblestone street in New York’s SoHo neighborhood.  But, as fate would have it, the SoHo location turned out to be a clothing store that was used solely for exterior filming, while the interior scenes were shot at another location altogether.  But where????  Finally, last week, I decided to enlist the help of fellow stalker Owen, who promised to  track down a few of the 13 Going On 30 crew members and hopefully get an answer for me.  Ironically enough, I had told Owen that time was of the essence in this particular stalking endeavor as I wanted to stalk the restaurant during my upcoming trip to New York.  Well, come to find out, much like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, it turns out that the location I was searching for was right in my own backyard the whole time!  🙂  It wasn’t an hour later that I got a text back from Owen which read “Interested in hitting on 13-year-old boys?  Head to Hal’s Bar at 1349 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice”.  Well, let me tell you I almost fell over right then and there!  I could NOT believe that the this WHOLE TIME the restaurant had been in L.A., literally right under my nose!  LOL  So, of course, I immediately dragged my boyfriend right out to FINALLY stalk it.  🙂

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For those who have never seen 13 Going On 30, the scene that takes place at Hal’s restaurant involves Jennifer Garner (as a 13-year-old stuck in a 30-year- old’s body) drinking some cocktails at a bar in New York with BFF Judy Greer.  At one point, Judy leans over and whispers to Jennifer “Mr. Hottie behind you is totally scamming on you right now!”  So, of course, Jennifer gets up to go talk to him, but instead of walking up to the older gentleman standing at the bar, she heads over to a 13-year-old boy sitting in a booth and tells him she thinks he is cute. Judy freaks out, grabs Jennifer, and says “What do you want to go to jail?  I meant that guy!” to which Jennifer replies, “The man?  Oh, gross!”   LOL LOL LOL  You can watch the entire scene here.  

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Amazingly enough, while the decor of the 13 Going On 30  restaurant is pretty much exactly the same in person as it was in the movie, I had a really hard time recognizing the place once there.  In fact, even though I have been actively searching for this location for years, had I randomly eaten at Hal’s, I probably never would have recognized it as the 13 Going On 30 restaurant.  LOL  As you can see in the above screen captures and photographs, while most of the background paintings were changed for the filming, for the most part the restaurant looks very much the same in real life as it did onscreen.  One of the things that threw me, though, was the fact that, in real life, Hal’s is a fairly large restaurant, but, because 13 Going On 30  only showed one small section of it, it appeared to be tiny in the movie.    When I first walked in, I was shocked at how big the place actually was.  

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But the biggest shock for me was actually the lighting.  In real life, Hal’s is extremely bright and open, with one wall made up almost entirely of windows.  In the movie, though, the place seemed very dark and cozy, much like a real New York restaurant would be.  As you can see in the above photograph and screen capture, producers actually had all of Hal’s front windows covered over for the shoot, which really made a difference in the look and feel of the restaurant.  In fact, the entire time we were there, I kept saying to my boyfriend “This place is so bright, but it was dark in the movie!!!!  I don’t get it!”  LOL  Ah, the magic of Hollywood!  

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In an ironic side note – While attempting to locate the restaurant, I had spent WEEKS trying to figure out what the sign behind Judy Greer in the above screen capture spelled out.  Countless times, I had Googled the terms “New York” along with all sorts of different combinations of words ending with “–ECKAS” and the phrase “bar & grill” to try to figure it out – all to no avail.  Which makes sense now, being that the sign was a fake put up for decoration at the New York location where exterior filming took place. 

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But what doesn’t make sense is that when I finally got to stalk the restaurant, I noticed that producers had used part  of the Hal’s Bar & Grill logo for their fake sign in New York.  You’ll notice in the above screen capture and photograph that the oddly-placed “S” in the Hal’s Bar & Grill logo is EXACTLY the same as the oddly-placed “S” in the fake restaurant sign that was at the New York location.  I’m not sure why producers went to all the trouble of creating a fake name and a fake logo that incorporated a part of the real restaurant’s real logo.  Why not just use the real thing???  LOL  But that’s Hollywood for you!  🙂

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And, as if getting to eat at the 13 Going On 30 restaurant was not excitement enough for one day, while walking to our car afterwards we happened upon Desperate Housewife Marcia Cross sitting on a bench outside of a nearby shop.  Ironically enough, the only reason I noticed her at all was because, as I walked by, she looked up and gave me an absolutely ENORMOUS smile.  I was a bit taken aback by that as people in L.A. don’t typically smile like that at strangers.  And it was while smiling back at her that I all of a sudden realized she was Marcia Cross!  I so wanted to ask her to take a picture with me, but, as it was an extremely busy afternoon on Abbot Kinney Boulevard,  I didn’t want to attract a bunch of attention to her.  But, after we walked across the street, I begged my fiancé to snap a quick paparazzi pic of her for my blog – for which she also smiled.  🙂  So cool!!!   

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I cannot recommend stalking Hal’s Bar & Grill enough!  The food is EXCELLENT – especially the burgers! – and I had an absolute blast being there. 

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Hal’s Bar and Grill, aka the 13 Going On 30  bar, is located at 1349 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice.  You can visit their website here.

Jason Segel’s I Love You, Man House

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One location I have been wanting to stalk for what seems like forever now is Jason Segel’s (aka Sydney Fife’s) Venice Beach area house and “Man Cave’” from fave movie I Love You, Man.  Fellow stalker Owen actually tracked down this location for me MONTHS ago, but since I rarely get out to the Venice area, I had yet to stalk it.  So, last weekend, my fiancé and I – armed with a notebook full of Venice area locations – finally made the pilgrimage out to L.A.’s West Side to stalk Sydney’s house.  

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In I Love You, Man, Sydney Fife lives in an adorable little beach bungalow just a few steps away from the Venice Beach Boardwalk and the Pacific Ocean.  And I absolutely fell in love with the place as soon as I laid eyes on it in the movie.   But I am sad to report that the house actually looks much different in person than it did in I Love You, Man.  In fact, even though it’s hardly been a year since filming took place, had Owen not given me the address, I could have easily walked right by the home without even recognizing it.  🙁  

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As you can see in the above photographs and screen captures, changes to the house include the paint color (which I actually think was a lot cuter in the movie), the addition of two sets of hedges and a new lawn to the front yard, and the removal of the cement walkway leading up to the home’s front door.  I am guessing though, that before the movie was filmed, the house looked pretty much the same as it does today and that producers made all of the above mentioned alterations solely for the filming and then returned the home to its original state after the movie was wrapped.  It sure seems like a whole bunch of work to go through, though, and makes me wonder why producers just didn’t find a different house that more closely fit their needs to use in the movie.  But that’s Hollywood for you.  🙂

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While stalking the house, my fiancé and I, of course, had to go around back to check out the garage area which housed Jason Segal’s “Man Cave” in the movie.  Sadly, though, the garage has also changed considerably since the filming of I Love You, Man.  Besides the change in paint color, a new garage door and side fence have been added since the movie was filmed.

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But here’s the good news!  Apparently, in real life, Jason Segel’s I Love You, Man house is not really a home at all, but a fitness center and gym named Optimum Fitness.  So, this is one stalking location that looks like it is – for the most part – open to the public!  🙂  And, best of all, if you sign up here, your first class there is free!!  🙂 

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On an “Only in L.A.” side note – According to Zillow, Sidney Fife’s one bedroom, one bath house measures only 666 square feet (that’s smaller than my apartment!), yet it sold for a whopping $1,125,000 in April of 2008!  You gotta love L.A.!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Jason Segel’s house from I Love You, Man – aka Optimum Fitness gym   is located at 26 Rose Avenue in Venice.  You can visit the Optimum Fitness website and sign up for a free class here.

The New Wilson House on 90210

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I can’t even believe I am about to say what I am about to say, but ever since watching Tuesday night’s season premiere, I am absolutely, one hundred percent hooked on the new 90210.  While the first season of the show left much to be desired, this past week’s episode was nothing short of A-MA-ZING.  So loved it!! Melrose Place on the other hand was absolutely craptastic and I can honestly say I’ll never again be tuning in to watch.  I didn’t have high hopes for that show to begin with. though, being that it starred Ashley Simpson, but it even exceeded my extremely low expectations.  But I digress.  Anyway, after watching Tuesday night’s season premiere, I have to say that I honestly think 90210 is back, baby!  🙂  The episode was appropriately titled “To New Beginnings” – and a new beginning it definitely was!  Especially locations wise.  They should be calling it 90210 v. 2.0, v. 2.0  because thanks to new executive producer Rebecca Sinclair, who was brought in last season to revamp the show (how a show that’s only been on the air one season needs a revamping is beyond me!), there is a new Beverly Hills Beach Club (the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa), a new West Beverly High (Mount St. Mary’s College in Brentwood), and, best of all, a new Wilson house to stalk!  YAY!   So, while watching Tuesday night’s show, I texted Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and said “We have GOT to find the new 90210 house!”  And, sure enough, it wasn’t long before we did!

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Mike and I had both immediately recognized the new school standing in for West Beverly High as Mount Saint Mary’s College in Brentwood, which also stood in for Harbor High School on fave show The O.C.  And, being that the new Wilson house also looked very much like a Brentwood area home, Mike was fairly certain that it would be located somewhere near the school.  And, sure enough, it was.  So, of course, as soon as Mike texted me the address, I immediately dragged my fiancé right out to stalk it.  🙂

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Even though it’s got nothing on Casa Walsh, the new 90210  house is super cute in person. 🙂  It’s appearance is quite deceiving, though, as from the outside it appears to be rather small, but according to Zillow it actually has 4 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms and measures a whopping 4,951 square feet.  That’s HUGE!

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The Wilson home popped up several times during the season premiere, including the scene when Annie, freaking out after learning that her hit and run victim has passed away, runs out the front door and begs Dixon to take her for a ride.

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A scene also took place in the home’s real life backyard – which you can see photographs of here.

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I can’t tell you how exciting it was to be stalking the new 90210  house just days after the show aired.  🙂  I have a feeling the home will be popping up quite often in the many episodes to come.

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Oh, and note to producers – a basketball hoop really needs to be installed above the garage of the new Wilson home, ala Casa Walsh.  I mean, it’s just not 90210 without a basketball hoop!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Wilson’s new house on 90210 is located at 325 Homewood Road in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles.

Kirsten Dunst’s Bring It On House

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Well, as Vanessa Williams once sang, I definitely “saved the best for last” regarding my Bring It On posts this week.  As you might have already guessed, the BIO filming location I was most excited about stalking was, of course, the ultra-cool, modern-style abode belonging to Kirsten Dunst’s character, Torrance Shipman, in the movie.  Fellow stalker Owen found this location by, again, getting a hold of a Bring It On crew member who remembered that the house was located on a cul-de-sac about twenty-five miles north of San Diego in a small beach community named Cardiff-by-the-Sea.  Owen got to cyber-stalking and, sure enough, found the house pretty much immediately.  So, on our way home from San Diego this past Saturday morning, I dragged my parents out to Cardiff-by-the-Sea to stalk the house.  And, let me tell you, the stalking gods were definitely smiling down on me that day, because when we pulled up to the house the owners happened to be standing outside and they ended up giving us a TOUR OF THEIR HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  🙂   But I’ll get to that in a minute.

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When I first hopped out of the car, camera in hand, and noticed the owners standing outside, I asked them if their house had been used in Bring It On and they said, “You found us!”  LOL  The owners honestly could NOT have been nicer and literally talked to us for over twenty minutes and answered all of my silly little questions about the filming.  They also told us all sorts of cool behind-the-scenes information, like the fact that the movie was originally titled Cheer Fever  and that the flick was not expected to be released in theatres, but to instead go straight to DVD.  No one had any idea it would turn out to be such a huge hit!   The owner, Cindy, also told us that producers were considering three different houses in the area to stand in as Torrance’s home in the movie – hers, one just around the corner, and another in Point Loma.  They ended up choosing Cindy’s because they liked the fact that it was located on a cul-de-sac.  So interesting!  Then, when I asked Cindy if she had gotten to meet Kirsten Dunst during the filming, she said “Hold on a minute!”, ran inside, and grabbed a photo album that she had made of the shoot!!!!  It was at that point that I just about keeled over from excitement!!!    🙂

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Kristen Dunst's house from Bring It On

As you can probably imagine, I was absolutely mesmerized by Cindy’s photo album! It contained numerous pictures of the filming, including candid photographs of the actors hanging out on set and getting their make-up done, and photographs of the house being dressed up for the shoot.  Cindy told us that producers actually changed the front of her home quite significantly for the filming.  In real life, the home has two separate garages – a single car garage on the right hand side and a two car garage on the left.  For a reason that she was unsure of, set dressers built a false exterior to cover up the two-car garage, as you can see in the above photograph.  They also added a significant amount of foliage in front of that fake exterior, I am guessing to hide that part of the driveway. 

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One part of the home that was not changed for the movie was the little circular address plaque situated on the front of the single car garage.  Yay!!  I so loved seeing that!  🙂

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Another cool tidbit of information that Cindy told me what that prior to the filming of Bring It On, she did not have a bench in her front porch area.  But when producers brought one in for the shoot, Cindy and her husband really liked how it looked and ended up purchasing one to put in the exact same spot where Jesse Bradford sat in the above scene.   Love it!

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Included in Cindy’s Bring It On scrapbook were pictures of the interior of her home all dressed up for the filming.  As I had been under the assumption that all of the interior scenes had taken place on a soundstage, I just about fell over when I found out that they had actually filmed inside of the real house!  And it was then that Cindy asked – are you sitting down for this??? – if my mom and I wanted to come inside her home to see the areas that were used in the movie!  DID WE WANT TO COME INSIDE?  DID WE WANT TO COME INSIDE?  LOL  OF COURSE WE DID!  🙂  The area of the home that I was most excited about seeing was the cool spiral staircase located off of the living room, as my fiancé and I have a very similar stairwell in our apartment!  🙂  When I mentioned that fact to Cindy, she insisted that I pose for a picture on the stairs.  SO COOL!  🙂  Thank God she did, too, as it was the ONLY photograph I ended up taking inside of the house.   🙁  I was so incredibly overwhelmed at seeing everything in person that I totally forgot to take any pictures!  LOL  I am such an airhead sometimes, I swear! 

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Needless to say, the Bring It On  house is absolutely beautiful inside.  The areas of the home that were used in the filming include the kitchen and the living room, which both look a bit different in real life, as producers changed the color of the walls and brought in all new furnishings for the shoot.

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  The home’s master bedroom – which we did not get to see – was also used in the movie as Kirsten Dunst’s room.  Producers not only had the room painted a mustard yellow color (yuck!) for the filming, but also paid a young girl to decorate the walls with magazine pin-ups, photographs, and cheerleading memorabilia.  Oh, how I would have LOVED to have had that job as a kid!   LOL  So would have been right up my alley.  🙂

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I cannot tell you how cool it was to see the Bring It On house so up close and personal and to get to speak with the real life owners at length about their experiences during the filming.  My mom was completely floored, too, and she’s never even seen Bring It On!  LOL  As I was leaving the house, I texted Owen to let him know the awesome news and he wrote back “How do you always get so darn lucky???”  To tell you the truth, I often find myself asking that very same question!  LOL Sometimes the stalking stars just align, I guess, but, let me tell you, I often have to pinch myself when thinking about all of the amazingly cool things I’ve gotten to do while stalking!  🙂 

A big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location.  And another BIG THANK YOU to the owners of the Bring It On house for COMPLETELY making my day by inviting my mom and me into their home and spending so much time chatting with us!  You guys ROCK!  🙂 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Kirsten Dunst’s house from Bring It On  is located at 2002 Bruceala Court in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, just North of San Diego.  If you stalk this home, please respect the owners’ privacy and do not trespass, ring the doorbell, or ask to be let inside.  My mom and I were extremely lucky to meet the residents and be given a tour of the home, but as this is not common practice, please don’t bother the owners about doing it yourself.

Eliza Dushku’s House from Bring It On

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One of the locations I was most excited about seeing this past weekend in San Diego was the La Jolla area residence that was used as the home of siblings Missy Pantone (aka Eliza Dushku) and Cliff Pantone (aka cutie Jesse Bradford) in 2000’s Bring It On.  Full credit goes to fellow stalker Owen for tracking down this locale through some painstaking research.  A few weeks back, when Owen first set out on his mission to find all of the Bring It On locations, we both decided that the places we were most interested in seeing were the two main homes used in the movie.  I’m not sure why, but for some reason, out of all the movie and television locations I’ve stalked, homes always seem to be my favorite!  🙂  Anyway, Owen managed to get ahold of a Bring It On  crew member who told him that he remembered exactly two things about Eliza Dushku’s house in the movie.  One – it was absolutely GINORMOUS in size, and two – it was located on a cul-de-sac somewhere near La Jolla Village Drive in La Jolla.   So, with that information in hand, Owen got to work using Google Maps and, sure enough, it wasn’t long before he had found it!  So, this past weekend while vacationing in San Diego, I,of course, immediately dragged my parents right out to stalk the Bring It On  house. 

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As you can see in the above photographs and screen capture, Eliza Dushku’s Bring It On  house still looks pretty much the same today as it did back in 2000 when the movie was filmed.   And, the crew member Owen spoke with was right – the home is absolutely HUGE!  So huge, in fact, that I couldn’t step back far enough to fit the whole thing in my camera lens.  LOL

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A few minor changes have actually been made to the exterior of the house, though, which shouldn’t be all that surprising, I guess, being that Bring It On  was filmed almost a decade ago.  Those changes include the two trees flanking each side of the front door, which have grown considerably since the filming;

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the wrought-iron stairway railing which has since been removed; 

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and – what is, in my mind, the strangest alteration of all  – the front door, which has been changed from a double door to a single.  So odd!

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As you can see from the above screen captures and Google Maps aerial view, the backyard still looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when Bring It On was filmed.  The only thing missing is the swing set, which I am fairly certain was just a prop brought in solely for the filming.

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Eliza Dushku’s house shows up several times throughout Bring It On, most memorably in the Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Bradford toothbrushing scene that I talked about in Tuesday’s post – one of my most favorite movie scenes ever!  So love it!  🙂

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Eliza Dushku’s Bring It On  house is truly beautiful in person – and, as I mentioned before, absolutely enormous!  According to Zillow, the five bedroom, six bathroom home, which was built in 1991, measures a whopping 7,160 square feet!!  And, as you can see in the above photograph, also has a FIVE CAR GARAGE!

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 Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Eliza Dushku’s Bring It On  house is located at 7762 Starlight Drive in La Jolla.

Humphrey’s Half Moon Inn & Suites from Bring It On

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The second item on my Bring It On  stalking agenda from last weekend was a little hotel named Humphrey’s Half Moon Inn & Suites, which is also located on San Diego’s Shelter Island, just down the street from the Marlin Club which I blogged about yesterday.    This is one location that I actually hadn’t planned on stalking when I first headed down to San Diego last Friday.  But – thanks to fellow stalker Owen – I had the address written down in my trusty stalking notebook, so when my dad mentioned that he wanted to look at a boat store that was in the same area as Humphrey’s, I asked if he would be so kind as to also take me by the hotel.  Well, as you can probably imagine, that request did NOT go over well AT ALL!  My dad promptly reminded me that I had originally promised I would only be dragging him to two stalking locations that weekend.  He was more than just slightly peeved that I was all of a sudden adding previously unmentioned locales to the list.  In his defense, though, he hadn’t really been feeling well all weekend and, being that he just barely tolerates my stalking habit on a good day, perhaps this is one request I shouldn’t have made.  But since we were going to be in the area, I just HAD to ask.  Well, my dad did end up – very relunctantly – taking me by the hotel and, as fate would have it, as soon as we got there he absolutely fell in love with the place!  He took about a million pictures, walked the entire hotel grounds, and even suggested to my mom that they stay there during their next San Diego trip.  LOL LOL LOL  See, as I’ve always said, good things come to those who stalk!!  🙂  You simply just never know what cool spot is waiting right around the corner for you to discover!

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I’m actually not at all surprised that my dad was so taken with Humphrey’s, as it is a really beautiful hotel which boasts a private marina, picturesque ocean views, a fitness center, a heated pool and jacuzzi complete with a poolside bar, a putting green, a spa, large lawns, meandering ponds, and a waterfront restaurant which was recently named “San Diego’s Finest Restaurant with Live Music Venue” by the California Restaurant Association.  

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Humphrey’s also has quite a large celebrity connection.  Besides being a favorite of television star John Stamos, whose E! True Hollywood Story  was filmed in part at the hotel, each summer Humphrey’s is also the site of a very successful outdoor concert series named Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay.   I literally almost fell over when I read a list of the many famous names who had recently graced Humphrey’s stage.  Those names include The Soup’s  Joel McHale (so LOVE him!), Joe Cocker, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, LeAnn Rimes, Joan Baez, the Indigo Girls, Tori Amos, Jewel, Chicago, Tears for Fears, the Moody Blues, Earth, Wind, & Fire, Lyle Lovett, Tracy Chapman, Tower of Power, Dave Koz, Sinbad, Air Supply, Christopher Cross, Wanda Sykes, the Beach Boys, Crosby, Stills, & Nash, Loggins & Messina, and Chris Botti.  Whew!   What a lineup! 

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 Ironically enough, while my parents and I were perusing the hotel grounds (before we had learned about Humphrey’s A-List concert series), we happened upon a rock group setting up in a backstage area.  As we were walking by, one of the band members put his arm out to block my path and said “Hey, are you with the band?”  I was a bit taken aback at the man’s rude tone and said “No, I’m sorry, I’m actually not with the band.  Am I not supposed to be walking through here?”  The guy laughed and said “Aw, I’m just joking with you.  Unless, of course, you want to volunteer to help these guys set up the stage.”   To which I said, “If you make me the star of your next music video, I might stick around to help.”  LOL  Well, the guy just laughed at me and that was that.  Until a few minutes later when I noticed a large crate with the words “RatDog” and “Grateful Dead” stenciled across the front.   I immediately grabbed my mom and said “Oh my God, I think we were just talking to members of the Grateful Dead!”  She looked at me like I was absolutely crazy and said “No, Lindsay, trust me, the Grateful Dead would not be playing here.”  Well, come to find out, former Dead guitarist Bob Weir and his band, RatDog, were, in fact, playing at Humphrey’s that night and not only had we walked right past some of the band members, but I had actually unknowingly spoken with one and asked him to put me in his next music video!  LOL LOL LOL  When we went back later to ask the band if they’d take a picture with me, they were, unfortunately, nowhere to be found.  🙁 

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In Bring It On, Humphrey’s stood in for the Daytona Beach Tiki Adventure Suites hotel where Kirsten Dunst and the rest of the Toros stayed during the Universal Cheer Association Nationals Competition towards the end of the movie.  I’m actually quite surprised that producers chose to use Humphrey’s to represent a Florida area hotel, as the place looks more like it belongs in Waikiki than Daytona Beach.  Although its close proximity to the Marlin Club must have made it the easy choice for filming.

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Several areas of the hotel were featured in Bring It On, including the front entrance;

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the exterior of some of the rooms,

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the pool area,

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and the interior of one of the rooms.

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Humphrey’s Half Moon Inn & Suites is a really beautiful place and I highly recommend stalking it!  I am very much looking forward to my parent’s next trip down to San Diego, as it looks like they will most likely be staying at Humphrey’s, so you can bet I’ll be tagging along with them once again!! 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Bring It On  hotel, aka Humphrey’s Half Moon Inn & Suites, is located at 2303 Shelter Island Drive on Shelter Island, just outside of Point Loma, in San Diego.  You can visit their website here.  Humphrey’s is located just down the street from another Bring It On location –  the Marlin Club – which can be found at 2445 Shelter Island Drive.

The Marlin Club from “Bring It On”

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A few weeks ago, my parents, my fiance, and I went down to San Diego for a few days for a short little summer vacay.  When I told fellow stalker Owen where I was headed, he set out on a mission to find pretty much every single location used in 2000’s Bring It On, a teen comedy which was filmed in its entirety in the beachside city.  Well, imagine my disappointment when I received an email from Owen listing ALL of the Bring It On  locations – including the two main houses featured in the movie! – a few days later while in the car on the way home from that trip!  Being that we were already outside the city limits by the time I read his email, and being that my parents outright refused to turn the car around (I know, the nerve!), there was no way I would be able stalk the Bring It On  locales that day.  Needless to say, I could NOT have been more disappointed!!!   🙁  The only silver lining to the whole situation was the fact that since I find myself in the San Diego area at least once a month, I knew I would be able to stalk the locations in the very near future.  So, last week, when my parents announced that they would be traveling to San Diego for a few days, I just about had a heart attack and told them that, like it or not, I would be joining them on their trip.  🙂  So, bright and early Friday morning, I headed down to sunny San Diego.  The first item on my Bring It On stalking agenda?  The Shelter Island Marlin Club, where the brief, but memorable bikini car wash scene took place.  🙂

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In Bring It On, the Rancho Carne Toros Cheeleading Team decides to host a massive car wash event at the Marlin Club in order to raise money to hire a professional choreographer who will hopefully give them the leg up at their upcoming regional competition.  To attract potential car wash clients, the team, which includes cheerleaders Kirsten Dunst and Eliza Dushku, conducts the entire event in their bathing suits, which is perhaps why this particular scene has become the most well-known out of the entire movie.  Well, amongst males anyway.  My personal favorite scene is, of course, Jesse Bradford and Kirsten Dunst’s toothbrushing scene, which has got to be one of the best movie scenes of all time!!!  So, darn cute!  🙂  And if you don’t happen to know the scene of which I am speaking, obviously you have yet to see Bring It On, in which case you must go out and rent it RIGHT NOW!  🙂  But, I digress. 

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In actuality, the Marlin Club is not a car wash at all, but a fishing club and free, certified fish weighing station located on a tiny peninsula in San Diego known as Shelter Island.  The Club, which was started on September 15, 1931, is open year-round for local and visiting fisherman who want to get their recent catches weighed for free.  In 1952, the Marlin Club built their clubhouse, which can be seen in the background of the above screen capture and photograph.  And in 1958, the Club became incorporated as a non-profit organization.  The Marlin Club now boasts several hundred members, each paying annual dues which go to help support the free weighings provided to the public.  According to their website, they invite any and all fishing enthusiasts to “drop in and share a fish story” anytime.

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Ironically enough, a Marlin can even be seen hanging in the background of the car wash scene in Bring It On, although the camera moved far too fast for me to get a good screen capture of it. 

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Because the Marlin Club is, in essence, a large parking lot with a gorgeous view, it’s not very hard to see why producers chose to use it for the Bring It On  car wash scene.  And I am very happy to report that the Club still looks pretty much identical to how it appeared onscreen almost a full decade ago.  And, even though, it’s really “just” a parking lot, it is still very easily recognizable from the movie.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Marlin Club from Bring It On  can be found at 2445 Shelter Island Drive on Shelter Island, which is located just outside of Point Loma, in San Diego.  You can visit the Marlin Club’s website here.

The Obsessed House

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A few weeks ago, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, called me up and said, “Where is that big pink house in Altadena that you stalked a while back?”  Well, I had absolutely no idea what on earth he was talking about!  For some reason, a “big pink house in Altadena” just wasn’t ringing any bells with me.  And it really should have, being that I actually know the house he was speaking about quite well.  I mean, it’s practically an Altadena institution!   Heck, I’ve even blogged about it before!  LOL  But that’s the blonde in me, I guess.  🙂  Anyway, about an hour after Mike’s phone call, it all of a sudden hit me like a ton of bricks – he had been asking me about the famous Balian Mansion, or, as I like to call it, the real Clark W. Griswold house.  🙂  Mike had been inquiring about the mansion because it was featured briefly in the 2009 movie Obsessed, which he had just finished watching.  Mike had an inkling that Beyonce Knowles’ house from the film (pictured above) was most likely located in the same area.  And, sure enough, he was right!  Just a few clicks through Google Maps later and the two of us were able to locate it, literally right around the corner from the Balian Mansion.  🙂  So, of course, we immediately ran right out to stalk both homes.  🙂

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Because only one view of the Obsessed house – the view pictured above – was ever shown in the movie, it looks quite different in person than how it appeared onscreen.  For some reason, producers filmed at an angle which cut out the entire garage area.  (You can see what the garage looks like in the first picture featured in this post.)  The only reason I can think of behind this decision is that producers wanted the home to appear smaller than it really was.

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Which makes absolutely no sense to me!  You see, while watching the movie I became completely obsessed (ha ha) with the fact that the interior of Beyonce’s home looked a whole lot bigger than the exterior.  It’s as if the two just didn’t match up.  The inside of her house was absolutely HUGE, yet the outside appeared quite average in size.  It was bizarre and  completely distracted me throughout the entire movie.  I just couldn’t seem to get past it!  I kept pausing the DVD to ask my fiance if the dichotomy in sizes was bothering him as much as it was bothering me.  (It wasn’t, by the way.  LOL)   Anyway, as you can sort of see in the above screen capture, the interior of the house appears to be GINORMOUS, which does not at all fit with the exterior that was shown.

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Further complicating the matter is the fact that the exterior of the Obsessed  house is Mediterranean in style, painted in bright terracotta colors, yet the interior has a classic Colonial style feel.   Needless to say, the whole thing just didn’t work for me and I spent the entire movie distracted by the discrepancies between the interior and exterior of the house.  LOL  Now, it’s quite possible that these variances were not necessarily a production decision and that the studio based their sets on the home’s real life interiors, but somehow I really doubt that.  Ironically enough, Mike and I got to see the interior sets of the Obsessed  house while taking the Sony Pictures Studio Tour last November.  Sadly, though, we weren’t allowed to take any photographs of them.  🙁 

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Another thing I became obsessed with while watching Obsessed, was the home’s gorgeous, intricately carved mailbox.  I absolutely FELL IN LOVE with it!  Being that the mailbox was so unusual, I was fairly certain it was a prop that had been brought in solely for the filming.  So, you can imagine how FLOORED I was when Mike and I pulled up to the house to find that mailbox standing there!  So cool!  🙂  As soon as I buy my first house, I am SO getting one of those!  In fact, I’d buy one right now, but I think it’d look a little silly standing out in front of my apartment.  LOL  

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After stalking the Obsessed  house, Mike and I made our way down the street to stalk the Balian Mansion.   The mansion is actually only featured very briefly in the movie, in the scene when Beyonce turns her car around after realizing she forgot to turn on her home’s security system.

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On a humorous side note – As you can see in the above screen capture, the Google Maps Street View photograph of the Obsessed house was apparently taken after the property had just been TP’ed.  LOL LOL LOL   Talk about your bad timing!  Can you imagine your house being forever immortalized on Google Maps with toilet paper strands hanging from every tree???  LOL LOL LOL  Too darn funny!   The kids who pulled this off must be seriously patting themselves on the back right now!!!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Obsessed  house is located at 2345 Midlothian Drive in Altadena.  The Balian Mansion is located just down the street at 1960 Mendocino Lane.

The Warner Grand Theatre

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This past Saturday, my family and I returned from Catalina Island via the Catalina Express high speed catamaran that docks in San Pedro Harbor.  When the captain announced that we had finally reached our destination, I suddenly realized that a filming location I have LONG been dying to stalk was actually located in the very city where we now found ourselves!  The Warner Grand Theatre, where Rosalee Futch took Tad Hamilton on a date in fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton, was in fact located just a few miles away from where our boat had just docked.  🙂  I have absolutely no idea why I hadn’t realized it sooner.  So, I begged my dad to drive me over to the theatre as soon as we gathered our luggage and, amazingly enough, he obliged.   Thank you, dad!

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Warner Brothers first opened the Warner Grand Theatre on January 20, 1931.  It was co-designed in an Art Deco style by architect B. Marcus Priteca, who also constructed the Pantages Theatre, and interior designer Anthony Heinsbergen.  Priteca and Heinsbergen had also created two other theatres for the Warner Brothers Company – one in Beverly Hills and one in Huntington Park.  Unfortunately, though, the Warner Grand is the only one of the three that is still intact.  In 1982, the City of Los Angeles declared the 1,400 seat theatre a Cultural and Historic Monument.  Sadly, though, in the 1990’s it fell into a serious state of disarray and was almost demolished.  The theatre was saved in January of 1996 when the City of Los Angeles stepped in and purchased it for $1.2 million and began a slow, painstaking restoration process.  It has since been named a National Historic Place.  The Grand is currently open for business, showing foreign and independent films on its fifty foot screen almost every weekend and showcasing various events including concerts, plays, and even graduations.  And it is also a frequent filming location!  🙂

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The Warner Grand actually shows up three times in Win A Date With Tad Hamilton, where it stands in for the local Fraziers Bottom, West Virginia movie theatre.  The movie’s very first scene takes place at the theatre, in which Rosalee, Pete, and Cathy watch Tad’s latest film entitled A Man Called Jackson.

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Later on in the movie, Rosalee takes Tad to the Warner Grand for their second date.

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It is at the theatre that one of my favorite lines from the movie is spoken.  In the scene, while walking by a poster for one of Tad’s movies, Rosalee says “You look so sad there”, to which Tad replies “Give me a break.  I just lost my wife . . . and my goat.”  LOL LOL LOL  

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The theatre last shows up in what was to be the movie’s original ending, which is shown in the DVD’s Special Features section.  In the scene, Pete, Cathy, Rosalee, and Rosalee’s father are at the Warner watching A Good Man is Hard to Find, Tad’s latest movie which tells the story of his relationship with Rosalee.

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The Warner has also been featured in countless other productions.  In the 2001 movie Pearl Harbor, the Warner Grand was the Oahu theatre where Kate Beckinsale and Josh Hartnett watched the MovieTone News clip about the war. 

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Later on in the scene, they grab a bite to eat at the “Black Cat Diner”, which is located directly next door to the theatre and which, in reality, is an art gallery named the Findings Art Center.   Unfortunately, I didn’t snap any photos of the Black Cat location as I didn’t learn about its use in Pearl Harbor until after I got home and started researching the theatre.  🙁

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In the same scene, while Kate and Josh are eating inside the Black Cat Diner, their friend Ray proposes to his girlfriend Betty on the street outside the Warner Grand. 

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In the Season One episode of The O.C. entitled “The Proposal”, the Warner stood in for the Newport Beach theatre where Ryan, Seth, and Summer took Marisa to cheer her up after she had discovered that her ex-boyfriend, Luke, was sleeping with her mother.  Nice mom, huh?

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After seeing the movie, the gang heads over to a Jamba Juice located in the Arcade Building on Sixth Street directly across the street from the theatre, where they run into – you guessed it – Marisa’s mother and ex-boyfriend, Luke. 

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Because my parents were not too keen on waiting around while I stalked all of West 6th Street, I didn’t get to venture inside the Arcade Building. But I did manage to snap the above pic from across the street.

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The Warner has also been featured in the television series Cousin Skeeter, 7th Heaven, Melrose Place, Party of Five, and ESPN’s Reel Classics, and the movies Wharf Rats to Lords of the Dock, Worth Winning, Seabiscuit, Ghosts of Mississippi, Invasion Earth: The Aliens are Here,  and What’s Love Got To Do With It  (where it stood in for Harlem’s Apollo Theatre).

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The Warner is an absolutely beautiful place and I can’t tell you how excited I was to finally be stalking it!  Sadly, though, the lobby area wasn’t open while we were there, so I didn’t get to venture inside.  But you know what that means!  I’ll just have to go back to stalk the place again!  🙂  According to the Warner’s website, though, the theatre’s original seats were just recently restored, so the interior looks quite different now than how it appeared in the many movies pictured above.  🙁

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Warner Grand Theatre is located at 478 West 6th Street in San Pedro.  You can visit their website here.   The Black Cat Diner from Pearl Harbor, aka the Findings Art Center, is located at 470 West Sixth Street, next door to the Warner.  The Arcade Building on Sixth Street, which was featured in The O.C., is located at 479 West Sixth Street, directly across the street from the theatre. 

The Zane Grey Pueblo Hotel

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While in Catalina this past week, as much as I wanted to stay at the Pavilion Lodge, my family instead opted to book a room at a little place called the Zane Grey Pueblo Hotel.  And even though it’s never been a filming location, because the hotel was once the private residence of world-renowned author Zane Grey, I deemed the site to be blog-worthy.  🙂  For those who have never heard of him (like myself prior to my recent stay at his former home), Zane Grey is the best selling author of 89 Western style novels, including Riders of the Purple Sage, The Lone Star Ranger, and Call of the Canyon.  Zane, who was born on January 31, 1872,  actually started out his professional career following in the footsteps of his father as a dentist.  Zane’s true passion was always writing fiction and playing baseball, but his father vehemently discouraged both pursuits.  In fact, when Zane was a young boy, his father discovered a story he had written and not only tore it up, but severely beat him because of it.  After marrying his wife, Dolly, in 1905, Zane began to finally pursue writing as a career.  It wasn’t long before he became a household name and one of the first authors in history to earn a million dollars.  At one point in time, Zane was also America’s highest selling author.

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In his lifetime, Zane Grey published over one hundred novels which in turn sold over forty million copies.  While most of his works were Western adventure stories, Zane also wrote books about his other passions, including sport fishing, hunting, and baseball.   Zane’s novels became so popular that after his death in 1939, his publishing company, Harper & Brothers, continued to release one of his unpublished manuscripts each year for the next twenty-four years.  All were wildly successful.  Fifty of Zane’s novels were turned into one hundred different Western movies and he has over 120 writer, director, producer and actor credits on IMDB.  What I wouldn’t give for that resume!  Zane even formed his own production company at one time to handle the high demand for movies based on his books.  One of Zane’s novels, The Vanishing American, was even filmed on Catalina Island. Legend has it that Zane brought in a herd of fourteen bison for the filming and left them there after the production wrapped.  The bison took to Catalina quite naturally and spawned into a herd of over 150 buffalo that now call the island home.

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In 1926, after falling in love with Catalina Island while vacationing there, Zane bought a parcel of land high on a hill in Avalon from William Wrigley and built a pueblo.   Zane called his home “a place for rest, dream, peace, sleep”.  Sometime after his death, Zane’s heirs turned the Pueblo into a small hotel.  What a FABULOUS idea!  I wish all celebrity heirs would follow suit!

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The tiny hotel features only sixteen rooms, each named after one of Zane’s popular books.  And while all of the rooms boast a view of some sort, none have a television, a phone, or a clock – an idea my fiance wasn’t too keen on.  The whole point of staying at Zane Grey is to really get away from it all.  The place touts itself as a quiet, peaceful retreat where you can spend a few days in total relaxation.  And I have to say it was pretty darn amazing!

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The hotel’s setting is simply breathtaking, with sweeping ocean . . .

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. . . and mountain views,

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large adobe verandas;

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a living room featuring Zane Grey’s original furnishings and a grand piano,

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and wild animals roaming the property.    My fiance woke me up extremely early one morning to show me a buck he had noticed wandering the grounds (pictured above).  The hotel is also blissfully quiet – whispering in common areas and out by the pool is encouraged.  Because I am not big on noise, I LOVE quiet, peaceful hotels.  In fact, the more quiet and peaceful, the better.  And it doesn’t get much quieter or more peaceful than at the Zane Grey.  Ironically enough, the only people not adhering to the “quiet” rule, were the people who worked on the property.  The receptionist and housekeeper were SO darn loud, it was almost comical.  So, other than wanting to strangle the two of them during most of the trip, my stay was highly relaxing.  And I would recommend the Zane Grey to anyone.  Even though the accommodations are a bit run-down and the service is highly sub-standard, we really enjoyed our stay there.

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A bit of celebrity trivia for you – directly across the street from the Zane Grey hotel is a huge, modern style home that, according to several people I talked to on the island, Sharon Stone was interested in purchasing at one time.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Zane Grey Pueblo Hotel is located at 199 Chimes Tower Road in Avalon on Catalina Island.  You can visit their website here.  The accomodations are very basic and sparse, so if you are looking for a fancy hotel this is DEFINITELY not the place for you.  For higher end accomodations, I’d instead recommend the Inn on Mt. Ada.  The house Sharon Stone thought about buying, but didn’t, is located directly across the street from the Zane Grey Pueblo at 124 Chimes Tower Road.