The worlds largest, yummiest pancake and Merlotte's!

Despite the lack of sleep I got last night (apparently my room is adjacent to party central), today has been an awesome day. I got up bright and early and headed out for breakfast at The Griddle.

Located near the Coffee Bean and the Directors Guild, the menu is to die for. Any type of pancake you can dream of, they have it. A dark, warm atmosphere greeted me when I walked in. I took a seat at the horseshoe shaped walnut breakfast bar and took in my surroundings. A few police officers when in the corner catching up over hearty looking steaming plates of food.

I couldn't decide what to have, the "Red Velvet" panCake, topped with cream cheese frosting? "Eyes Wide Open" chocolate chip pancake with a shot of expresso? I decided on old faithful, buttermilk pancakes. I know...pretty vanilla. Frankly there was just way too much to choose from I took the easy choice. The waiter advised me to just have one pancake as they were huge. Imagine my surprise when my order was up and he placed it before me.

I was relieved I had listened to him! It barely fit on the plate. While eating, an important director looking type seated himself across the bar from me, ordered his usual and proceeded to work on his laptop while also reading the newspaper.

Once done I hit the road to Burbank for my tour of the WB Studios. First off, I loved that area of Burbank. I could easily see myself living there. I could have happily strolled around for hours, but I was on a schedule.

After checking in for the tour, I checked out the cute souvenir shop, which was filled with Harry Potter, Friends, Gilmore Gils, True Blood and much more trinkets.

When my tour was called, they took us into a little theater and we watched a presentation about the history of the studio. Lucky for me, I found out I was in a group of 11 year old girls from Massachusetts- a synchronized swimming team. Oh joy! Luckily there were 4 other adults who were not apart of this group, so we got put together, along with 3 of the squealing pre-teens.

Once the tour got started, I was very surprised to see the first stop was... Merlotte's! Our tour guide advised they had just finished filming there a few weeks ago, so now the front was all cleaned up, but at the time of filming there were signs, bushes and other decorations.

Without the building being dressed up, it's hard to imagine Sookie Stackhouse, Sam Merlottle and Arlene Fowler here.

Picture courtesy of http://trueblood.wikia.com/

Merlotte's all "dressed up" in a screen shot from "True Blood".

The surrounding area makes you feel like you are really in Bon Temps, Louisiana. Spanish moss hangs from the trees and it is hard to believe you on a lot.

The amount of work that goes into all of this is just amazing, this picture depicts the foliage above Merlotte's.

Right behind Merlotte's on the studio trailer is Sam's trailer.

As we drove down the little road away from the trailer we came upon this little pond. I somehow knew it was important, so I decided to snap some pics. Little did I know that on the 14th, Alex and Joe were flaunting their nekkid bodies in front of Anna filming episode 4. Happy Valentine's Day indeed!

Not the same angles as the scenes from TB, but you get the drift.

Of course there were no random nekkid people running around....

Nor did Alex rise from the water and declare that he was Aegir, God of the Sea. But that's all right, it was fun just the same.

Part two of my tour is next. Slide show of TB photos below, including Fangtasia and Alcide's apartment intermingled with screen caps from the show. :o)