Posts Tagged ‘Screen Gems Studios’

Sep
08
2010

Some Impressions Stay and Some Will Fade Away

Once again, I’m falling behind blogging about all my adventures this summer.  So, before I hop on a plane again tomorrow morning, I thought I’d try to at least get the post up from my vacation that happened back at the end of July!

Of course, the internet hates me, so I am giving up the battle with these pictures.  I edited them into groups, so I could include more pictures but have fewer actual images for your computers to load, but they were too big for Photobucket to cooperate with me, so I tried in Flickr only to discover that they automatically changed all my .gifs to .jpgs, making them unusable, but not to worry — Flickr makes it next to impossible to link to your own images anyway.  So, I posted these pictures out of Photobucket (since it’s at least user friendly, for goodness’ sake), and some of them are horribly pixelated.  Given the amount of time it took me to get to this point, added to the number of people who read this blog in the first place, I am leaving them as they are and calling it “artsy.”  Just work with me — some of the pictures may look a bit wonky, but I can counter with the fact that some of these pictures are of James Lafferty, nullifying your right to complain.  And if anyone has a suggestion for a photo hosting site, I’m all ears.

*****

It’s both wonderful and dangerous that one of my favorite places is only a five hour drive from my apartment.  That makes it easy and tempting to hop in the car with a full tank of gas and point my car in the direction of Wilmington, NC.  I’m not the only one who feels that way, so together with my friends Katie and Ali, we set out for a week at the beach.

On the trip down, we made a point to stop by the Cheesecake Factory for lunch, and we found ourselves talking about what we were going to do when we got “home.” Ali snagged pictures of the first road sign pointing the way as well as the “Welcome to Wilmington” sign when we reached the end of I-40 and landed in paradise.


We made a few stops before we even got to our hotel, including a visit to “Tree Hill High” (Cape Fear Community College) and the infamous “Clothes Over Bros.”  Naturally, we were also eager to get downtown and explore.

We stayed at the Riverfront Hilton and got a great group rate as part of the One Tree Hill Fan Reunion.  We even got a free upgrade to a river view room, affording us a bird’s eye view of the river, the battleship across Cape Fear, and even our beloved River Court in Battleship Park.  Since I’m a tremendous nerd, I noticed that we were staying in Room 409 – which just so happens to be my favorite episode of One Tree Hill (4.09, “Some You Give Away”).

We had to make a trip back to the car to finish bringing in our suitcases and our cooler, which I quickly discovered was much too heavy for me to carry.  We were faced with either having to carry our water bottles upstairs one handful at a time, or getting some help, so when I spotted a capable-looking fellow across the parking lot, my instincts took over and I yelled, “Hey!  Big Strong Man!”  Luckily for us, he answered my cry for help and carried our cooler inside for us.  He was a real trooper, especially when he realized that our cooler really was THAT heavy and we weren’t just being dainty.

Aside from the chivalrous guests and glorious views, the best part of our hotel was its proximity to downtown and the River Walk.

As we walked around downtown, Ali spotted Bethany Joy Galeotti and Lisa Goldstein walking with a group of girls on Front Street.  We were all taken by surprise and didn’t want to interrupt them on their way.  I am typically a little quicker on my feet and not remotely shy, but seeing Joy – who is awesome, if you didn’t know – was a bit much for even me.

We met up with our reunion group for a quick meeting and then we went out walking around again after dark.  This time, eagle-eye Ali spotted Lindsey McKeon on Market Street, and we stopped and talked to her for a while and took pictures.  Lindsey is much sweeter than her alter-ego, Taylor James, but I rather enjoy all of One Tree Hill’s scandalous characters.

Sunday morning, we got up bright and early to go to church (Port City Community Church) with Katie’s aunt and cousins.  After church, we had breakfast and then parted company, as Katie went to spend some time with her family, and Ali and I went to tour the studio.

After our tour, Ali and I joined Katie and her family at the pool for the afternoon.  Then, we went back to our hotel pool, where two handsome gentlemen – James Lafferty and Stephen Colletti – were waiting for us.  (Either that, or they were just coincidentally swimming there, but I like the other theory much better.)  They were both nice enough to let us get pictures and grin like fools in their general direction.  We initially took pictures standing between them, but my picture didn’t take, so I got a do-over wherein James took a picture of me and Stephen, and Stephen took the picture of me and James.  Later, we saw Kate Voegele by the pool when we were on our way out to dinner.  She was also delightful and happy to chat with us.

Ali’s picture turned out perfectly, so I’m giving it lots of pixel space here:

Monday was the day of our official Reunion tour, so we piled into a 15-passenger van with our fellow fans for a day of sight-seeing.

Going off of our tip from the day before, we started our day by heading to the Batting Cages to watch Austin Nichols and Jackson Brundage do some filming for episode 8.02.  Joe Davola (Executive Producer) was on hand, directing the episode.  You can see him in the blue shirt talking to the crew in one of the pictures below.

We watched filming for about an hour in the hot, hot heat.  (And for the record, everything that took place this week happened in the HOT, HOT HEAT.)  From filming, we proceeded to Screen Gems Studios for our private group tour.

We toured Stages 7 and 8, which include the downstairs of Nathan and Haley’s house (Stage 7), the upstairs of their house (Stage 8), and Mouth and Skills’ apartment (Stage 8).  Because we were a small group on a private tour, the guides opened up the porch area of Nathan and Haley’s house and let us walk out to the pool.  I had seen the downstairs of the house many times (and loved it each time as it is a magnificent set), but getting to see the pool, porch, and sun room was a really cool experience.   It was also my first time touring Stage 8, so I got to see Nathan and Haley’s bedroom, bathroom, guest room, and Jamie’s room.  Mouth and Skills’ apartment was also cool to see.  I noticed a lot of picayune details in their bachelor pad that I’ve never noticed on screen.

After our tour, we had lunch, and drove around to several key One Tree Hill locations.  I covered most of these locations in my first Wilmington blog, so I don’t want to be redundant here.  However, we did visit some locations I had not seen before, so I’ll cover those for you.

The most exciting spot for me was the practical location of Nathan and Haley’s new house.  Considering that the sets for their house take up two sound stages, it comes as no surprise that the house itself is massive and beautiful.  The owner was home and was delighted to let us all look around and take pictures.  The sets in the studio are near-perfect reproductions of the house itself:

The backyard extends down to the river, and the chairs in the yard and the dock have been featured in several scenes, as you can see below:

Of course, we had to make a stop at the River Court, and since I’d been there many times before, I took the opportunity to admire the view from the court across the river, looking at downtown Wilmington:

Greenfield Lake was also on our docket, and I’d been there before, too, but this time, I ran into a bit more wildlife, including a duck that waddled out of the woods and startled one of the girls, and a scary lot of alligators swimming in the lake below the bridge:

One of the newest practical locations is for Focus, Quinn’s photo gallery.  The show uses the empty Roudabush building for those scenes:

Grace United Methodist Church was on our touring list, so I suggested calling ahead to see if they would allow us to come inside and see the sanctuary.  The staff was very obliging, so we got to take some pictures inside the beautiful church.

After a successful day of touring, we concluded our evening with dinner at Hell’s Kitchen.  Named for it’s usage on Dawson’s Creek, it also appeared as The Swinging Donkey in Season 2 of One Tree Hill:

After dinner, Katie, Ali, and I walked back toward the hotel and ran into Stephen Colletti again, down on the River Walk:

Tuesday morning, we set out to tour Airlie Gardens before the heat became too stifling (95 degrees is preferable to 115, after all).  When we picked up our map at the Visitor’s Center, we were told that the One Tree Hill crew was working at the Pergola, staging for a scene to be shot the following day.  The staging guys told us that Clay and Quinn would be walking along this path, and they were adding fake flowers to make it even more beautiful:

The Pergola was definitely the place to be, because in addition to the crew guys and us, we were visited by several swans who were hanging out on the steps:

The past few times I’d been to Airlie Gardens, they were constructing a new butterfly sanctuary, so that area of the park was always closed.  On this trip, though, construction had been completed and we were able to walk through the butterfly house:

When we left Airlie, we headed back downtown to catch filming at TRIC.  We camped out with other fans across the street from base camp and waved to the actors as they went between the trailers and set:

While on a break from filming, several of the actors came over to see us and take pictures.  They were happy to hang around signing autographs and taking pictures until every person had gotten a chance.

Tuesday night, we went to dinner and then walked around Independence Mall before calling it an early night and heading back to the hotel.  I was in desperate need of some sleep, so Katie and Ali went for a late night swim and let me get some extra rest.

Working on a full night of sleep, we all set out Wednesday morning for a late breakfast at the best place in town – The Dixie Grill.

There, we ran into Jamie, who was part of our tour group, and he was happy to share his pictures with us.  He had taken a picture with Jackson at TRIC the previous morning, and then ran into Sophia Bush when she was walking downtown.  He was the only member of our group who met her on the trip, and we were delighted for him.  He emailed me his pictures so I could share them here as well:

After breakfast, we walked around downtown, enjoying the River Walk again, stopping by St. James Church and Day School, and ducking into a fountain garden tucked away in the courtyard of a bank on Market Street.

The doors were open at St. James, so we were able to take a look inside there as well:

After cooling off back at the hotel, we ventured out again to Hugh McRae Park, where we heard there was filming at the baseball field.  When we arrived, we ran into some other fans, and together we watched Stephen, Kate, and Jackson film a scene together.  Austin Nichols was hanging around as well, but wasn’t filming while we were there.  He did, however, come over to talk to us and take pictures!

After leaving the baseball field, we walked around the rest of the park for a bit and then decided to get some relief from the heat by checking out The Fuzzy Peach, which was recommended to us on Twitter by Jeff Hidek of Wilmington’s Star News.  The Fuzzy Peach is a pay-by-the-ounce yogurt bar, and it was delicious.  This was our first stop here, but not our last!

Wednesday night, we decided to go out to Fort Fisher Beach (my favorite beach ever!) and have a picnic as the sun was setting.  We stopped at McAllister’s Deli on our way to get sandwiches to eat, and made our way down the coastline.

We made a quick pit stop to see Brooke’s beach house, as Ali had not been there before:

When we left Brooke’s place, we were mere minutes from Fort Fisher.  We easily found a close parking place, gathered our food and blankets, and walked down to the beach.  The sun was setting over the trees, making for some gorgeous colors in the sky.  As always, Fort Fisher was pretty quiet, but we did run into some locals who were out walking their dog, and they pointed out some dolphins that were playing in the water about halfway out to the horizon.  They were friendly and were happy to chat with us about Wilmington and One Tree Hill, and then they volunteered to take a group shot for us.

Thursday was our last full day in Wilmington, and while we contemplated what we wanted to do, a storm rolled in over the river.  With rain drenching downtown, we loaded into the car and drove up the coast towards Topsail Beach, about 45 minutes north of Wilmington.  We heard there might be filming at Clay’s Beach house, and we figured we had nothing to lose since we couldn’t do much else with the rain.

We finally found the beach house, far out on the inlet, found a place to park, and walked back up the road before going onto the deserted beach.  Filming had been rained out, but the skies were just clearing, so we were able to walk along the beach and take some pictures.

We debated about whether they also used the house as a practical location for indoor filming, and after coming home and rewatching Season 7 scenes in Clay’s beach house, the presence of ceilings, waves in the background, and the sheer size of the house itself, I am now convinced that this beach house is used for both interior and exterior shots:

Still chipper from our beach adventure, we had a little sing-a-long in the car on the way back.  My trip playlist included the Doktor Kosmos song “Holiday,” which was used to great (hilarious) effect on One Tree Hill.  Ali caught me singing and gettin’ down on video, and we enjoyed many laughs about it in the hotel that night, while watching the clip of One Tree Hill that inspired it and the (HOLY CRAP CAN YOU BELIEVE THERE IS ACTUALLY A) music video of Doktor Kosmos singing his song.

The day was still a bit dreary when we arrived back in Wilmington, so we seized the opportunity to drive around to some of the locations we had missed.

While we were out, Ali took my picture from the balcony of Nathan and Haley’s apartment building:

We also went to see the pilot house – which served as Lucas and Karen’s place in the first episode.  After it was filmed, the owners declined to sign the permanent contract, so the show went with their second choice house.  I am pleased with the house they ended up with, but it was neat to see the one from the pilot episode as well.  The current owner was less than thrilled, however, as she ran out of the house to make sure we were not location scouts hoping to use her house for a TV show or movie.  I assured her that we were not – we merely wanted to take a picture of the house.  I am not sure what about us looked like we were filmmakers of any kind, but she was satisfied with our answer and we went on our way.

I drove really slowly so Ali could get pictures of the consecutive streets signs on Market that read “Clay Street” and “Evans Street,” respectively.  One might assume that is where Mark Schwahn got the name for Nathan’s sports agent, Clay Evans.

When we got back to the hotel, we decided to walk back downtown to the Reel Café for dinner.  Reel Café doubled as Carl’s Crab Shack on One Tree Hill and apparently made quite a few appearances on Dawson’s Creek as well.  Their food was delicious, so we enjoyed a big dinner and walked around downtown until we made room for some delicious Kilwin’s ice cream.  I am not sure how we made it all the way to Thursday before we stopped into Kilwin’s.  It’s a Wilmington staple!

Our walk back afforded more beautiful views of the River Walk as the sun faded away:

We decided to go for a late night swim, and before jumping in the water, I took this picture of the sunset from our hotel’s pool area:

Friday morning, we slept in and then packed up to check out.  Our week was nearly over.  With the suitcases back in the car (and a cooler that was a manageable weight by week’s end), we made our last stops before driving out of town.

Katie wanted to get some pictures of the “Psycho Derek Bridge,” which we drove over nearly every day while we were in town:

We also rode out a little way to go see Roy’s Bait and Tackle, where Q was shot in Season 6.  The man himself was manning the counter when we went inside to get some snacks (and take a look around), and he was delighted to see us and ready to tell his story about the night that One Tree Hill came to film at his store.

We had to go by the River Court one more time before we left, too:

We stopped to fill up the tank before leaving town, and who should we see there filling up as well?  James Lafferty!  We didn’t say hello this time, of course, but it was still a bit of a thrill to see him again, if only from afar.

I sprang one last quick stop on Katie and Ali, stopping at the Fifth Street Bridge, which turned out to be a great place to photograph the Sixth Street Bridge made famous by One Tree Hill’s opening credits:

After leaving Wilmington, we drove out to the middle of nowhere to get to the site of the bridge accident in episode 3.22.  From there, we made another stop at The Cheesecake Factory (it was National Cheesecake Day, for goodness’ sake!), and then drove into Greensboro for a show that night at a venue called Greene Street.

One of Ali’s favorite bands, Jonas Sees in Color, was playing a homecoming show Friday night, so Katie and I tagged along.  The opening bands were a little too much to handle, so we left Ali to hang out with her friends and Katie and I went and explored the Four Seasons Mall.  You know me and malls, so when I say I “explored” the mall, I really mean that I said, “Oooh, look!  A day spa!  I think I’ll get a pedicure.”

We returned to the venue before Jonas Sees in Color took the stage, and through a wrong turn up the stairs, Katie and I ended up on the roof of the building, looking out on the city.  Greene Street also has a rooftop bar/club, but it was still early enough that it was a peaceful place to hang out and pass the time.

We went downstairs to the balcony level at showtime, while Ali watched from the crowd below.  I took a few pictures for her:

After the show, we made a late night stop through the Cookout drive thru and started making our way back home in the wee hours of Saturday morning after our week-long adventure.

*****

The following Friday (yes, less than a week after my return home), my office-mate and friend Kelli announced that she was ready for a weekend getaway and wanted to go to Wilmington.  That coincided with a Hope4Hannah fundraiser that James Lafferty was doing, so I decided at the last minute to tag along with Kelli and head back to Wilmington yet again.  On my way out of town, I saw this bus and knew it must be fate:

She was already in Raleigh, so I drove down late Friday afternoon, arriving in time to join her for dinner and go see her cousin’s art opening downtown.  After the opening, we got on the road to Wilmington.

We rolled into town around 10pm, and The Fuzzy Peach was our first stop.  Kelli loved it as much as I thought she would, and after that, we checked into our hotel to get some rest.

Saturday morning, we drove downtown to get breakfast at The Dixie Grill.  There was a 45-minute wait (it’s worth it), so we used the extra time to walk down by the river where a farmer’s market was set up in the street.  I snapped a photo of some musicians who were entertaining the fruit and veggie vendors from their spot on the River Walk:

After a delicious breakfast, we headed down the coast to go to the beach.  Traffic was heavy, since it was a Saturday in August, but we continued driving south towards Fort Fisher.  Traffic continued to thin all the way down the coast, and when we arrived at Fort Fisher, it wasn’t crowded at all.  (One of the many reasons I love that particular beach.)  We sprawled out in the sand and enjoyed the peace and quiet for a while.

Kelli decided to go out into the water, and when she came back, she said she had been viciously attacked by a metal beach chair that came hurling at her in a wave.  We got her cut cleaned up and headed back toward the hotel.

There was still sunlight left, so we traded in the beach for the pool:

I looked online to choose a spot downtown for dinner, and saw that the Front Street Brewery was conveniently located and had rave reviews.  We discovered there was a wait there as well, so we walked down the street and back with our buzzer in hand and I took some pictures, including one of our dinner destination:

The food at Front Street Brewery was amazing!  We both loved everything that we ate.  Kelli got the ribs, and I am not a ribs-eater, but I could see that the meat was so tender, it was falling off the bones.  My chicken was also perfectly seasoned and grilled.  The food was so good we contemplated whether we might be hungry again before they closed for the night!

After dinner, it was right at time for the charity event to kick off at The Calico Room, which was on Front Street on the opposite side of Market.  To my surprise, we were some of the first to arrive, which meant we were able to snag a place at the bar.

James Lafferty was on hand as the “celebrity bartender” for the event, and he had actually practiced making some drinks the night before.  However, you can’t learn to be a bartender in a day, but he made an admirable effort and handed out a lot of ice waters – many of them to me!  At one point, he also made me a Diet Coke, and if you know much about me, you know that is a perfect combination of two of God’s best creations.

We had a great time at the event and made some new friends throughout the evening.

I also got another picture with James.  This time, we’re both wearing clothes (hurray!) and we’re not squinting into the sun.  Nothing against my poolside pic from the week before, of course, but this one does seem a bit more appropriate:

Later in the evening, Austin Nichols showed up, and I got a picture with him as well:

We left sometime around midnight to head back to the hotel, hugging everyone goodbye and promising to come back to visit – which I will, next time I’m in town.

Sunday morning, we slept until it was almost checkout time, and then headed out to get breakfast at Whitey’s, which we heard was going to be torn down to build a Walgreen’s before year’s end.

After breakfast (and it was pretty much lunchtime), we drove back downtown to stop in at Kilwin’s (because I had promised to bring Katie back some fudge), and then we headed home.  It was a quick trip, but it was definitely a memorable one!

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Aug
19
2009

It’s Only Gonna Make You Love Me More

Monday was my birthday.  Sorry if you missed the momentous occasion!

I have become known for going over the top with my birthday celebrations, but you only go ‘round once, after all, and my birthday is the one day during the year when I can legitimately expect the world to revolve around me.  My wonderful friends are great about indulging me during this time of the year, and since August is the only month without a significant national holiday, everyone needs a good reason to celebrate, right?

I’m not even really finished celebrating yet (there are only so many hours in the day), but so far I have enjoyed an evening at the spa (Jessica’s gift to me), a short visit to Richmond to see Tracey and Adam (who took me to the Cheesecake Factory!), a lunch with my two best friends, a party at my apartment, and a full day of wearing a plastic “Happy Birthday” tiara, which secured many hallway greetings from friends and strangers alike!

Most notably, this year’s celebration included a very special birthday trip to Wilmington, NC.  The trip was Kelli’s idea and then our pretty fantastic bosses helped bring it to fruition the first weekend in August.

Wilmington is a beautiful place for anyone to visit, but our trip had an extra incentive.  Wilmington is the home of Screen Gems studios, where over 500 movies have been filmed, in addition to several TV shows like Dawson’s Creek, and – most importantly! – One Tree Hill.

The following recaps some of the places we saw on the trip, paired with screencaps from the show for reference.  You can probably tell the difference between pictures I took and the screencaps, because — well — there aren’t any people in the pictures that I took, aside from a few appearances by Kelli and myself.

(I guess this is where I should say *spoiler alert* — I mean, I didn’t give away the whole plot or anything, but spoiler-free purists should probably beware.)

We drove down armed with a long list of locations to visit, not the least of which included a tour of the studio itself.  While we waited for the tour to begin, we entertained ourselves by looking around the building, where we saw the Tree Hill Police car, and took photos in front of the One Tree Hill sign.

The tour itself was fun and informative.  Photos were not allowed inside the sets (a rule from the CW), and they were “hot” sets (i.e. already prepared for filming), so we were told not to touch anything.  We toured three sets, starting with Lucas’ house (Peyton’s Comet was parked outside), then moving on to the TRIC Office set (which is not inside the physical location of TRIC in downtown Wilmington), and ultimately to Brooke’s house set, which Kelli and I were both ready to move into because it is so beautiful.  Since we couldn’t do pictures, I just put together screen caps so you can get the general idea:

It was great to see a set that’s been in use since season one.  And yes, the bullet hole is there.  I checked.

The TRIC office set was really awesome.  The art department for One Tree Hill is no joke.  Even up close, the brick and the steel beams in the ceiling looked very real, when in fact, they’re all made of wood, allowing them to take down or set up the ENTIRE set in 20 minutes or less.  I loved the stained glass behind Peyton’s desk, and her albums on the wall.  There were also CDs sitting everywhere on set, just as you’d expect.  It struck me how small Peyton’s desk looked compared to how it appears on screen.  It’s amazing what camera angles can do!  The piano and sound board in the studio are the real deal, though.

Brooke’s house was a beautiful set!  Once again, the art department gets kudos for making wood look like marble in Brooke’s kitchen.  We were able to see the living room (very small!), both bedrooms, the bathroom, and the kitchen.  (The stairs, as you might guess, don’t actually go anywhere.)  Our tour guide opened up Brooke’s fridge and cabinets to show us the contents.  She explained the types of product placement – one is contractual (Sunkist, anyone?), and the other is simply from companies who send a box of peanut butter, etc., hoping they’ll use it to dress the sets.  Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t.

The rest of our time in Wilmington was spent driving around to various other filming locations to snap photos of familiar and iconic places.  Perhaps the most emblematic of them all is the River Court.  Season one started on the River Court and barely an episode has passed over the years that has not featured it in some way.  For my part, anytime Lucas and Nathan face off on the River Court – as friends or foes – is a great moment in my book.

The names from the season 4 finale have completed faded away, but I could still see the faint outline of The Cure lyrics that Peyton painted across the court in season 5:

Here’s Kelli on the River Court bleachers:

The basketball posts and the light poles on both sides of the court were filled with messages from fans all over the world.  They were all fairly recent, so I imagine they are painted over often for filming purposes.  I took some photos, but did not have a marker on me to contribute!  I’ll just throw my lot in with the “Always and Forever” folks.

On the opposite side of the river is the downtown River Walk, which has also been featured many times and is a staple of the show as well as the town of Wilmington.

My greatest interest in the River Walk were these little tables!  I think it’s safe to say that this scene, in the third episode of season 1 (“Are You True?”), is the episode that hooked me on One Tree Hill, and the beginning of the story that has kept me coming back through six seasons.  (Always and forever, indeed.)

We also saw several of the houses that have been used for exterior shots on the show.  Most of them are privately owned, so we did not want to get too close or linger too long.  Even so, I got a few pictures, and a few of the houses were for sale and vacant, so I got a closer look at those.

Peyton’s House

I think more trauma has gone down in this house than in any other Tree Hill location.  Poor Peyton.

The Scott House

I couldn’t get a view of the basketball hoop, but I’m sure it’s back there!

Naley’s House

This is one of the ones that was for sale!  Conveniently also one that I most wanted to see.

Lucas and Karen’s House

Lots of weighty conversations have taken place on that porch.

Jake’s Savannah House  (not actually in Savannah, obviously)

Haley’s House

I should have stayed there.  Perhaps James Lafferty would have eventually shown up and kissed me.  (Heh.)

Brooke’s House  (Felix and Anna’s house was, in fact, next door.)

“The girl behind the red door.”

Whitey’s House

I *love* Whitey and the sage wisdom (and crotchety old man attitude) that he brings to the show.  A lot of great advice has been dispensed from a rocking chair on his porch.

Naley’s Apartment Building

We didn’t see much of the outside of Nathan and Haley’s apartment, but this is it:

The community college in Wilmington doubles as Tree Hill High School, and here is the courtyard and walkways often featured on the show.

Who doesn’t love Keith Scott’s Body Shop?

Dan and Carrie faced off here – and Dan won.  Because he is awesome with a side of evil.

Kelli and I actually stopped in this diner for lunch and only realized later that it, too, has been used on the show.  Samantha and Jack frequented this diner in season 6, and Kelli and I sat right about where Peyton and Julian are sitting in the picture below.  I would like to think that Kelli was sitting there in Julian’s spot.  I know she’d like that.  (And for the record, we shared a ham sandwich, and it was gooood.)

This church and day school combo served as the same on the show.  Keith had a bit of a rough day here in season 2 (as did Nathan, and Jules, and Lucas, and Karen, and wellll…everybody else besides Dan), and then in season 5, Jamie went to school here.

Some emotional conversations (of the one-sided and two-sided variety) have happened in this cemetery.  The grave markers used on the show are not permanent fixtures – they are only set up as needed for filming. 

I think we all remember what happened at this mall.  But I try to focus on the Pretzel Stand aspect, myself.

Remember the boy draft dates?  Mouth and Peyton had a wild night here with Mouth’s grandpa.

I think this was one of Kelli’s favorite stops, seeing as it was home base to her all-time favorite Tree Hill resident, the infamous Chris Keller (aka Tyler Hilton).  It’s also the Record Shop where show creator Mark Schwahn put in some guest appearances over the years.  Since Tyler didn’t really make any of these photos, I made a little something just for Kelli that I’ll thrown in right here, too.

This church was the location used for most of One Tree Hill’s memorable 100th episode.  I don’t think this was anybody’s favorite day either – except for maybe the fans!  This episode is one of my favorites.

“You should have your mail forwarded here.  Did they give you the same cell as last time?”   “I don’t know.  They redecorated.”   Ah, the Tree Hill Police Station.

 This was on our location list, but we hadn’t planned to go see EVERYTHING, and this was kind of in the “insignificant places” category.  That is, until we realized that it was right next to our hotel!  They tried to make Deb go to rehab, and she said no, no, no… and tried to escape.

This show-owned store in downtown Wilmington has also been a part of One Tree Hill since season 1.  Back then, it was Karen’s Café, and now, it’s the store-front of Brooke’s Clothes Over Bros store.  (The “Jammin’ Java” across the street served as Karen’s Café in the pilot episode.) 

This is the bridge from the show’s title sequence in seasons 1-4.  It’s also been used for other scenes in the show, as seen below.

TRIC is another show-owned building in downtown Wilmington.  This warehouse has seen a lot of great acts come through Tree Hill!  The Wreckers, Jimmy Eat World, The Honorary Title, Fall Out Boy, and so on.  Apparently we’re in for another live performance in the early episodes of season 7!

While we were doing our One Tree Hill tour, we covered a lot of tourist attractions by default, and were led to a few other pretty places that the average tourist may have missed.

For one, the Hugh McRae Park probably isn’t high on the tourism list, but it was a beautiful area.  The ducks were very excited to see us, and followed Kelli around the park until they realized she didn’t have any food for them.  This park has been used a few times on the show.  Dan and Keith took a stroll down memory lane that did not end very well in Season 3, and Peyton and Skills had a heart-to-heart in this park before Jamie’s 5th birthday party.

The Airlie Gardens are in Wilmington, and they’ve played host to quite a few TV shows and films because their grounds are beautiful.  Kelli took a liking to this bottle statue at the beginning of our path:

We walked for a while through a series of beautiful trees and then found our primary destination – the Pergola.  The grassy area, walkway, and fountain constituted part of Andy’s yard in Season 2 of One Tree Hill, and Karen and Andy watched the meteor shower at the edge of the water.  This scene should also be familiar to fans of Dawson’s Creek.

As we circled around the rest of the gardens (I think it was about a mile walk, if memory serves), we spotted this view that looked distinctly like part of “Dawson’s Creek” –

We drove down the coastline, headed to Fort Fisher beach, and encountered a major thunderstorm.  The rain was pouring down, and we were losing hope of actually getting to see the location down on the beach.  But, about 2 minutes before we reached our destination, we drove out of the rain into a beautiful day!  We found some public parking and a public access area to get to the beach.  When we walked out onto the beach, we were looking for a very specific spot.  Eagle Eye Kelli looked down the beach to our right and said “Over there!”  We walked down the beach and climbed up the rocks to take some pictures of this beautiful wedding location.  For my part, I loved seeing the woods, next to the rocks, next to the sand, next to the beach.  Usually I find beach photographs a little one-note and boring, but I can definitely see why the location scouts chose this area for filming.  It was truly magnificent, and Kelli and I got in a nice stroll along the beach in the process!

We drove back through more rain and had lunch at a great little restaurant (what was it called, Kelli?) while another storm passed over Wilmington.  The rapid weather changes created some beautiful effects in the sky.  Pictures never do justice to that kind of thing, but here’s one through-the-windshield shot that attempts to capture the moment:

Another Tree Hill wedding took place at Greenfield Lake, which spans a huge area in Wilmington.  We were fortunate enough to happen upon the right spot without too much driving around – I credit my eagle-eyed companion once again, who spotted the bridge we were looking for over the water.

We had to get adventurous going out to Orton Plantation.  The heavy rains from earlier in the day had us four-wheeling through the mud and gravel road leading up to the plantation.  Running along one side of that road was a creek full of alligators.  I refused to glance to the side, but Kelli inadvertently saw quite a few of them poking their heads up.  Fortunately, we saw them on our way OUT of the plantation – otherwise, we might never have gotten out of the car.

The lady in the visitor’s center/ticket office gave us a brief rundown of the plantation, and provided us with a list (several pages long) that talked about various movies and TV shows that had used the plantation for filming.  The listing for One Tree Hill, unfortunately, was not entirely accurate, but it did point us to the house where they filmed the interior shots of the beach house when “MURDERER” was written on the wall:

We also saw (and were able to go inside) the chapel used in “A Walk to Remember” – Kelli and I both loved that movie back in the day.

The lady in the visitor’s center provided us with bug spray, but it either did nothing to actually deter the bugs, or there were just a freaking LOT of mosquitoes and such hanging around.  For that reason, we cut our tour a bit short, but we were able to get the general idea.  I even climbed up in the “tree house,” and you can see Kelli peering up at me from the path below:

I had to go home and re-watch the DVDs (amazing, I know) to figure out the exact location of the wedding ceremony.  Turns out, they did the ceremony on the private lawn of the Orton Plantation house.  There is an elderly gentleman who actually lives in the house, so while we were welcome to photograph the house from the gardens, we did not go onto the lawn.  The wedding reception – I was surprised to learn – was actually filmed on the plantation as well, in a huge white tent on the lawn beside the chapel.  I had assumed it was done inside the studio somewhere.  I know from some of my actor friends that they generally hate filming weddings, because everyone has to be there alllll day long, so everyone can film their pieces and still be a part of the congregation.  I imagine that could have gotten fairly miserable for everyone if they were filming on a hot day!

When it was time to pack up and head back home, we had one stop to make about an hour north of Wilmington.  I am guessing most folks skip this location, since it’s so far out of the way, but I was intent on seeing it and Kelli obliged me.  Fortunately, it probably only added about 30 minutes to our trip.  It was well worth it for me, because this bridge from Ep. 322 (“The Show Must Go On”) was part of the most climactic season finale in the show’s history.  I loved that entire episode, and while Haley was standing on the bridge screaming, I was standing in my living room screaming.  Plus, Led Zeppelin was playing, and it really doesn’t get much better than that.  (And yes, we definitely listened to “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” as we were driving up.)

I can’t remember the details of all my birthdays through the years, but much like I remember spending my 25th birthday in Hollywood, I’ll always remember 28 as the birthday I went to Wilmington.  And for the record – Wilmington was way better.

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