Wilsonville, Oregon: Walt Morey Park and heARTs of Wilsonville

My family lived in Wilsonville until I was six and we moved out to Aloha. (The old neighborhood is now Bullwinkle's.)

A lot has changed since then, including a proliferation of parks with some interesting features. I remember one park from when we were there. 

There are also considerably more homes, businesses, and public buildings, so that tracks, but it was mostly the parks we recently visited.

Our first object was viewing heARTs of Wilsonville, where ten fiberglass arts were painted by local artists.

The hearts were introduced in April, then placed in the parks in May. 

They are slated to be on display for at least a year. That phrasing leaves the possibility of longer, but there is always the possibility of them being moved or auction, looking at similar projects other cities have done. 

I appreciated that the hearts were easy to find.

Sometimes the parks were not so easy to find. The map we were using was not to scale, so even though none of the distances were that far, they were farther than the map indicated.

However, once you got to the park, the heart was usually in plain sight, possibly even visible from the road as you approached.

Even with the largest of the parks, Memorial Park, where there were two, the map told us that they were at the tennis courts and the Nature Play Area. 

There was a nice variety of arts and art styles. If flowers were a common theme, there's a certain logic to that when you are walking around parks.

Exploring the heARTs exhibit can also be a good introduction to new parks and neighborhoods.

I didn't know all of this was there.

That also goes for Walt Morey Park, where there were no hearts.

Speaking of a long-ago childhood, Walt Morey was a popular author of books for young readers, generally focused on animals. There are some similarities to Jack London, but writing for a younger audience.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Morey 

His most famous creation was Gentle Ben, a big Alaskan brown bear befriended by a boy.

I read as many of those books as the library had after he visited my school (around 1980). Not only was the 1965 book popular, it inspired a movie, then a television series that ran from 1967 to 1969. Clint Howard played the boy, but Ben's portrayer Bruno has a pretty impressive resume as well:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4184248/?ref_=tt_cst_t_4  

Walt Morey park has the small bust and plaque for Morey, but also a big bear statue, as well as several smaller bears scattered around. I can't really fault the logic. (The library has a statue of Morey.)

The park is part of Morey's Landing, a development built on Morey's property after it was sold by his widow. It seems like a nice neighborhood park, but we were there for the bear.

COVID: This is all outside and there were no situations that were really crowded, though obviously that can change. The weather was nice considering, but it was still February.

Accessibility: This is also pretty good, with smooth paths and nothing too far hidden. Getting right up to Ben would involve going on grass. 

Some of the parks did not have great parking options, but we were not spending a lot of time in any one spot so that did not affect us.

Then, for other park amenities it would just depend.

https://www.wilsonvilleoregon.gov/bc-achc/page/hearts-wilsonville-many-cultures-one-heart 

https://www.wilsonvilleoregon.gov/administration/page/public-art-exhibit-open-may%C2%A0ten-hearts-be-placed-around-wilsonville

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/35069 

Warner Bros. Studio Tour -- Burbank, California

If Funko Pop was a theme park without rides, and Universal was a studio-inspired theme park, Warner Bros. was simply a studio, full of history yet still working and making new art.

It was magnificent.

There are different tours available. We chose the TCM Classic Films tour.

There is a cafe and gift shop that do not require a tour, and there are some cool things to see there.

Once you check in for your tour, it gets much cooler.

The waiting room has a kind of large-scale 3-D map of the studio, including the famous tower. 

All around there are pictures and video clips and some memorabilia, some of which bring back lots of memories.

Then you are brought into another room with an array of snacks and drinks that you can take with you.

We were taken into a small theater for a brief introductory video, and then we were taken to our trams.

The trams are much smaller than the Universal ones, and you get a much more intimate tour.

While there are some videos that you watch while riding, there isn't any memorized patter from the guides. Our tour was divided into two groups. We had some of the same stops, and some different ones.

Our guide knew a lot of stories. I am sure that we only heard some of them, but they were ones that she loved or ones that we asked about or ones that she may have thought of after asking us about our favorite films.

With the TCM tour, there was a lot of focus on older movies. From that we have already watched Baby Face; we should probably watch The Public Enemy as well.

Casablanca also came up, especially in the props warehouse.

It is also a working studio, so we saw some sets of current productions.

This is a facade for Abbott Elementary, with actual interior scenes filmed on sound stages, but printing makes it look real.

Also, many of the areas can be dual-purpose. So the factory area does manufacture materials that are then used in films, but sometimes scenes are filmed there too, for when you need a factory floor.

The commissary has also been used in film, even though it gets used by cast and crew for real food and drinks.

While facades and sound stages is a pretty normal division, a few of the buildings on Brownstone avenue had interior sets as well, and we got to go into one.

There were interesting things before and after the actual tour portion, but just by itself, the tour was amazing.

After that, there were many photo opportunities. These were mostly in the main building, including with sets for The Big Bang Theory. 

For Friends fans, you could get your picture taken not only at Central Perk, but also at the fountain.

There were also opportunities to try recording sounds or learning about special effects, and lots of memorabilia.

My sisters loved the gift store, finding some plush that was often hard to find, including some Hanna-Barbara.

Because we were nearing Halloween, some of the displays focused on some of your scarier movies. 

That's okay; there was lots of DC,   

and lots of old classic movies that I have seen multiple times... 

and even some movies I have seen fairly recently.

Truly, there should be something for everyone.

Highly recommended!  

COVID: I masked inside, but generally not while on the lot outside, based on our groups being small and the cars being open air. I came home healthy so it worked out. The studio page recommends masks but does not require them, aligning with local regulations.

Accessibility: The cars support most wheelchair types and will loan out wheelchairs for the tour as well. ASL interpreters are available and service dogs are welcome, but they would like advance notice for that.  

 There can be more or less walking, so if there are concerns, I recommend calling ahead.

 https://www.wbstudiotour.com/info/special-assistance/

https://www.wbstudiotour.com/