Welcome to the OC, Be-yotch!

At long last, the OC tour! Ever since finding the Seeing Stars Guide to the OC website, I have been dying to visit the famous sites from my favorite show! Since Karli wanted to go to Disneyland on Thursday, Jaimi and I dropped her off in Anaheim and conducted our very own OC tour! We had the most fun ever! I think some of what we did may have been grounds for arrest....

Our first stop on the OC tour was the Redondo Beach pier. This is the pier where both the diner and the Bait Shop can be found!



This is the diner where Ryan, Marissa, Summer, and Seth always eat and lament over their love lives. (Funny, that's what Jaimi and I did there too!) It is actually called the Redondo Beach Coffee Shop.






Also on the Redondo Beach pier is the building used for the Bait Shop! We met the CUTEST boys who were conducting an OC tour of their own! How perfect are they? Not only do they love the OC, they are from Spain and play baseball in San Diego. Yum.




Just beyond the Bait Shop is the bench that Marissa always sat on as she stared forlornly out at the sea! Jaimi and I decided to give it a try...very therapeutic.



Sandy's office is also located at the Redondo Beach pier!



After the pier, our next stop was the Harbor School! The Harbor School is actually a Catholic girls' college in Brentwood. We might have had to tell a little white lie to get on to the campus...something about looking for the admissions office? We were a little surprised the security guard didn't question our ages when he took our drivers licenses! The campus is actually incredibly beautiful!! The views of L.A. from the school are some of the most amazing I have ever seen!

Does this look familiar to you?






After the Harbor School, we were bound and determined to find Marissa's house, which is actually located in Malibu. It is right off of PCH in Malibu but it is on a gated road (where Promises rehab facility is located) so we thought we would just pull over and take a picture of the house from PCH.

When we found the gated entrance, we noticed there was a small pedestrian gate which was open! We grabbed the camera and hoofed it up the steep hill towards Marissa's house. There are only five or six houses on the gated road and the house sits at the top of the hill. When we got to top of the hill and the private drive to the house, we realized there wasn't much we could see from that close up. Right then, this guy walked up and started walking right into the house! I asked him if it was the Marissa Cooper house from the OC and he said yes and INVITED US IN!!!!

It was so crazy being in the backyard of such a familiar setting on the OC! The house is the most incredible thing I have ever seen! STUNNING! We walked all through the house and even stopped to recreate the shot of Marissa and Summer laying out by the pool!

The craziest part of the entire experience is that the house is no longer owned by a famous NFL player, it is a part of Promises!! We didn't figure it out until we spotted all of the exit signs throughout the house and a sign on one for the bedroom doors that said "TREATMENT ROOM 40!" Apparently, they now have TWO houses on the street and they shuttle patients back and forth between the two houses. The worst part??? Before we realized where we were, I said to the guy, "Gosh! It's so beautiful here. I'm going to pretend I have an addiction so I can go to Promises down the street!!" Leave it to me.....










After our unbelievable luck at Marissa's house, we decided to try our luck at finding the holy grail of OC locations...the Cohen house! I had read that it also is on a gated road and absolutely impossible to get to BUT we could not be deterred! Jaimi and I scaled a wall in skirts and heels and hiked another hill to get a few pictures! There are only three houses on the road so it was just a little obvious we didn't belong there :)

The Cohen house really is right next door to the house Marissa first lived in with Julie and Jimmy! And how awesome is it that there is a back Range Rover parked in the driveway of the Cohen house?!?! So authentic!




The Cooper's house....


In this picture, you can see the Cooper's house right next to the Cohen's!

The last stop on our OC tour was the lifeguard stand where Marissa went to mope! Jaimi and I tried to solve life's mysteries there too!




That's all we were able to get to in one day! Next on the agenda, the Berkeley house, Summer's house, and the Mermaid Inn :)