Gilmore Girls became a big part of my life while I was in high school. I was a little late to the game in watching it as I only remember seeing the episodes on the DVDs. It was my dad that got my mom, sister, grandma, and myself into watching the show. After watching it twice, it became a comfort show. Something to watch that was familiar and helped me when I had anxiety or didn’t know what to watch.

Turns out the WB Studios out in Burbank put on an event for the second year in a row centering around Gilmore Girls. You get to visit the sets of Stars Hallow and fully immerse yourself. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to meet some of the actors who walk around and visit the sets during this time. 

I was excited when my mom said we’d be getting tickets and this was before she had surgery and unfortunately wasn’t able to go. When the day arrived it was myself, my sister and her daughter, my sister’s friend, and my brother’s oldest daughter. We were excited to be able to walk around

After being dropped off, the first thing you encounter is the line to get to Lorelai’s house. Following the cue takes you around the front where the Jeep is parked out front and you get an opportunity to get your photo on the outside of the house. Upon entering, the layout will look differently than how the show was. Turns out, the exterior is Lorelai’s house, but the interior is where they did the shots for Sookie’s house. Confused? Well, on the backside of her house, is actually the exterior for Sookie’s house. The interior for Lorelai’s house was actually on a sound stage. 

After the Star Hollow Gilmore residence, following the street around will bring to to exterior building that were stand-ins for The Independence Inn, the Dragon Fly in, Mrs. Kim’s Antiques, and the Red, White, and Black Theater. As you get further down the street, you encounter the town center and gazebo. The first place we went to after the house was to Luke’s Diner for coffee and to get a look inside. We got lucky as Scott Patterson happened to be there that day dressed as Luke Danes and getting photos with the fans. 

Luke’s diner is great and a bit smaller than it appears on camera. The coffee is good too. From there, we were ushered through a back hallway that let out into Taylor’s Olde Fashioned Soda Shoppe and it also had another open archway that connected with the Al’s Pancake World restaurant they created for the event. Our next stop led us into Dosie’s Market where they had cute little souvenirs like a tin that looked like the box of cornstarch Rori stole after her first kiss with Dean or a tiny Dosie’s shopping basket (the hand held, not a cart) or even a canvas shopping bag. There was also the beauty store where pajamas were available, the book store, and even Westin’s Bakery had some goodies for sale too. The main store to get souvenirs was the Mercantile. It had so many items and I ended up getting a Luke’s Diner sweatshirt that says ‘I need coffee in an IV’ there. 

There were a variety of activities available to do. They had cookie decorating at Sookie’s house, a town hall meeting at Miss Patty’s Dance Studio, a tour through the infamous dining room at the Gilmore’s house in Hartford, and finally trivia. 

We did several rounds of trivia while we were there throughout the day. What was great was the tidbits of knowledge they shared about the house the trivia was in, the Red, White, and Black theater. This wasn’t the only place that set was used for. Depending on what part of the house you entered from it would look familiar. The set was used for April’s house and Jess’ bookstore when they had the opening night. The best part of the night was winning the last round of trivia! We received a special edition ornament that was not available anywhere else. It was beautiful, but I ended up giving it to my mom so she had a little something since she wasn’t able to make it.

The big event of the evening was the tree lighting. Mrs. Kim was there to give a beautiful speech to the fans before starting the count down to the tree lighting. It really felt like being in Star Hallow at Christmas time, especially with the light show that accompanied the tree lighting. The grand finale of the night (at this point it was just me and my nieces) was a light show where they played the full length of the theme song while projections on the building showed various scenes from the show.

I do hope they’ll do it next year and we’ll all go again if they do. 

So, if you are a fellow Gilmore Girls fan, keep an eye out to see if this event will happen next year. I highly recommend going. Until next time, safe exploring everyone!