Some people like museums, while other’s like to explore food and drink. My favourite tourist attraction has somehow become fictional movie high schools.
It wasn’t something I particularly chose to be obsessed with. A couple years ago on a road trip through California I came across a name of a town that looked familiar. It’s important to share here that I am quite the movie junkie and even more the IMDB user, so I know the names of a lot of filming locations. This one stood out, so after googling it we made the stop to explore Torrance High School. It was one of the greatest decisions we have ever made. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and She’s All That are just a few of my childhood favourites that used this location as their school. Walking around it was magical, and the pictures we took still make us laugh.
Since then I have driven an hour out of the way to Ojai, CA to walk around Nordhoff High School, home of Easy A. This one took a bit more convincing but my friends eventually loved exploring where some of our favourite scenes were shot.
Third and the most recent school I visited was on my layover in Seattle about a month ago. I was at lunch with a friend when we started talking about different movies that were filmed in the area. She was casually listing titles when she mentioned one that embarrassingly enough made my heart stop a little. 10 things I hate about you was shot in a school in Tacoma, Washington. You know which school I am talking about? The one that looks like Hogwarts that we all dreamed of going to when we first watched this movie. Yup, that one.
I only had a couple hours before my flight was scheduled to depart, but seeing how excited I was about this fictional school my friend decided to take me! It was about 45 minutes to Stadium High School and although we only had minutes to explore, it was worth it. I silently wandered around imagining all the scenes taking place in front of me. Introducing Joseph Gordon Levitt in the quad. Heath Ledger serenading Julia Stiles in the stadium. It was simply magical.
It may sound crazy but as a movie lover these types of attractions are gold. I still love the sightseeing, the museums, the food, the shopping, and all the amazing parts of travelling. But not so secretly, I also love exploring the sets of my favourite high school movies and I’m not afraid to admit it.
Cheers from 30,000 feet
@elzzster