alaidh , who not only has a great memory and a great eye for locations that have been in SPN episodes, but a great deal of patience for me, who was all, "I don't know what I want to see...just show me something!" Because I know some of you are going to Vancouver next week, for which I am insanely jealous, here's some shots of the places we saw (one point per place you recognize before reading the caption):
"Oh mama, I'm in fear for my life from the long arm of the law..."
Of course, I was geeking out because there was a historical sign about how this was the oldest parking garage in North America, and it's built over a street, which is highly unusual. But the OMG Nightshifters moment was cool, too. The roof of the same garage is where the angel died at the beginning of "The Rapture", but I didn't get a pic of that.
Just down the street is this:
This is one of the few I recognized on sight: it's from early in "Sympathy for the Devil," when Sam is leaving the hotel and walking up this incline. In the background, underneath the parking garage, is this:
At the time, what we knew it as was where they filmed the chase scene from "I Robot" that's supposed to be under the El tracks in Chicago. Which makes me think that this is where Dean finds Death in "Two Minutes to Midnight" as well.
So those were all in New Westminster, along with some other sites that I didn't recognize on sight but later kicked myself for not taking pictures of when
alaidh said to. Then we drove to the Watchmen set, which was in the middle of suburbia across from and next to a bunch of strip malls and big box stores, which cracked me up. It was also way cool to see this huge set (behind a chain-link fence) including the fake facades and Chicago El station mock-up. Also, zombies!
Apparently there have been seven eps in total filmed here, but "The End" was the easiest one to spot. Then it was past the studio, which we didn't think would be too exciting because they were out on location that day. But we were driving around back, and lo and behold, what did we see in the parking lot?
I think we both squeed out loud. Then we hopped out and took lots of pictures through the fence. Later,
alaidh figured that it wasn't a 1967 model, but given that it was parked in the studio lot, it has to have something do with the show, right? Right.Then it was off to somewhere I had no trouble recognizing on sight:
Riverview Asylum has appeared in many, many, many TV shows and movies. For us, the exterior was in "Asylum" and "Folsom Prison Blues" (around the back), and the interior was in "In My Time of Dying" and "Yellow Fever".
Plus the other buildings that have been in "On the Head of a Pin" and "Sam, Interrupted."
Then it was on to what turned out to be my favorite spot. We're on the opposite side of the river from New Westminster, able to see the "Nightshifter" parking garage on the other side.
The Bridge of Awkwardness. "So are we cool after you calling me weak and me almost beheading you with a fire axe?" "Uh, yeah, totally cool. No problems here. Nothing that's going to fester until I end up whaling on you and almost strangling you before going to let Lucifer out." "Oh, okay, as long as we're cool." *sigh* Oh, boys.
A short distance behind where I'm standing is the bar from "Sex and Violence," which is on a freaking campground and not in the middle of a little town like you would think. That was one of the coolest things about this trip, seeing how you can have all of these spots right in the middle of the city that look like you're in rural Iowa or something if you get the camera angle just right. These little leftover kinds of spaces fascinate me, and I think it's one of the reasons Vancouver is such a good place to film something that's set all over the U.S., because there's so many of them.
Then it was in the car for a bit of a drive down to OMG IT'S MULDER AND SCULLY!
And it's the house from "Family Remains", but to me it's the X-Files version of the Benders, "Home".
Two more stops on the tour: the first one was a former small amusement park next to the highway:
Sadly, there were no giant pretzels or bar wenches to be seen, but it was still cool. It was also weird to see it in color, LOL. Like the asylum, we could get up to the door and take pictures through the fence or gate across the door, but not actually go inside, so seeing the pictures is actually a clearer view than being there in person, if that makes sense.
Finally, it was off to Steveston to try and find evil!Sam:
We couldn't find exactly where Dean fell in the water, but it was getting dark and there was still a ways for both of us to go to get home. That second picture is funny because I stuck the lens of my camera into a hole in the wall of this building to take a picture of the inside, where possessed!Sam was chasing Dean around in BUABS. So I never actually saw the interior except in this image, LOL.
I know there were more locations in downtown Vancouver that I could have found on my own if I'd had more time, like the church from "Houses of the Holy" or the bank from "Nightshifter", but my friend I was traveling with thought I was weird enough to take a whole day to visit shooting locations, so, oh well, maybe next time. There's a really spiffy map here that I wish I'd gotten around to looking at before I went, and also some incredibly detailed PDF files at that same site with pictures of the scenes in question and maps of the immediate vicinity.
Enjoy!
