Kids, on this day in history, something amazing happened. 30 years ago today, the greatest movie ever made was released in theaters. That’s right, on July 3, 1985, Back to the Future was introduced to the world.This won’t be a blog post convincing you that I’m right in believing Back to the Future is the greatest movie ever made. If you’ve seen it, I shouldn’t have to convince you. No, this is a post about the time I got to visit a lot of the locations used in the filming of Back to the Future.

In July of 2008, I had the chance to fly out to Los Angeles to visit my friend, Jen. She’s one of those people who knows me fairly well and planned my days in California accordingly. Knowing I love all things BTTF, she decided to drive me around visiting important historic landmarks like Doc Brown’s mansion and the gym used during the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance. I even saw the parking lot where George knocked out Biff with one punch, which we all know was the punch that totally altered history. We drove through the tunnel from the end of Back to the Future Part II where Biff chased Marty down on his hoverboard, which is a lot smaller than they make it look in the film. Ah, the magic of movies.

Did you know that George and Lorraine’s houses in the first movie are, in reality, on the same block? They make you believe they live in completely different neighborhoods. Oh, and you know the Burger King that Marty skateboards by at the start of Back to the Future? It’s still in operation in Burbank. No, we didn’t stop to eat there. Why should we? Marty didn’t eat there.My only disappointment was that we didn’t get to visit the real Hill Valley set. You know, the town square with the clock tower and Lou’s Diner… Sadly, it burned down only days before I was scheduled to make my trip across the country. Jen had planned for us to take the tour at Universal Studios, but the fire damaged too much of that section. I’m not sure if they ever repaired all of that. It’d be a shame if they didn’t.

Seeing those places was kind of awesome. I know there are tons of other things that people could do while visiting LA, but that kind of stuff was pretty much all I needed. So I think I’ll spend this evening watching the classic that turned 30 years old today. You should, too. Totally worth the hour and 56 minutes.P.S. – Hey, Internet… Could you stop coming up with websites claiming to provide some random number of facts that we may not know about Back to the Future? There must be at least 30 of you out there and you all have the same facts. Stop claiming we don’t know something about the movie when it’s information that’s readily available on so many other sites. If you want to impress me, give me some unknown facts about actual time travel.