Julie Brown

* The actress and comedian stars in the Comedy Central series “Strip Mall,” Sundays at 10:30 p.m.

World Travel: I have a 6-year-old boy, so my mom gives my husband and me a date on the weekends while she baby-sits. That’s a big deal for us. We don’t get to go on vacations very often, so we have different places we like to go to pretend we’re in Italy or France. At the tea room at the Huntington Gardens, for instance, they bring you little teas and sandwiches with the crust cut off. You’re surrounded by the rose garden. It’s incredibly fun and I can pretend I’m Madonna living in England.

European Valley: There’s also a place called Rosti in Encino. It doesn’t look anything like Italy, but the food is really good Italian. They have big wooden peasant tables. I haven’t actually been to Italy, but I imagine that they all have those tables. And if you were going to “France,” there’s the Bistro Garden in Studio City. It’s really pretty. They play classical music and sometimes there’s an actual pianist.

Beached by L.A.: If we actually want to exercise, we go bike riding near Hermosa Beach. You can’t escape the fact that you’re near L.A. I’ve seen a whole gang get arrested there. Then, there’s the girls in bikinis roller-skating. There’s the guys who built contraptions around their bikes, so it looks like they’re biking in outer space. It’s totally L.A. and really fun.

Lego Habit: Every weekend--this is really bad parenting--we used to buy my son a new Lego set. We would go to Buddy Brown’s Toy Store on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, but they’re closing it. It’s heartbreaking. Now my only choice is Toys R Us, which is like going to hell. He’s also been bugging us to go to Legoland.

Park It: Off Moorpark Street near Beeman Avenue is the greatest neighborhood park. I’ve been taking my son there since he was a baby, and I’ve been watching the other kids grow up. That’s a really great thing. He’s going to start soccer there. It’s got that weird Norman Rockwell feeling.