Californ-i-a
I haven't updated in forever. I know this. I suck.
Last weekend, I went to California with my dad. It was great fun. For your reading enjoyment, a play-by-play:
We got in late-ish Saturday night and sat for-freaking-ever at the Hertz place. We ended up with a Lincoln Towncar for our trouble, and damn was that thing big. Heh. Cushy, but ginormous.
The hotel was also cushy. Very fancy-pants. The conference was at the Westin Bonaventure, and in choosing there to stay (for convenience), we did not think of the fact that, in surprising my godfather, we would have to be stealthy for the first two days of the trip. We had to sneak around and keep a sharp eye so we didn't run into him and ruin everything.
On Sunday, we met up with Elaina, who is now living in Bakersfield, and she, Dad and I went to Disneyland. I had to compare. I am definitely a WDW girl myself, but it was fun to see the differences. They had some spiffy rides that the Magic Kingdom doesn't (Indiana Jones, Matterhorn Mountain, and the Haunted Mansion was all Holiday-ified), so it was a good time. Afterwards, we drove (and drove and drove) to West Hollywood (I think) to have dinner at Mel's Diner. I think we ate next to Tara Lipinski, if she would have any reason at all to be in LA. Looked a lot like her, anyway.
On Monday, Dad and I went to Hollywood, walked down the Walk of Fame (and resisted sitting down and taking my picture on a number of different stars), avoided the creepy Spiderman and Wonder Woman outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre. No less than three (three!) men sang "M-I-C...K-E-Y.....M-O-U-S-E" to me on the street because I was wearing my Mickey Mouse Club t-shirt. But THREE! One was a police man, too. I was amused.
We ate outside in a little outdoor mall where we could see the Hollywood sign from our table. That was fun. Then we went back to Mel's Diner to get a t-shirt for my mom (who is still known as "Mel" to all my dad's old college friends, even if she hasn't gone by that name in years) and to get a coffee at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf there. Good stuff. Afterwards, we took Sunset almost to the coast (took a little detour to shorten the trip), and stopped in Santa Monica for a bit, just to admire the ocean. So pretty. I would love love love to live in Santa Monica.
Monday night was the reception for my godfather as he takes over as president of the International Water Environmental Foundation. He didn't know we were there yet, so we spent the first half of the time keeping our eye on him and countering his moves around the room. They showed a slide show of really pretty hysterical pictures of him growing up, and then it was time for the speakers. My dad was up first, doing "the college years," and my godfather was floored when they announced my dad's name. Jumped out of his seat and turned around, then ran up to him and gave him a big hug. It was great. He was thrilled that we were there! Very fun.
After the reception, there was an after-reception-reception in my godfather's swanky penthouse suite. It was good to hang out with his kids (we've gone on vacations with them), who became a refuge in a room full of waste water engineers. We were *thisclose* to venturing out onto the town, and I wanted to go to the Viper Room, because hello, Johnny Depp's club. We ended up staying at the hotel, and boy. I now hear JC ended up there (at the Viper Room, not the hotel) that very night. What luck. But I'm glad I got to see the family friends, and they were the real reason I even went to LA, so. No regrets.
Tuesday, we left about 8:30 for the airport and got stopped by security due to our bags setting off an alarm for nitro-glycerine. Trace amounts on the outside. Which, I suppose, could have come from the hotel, the rental car, the bus we took from the Hertz place to the airport... any number of places. But they had to upack every. article. we had and check them all for explosives. Talk about embarrassing. This is the second time the entire contents of my suitcase have been dumped out for all of the airport patrons to see.
Oh, and funny thing. There was a plane leaving for New York City at the gate next to ours, and I swear they paged "Passanger Robson, passanger Wade Robson, please come to the desk, passanger Robson." They most definitely were paging a Robson, and my head snapped up at mention of the name that sounded very much like Wade. But that could have just been my ears fooling me. Heh. Would he have had reason to jet to NYC on Tuesday?
The plane was way delayed due to weather in Chicago, and we finally got home about 8:00 Tuesday night. Whew! It was far too short, but we packed a lot in. Not nearly as much as I would have liked to have done, and but what I did do was wonderful. I guess that leaves something to do next time, right?
So that was California. Next post to update the rest of my week.