The Decision: More fallout from the HK
trip. Now that I had been to Euro Disney
there was only 1 Disney park left to visit. My 11th Gate: California
Adventure. So, when Las Vegas was settled on as the location for the 1st Mechanized Infantry's (my gaming
clan) first Annual Romp, I decided to make the trip a bit longer and hit
Anaheim.
Note: this isn't done yet, but I have been putting it of too long. Here is the draft page.
20060802, Day 1, Getting there and the 11th Gate!
Got up early and Pat picked me up around 5am to get to the airport. It is
good to have friends. Airport and flight was nothing spectacular.
Trying to get to the resort turned into a ordeal though. Took almost 2
hours for the shuttle bus to actually stop at my pick-up point (I started
calling the company after I saw the second bus drive past without
stopping) but I finally made it to the hotel and dropped off the luggage
and headed for California Adventure!
I like the park overall. Nicely
themed throughout, except for the Pacific Pier area, and with the roller
coaster and a really trippy ferris wheel how much theming tdo you really
need? The Bug's Life area was great for macrophotography also.
Got back to the hotel and found out there was a hold on the room.
Fearing the worst (remember I had gotten up at 4-something Eastern, flown
to the west coast, got stuck a thte airport waiting for a bus, and then
wandered through a theme park for a good 5 hours) I about lost it.
Luckily I didn't do much more than whimper, because the "hold" was because
I was the "Disneyland 50th Anniversary Check-In of the Day". Apparently
when I asked if they had anything special for people who had visited all
11 parks (if there is one thing I have learned at Disney, you newer, every
know what all they have available unless you ask the right quesitons). I
was told no, but appareltly that put me on the short list for
consideration that day. Got some balloons, a nice photo signed by the
desk staff plus some other goodies and spent 20 minutes or so chatting
about the Disney parks with the staff. That was fun, but I was about
wiped. Headed for my room to crash.
20060803, Day 2, Disneyland, mostly
More fun in the theme parks.
20060804, Day 3, Heading to Vegas and seeing Love
Travel day, mostly. I got to meet up with Zain for like 10 minutes before
I had to leave for the Mirage to see the new Beatles-inspired Cirque du
Soleil show called Love. The show was great and it may very well end up
being my favorite Cirque show so far!
20060805, Day 4, Hanging with the 1stMI
Met the
guys (and the SOs who accompanied the lucky ones) for breakfast and then
we basically wandered around Las Vegas all day. FYI, that first pic is an
iPod automatic store. This was the first one we saw, but we encountered a
few more later.
20060806, Day 5, Hanging with Gar and Susannah and the Bellagio
for O
Zain and Cathy left early since Zain was feeling worse, so I met up with
Gar and Susannah before they headed out. We were just going to grab food
and they were going to drop me off at a mall, but we all ended up haunting
the mall for a good hour or so. Chilled for a bit after they headed out
and then headed to the Bellagio to see O. Light was fading, but I managed
to get some pictures of their train garden. O was interesting, but it
needed a bit better light direction. Dark and moody is one thing, but I
prefer to be able to see what is going on. And the seats were some of the
narrowest I have ever encountered!
20060807, Day 6, Mt. Charleston
Decided to take a tour outside Vegas today. I was originally going to hit
Red Rock Valley but it looked like the Mt. Charleston tour hit some desert
places but also got up into the mountains. I'm really glad I took this
one, the temperature dropped 30 degrees, and I saw wild horses.
20060808, Day 7, Just laying about