Inside the whale's vagina

Firstly, I'm sure everyone gets the reference, and for those of you who don't... See: "A whale's vagina"

TUESDAY

Today was travel day, which meant an early wake up.  The early wake up was so that I could be dropped off at a Los Angeles subway station rather than having to fend for myself.  My gracious host Sarah even gave me a tap card (kind of like London's Oyster card or Melbourne's Myki) which saved me some money for a fare and I got on the subway.  I caught the subway from one end of the line (essentially from Universal City/Hollywood) all the way to Union Station (which is the Amtrak station in LA).  There isn't anything especially interesting about riding the subway, but I did see a woman get on the train, then put on a mask (like a surgical mask) and stand as far from everyone as she possibly could and then try to touch nothing... Not interesting, just weird... It did make me wonder how filthy the subway was, but given that she was the only person worried about it I took it to mean that she was just overly worried...

From Union Station I got a cab down to the Greyhound bus terminal, which was kind of in the middle of nowhere transport-wise, but I'm sure there is a good reason for it... It just escapes me... I arrived at the bus station at 8:35 AM, and was on the next bus out at 9 AM.  If I had booked online it would have saved me $8 (on a $20 fare that is fairly significant), next time I'm booking online I think.  The reason I didn't was that I wasn't sure what time I would end up being at the bus station, so it was easier just to show up (buses to San Diego left on the hour).

Misunderstanding of the Day: (Presenting bus ticket to Latino driver)
*hand ticket to driver*
Driver: Thank you
*I stand there waiting for him to hand it back to me or to give me some direction*
Sam: ........
Driver: ........ *makes eyes towards the bus*
Sam: .........
Driver: You cang go to the bus... *thick Spanish accent*
Sam: .... Ah, OK, sorry, I was expecting the ticket back...
Driver: ....... *goes about his business*

Jumping on the bus I was pleasantly surprised to notice that the bus was virtually empty.  Of the 48 seat coach maybe 10 seats were taken, so I was able to spread out and put my feet up and read.  This was a good result.  We headed out onto the LA streets, across the LA river, and off to San Diego.  The Latino bus driver said that the bus would be ending in Tijuana, Mexico, which surprised me a little, but it did explain the people we picked up when the bus stopped in Santa Ana, CA.  When we stopped there was about 10 people who jumped on who, short of sleeping, wearing ponchos and selling oranges on the side of the road, looked so stereotypically Mexican.  The further South we went the buildings and architecture became much more stereotypically Mexican as well, this was an interesting wrinkle to the trip and made the scenery passing by very colourful and interesting.

About 2-2.5 hours after leaving LA we drove into the heart of the whale's vagina, San Diego.  The bus station was right across the parking lot from Petco Park, the home of the Padres.  I jumped on a local bus and headed over the causeway to Coronado Island, going past a US Navy base and ending up at the beautiful Hotel del Coronado.

View from the beach side of the Hotel

Pool deck

Upstairs bar above the pool deck

View from the upstairs bar out towards the Pacific Ocean

The story behind the island and the hotel is fairly interesting.  These two blokes, Babcock and Story, bought the island for not much money from some guy, then decided to build a luxury beach resort on it, but had no money to finance it... They decided to sell off lots of land on the island and use the profits to build and furnish the hotel.  They ended up with profit of something like $2.5m, which in 1880s money is 'a fucking shitload'.  So they built this hotel in a Victorian style, which has hosted something like 10 US Presidents, is one of the largest wooden buildings in America, and one of the few remaining beachside resorts of this kind that remain in America.  It kind of reminds me of the shit you see on Boardwalk Empire, even though it isn't really the same thing at all... I don't know, It is old, and really, really swanky...

After getting my room key I took to finding the room, which was an adventure unto itself.  The reason I am staying here at such a hotel is because my father is here on business and there is a conference on hosted by a large accounting firm (not one that I have worked for).  It took me 4 attempts to find the room, so I accidentally walked past the conference room my dad was in.  He later commented to me that he thought he saw me wander by aimlessly, but didn't want to jump out of the session to check that it was me.  I got to the room, Dad walked in bearing gifts (a brownie and a chocolate chip cookie from the conference... See the meaning of 'junket'), sat and wrote the last post of this blog, then headed out to the pool to enjoy the Southern California sunshine (and on direction from my mother, get some vitamin D).

Dad had a meet and greet kind of dinner thing to go to, but before he took me to that we went for a walk down the main street of the island.  I found the time to expand my empire further:

Expanding my retail empire... How else do you think I'm paying for this?.... If you answered 'cockfighting', you'd be right

We eventually got to the dinner/drinks show and met a few others from Adelaide and we all got to talking... Without going into any detail there at all and jumping right to the highlights, it was a massive spread.  I had this brisket thing with mash, but I had about 5 plates... Then after the desert bar opened I went there... Below is the photographic evidence of the awesome power of the desert bar!  (People seemed surprised by me taking a photograph of the desert bar...)

Amazing times!

Alright, for those of you playing along at home... That is Haagen-Dazs vanilla and chocolate ice-cream, there is whipped cream, crushed oreos, M&Ms, sprinkles, crushed nuts, banana slices, hot chocolate fudge, and two other bowls which I can't remember what is in them... God damn this was one hell of a spread... I only went back 3 times...

After this party started to wind down, I headed back to the room and went to bed.

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday morning began late with a trip to the hotel concierge and a discounted ticket on the Hop-on Hop-off Trolley Tour of San Diego.  I left the hotel, but turned around and went back to the room to change into shorts, which was an inspired move, the weather being a warm and sunny 82 degrees... Or 28... I can never quite tell...

I got on and took the vacant seat on the right hand side of the bus, we drove over the causeway back into San Diego.  The view from the causeway gave brilliant views of Downtown San Diego and some US Navy ships, however these were visible from the left hand side of the bus... Ah well, I'm sure I'll get that shot on the way back...

View of San Diego Harbor looking South towards Mexico

We were driven through Balboa Park, up near the Zoo, and then on to the San Diego Old Town.  This was where we were forced to leave the bus (as this was the beginning of the tour and the bus I was on was not continuing).  I figured if I was being kicked off the bus anyway I may as well have a look around the Old Town.  This was a good decision, as if you're into history, as I claim to be, you can get lost in a place like this. 

Entrance to Old Town

Main square in Old Town

Now, I will concede, this is a very touristy area, and I will also concede that normally seeing adults wearing period clothing is kind of tacky, but I really didn't find either of those things to be a problem here.  Everything here was free to enter and walk around and enjoy the history.  There was a school house, there was the courthouse/jail (which was a single room), there was the bank house, and my personal favourite, the tobacco shop.  I am not a smoker, but it was one of the nicest smelling places I've been thus far (and I spent 20 minutes in a candy shop two days ago).  There was a guy at the front door in period garb, smoking a fat cigar and just generally looking like a scene out of a Western, there was all manner of pipes, cigarettes and cigars inside the store, there was a smoking room out the back, and there were jars of different tobacco (which they invited you to lift the lid and smell), and let me tell you some of the smells were brilliant... I didn't take notes on what each jar was, so I can't give you any examples, but it was amazing, just take my word for it... If not for the fact that I am not a smoker (and more so, didn't want to take it up today) I'd have spent more time in this store, it seemed very intriguing and very much in the right place for a period Western township.

Bank House (Wells Fargo)

Tobacco Store

The guy behind the counter was completely in period clothing and was smoking a cigar... A perfect advertisement for his own products

Smoking room

Pipes for sale

Tobacco Store interior

Tobacco Store interior

From there I took a look through the Mexican portion of this village, which included this very Mexican product:

Mustache Combs... How very useful for your average Mexican

There was a blacksmith shop which had a demonstration going on... But they weren't interested in me, so I took my token photographs and moved on.  I walked through the rest of Old Town (outside the State Park portion of the area) and had a look at the Sheriff Museum, which had a whole lot of police equipment and memorabilia over many years of service... It also had a rather large firearms collection.

Just a portion of the gun show they had going on

Badges over time

Cop cars over time

I headed down the hill on the bus and got off in the Gaslamp District, and had a walk through this historic part of downtown San Diego, and ended up at random walking by Petco Park.  Given the off-season for the baseball the back end of the ballpark was open and I was able to walk right up to the wall on the warning track.  It was pretty sweet.

Gaslamp District

Petco Park

For whatever reason the backside of the ballpark was open

View from the warning track

Petco Park

I hopped back on the bus to make my way back to Coronado, and was not able to get a seat on the good side of the bus... I was also stuck listening to some very loud, very large, very obnoxious Alabama family the entire way home... I guess that explains why the bus was near empty...

I got back to the hotel and was about to jump in the pool to cool off after a warm day spent in the sun, and before I did got pulled aside by my Dad.  He invited me to a free afternoon tea (which was attended by next to no one) where I had about 5 bowls of Mac & Cheese with ham... It wasn't as good as my Mac & Cheese, but it was pretty good, and the price was right... Given that I had barely eaten all day this was a welcome surprise.  Had some cake, had some free soft drinks (and took a few cans for the road) and headed back to the room.  At least that saves me paying for dinner tonight.

Dad was going to a US Navy/Air Force show, which you need a security clearance for... A clearance that I didn't have, so he had some time to kill... We went to the beach and took a swim in the Pacific, then went off to the hotel pool and spa and hung out there... On our way back the sun was setting and everyone was clamouring for space on the rail to take their photograph of the event.  This was the best I could do coming back several minutes later:

I'm sure that would look better if the sun were actually still up!

I'll try to get a better photo of that tomorrow... It really is a wonderful setting for a hotel...

Dad went off to his shindig, and I was left to the newest episode of South Park on Comedy Central and this blog.

Tomorrow I expect I'll go to the zoo or something equally touristy in San Diego... Open to suggestions...

As always, I hope that this was enjoyable and I look forward to next time!

The Marathon/Crossover Blog

Two days have passed since my last blog entry, so the details here may be thin on the ground, but a lot has actually gone down, so strap yourselves in because it'll be a hell ride from here... (You've been warned!)

After the concert I crashed in Burbank, some 30 minutes from my hotel, with the intention on Sunday of seeing Dy and Rhi who had the previous night arrived into Los Angeles via the long haul Zurich to LA flight.

SUNDAY

I woke early/mid-morning, showered, ate some candy and began watching the NFL pre-game shows... Being Sunday and having these shows on the TV I vaguely understood what time it was in Australia, so, naturally I sent a Facebook message to Chris expecting him to be asleep, just to comment on how weird it was waking up near midnight and having NFL on all day... To my surprise he replied and was all 'Dude, its 4 AM' and shit... I apologise for nothing...

What's this? An NFL pre-game show with real life sunlight hitting the TV?

My host had errands to run, so I wasn't able to sit on her couch all day watching football and was soon whisked away to my hotel up in Valencia where I met my Dad after his marathon effort running the Santa Clarita marathon... Apparently its harder to run in miles than it is in kilometres. 

Dy came up and met us and we headed out to a local restaurant/brewery (politely named BJs) for lunch and an American setting to watch the Broncos-Patriots/Manning-Brady match... Dy fit in especially well in this crowd thanks to his Royal Adelaide Show 'authentic' Los Aneles Lakers baseball cap...

I wonder how the Staples Center faithful will react to the city's name change

Noting that there was deep-dish pizza on the menu, and with no trip to Chicago planned for any of us we all thought it best to order some deep-dish.  The ordering process was a little bit convoluted and odd... Recalling the last time my father and I were in Chicago I suggested we get a medium which should satisfy all 3 of us, the waitress strongly suggested we get the large due to there being 3 of us and it not really being a huge serve... We were glad to have listened to her, because the pizza was no deep-dish, it was a pan pizza like you'd get from many a local pizzeria at home... Needless to say, we took little time in polishing off the pizza.

Exchange of the day: (ordering our drinks)
Dy: Can I just have a Coke?
Waitress: Is Pepsi OK?
Dy: Sure
Waitress: And for you sir?
Sam: Uh, what's the Pepsi equivalent for Sprite? I'm not sure if me talking in this accent is giving it away, but I'm not from around here, and if I ask for lemonade I think I'm going to get that lemon squash kind of beverage you know?
Waitress: ...........
Sam: ... Uh, is it Sierra Mist? Can I get a Sierra Mist?
Waitress: OK, so that's one Pepsi and one Sierra Mist, I'll bring those right out

After hanging out at BJs for several hours and watching the Patriots kill the Broncos and the 49ers fumble on the goal-line to lose to St. Louis, we left and saw off Dy who headed back to LA.  Dad and I killed a bit of time watching SNF and then headed down for some dinner before retiring to the room.  Keeping up with my TV watching, I watched The Walking Dead on AMC, with full on American ads, and none of the Australian ad rubbish... That said, they went to commercial directly after the title sequence, which not only surprised me, but frustrated the shit out of me... After this we went to bed, ready for the big day to come.

MONDAY

Finished packing my bag and grabbed breakfast before heading to the car.  Today Dad was driving to San Diego but before doing so was going to drop me off at Universal Studios so I could spend the day hanging out with Rhi and Dy, before spending the evening with my American host Sarah for some pizza and an Australian film.

The drive down from Valencia to LA was meant to take 26 minutes if you believed our trusty and faithful GPS 'Blinky' (anyone who remembers Homer Simpson's brief time as a trucker will understand that reference), however Blinky doesn't have any kind of grasp of traffic.  For a good 25 minutes we were meant to only be 5 minutes from our destination, however Monday morning Los Angeles traffic had other ideas and we were caught in gridlock for close to an hour.  However, we made it to Universal City with many minutes to spare and upon leaving my father behind I met up with Rhi and Dy. 

I had to go and buy a ticket to enter the park, but before that I had to go through a bag check.  With the majority of my clothes in my larger bag that my father was taking to San Diego I had my backpack, which was still very heavily packed, and included a few tubes of Vegemite for that touch of home.  Trying to explain what it was to the bag checker was a bit difficult, but made a whole lot easier when an Australian woman came up and very loudly said 'Oh Vegemite! We've been without it for 5 weeks, the kids are going crazy!'... I then got through with very few questions... After they unsuccessfully tried to upsell me at the gate for a 'front of the line pass' I got into the park, dumped my bag and the three of us headed on to see Universal Studios Hollywood.

After my last visit (which, granted was in mid-August) I didn't really want to wait in line for 40 minutes to do the backlot tour... Thankfully both of the others had said the same thing before I came up with the suggestion, so we headed off for the backlot tour. 

Those 3D glasses just complete the look don't they?

The tour took us through the various street scenes where they can shoot pretending that they are in LA, New York, England, continental Europe, the old West and various rivers, lakes and oceans.  The Western part was interesting because apparently in the early days of film they could film up to 5-6 films at once because they were silent era films... Gotta love that efficiency

The tour then went into a 3D section where King Kong beat the crap out of some dinosaurs and then let us drive away... Good guy King Kong... Went through the famous car row after that... I asked Rhi and Dy if I could be on the left hand side of the tram so I could get a better shot of the Back to the Future car... You can understand my disappointment when this car was not present on this part of the tour.  Very disappointed.

They also showed us how they can control weather conditions and sent a flash flood towards the tram.  The guide instructed people to not lean out because they'd get wet... Specifically trying to get the attention of one girl on the side of the tram... She didn't listen... But nor did she lean out... This was also disappointing...

Back to the Future - Future Cars

Jurassic Park: The Lost World

Dino-crushed

Flash flood splash

Being the end of the Halloween season the backlot had zombie everywhere, which made for some pretty funny scenes.  The crash scene from War of the Worlds for example was full of Zombies. 

At one point we were instructed to keep quiet and the guide got off the microphone because there was a TV show shooting on the backlot.  No idea which show, but I'll post the photograph below anyway for you to be the judge...

I think the word 'Family' was somewhere in the name of the program.

After the backlot tour we headed to the lower lot to go on some rides.  Rhi held onto our belongings and Dy and I went on the rides.  The Jurassic Park ride was first...

Welcome to Jurassic Park

Clever girl

Then we went on the Transformers Ride, which was a new addition to the park since my last visit.  This ride was the best and worst ride I went on.  It broke half way through, so, we sat in abstract silence watching a blank street view and wondering what Optimus Prime wanted with us.  Upon leaving the ride the others in my vehicle (Dy was in the one before mine, due to the joys and powers of the Single Rider line) loudly complained to the attendants, and we all got given the front of the line passes (single use, but free... Nuts to paying for one at the gate!).  I walked out of the ride, and went over and met Rhi, who seemed enthralled by the antics of a posing Optimus Prime who was talking to the people he was being photographed with.  Dy had gone back onto the ride, and we both didn't know where he went.  I decided to go get something to drink, and went into the Panda Express next door to get a drink.

Quote of the day contender: (Sam to Rhi)
Sam: I'm going to get some water
Rhi: Alright
*Sam walks away, returns 20 seconds later without any water*
Sam: Oh my god, oh my god... The guy from Law & Order: SVU is in there... You know, the guy who plays Stabler... What's his name? Chris Meloni? He's in there with his family!
Rhi: Wow
Sam: Yeah, I didn't ask him for a photograph...

Yeah, I got flustered when I entered the restaurant and saw a Law & Order cop in there... I walked past him, walked in, did a double take, and then ran back to Rhi to let her know about my discovery... If he wasn't with his family I'd have asked for the photo...

We went and had a look at some of the costumes and props that had been used in films, and we found this gem:

I figure if you're going to build a time machine, why not do it with a little style?

Great Scott!

I was understandably much happier about this.  This exhibit was not at Universal last time I went.  One of the better parts of the day for me, I adore that film series.

Great times!

We then headed up to the upper lot and had a look through the Kwik-e-Mart.  If not for the fact that I don't want to be spending US$32 on t-shirts I'd have bought some items in there, it is a pretty funny store for those of us who are fans of the show. 

True

These donuts, honest to God, were like a small cake with donut icing... You could feed a small family with one of these!

"Oh my god! Look at the size of that Rice Krispy Square!"

D'oh

Dad Joke of the Day contender: (upon walking through a fountain square water show)
Rhi: "See there, no running and no horseplay"
Sam: 'Neigh to horseplay'

Candy shop laughs

Candy shop laughs

Candy shop laughs

 From here we had lunch, and then headed on to the Waterworld stunt show.  This was pretty good, and the actors they had actually being from TV shows was very cool, but we did debate vigourously as to whether or not they'd be sacked if they couldn't use a jet-ski (given that apparently they all know how to do that).  We stayed for the 'front of the line' Q&A session with a few of the stars after the show and they told us that, so it isn't just me talking rubbish.

Waterworld

Waterworld

Waterworld

We then went and took a look at the Special Effects show.

Mis-quote of the Day: (after a volunteer named Leia from Las Vegas is introduced to the crowd)
Sam to Dy: She's our only hope

I then told Dy that I had incorrectly used this, as it was actually Obi-Wan Kenobi who was our only hope...

Embarrassing mis-quote of the Day: (after one of the performers says something about Leia)
Dy yells out to the entire Auditorium: SHE'S YOUR ONLY HOPE!!
*Sam starts laughing - Rhi recoils in horror*

From here we took a look through the City Walk area of Universal City and then headed back to the hotel the others were staying at just near Hollywood Boulevard.

Being the wonderful tour guides that they are Dy and Rhi showed me the nearby restaurants and eateries such as the In N Out Burger, the IHOP and a place called The Happy Ending... We debated for a little while on where to go to get something to eat... A suggestion was made...

Dad Joke of the Day contender: (when deciding where to go)
Sam: We could go In N Out a few times and then end up at The Happy Ending

We ended up going to In N Out, where the others had meals and we eventually returned to the room so that I could wait to be picked up. 

I am sure Rhi and Dy will write about the day at Universal and the In N Out Burger.  Their blog also contains a number of posts from their European adventures.  If you wish to read any of their blog posts please go to http://chalrynda.us/

After being picked up by Sarah we returned to her house for pizza and Australian film.  We watched The Castle which in my humble opinion is the best Australian film ever.  I'm sure there are other great films to come out of Australia, but The Castle is my favourite.  There weren't too many questions and she seemed to enjoy the film, so that was a good result.

I'll leave it there and try not to spend 3 days between blog posts... You were warned that this would be a marathon blog post... I hope it was still enjoyable.

Tomorrow I go balls-deep into the Whale's Vagina that is San Diego, CA.  Stay tuned!

"In many ways the Big Boy never left sir..."

It doesn't make for good writing, but I am going to start this post from where I left the last one... Struggling to stay awake on my first day in the USA.

After posting on Friday we took a trip to the pool, an hour long walk around the parts of the Santa Clarita marathon track that Dad was running on Sunday, and hung out in the lobby of the hotel in an attempt to stay awake.

Sam's Empire Expands

These things worked... We both managed to make it to 6 PM (some 31 hours after leaving Adelaide) before passing out for a well deserved 13 hour sleep.

Saturday morning came and I woke up feeling like I'd been hit by a truck... Not so much because I was feeling bad, I think just catching up on sleep took its toll.  Eventually we made it down for our breakfast (which for me was pancakes and a shitload of bacon) and we went off to run some marathon errands.  Picked up some items, chatted to some Americans (Dad met a guy who seemed to enjoy tax as much as he did... Amazing I know), and headed back to the hotel to get ready to head into Santa Monica and Los Angeles.

Quote of the day: (American Marathon Official to me) "Are you going to root for your father?"
'*snickering* Yeah, I'm absolutely going to root for him'

Driving down to Santa Monica was easier than driving down up to Valencia the day earlier, I guess being a Saturday played a role, however the traffic wasn't exactly light.

We walked the Santa Monica Pier in what was absolutely beautiful weather, you gotta love Southern California.

 

Whilst on the pier we bought tickets on the Starline hop on-hop off bus network, which I had already done when I was previously in LA, though the information had been updated since... For example, facts such as celebrity deaths and newer celebrities who were doing things at random points in the city.  A beautiful day in So-Cal, open top bus, no need for a jumper right?... Yeah, keep telling yourself that Sam...

Dad Joke of the Day: (whilst passing by Millions of Milkshakes, the automated tour guide noted that celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Miley Cyrus sometimes got behind the counter and created their own milkshakes)
*Dad leans in and on the crowded bus says* "Must be because they've got the jugs"

We made it to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and walked to the Chinese Theater.

Moon Landing

Chinese Theater

It is a bit of a tourist trap, and you get accosted by many people trying to sell their tours and other wares.  I glanced at one bloke and he bailed me up and was trying to give me his hip-hop CD for a small tip, I legitimately had no coin on me (the tour had cleared me out), so I gave back his CD and we found a bank.  It is a pretty crazy street, or that section of it anyway, as the photo below will show, there are some crazy characters...

Walk of Fame dames

I don't know what those girls were selling, but seeing them walking to their spot on the sidewalk was a fair old selling point...

The drive back to Santa Monica on the bus wasn't that enthralling because it was mostly driving and not really any touristy shit to see... They spent 5 minutes playing California surf music, then demanded that we stop dancing... I wasn't up the top of the bus, it was too cold for that, no jumper Sam, no jumper... That and I was sunburned... Turns out if it is cool but sunny you may get burned... At least that is universal.  The major highlight, and I mean MAJOR HIGHLIGHT, we drove past a Pizza Hut on the way, turns out they have their stuffed crust with bacon inside... Bacon... Bacon makes everything better...

After grabbing some dinner at an Italian restaurant, where Dad performed his pasta carb loading, we heading to Burbank so I could see my friend Sarah who I met 4 years earlier when I had previously been to the USA.  I was so tired on the drive up, nearly fell asleep once or twice, so I was a little concerned I'd be awful company... Thankfully that second wind kicked in because we went off to a concert.

Before the concert, we stopped at Sarah's co-worker's house.  They all work in the TV industry.  This dude had a TV set up which I was so, so jealous of... See below:

Two TVs... College football on the top, Lakers on the bottom... Absolutely amazing set up

We 'Ubered' (ride share) to the Fonda Theatre which is on Hollywood Bvd for a New Politics concert.  As many of you would know, I'm borderline music illiterate, but it was a great show.  Up vibe and energetic, break-dancing and parkouring.  Brilliant times, I enjoyed myself thoroughly.  The opening band was Bad Suns, who were really good as well.

View down the boulevard

Rooftop Beer Garden

After the concert we headed back to Sarah's house, but prior to that we thought about getting some food.  It was nearly midnight PST.  We at random happened to drive by a diner... The diner just happened to be the Big Boy.  The significance of this is that it was the getaway vehicle of Dr. Evil in the first Austin Powers movie.

I jumped at the chance to go to the Big Boy, and couldn't help but poorly quote the lines from Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.

Commander: "Good god... He's back..."
Johnson: 'Well, in many ways the Big Boy never left sir.  He's always offered the same high-quality meals at competitive prices'

The chili-cheese-fries... Amazing...
The chocolate milkshake... Thicker than any thickshake I had in Australia... Amazing, but went unfinished...
I do wish I'd had the room to have a full meal, but such a wonderful experience.  I really do need to thank Sarah and her co-workers for the tickets and the ability to eat at the famous Big Boy diner.

Eventually got to bed at about 1-1:30 AM PST.  Tomorrow will be the beginning of what could be up to two Marvel-style crossover blogs with Dy & Rhi's trip.