Random Items And A Question Of Balance

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hobie16
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Random Items And A Question Of Balance

Post by hobie16 » Sat Oct 28, 2017 1:25 pm

A bunch of random items came together in a random fashion that, when compiled, meant a last-minute birthday surprise trip for my wife to DLR. The plan was, take the red eye, sleep on the plane from Maui to LAX, Super Shuttle to the hotel, check in/brush teeth and hit Disneyland. We all know how plans go.

For some reason (excited about the trip maybe) neither one of us got a wink of sleep on the plane. Half way to LAX I suggested we check in, get a nap and wander over to Downtown Disney in the afternoon. We’re going to the park was the reply. Okay!

The Super Shuttle was fully loaded by the time we left LAX. Hit 105, jog over to 91 and we’re blastin’ along when we come to a dead stop. The driver gets on his iPad, finds an alternate route on the surface streets, makes a right turn from the HOV lane and we’re smokin’ through town.

Get on I-5 South, hit one of the many Disney off ramps and we get the grand prize of being the first dropped off. Check in, brush teeth and we’re off to the Park. Did I mention the Santa Ana winds were up? The temperature eventually got to a thermometer popping 105 degrees with humidity of 9 percent.

To cool off from the hotel hike we did Indy first. Always a great time. Next was Mansion and then my wife’s favorite, Thunder Mountain. Thinking it would be cool, we took the Mark Twain to see the new river route. Did I mention 104 degrees? Everyone was grabbing chairs to sit in the shade on board. The new route looks pretty cool.

We went to Rancho for lunch. The kid’s chicken taco was pretty good. It came with a squeeze bottle of applesauce. That really helped cool me down.

We took the train from New Orleans Square to the Main Street Station. Wandered through the Main Street stores and bought a Mickey mug for my dentist’s office manager. She said Mickey is her guy.

During my first visit to DL in 1956 I saw a building on Main Street that had a porch with a bench and two chairs. They were occupied. On every subsequent visit, I would check to see if a seat was available. They never were. As we walked by today I saw two people on the bench getting up. Could it be? YES!! I dragged my wife up the steps and flopped down on the bench. Life is good.

It was still shaded from the boiling sun so we sat for almost a half hour watching the parade of humans passing by. There’s a lot of tattoos out there.

Star Tours was next. No line so we were seated with ten minutes. Always a lot of fun with plenty of audience participation. We repeated a few attractions and then decided to take the Monorail to Downtown Disney for dinner as the Park was closing at 6 PM for the Halloween Party. The Monorail was shut down because they didn’t want to parboil the customers in the non-air-conditioned cars.

We walked over and ended up in Tortilla Jo’s. Did I mention the heat? We were so whipped from no sleep and the heat that we never got past the margaritas and chips. The margaritas were really good and the bartender kept refilling the chips. We’re coming back tomorrow for a real dinner.

Caught the shuttle back to the hotel and crashed. We both slept for ten hours.

We had told a friend who lives in Huntington Beach that we were going to DLR. Turned out he is a Club 33 member. He set us up with passes and said he would join us after lunch.

We picked up the passes and went into California Adventure. The herd for Cars Land Racers convinced us to go Soarin’ first. The new movie is pretty cool and the resolution is vastly improved.

Headed to the Racers. My wife had never been on them and had no idea what would happen. She was surprised by the trash talking before the race started but really got into the competition. We lost by inches. We went back later but they were shut down and didn’t reopen for the rest of the day. Bummer.

Headed back to DL to repeat some attractions. On our second time on Star Tours yesterday the flight ended with C3PO rear ending a smaller craft that breaks through the windshield. My wife loved it so we went through two more times to see that ending again.

We met up our friend about 1 PM. One of the benefits of 33 membership is a global FastPass card. It’s loaded with 24 FastPass’s that can be used on any attraction at any time. We did our best to use them all up.

We decided to head back to Tortilla Jo’s for dinner. It had cooled off a bit so we sat outside. The food was great and the margaritas really helped cool us down.

Our friend had to head home so we decided to do Soarin’ one more time and then wander around Main Street. We chatted up some young ladies in line who turned out to be from my long-ago home town north of Seattle. I told them this is your lucky day and gave them the 33 FastPass with eight uses remaining. They were very happy.

We ended up taking the train around DL to finish up our stay. Our trip home on both the Super Shuttle and airline was uneventful. We arrived home to find the pool overflowing and four feet of second floor carpet soaked from a gully washer Kona storm that hit Maui at 3 AM Wednesday morning. Just goes to show life is a question of balance.


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Don't be fooled by appearances. In Hawaii, some of the most powerful people look like bums and stuntmen.
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felinefan
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Re: Random Items And A Question Of Balance

Post by felinefan » Sat Oct 28, 2017 3:50 pm

Well, at least you had a great time at the park. Too bad you came home to find your stuff all wet. Bummer.



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Re: Random Items And A Question Of Balance

Post by ktulu » Wed Nov 01, 2017 8:32 am

Sorry you came home to floods, but at least the vacation part sounded like a good time! Oh, happy late birthday!


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hobie16
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Re: Random Items And A Question Of Balance

Post by hobie16 » Wed Nov 01, 2017 11:38 am

Between running fans for three days and the sun finally coming out, everything thing is dry. I'll pass on the birthday wishes to my wife.


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Don't be fooled by appearances. In Hawaii, some of the most powerful people look like bums and stuntmen.
--- Matt King


Stay low and run in a zigzag pattern.

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