Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Vacation Summary

Tuesday evening: fly to LAX, drive to hotel at Disneyland maingate. whee

Wednesday morning: continental breakfast - we love cheap danishes. Go to pick up pre-purchased tickets. They're expired - thanks getawaytoday. Pay $50 to update tickets, non-sarcastic thanks to disney customer service. Go have lots of fun. (see update 2)
Wednesday afternoon: Rain rolls in. LA gets more rain in half a day than they did the previous year. Talk of snow possible. We bundle up and take advantage of even shorter lines.

Thursday: Good oranges, bad danishes. Go to California Adventure - lots of Eliza friendly rides closed, but we had a lot of fun. Only a little rain. Didn't get to hit California Screamin' due to light showers though. Emma still loves Tower of Terror.

Friday: Maybe some toast instead of danishes... Hit the beach, started in Malibu, played in the sand a bit. Drove north. Walked out on the Huntington beach pier and we all saw a dolphin leap out of the waves 3 times. Made our day.
Friday evening: Tried to catch the Disneyland parade, but were late so we only caught a little. Picked up a few rides.

Saturday: Ugh, cheap danishes. Back to Disneyland for our last day. Nice weather, had a ton of fun. Headed out late afternoon to find an El Pollo Loco. Got lost. Finally found it really close to our hotel. Oh well. Yummy.

Sunday: Up early to catch our flight. Accidentally kept a key card in my pocket, that'll be an expensive souvenir. Shortly before boarding we hear Spokane is not accepting inbound flights, while they deal with a mega snowstorm. After an hour or so, they finally let us take off. We had just got our tray tables in their upright position and turned off electronics when they informed us of this little booboo and shipped us off to Portland. Being in the back of the plane, we were at the end of the customer service line to get a new flight lined up. After our 90 minute wait in line (why oh why didn't I go find a different agent somewhere to help me?) the next available flight was Monday at 8:20 PM. We took it and then went to wait for an hour for our baggage to be delivered. Finally to the hotel (which we had to pay for - weather related you know), we had dinner and went to sleep.

Monday: Got up to a real continental breakfast - bagels, belgian waffles, sausage scrambled eggs - good work Country Inns and Suites. Took Emma and Abe for a quick swim in the uncomfortably warm pool and headed to the airport to see if we could get on standby. Short story - we didn't. 3 flights went out full with us making doe eyes at the Alaska people trying to get them to give us tickets. Thank goodness the portland airport has a tv playing Boomerang all day. Flight went out late (are there Alaska flights that don't leave at least a little late?), no taxis at the airport for ages, Eliza crying because she had to wake up at 10:30 when we got off the plane, and didn't stop till after we got home at 11:15 (poor tired baby).

Then I got to wake up this fine Tuesday morning and shovel a foot of snow. Did about half of it. Enough to get the van out if Sara gets motivated to go somewhere today. Thank goodness school was out yesterday and today.

Summary - great time in california, terrible time getting home. Thanks to our friends who helped us out while we were gone.

Update: Here's a smattering of pictures
Update 2: Talked to Get Away Today, apparently the expiration date was due to the price we paid. Disney raised prices $10 a ticket after that. $10*5 people = $50.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

What if...

Eliza (3 1/2) is a rather imaginative, verbal little girl. She is an incorrigible what if'er (not that I would corrige her if I could :). This morning I went in to wake her up.

Thomas: Did you sleep well?
Eliza: No *grunt*
Thomas: Did you have nightmares?
Eliza: No
Thomas: Were there squirrels in your bed?
Eliza: What if squirrels ate nuts out of my brain?
Thomas: You don't have squirrels in your brain.
Eliza: What if I did?
Thomas: Well, then it might be good to have squirrels eat them out.
Eliza: Or it might be bad. That would be silly.

"What if it did" is definitely a common phrase around here.

Monday, January 07, 2008

John Boyd

I found this article quite interesting. It describes a man driven to keep America great, who persevered against a rigid bureaucracy, and describes his successes from post-vietnam through the application of his ideas in Iraq I and II.